Got cake?

Okay, so, we were warned months ago that GSE actually stands for "Get Sleep Eventually" and we politely laughed but hoo hah it's no lie.

Papparazzi Jim (who is at the D'Backs tonight, lucky Jim!) has put us through our paces during our time in Prescott, but all a great adventure.

This morning we scraped ourselves together for a 6:15am meeting time to spend the day in the town of Prescott Valley. We attended the PV Chamber of Commerce quarterly breakfast meeting along with around 100 local business people.

Then our Driver Du Jour, John took us to Tim's Toyota Center. [Please note - for those doubters out there that suspected John would either lose us, lose the van or lose his drivers licence, he was a fab driver!] Now, do you, like us, think Tim's Toyota Center would be a car dealership? Not that we wouldn't have adored a visit to a dealership... We were relieved to discover it's actually a significant entertainment arena/stadium - home venue for the Sundogs Ice Hockey team and several other sporting and music events. Stevie Nicks, Willie Nelson, Chicago and many others have played here - REO Speedwagon and Pat Benatar are coming soon.

Close by is the brand new Library and Council Chambers, where we were graciously met by members of Council and the Mayor, and Vice Mayor Lora Lee Nye took us on a tour around this magnificent facility (constructed to reflect the nearby extinct volcano) - including a groovy high-tech virtual reality suite.

We returned to the beautiful Palace in Prescott for a lunch meeting with the fun Frontier Rotary Club - and were delighted the Club President was able to find synergies between tourism and gardening/landscaping in all our presentations...... somehow... More really excellent questions from the Club, too - thank you all.

After lunch we were accompanied by driver Norm, who kindly made a detour to Costco and allowed us to wander goggle-eyed through the store. Why oh why may I not bring home 2kg of Red Vines, 2.5kg of Jelly Belly and 1.8kg of Reece's Pieces??? Not to mention Pretzels filled with Peanut Butter (seriously). And Kirsty discovered a new treat named "Aussie Bites".

Back to our responsibilities, and the Prescott Valley Tribune had us in their offices to do an interview with us about ourselves and the GSE - thank you for your interest and for letting us steal all your office chairs, Tribune team!

Last official stop of the day was at the Highlands Center, a really beautiful nature education facility just out of town. We took a beautiful walk through the Ponderosa Pine forest. Dave encouraged us all to sniff the bark of a tree........ Is he at home this evening amusing his family with the story? "Ha ha! You should have seen all these strange Aussies today, smelling a tree!" Actually, it did smell delicious.
[Jane K, Ross L - I reckon I have found the perfect solution to prettying up the public toilets in Centennial Park, Cooma! Gorgeous handpainted tiles adorned the washrooms at Highlands - I took photos to show you.]

Sarah's hosts had us all over for dinner this evening, a really relaxing and happy evening capped off by the most enormous (112oz) 'All American Chocolate Cake' which my host Barbara brought from Costco.

Sorry for the lack of photographic evidence (eg of The Cake) - I am too tired to organise myself just now and we've another early start tomorrow.

Message for the day is Happy 42nd Anniversary to Peter and Libby (even though it's tomorrow already, for Libby). It is true, we did not sing romantic songs to Peter today but we DID sing our National Anthem to John in the van this morning..... does that count?

Good night.