Day One - The longest Friday ever!!

We're here! Made it in one piece, with a few added bonuses along the way:

*Being on the same flight as Alice Cooper (sans makeup) He is a Phoenix local
*Being met at the airport by Don, Craig, Lisa & Julie - familiar faces !
*First meals - All american hamburgers, and authentic mexican - traditional margheritas!!

These are the main things that have stuck in my jetlagged addled brain so far!
We're off to meet our host families tomorrow and will be taking in a baseball game - Arizona Diamondbacks vs Pittsburgh Pirates!

Peter adding a bit - it was great to see the team at the airport and Lisa brought Steve and her step-sonMatt along to dinner this evening for 'show and tell'. It was also greta to meet Mary (Craig's wife) and build on the 'skype' relationship.

The flight was relatively uneventful although we were able to pread out a bit (3 seats between 2) and at one stage I had all 3 seats to myself -didn't last for long tho. I sat with a Nigerian woman, traveling on a NZ passport, who lives in Brisbane and was on her way toNY to be with her daughter for a first granchild and she was celebrating her 50th birhday on 10 April - she nearly made it to the Australian10th but had to turn back her clok 18 hours at 11.15pm Aussie time!

That's about it - so far so good!

Only about 10 hours to go and nobody is very excited about this!! Have been in touch with our hosts in the US and all is in readiness for our arrival. They already have plans for our weekend before we begin the nitty gritty of the exchange itself and all sounds fantastic.
I've farewelled the grandchildren (Callum figured if I was going in a plane then I must be going to Cooma where his Dad has been learning to fly) and I'm sure that the younger ones don't fully appreciate it!
the next missive will be from the US!! - nw, we're not excited (much)

One more day. One day more!

Well, my last minute jobs are done. The bags are ready and many goodbyes said.
Lists and instructions left.
I just want to get on the plane now and start this wonderful adventure!
I am excited about this blog and I look forward to sharing our time this way.
Keep watching for more updates!

2 sleeps to go!

As we all try and zip up our bags and weigh them to make sure we dont get stung with an excess baggage fee, the excitement builds.

We have all had contact with our host families and are looking forward to meeting all the new friends that we are going to make over the next 6 weeks.

With a hectic schedule ahead of us, we are bound to come back to Australia with a whole new lease on life and the tourism industry.

Arizona...get ready, because we are on our way!!!

9 days!

We had our final meet up in Goulburn today before we see y'all at the airport waving goodbye!

Are we organised? .... YEs! And 100% ready to go! Business cards look great - and they have our blog address so we should start having some followers soon!

Now the only challenge that awaits is - Packing and getting to canberra on time for the 6.25am flight!

(Im pretty sure I heard Peter offer to carry any excess luggage too...)

:-)

Ten Days & Counting

Tomorrow we meet together for the final time before we set off on our Arizona Adventure - a sort of 'all for one and one for all' briefing session.
It's all happening now, and there is so much running through our minds: How much to pack; Will the 6-inch heels really be practical; How on earth do we get everything done before we go???

Three Weeks! Eek!

Just under three weeks until we fly away! Our business cards have been printed, we have tested our group presentation on the kind Rotary Clubs at Goulburn Mulwaree and Yass.
We have been told our luggage limit is double what we'd originally thought (yay!!) but then reminded that "if you can't lift / drag it yourself, you can't bring it" (boo)