Sept / Oct 2005 Update

i everyone.
Nice to see you again - it's been too long !! We've been having lots of little adventures and we're being kept busy at home too, hence our slackness at updating the website.

First event of note was our Hot Air Balloon ride over Sonoma Valley. Manu received the balloon ride from his family as a birthday present - and what a fabulous present it was. We stayed overnight at a hotel in Santa Rosa and met our balloon 'pilot' at the local airport at 6:30am. Weather was supposed to be terrible, but it turned out to be fantastic. Manu helped inflate the balloon - couldn't wipe the smile from his face, he loved it - and then it was up, up and awayyyyy (which coincidentally is the name of the company that took us on the flight). It was such a peaceful beautiful ride. Anita, being a little scared of heights, stayed in the middle of the basket until she felt comfortable enough to venture to the side of the basket. Manu however was leaning over the edge and scaring the bejeebers out of Anita..... The flight experience was finished off with a lovely champagne breakfast at a local park, after which we drove the 3 hours back to San Francisco.

You can probably see from our pics that we also attended an ice hockey game at the San Jose HP Pavillion - San Jose Sharks vs Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. It was awesome ! We got the full experience of seeing men mashed up against the plexi glass and saw a fight. The fight was hilarious, the players threw off their gloves, threw down their sticks and put their fists up. Once the players fell onto the ice the refs jumped on top of them to break it up and sent them off to the sin bin.

We also went 'spelunking' in a small town outside of Sacremento. We went with the Deloitte Adventure Club. Spelunking involved a 165ft rappel into an large underground cavern and then crawling / sliding / climbing through a number of small underground caves. Some of the underground caves were so small you had to wiggle your way through them. We got very dirty - as it was quite muddy - and had heaps of fun - again!

Recently we had dinner with Manus old boss and friend Graham & his family. They were travelling around the US and stopped in at SF in time to see the very top of the Golden Gate Bridge (the rest was shrouded in fog). They had been having adventures in Yosemite National Park and were on their way down the coast to Disneyland. A bunch of friends (from the Deloitte Melbourne office) caught up with them for dinner at The Stinking Rose - a restaurant renowned for the massive amounts of garlic put (intentionally) into the food. Was great catching up with them !!

The next day we were off on another adventure - last one for now, we promise. We were invited to a work colleagues housewarming party in South Lake Tahoe. The party was a blast, lots of drinking, BBQ'ing and some horse shoe throwing, then a quick trip 5 miles down the road (to pass over the Nevada State line) to do some gambling at the local casinos. Manu won $125 and Anita won $27.37 (although Anita spent $40 to win $27....). When we woke up the next morning we took a quick drive downtown and went up the Heavenly Gondola. The Gondola is the main mode of transportation for taking skiiers up the slopes in winter. You can see from the photos how beautiful Lake Tahoe is, we hope to go back there in winter and see it with snow.

That's about all from us for now, we're hugely excited that it's only 1.5 months till we take our trip home. It's unheard of for anyone to take a month off in California - alot of people are amazed at the length of our stay. Apparently most people feel guilty for taking 2 weeks off work - not us !!!!

Take care, love and big Manu hugs Manu & Anita