TRAVEL: Putting Another Shrimp on the Barbie

Cousin Stan Felton, a retired FBI agent and all-around interesting guy, sent me this
material by email from Australia (hopefully he won't mind my sharing this with everybody):

We greet you this Christmas from Melbourne, Victoria. We have now
been in Australia for nearly three months and the time is flashing by.
We have three more lovely months here before returning home.

We arranged a wonderful house and car exchange with
a retired couple from Melbourne.  Their home is a very
nice ranch in the East Melbourne area.  We have a short
walk to a nearby lake and woods sanctuary(conservation area) just at
the end of the street. The train station and library are also very convenient.

To date we have toured the Queensland coast, Sydney
and New South Wales southern coast, Canberra, and
Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales. We are
bedazzled with the extent of wildlife and scenic
beauty that we have encountered.

In the New Year we will visit Tasmania and South
Australia and more of Victoria.  We will leave Western
Australia and the Northern Territories for another
trip.  Australia is a great country with very friendly
people and we have been warmly welcomed wherever we
have been.

We have visited many historic sites and dwellings from
the mid to late 1800's.   We find many similarities in
the pioneering spirit of the early Australians with
the early American settlers to include the gold rush
period in the mid to late 1800's, the building of the
railways, the surveying of extremely difficult
geographic areas, the early logging operations, cattle
and sheep grazing, and the whaling and seafaring
traditions along some very rugged coastline.

Sadly, we have also noted the similarities of
maltreatment of the Aboriginal people by the early
Australian settlers to the maltreatment of the native
Americans by our early settlers.  Both of our
countries are still dealing with the fallout from
these times.

All is well with Karen, Mark and Jennifer. We will
miss them during this family holiday, but thanks to
marvels of technology we will be in contact via the
web cam.  Karen plans to visit us in Australia during
the latter part of February and we will have friends,
the Woolleys, visiting us just prior to Karen's visit.

Merry Christmas to you all and Happy New Year!

Alida and Stan