A message from Linda via her sister Anne

Hello All,
   Linda and her friends are having the most outstanding time Down Under!  She has contacted me via phone  3 times already and wants me to let you all know she is enjoying every minute of her days in Australia, but does not have one minute free to BLOG.  The 6 gals were selected to go to Tasmania were they have been treated like royalty.  They have an entourage following them around and filming (once again) their road trip.  They have had a picnic on 1000 ft cliffs being feed by the best of chefs, museums closed for their private viewing, serenaded by live music at dinner!  They just finished a helicopter ride to a vineyard in Tasmania with Gayle King.  Last night they had a cocktail party with Oprah as they joined back with the other 300 guests. Today they headed out for a beautiful cruise around Sydney Harbor.
This was a quick update,  Linda apologises for not keeping you all posted, but she will have many stories to tell when she gets back.  She loves the trip and says the Ausie's hospitality is the BEST.
Anne

Day 1, Sydney

G'Day Mates!!  We have arrived in Sydney and it is absolutely amazing!! They rolled out the "Red Carpet"(literally) for us and we are in awe of the hospitality and the beautiful sights and sounds of our 5 star hotel and surroundings.  We had a welcome reception with buffet lunch, divided into smaller groups where we found out where our 4 day excursion would take us.  More on that later as we have to keep it under wraps due to the intensive media coverage...the airport coverage was wild! 

In the afternoon, the groups broke up and some of us went on a walking tour and some of us went to the Sydney Opera House.

At five, we all met in the lobby to take a harbor cruise with appetizers and cocktails over to the Taronga Zoo where we had a private tour of the zoo. We had our pictures taken with a Koala Bear and then a cocktail and buffet dinner during sunset overlooking Sydney Harbor!!

As you can see, we do not have much down time!!  Every moment is filled with an eloquent adventure and to end our first day, we had to pack for our next 4 day personal excursion!!  Details on that later...stay tuned!

watching you

Hi Linda, I saw oprah tonight, getting a reward of some kind with obama.( tues night)

Tomorrow!

All packed, checked-in, boarding pass printed and ready to go!  Now, IF I can figure out how to use my new phone to create blog entries, you'll be hearing more about our trip of a lifetime.  Thank you, Oprah.

5 Days to go

Today we received a packet of information from Oprah.  We are staying in LA on Saturday night. We will receive our international Motorola phones and they are giving us a "Munch and Learn" lesson on Sunday afternoon at the hotel on how to use them.

We will leave LAX for our non-stop, 14 hour flight to Sydney on Sunday.They have events planned for us in Sydney before we depart for a "3-day regional territory experience" on Wednesday.  They have not given us any details as to where we'll be going or what we'll be doing yet.  They are keeping many surprises for us 'til we get "down under." 

Hilton Head visit



One week from tonight we are on the plane from LA to Sydney!

Well, we are down to one week!  Tomorrow we get our info. pack from Oprah.  Check out this web site from the Orlando Sentinel regarding Oprah's Show on Monday Oprah's Australian Preview show .  I'll be watching it at 4:00.
Most of the Christmas decorations are up and some shopping has been done.  The rest will be done in Australia (how cool does that sound)!  I'm off to iron a few things I'm bringing but the real packing will wait until Friday.  Tomorrow's post will have info on what exactly our tripof a life time will entail.

8 days and counting

I hope everyone had a terrific turkey day.  George and I coordinated the dinner here in our community.  We had 100 questes.  The past two days were very busy and the Australia trip had to take a back burner (almost litterally).  With the help of many others we roasted over 100 pounds of turkey (7 big birds), 40 pounds of "real" mashed potatoes and all the other traditional fixin's in huge quantities!  All went well!
So today I'm taking down all the fall decorations and stating to put up Christmas.  I want to have everything all decorated for the holiday before I leave.  I'm doing most of my holiday shopping in Australia, even sending out my cards from down under.
No news on our final itinerary yet.  You'll know shortly after I do.
For those of you that mentioned yu were having trouble getting the Boston Globe article on our friendship here is the link  Friendship Boston Globe Article, Nov. 20, 2010