"Best Of" Awards

 
 
One of the great things about our trip was that we overviewed thousands of years of world history, culture and human achievement. So what were the highlights? Here are some quick awards...
1. Best Landmark - The Statue of Liberty, in a close playoff with the Eiffel Tower. They're both grand achievements of the nineteenth century, and both are structurally engineered by Gustav Eiffel. What a genius. The design of Lady Liberty herself is art on a grand scale.
2. Best airline flight - After 10 flights over seven weeks, we became used to cramped conditions. But as I mentioned in a previous post, the V-Australia flight from LA to Brisbane was the best of our trip. Spacious plane, fast service, good entertainment system and good meals made the time pass quickly.
3. Best Church Service - It might be for sentimental reasons, but after visiting some of the great evangelical churches of the world, the church family we felt most connected with was at Arborfield with Piers and Carolyn Bickersteth. There are low key but exciting things happening there, and everyone loves to be part of it. Tim Keller's sermon at Redeemer New York was excellent too.

It's over!

 
 
Susie and Rohan met us on schedule at Brisbane airport, and Jo and Maddie were waiting at the door when we got home. It's great to be back, but sad to end our seven short weeks of adventure. Thanks to all those who have followed our blog, and even bigger thanks to those on our travels who made us so lavishly welcome. It was great to see the sights of the world, but even better to catch up with old friends!

Foretaste of Home

 
To kill some time in our seven hour layover at LA, we caught a cab to the new Westfield Mall at Culver City... a little bit of Australiana in a far off land. The shopping was disappointing, except for the thousand calorie chocolate thickshake. Back to the airport with hours to spare... VA008 took off around midnight. We were impreesed with everything about the flight home. V Australia looked after us V well. And so...

Summing up...

 
Today we (are hoping to) fly from Vancouver to LA, sit in the airport for seven hours, then catch the V-Australia midnight flight back to Brisbane. That means our adventure has come to an end. In the last seven weeks we've visited Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Florence, Geneva, Paris, Amiens, Arborfield, Port Isaac, London, Toronto, Niagara (Buffalo), New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago and Vancouver. It's been educational, fun and a bit tiring. People have been immensely kind to us along the way, and catching up with old friends has been a highlight... but it will be good to get home!

Vancouver vagabonds

 
 
 
 
It's been nice taking things easy around Vancouver the last couple of days. Yesterday we visited Granville Island markets and ate at Earls, and today we headed out to Steveston for a fish and chip lunch before shopping at Kerrisdale and walking home to Ruth and Rod's. Tomorrow... we head home. The seven short weeks of adventure are drawing to a close.

Fringe Benefits

 
 
 
Getting stuck in Chicago had an upside. We spent the night in the Radisson hotel at a discount rate, and were upgraded to first class for the flight from Chicago to Vancouver. For a while though, we thought we'd miss the connecting flight, as the security clearance queue at Chicago airport took almost an hour. Things were getting tense!

Goodbye Atlanta

 
 
We were sad to say goodbye to the Lowe family, but happy to finally fly out of Atlanta airport after a six hour delay due to the cancellation of our flight to Vancouver via Denver due to high winds. We were finally booked on a flight to Chicago, where we stayed the night at the Radisson Hotel... our first proper hotel room in the whole journey! The bonus - we fly from here to Vancouver first class thanks to the guy at the United Airlines desk.

Southern Comfort

 
 
Americans love their guns. We attempted to find out why by trying out a Glock at the local shooting range.

Josh and Emily Youssef

 
After church we shared lunch with Josh and Emily Youssef. Josh heads up Leading the Way media ministry, is a student at RTS - and looks very much like a younger Prince Andrew.

Megachurch Adventures

 
 
 
 
Michael Youssef trained at Moore College in the 70s, and served as curate at an anglican church in Sydney where he met and married his wife Elizabeth. They moved to Atlanta in the early 80s, where Michael founded The Church of the Apostles. It's now a huge church on a sprawling $50 million campus, and Michael is broadcast all over the world through the church media arm "Leading the Way." Michael and Elizabeth were delighted to meet Louise, as her dad had been a huge influence on them in Sydney back in the 70s. Oddly, they were also previous tenants in exactly the same Moore College accomodation that Lou and I lived in a decade later. We were able to reminisce about the kitchen decor.

Meet the Lowes

 
 
 
Bruce and Rachel Lowe are living in Atlanta (which though it starts and ends with A, is different from Alabama), where Bruce is lecturing in New Testament at the Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS). Their four kids Elizabeth, Jimmy, Josh and Jonathan are a real delight. We've had a great time visiting with them, attending church together this morning, and getting to know some of their friends.

Welcome to Atlanta

 
 
Atlanta, Georgia, is a city of around 6.5 million people (slightly bigger than Sydney), and one of the most prosperous cities in the USA... and the world. Coca Cola is based here, as is Ted Turner's CNN TV network, and Delta Airlines. We're here to visit our friends Bruce and Rachel Lowe, who you'll meet in the next post.

Goodbye IGH

 
 
Saturday 22nd, it was goodbye to the International Guest House in DC. A fun place to stay, and nice to find a sense of community among travellers. From here it was a Delta flight to Atlanta.

Real Stuff

 
 
 
A quick stroll from Capital Hill took us to the Smithsonian's Flight and Aerospace Museum. Aldrin's real moon suit, the real lunar lander, and the Wright brothers' real 1903 "Flyer" were all there in front of us.

George Washington among the gods

 
Right in the very centre of the cast iron dome is a painting of George Washington, ascended to the pantheon of ancient greek deities. Astonishingly poor theology for 'one nation under God', but evidence of the high esteem George was held in by his 19th century successors. The building was completed (from memory) in the 1820s.

Day 2 in DC

 
 
 
 
The summer weather is really kicking in, so it was a hot walk around the perimeter of the Pentagon to view the 911 memorial. Tourist tip - if you want to see inside, you'll need to book on the internet in advance. From there it was back on the metro to the Library of Congress, and through the underground link to Capitol Hill. This time we caught the tour, which took us into the dome for an explanation of the sculptures and paintings.