Around the world in 6 weeks
We
have just returned from a 6 week round the world trip and the best part
was during our home stays.
We
spent the first 3 days in Hong Kong in a pocket sized hotel room which
we had to vacate by 10am, but our flight did not leave until 11pm. Our
next stop was overnight in Heathrow at another hotel near the airport,
in which we did not get much sleep with people coming and going all
night. After an horrendous day's travel from London to Montreal which
took approx 20 hours due to missed flights etc, we finally got our hire
car and drove to our home stay in Ottawa. What a relief to arrive
safely thanks to our hosts' wonderful directions, and find a fabulous 3
storey house all to ourselves. We were able to spread out and
relax –
in fact make ourselves at home.
Tamara
& Kerry had stayed at our house in December while we were in
Melbourne, and during our stay in their home they were camping with
their children. Knowing that we played golf they rang and arranged to
take us golfing. It was great to meet them, and we had a lovely day on
the course and at dinner before they went back to their camp. All too
soon our visit ended and we were off to the Rockies where we had a few
nights in hotels and B&B’s.
We
arrived in Vancouver and met our HomeLink friends Norma & Brian who
will be staying with us in October. We were very comfortable in their
self contained basement for 5 nights, and had a wonderful time sharing
all our travel stories, gaining local knowledge on where to visit etc.
We look forward to meeting them again so we can relive our holiday.
During our time in Vancouver we took the ferry to Victoria to catch up
with a HomeLink family whom we had hosted in 2004. It was great
catching up with them again, Michael took Phillip kayaking and even
though he fell out and was freezing it was an experience he will
remember.
Our
Canada vacation had been planned for almost 12 months, but 3
months
prior to our trip I decided to try and get some hospitality stays
during our trip down the west coast of America. I sent approx 30 emails
out and received about 10 emails back (some could not fit us in, but we
had 4 positive returns)
We
based this part of our trip on where we had hospitality stays, and it
worked brilliantly. We drove out of Seattle and went to Portland where
we had dinner with Barb & Rich, a delightful couple who have been
to Australia a number of times. After a few (far too short )
hours we
had the key and were on our way to their beach house on the coast where
we stayed for 3 wonderful nights. Then we were on our way to Eugene
where we spent 2 nights with Jim and Camille who showed us around their
city, and we managed to spend lots of money at the best golf shop in
the world. We left their house early in the morning and drove to Crater
Lake which was amazing, then continued on our way to our next
hospitality stay in Sacramento. Peter & Ella were fantastic hosts
and we sat up till very late both nights talking, eating, drinking etc.
They showed us around their wonderful complex and it was quite sad
saying goodbye. We truly hope that our HomeLink friends come to
Australia soon, so we can return their hospitality and make them feel
as welcome as they made us feel.
After
leaving them we spent 3 nights in San Francisco and 3 nights in Hawaii.
But our best memories by far are the times we spent with our wonderful
HomeLink friends.
Barbara and Phillip Moxham
Do
you have an exchange story?
We
need your stories, anecdotes, advice and photos for the next
"HomeChat"
newsletter. Please send your submissions to us: help@homelink.com.au We
want this to be YOUR newsletter - so the more member content we can
include, the better!
|
