You can, when you try!

Bubby and I had a date to go to the Temple yesterday afternoon. I came home about an hour before we were scheduled to leave and we decided to gather up a few loose ends. We are planning a trip to Australia in May to visit with Uncle Larry and Aunt J. We have been fare shopping for months, and have pretty much narrowed down our route and found a price we like, but had not yet "pulled the trigger", and bought the tickets. We did it yesterday, and although not yet paid for, we have two tickets to Perth that we can't wait to use.

What finally pushed us over the edge was deciding on some travel dates (we can leave on a Sunday without guilt because of what will be happening in Stake conference on March 1st) and getting our reservations at Lagoon Lodges (our favorite get away in the world). We wrote them an email checking on room availability for our nine day stay and they emailed back that they would love to have us come. We will stop in the Cooks on our way to Perth.

What we love most about Lagoon Lodges is that the beach is out the door and across a street no bigger than the street on which we live. It only has slightly more traffic, too. We have had the beach to ourselves on our previous two trips and this time we plan to spend the majority of our time swimming, fishing and relaxing. Bubby has already announced that she wants me to bring a fishing pole for her to use.

We were hoping for a revival of our trip there with Uncle Roland and Auntie Nell, but it is just not in the cards for this year. I know that they love to go to the Cooks as much as we do, so we may get to go together one more time in the future.

To finish the story, when we purchased the tickets, we noticed that my passport was due to expire in April, 2009. So wonder of wonders, we discovered we could fill out the renewal forms on-line, print them, take a couple of digital images, crop and print them, write a check, and mail in the renewal. We accomplished all of this (buying tickets, confirming reservations, and renewing a passport) in a little over an hour and still made our session in St. George. Bubby called that "very productive". Of course what she really means is that she is excited to have the "ticket to ride".

Buboppy