Day 84 - Friday 4 July

Arrived home in Melbourne this morning.

On this trip we visited 5 countries - New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, USA and Canada.

We travelled, on our cruises over 15,000 kilometres (9,000 miles), on our flights over 17,000 kilometres (11,000 miles), and we drove over 13,000 kilometres (8,000 miles).

In the US we visited 1 territory, American Samoa, and 18 states, including 8 for our first time, resulting in us now having been to all the 50 states of the USA!

Our trip was wonderful, seeing so many beautiful and spectacular things, making new friends, and most importantly, catching up with old ones, namely Will, Kava, Joan & Pete, and Chris & Mike.

Day 83 - Thursday 3 July

Day lost by crossing the International Dateline.

Day 82 - Wednesday 2 July

There was a problem with the plane 2 hour after departure, so the plane returned to Los Angeles - http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/hollywood-star-tells-of-qantas-drama/story-fni0xqll-1226975832734 .

After getting up late in the morning, we spent a few hours at one of our favourite shopping destinations, Santa Monica, before once again checking in for our evening flight.

Day 81 - Tuesday 1 July

This morning we dropped our rental car off at Chicago's O'Hare airport, where we boarded an afternoon flight to Los Angeles, where the terminal has improved dramatically!

We then took off on our late night flight back to Melbourne.

Day 80 - Monday 30 June

We spent the day wandering around Chicago downtown, admiring the beautiful buildings and doing some last day shopping.

We had a delicious dinner at rpmitalian.com , and then went to see the www.blueman.com , a clever and entertaining production.

Day 79 - Sunday 29 June

Today was 45th Annual Chicago Pride Parade an there was no shortage of colourful people.

We spent the early part of the afternoon at the www.randolphstreetmarket.com .

Di then continued exploring the downtown shops, whilst Bill had a quick visit to the beautiful Millennium Park.

Bill then trained out to North Chicago to the www.ravinia.org , North America's oldest running music festival, where the Robert Cray Band and John Hiatt & the Combo performed.

Day 78 - Saturday 28 June

After a photo shoot at Chris and Mike's we drove south to Chicago (Illinois), where we arrived mid-afternoon.

We had a wander around downtown and the Magnificent Mile, where we also had dinner.

Day 77 - Friday 27 June

A delightful and leisurely day with Chris and Mike around their property, including the afternoon on their pontoon on next door Bear Lake.