Our First Overseas Trip!!

In 30 short days Farmer Phil, Emma and I will be jetting off to sunny USA and Canada!!!  We're all very excited as it will be the first overseas trip for both Farmer Phil and Emma - I have been to New Zealand a few times.

The reason for the trip is it is the overseas trip that Yanco Agricultural High School organises every 2 years.  And as this is Emma's last year at school we decided 18 months ago that we would go on the 2 week school trip.  There are about 50 students, parents and teachers going.

This is our itinerary:

• Fly into Vancouver, Canada and do a 3 hour city tour
• Fly to San Francisco, California for 2 nights with a tour of Alcatraz Island, Golden Gate Bridge and Fishermans Wharf
• Fly to Billings, Montana and tour Little Big Horn and General Custer's Last Stand
• Bus to Sidney, Montana where we are being billetted by local families for 2 nights with visits to a sugar beet factory, power plant, the University of Montana Agricultural Research facility, heritage museum and local Petroleum industry with many farms having their own oil rigs
• Bus to Saskatoon, Canada with visits to the Moose Jaw tunnels, bootlegging re-enactment, Chinese immigrant history, the influence of the Mafia on the town, and then a visit to a Huterite Colony.  The Flexicoil factory is visited along with the University of Saskatchewan, Western Development Museum and Prairie Town.
• On to Calgary for 4 nights where we will spend each day at the world famous Calgary Stampede
• Bus to Banff with the spectacular scenery of Lake Louise and the Canadian Rockies
• Final stop is the Colombia Icefields with a tour of the glacier and lakes

Whew!!!  It sounds non-stop but we just can't wait!!

Farmer Phil, Emma and I are then adding on 5 nights in Orlando, Florida to visit Ryan.  He is leaving on June 21st to spend 12 weeks there training at a water ski school with 5 of his water skiing friends!  I know, how lucky is he!!!!!

Disney World, Sea World, Universal Studios, Cape Canaveral here we come in Orlando - the Theme Park Capital of the World!!!  I'm sure we won't have time to do them all!  We'll have to master driving the rental car on the wrong side of the road first!!!

Anyway, the next few weeks will fly by with lots of jobs to be completed on the farm before we go.  We finished sowing our 5,000ac of wheat and canola yesterday, so now Farmer Phil is quickly trying to get the canola sprayed for weeds and insects before the expected rains come tomorrow.

We'll only be away 3weeks, but I'm sure this will be the first of many overseas trips for us now that we will have no more children at school in a few short months!!