Broome Time Again

A day at the beach, Broome style.

Well folks, here we are back in Broome. With winter well and truly arriving down south, why wouldn't we head north, to clear blue skies, no rain forecast for 4 months, daytime temperatures between 27 and 32, and water temperatures in the mid 20's. Sounds like paradise, feels like paradise, it is paradise! It is the height of the tourist season, yet it is still uncrowded and laid back. The biggest difference from our hot visit last November, is that every thing is open for business. For this visit, we are trying a different Cable Beach caravan park, The Tarangau Caravan Park, and we are happy with our choice. It is much smaller than where we last stayed, and a bit cheaper. The sites are large, and ours is nice and grassy, with large trees protecting us from the midday sun. We've met the lovely neighbours, and we are well and truly settled in. Our plan is to stay until late July.

It really is a Kool Spot!

The carrot cake is to die for!

A long term stay at a nice destination like Broome, is a treat for us. We get to know the ins and outs of town, and even start to feel a bit like a local. Of course we have found the best coffee in town! We have settled right in at "Kool Spot", where we have hit up a real rapport with the vivacious owner Vinka. She is an absolute scream, and knows everything that is happening within 300kms of Broome. We now know all the best places to eat, and we get a daily update on events around town, except for last Tuesday, when Kool Spot was closed, "because darlings, I am playing golf and drinking champagne!!!!" I must also say, that we like the cafe out at Town Beach, where we can sit and gaze out over the beautiful blue waters of Roebuck Bay. Here the coffee is also great, as is the food.

Sunset and Camels.

What a sight.

The one ritual we simply love, and partake of on a regular basis, is sunset along Cable Beach. It is an amazing sight to behold, as everyone who has a 4WD heads out onto the beach and perches on the tail gate or in fold up chairs, with sundown drinks in hand, the camel safaris wandering by, and that unbelievable sunset over the Indian Ocean. By the time we leave, I will have a thousand photos of this spectacle! Every sunset is different. 

Roslyn, Gordon and Matt
at afternoon tea

Jill arrives in Broome.

We have gotten on really well with our next door neighbours, Roslyn, Gordon and their son Matt. They hail from Newcastle, and are doing a long overdue lap of Australia.
One phenomenon that occurs here in Broome on the rare occasions that the sun sets over the ocean and a full moon rises over the land almost directly opposite, is called The Staircase to the Moon. There are a few vantage spots to go to see this event, so we chose the Golf Club, and headed up there with the neighbours. It really is a sight. My photo doesn't

Asian take away at the markets.

Staircase to the Moon.

really do it justice, but the moons reflection rippling across the waters of Roebuck Bay, really does look like a staircase to the moon. We felt really lucky to have seen it. You will just have to use your imagination. When it was all over, Carolyn and I headed down to the Staircase to the Moon Markets out at Town Beach, for some Asian take way and to soak up the atmosphere. A lot of fun. We have had a few good happy hours, and a long, farewell afternoon tea with pumpkin scones and sponge cake. We will miss their wit and

Another sunset approaches.

Sunset drinks with Jill & the camels.

conversation, but the journey must go on! We will keep in touch as we do with many of the special friends we have met along the way. Our Niece Jillian has come to Broome for a holiday for a couple of weeks. Each year she joins us, somewhere in this great land. She is staying at the Pearle Resort, right next door to our caravan park. She arrived in time for the big afternoon tea, and we will now devote our attention to showing Jill the sights of Broome. First stop for Jill, was of course sunset drinks on Cable Beach.

A day at the races.

Cocktails at Sunset Bar & Grill.

We have a busy round of events scheduled. The girls will of course require some retail therapy time. There are the markets to knock over on Saturday, as well as the Horse Races. The day at the races was a big hit, even though the bookies finished well on top. After the races, we decided not to waste our dress up clothes, and headed down to the Cable Beach Resort Sunset Bar & Grill, for a different take on sunset. The place was packed, but we got a good front row table,

Yummy Pizza.

Heading into Cafe D'Amore.

and the girls got into the cocktail list. We rounded out the evening with dinner at Cafe D'Amore. The pizzas and pasta were excellent and they did pretty dam well at dessert as well. This was a recommendation from our new friend Vinka, who obviously knows all on the food scene! She hasn't failed us yet! On Sunday we headed out to the Willie Creek Pearl Farm to do a tour. We drove ourselves out, about 40kms from town. The tour was terrific. The young

A real pearl in a real oyster.

Willie Creek Pearl Farm Tour.

guy, Ben, who ran the tour was excellent making the whole experience fun and at the same time educational. The location was stunning. It is an inlet about 20 kms up Cable Beach, and just when you thought it was safe to go into the water, out come the nasty crocodiles. We saw two, about 3 metres long, sunning themselves along the bank of the inlet. There were also a lot of Aborigines fishing the inlet. We watched as one guy was walking along the river bank,

Crocodile Dundiddlydee.

Boat trip at Willie Ck Pearl Farm.

casting a hand net, with one of the crocs following his every move, slowly swimming along beside him about 10 metres out from shore. We did a boat ride out along the inlet, and received a first hand look at how the oyster shells are kept, checked for diseases and cleaned, on a regular basis. We finished up with damper and drinks, and as much shopping time as you liked! The girls got to model things worth tens of thousands of dollars! This was a really good tour, and I would recommend it to anyone who visited Broome.

Broome coastline.

At Matso's Brewery.

After the tour we headed back into town for lunch. What better than a cold ale on a hot day, so off we went to Matso's Brewery. This is a popular Broome spot, whether eating or drinking, and we enjoyed some lovely fresh salads and some local brews. After that, Siesta!!!

Hovercraft Tour on Roebuck Bay.

Miles points out the footprints.

The next big adventure was Hovercrafting across Roebuck Bay. This is the only commercial hovercraft tour in the southern hemisphere, which surprised me. Apparently they need smooth water and light wind to operate efficiently. This was another fun tour. The pilot, Miles, was a fountain of information about Broome, as was his mother in law who drove the pick up bus! Once out on the water, the trip was very smooth, as we made our way to the other side of Roebuck Bay. Here, we all got off and walked among the dinosaur footprints. Broome is now a palaeontology hot spot, due to the finding of lots of dinosaur footprints. Miles was working hard for a role in Jurassic Park 6, but it was all fun and very interesting. This was another really good tour.

One last sunset on Cable Beach.

Not a bad one!

This part of Jill's holiday is almost over. When we have had a bit of free time, we've lazed around the Pearle's resort pool, which is delightful. Jill has had some girly spa time, and of course there has been some shopping. Tomorrow, we are all off to Derby for a few days, where we have some really great times planned. So stay tuned for the next instalment! Meanwhile, time for one last stunning sunset on Cable Beach.

Karratha & Dampier

Iron Ore Train.

Dampier Salt

We escaped Onslow and headed for Karratha and Dampier. These two towns are like sister towns, only 15 kilometres apart. Dampier, named after William Dampier, (pirate or explorer?) is where all the port facilities are, whilst Karratha is where all the population lives. It is heavy industry, Iron Ore, Salt and Gas (Liquid Natural Gas or LNG). The drive up, is through flat country with small mountain ranges of red rock. Everywhere you look, the landscape is green, red or blue! We had planned to stay at Dampier, but the caravan park looked very ordinary. It is only a transit caravan park with a maximum stay of 3

The colours of the Pilbara.

Woodside Gas.

days. So we headed off to Karratha and found the Pilbara Tourist Park, which was big and spacious, and not very busy. Then they told me it was $55.00 a night and I understood why it wasn't busy! Will someone tell these people not everyone is on a miner's salary! The lady then told me they had a Seniors deal, where if you paid for 3 nights you could stay 4, so we grabbed the deal! 

This is the Pilbara, and just as BHP "owns" Port Hedland, Rio Tinto "owns" Karratha/Dampier in respect of the iron ore and salt, whilst the gas is Woodside. The size and scope of the operations have to be seen to be believed. It is mind boggling!! The iron ore trains run continuously, bringing the ore from the inland mines to the port of Dampier. Each train is 2.4 kilometres long. That is a lot of iron ore!!

Karratha Town Centre.

Which one's mine???

As we drive around Karratha, we are struck by how new everything is! This is a brand new town built by, and for the miners. There are huge camps. These are gated communities with central dining and recreation facilities. There are dozens of these communities around Karratha, and some of the newer ones are very nice. As families have arrived, large subdivisions have emerged and there are hundreds of homes under construction. House and land packages from

Waterfront park at Dampier.

Gated community with High Rise
at back.

$700,000!!!! The Town Centre is also new, with high rise apartments and a shopping centre. The other thing you notice is the age of the people in town, they are all young! There are kids and strollers everywhere! The High Visibility Uniform is worn by everyone, male and female, and everyone drives a 4WD Ute. Everything is expensive, even McDonald's! We went into Maccas for a cheap lunch, had a meal deal each and it cost us $24.50!! I had a twenty out ready to pay and expected change! 

Woodside's LNG Plant.

More of Woodside's Plant.

Everyone told us we had to visit the Burrup Peninsula, so off we drove. Out along this road is the monster Woodside LNG Plant. The Visitor Centre was closed, so we just parked and looked in amazement at the sheer size of the operation. How on earth did someone put all that together. There are just miles of pipes and tanks, that result in you being able to cook dinner tonight on your Smeg gas stove! Out to sea, was one of the giant LNG Tankers, heading off to somewhere in Asia loaded

Withnell Bay.

Gas Tanker.

with gas. They are an unbelievable ship with their bulging tanks. There is one huge pipeline that brings the gas in from the gas fields of the North West Shelf. The drive takes us out along a 4WD track to Withnell Bay, which is a popular beach and fishing spot. Seems strange with all that infrastructure looming over the scene. It is really quite pretty, until you turn around! Heading back to town, we took a detour along a dirt road, to Hearson Cove, another 

Red rocks and green trees.

Hearson Cove.

favoured beach spot. Here at least, the gas works are out of sight. Didn't look that great to us with dirty water and shell grit beach! Driving back, you just keep pinching yourself, because if you look one way, you could be miles from anywhere, with the red rocks strewn across the landscape, then you go over a hill, and it is industrial everything! We were amused by a sign proclaiming this way to The Intercourse Islands. We had to check them out. Turned out it wasn't Lover's Lane, but a number of islands off the coast of Dampier, so named by William Dampier's crew following a discourse with the local Aboriginals back in 1689. Enough said about that!

Red Dog's Statue.

Says it all.

Dampier was also home to a very famous canine, called Red Dog. If you haven't seen the movie of the same name, you should. This famous little guy used to get on the Hammersley Mining buses that transferred the worker around the Pilbara. He would just go from mine site to mine site, all on the bus! He was owned by no one, and loved by everyone, except some mongrel person who poisoned poor old Red Dog. There is a bronze statue of Red Dog as you come into Dampier, and every year they hold the Red Dog Relay and Festival.

Who brings a pig to a dog festival??

Red Dog Festival.

It was on over the weekend we were there. It was held at the Dampier sports ground, and finished with market stalls, music and lots of fun. The last event of the relay, a swim, happens off the local beach, and there are lots of Red Dog's wandering around. There was even a pig! Come on! Who on earth brings a pig to a dog festival!!! The pig was driving the dogs crazy!! Carolyn purchased a Red Dog T Shirt as a souvenir. We each bought a delicious cup cake from a lady at a stall, and had a lovely time walking among the people and their puppies.

We will probably come back this way end of July. We need to leave, as we have a booking in Broome that can't be changed without forfeiting our deposit. As it has been a long weekend here, much has been closed, and we thought it might be interesting to do a tour of the mines and harbour. We'll see how the schedule works out.

Morning tea at Robe River.

Crossing De Grey River.

The drive north from Karratha to Broome is long and boring. The country is flat and monotonous. We have decided to by pass Port Hedland, and free camp overnight, along the way to Broome. There are a number of good overnight spots along the highway, and our wallet can do with a free night! For morning tea, we found a lovely spot at Robe River. Would you believe that this stop even had WiFi!! First one we found. There was a huge flock of Corellas in the trees kicking up a great noise, and hanging from the trees at all angles.
We refuelled at Port Hedland, stopped at a roadside rest area near Spitfire Roadhouse,

Back at Cable Beach.

where 

Sun starts to set at Stanley Camp.

Carolyn made sandwiches for lunch, and then we finally made our way to the Stanley Camp about 220 kms south of Broome. It was a big area, with covered picnic tables, toilets and plenty of sites. There were already around 20 other caravans and campers settled in for the night. We found our spot, got out a couple of chairs, a glass of wine, and settled back to watch one of those amazing outback sunsets. There is something very special about these camps in the middle of nowhere. We will never tire of seeing the sun disappear from a cloudless sky in a huge red ball, turning the horizon yellow and orange, and giving way to a zillion stars. Very, very special.

In the morning we are up early and on the road to Broome, which will be home for the next several weeks. Niece, Jillian, is coming up for a holiday, which will be great. The rest of the time will be R & R in the warm winter sun.

Exmouth & Onslow

The Whale Shark Parade begins.

We love the area around Exmouth and Coral Bay. The beaches along the shore of the Ningaloo Reef are simply stunning. At this time of year, the weather is warm, around 28 to 30 degrees, and the ocean temperature is a wonderful 27 degrees, just begging you to plunge in. And of course, the Whale Sharks are here, as evidenced in our prior post. We have based ourselves in the Big 4 Cape Range Caravan Park, same as last year, as it is central and well kept. If you are going to pay the high season prices, you may as well get good facilities!

Great Puppets!

More great puppets.

Aside from the Whale Sharks, there is a lot to do around Exmouth and the Cape Range National Park. The week of our stay also coincides with the annual Whale Shark Festival, which proved to be a lot of fun. The Saturday was the big day, with a parade down the main street, then lots of organised events on the town oval. We were pleasantly surprised, how good it all was, with some great puppet floats, and plenty of exhibits and food and craft stalls to wander through. Sunday is a

The local kids put on a show.

Stalls at the fair.

day dedicated to the Whale Sharks, with all operators offering 10% discounts for that day, and WA National Parks giving free access to the Cape Range NP. We spent the morning watching the parade and checking out all the exhibits, and a few shows on the centre stage, then headed up town to Sea Salt for a coffee. We like this cafe, with its relaxed style and great coffee. Their menu has altered since we were last here, and they now offer a Tapas menu at night, so we decided that we would have Saturday night out at Sea Salt. That was a really nice evening, as we got talking to the couple at the next table, who had worked and travelled a lot along this part of the coast, and they were able to give us some good tips on places to see and stay.

Blue Horizon Charter Boat.

John gets ready to fish.

On Sunday, John decided to partake of the other great passion of this region, fishing! He booked a spot with Blue Horizon Charters, and headed off at 7.00am in search of fish. It turned out a great day. There were only 7 guys on our charter, which takes up to 16, and that would be crowded. The skipper Steve, has two young deckhands to help us with our day, and we headed out into the Exmouth Gulf towards the Muiron Islands. The journey took about 1.5 hours, and when we

Terrific Spanish Mackerel.

Fish of the day was Pete's
Golden Trevally.

anchored, it was time to fish. The day flew by, as we moved a few times, as things got a bit slow in one area, or we were getting too many small fish. The plan was that you got to keep all the legal size fish you caught yourself, plus everyone shared in any mackerel that were caught on two drifting lines that were set all day. We all took turns on the mackerel lines whenever there was a strike, and there were lots! On the day, I caught two lovely spangled emperor, which we have now consumed, and we can vouch that

Drew fillets the Spanish Mackerel.

John's spangled emperor.

these are great eating. We cooked one of them whole in the Weber BBQ, and I filleted the other, which we pan fried. Absolutely delicious. The freezer is also full of Spanish Mackerel fillets, for future brain food dinners. On the day, a young fellow by the name of Adam was the star fisherman. He caught so many fish. One guy caught nothing to keep, and most of us caught a couple, but Adam just kept reeling them in. Amazing!! Seven guys all with the same rods, same bait and fishing within a few metres of each other, and one guy gets so many! Go figure that out!! Still, it was a great day, and we had a lot to talk about over a couple of beers, as we headed back to Exmouth Harbour.

The Bar & Grill.

The Bowling Alley.

For the rest of our days in Exmouth, we just lazed around, and on our last night took a drive up the Vlamingh Point Lighthouse to watch the sunset. We left a bit early to go and visit the old US Ghost Town we'd heard about, at the back of the Harold E. Holt Naval Base. It's a great story. The US military actually established the township at Exmouth back in the 1960's at the height of the Cold War. They needed a strategic Very Low Frequency (VLF) Radio Communications

Sun sets over the Indian Ocean.

The Pool & Water Tower.

Base, and built the existing 13 tower facility. These towers range from 304 metres, to an amazing 387 metres tall, making them some of the tallest man made structures in the Southern Hemisphere. In true US style, everything was done on a grand scale. They actually built a US town on Aussie soil, complete with Water Tower (that never worked!), a Ten Pin Bowling Alley, Texas Bar & Grill, Swimming Pool, Baseball Park (Floodlit!), and all the

Oil Platform out at sea.

necessary accommodation quarters. They even drove on the right hand side of the road as all the vehicles were imported from the USA.!! They gave it back to Australia in the 1990's, and just walked away leaving everything. As Australia was only interested in the Communications station, a small staff was all that was required, so the rest has been left to Mother Nature! We continued on up to the Lighthouse, where quite a crowd was gathered to watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean. It is a sight we never tire of watching. As the dark starts to take hold, we can see the flames from the offshore oil rigs that are prolific along this section of the coast. There are literally hundreds of oil and gas rigs floating off the coast. 

Loved this shirt!

It is time for us to leave Exmouth. I am sure we will return another day. Today we are headed north to Onslow, almost 400kms away by road. We are quite enjoying the countryside this time, as it has taken on its new green coat, and looks fresh and even lush. The only place to stop along the way, apart from our compulsory morning cuppa from Carolyn's thermos, is at Nanutarra Roadhouse, where fuel is $2.00 per litre. We decide to have lunch here, as the food looks good. We each had one of the delicious home made sausage rolls, and a sandwich. That was $28.00 thank you very much, and she didn't even have the decency to wear a mask and hold a gun!!!

That's a pile of salt!

Ocean View site.

We turned off the highway, and started on the 82km each way trip into Onslow. We are only going to Onslow so we can say we've been there! The reports we've had on the town have varied between bad to really bad! In fact, back last year when staying at Kununurra, we were next to a couple who had taken a years break off work. They came from Onslow, and told us we should drive straight past the turnoff!! The road was excellent, built by Chevron to access their enormous Gas projects based around Onslow. The other big thing is salt, with Onslow being Australia's second largest salt

The Onslow Pharmacy.

Main Street Onslow.

export town. Now there's a romantic holiday picture for you, Gas Fields, Oil Rigs and Salt Mines!!! No wonder Carolyn is making threats towards me!! We make it into town. It is a two horse town, both parked outside the glue factory!!!  We find our way to the Ocean View Caravan Park, and to our surprise, we get a nice big site right beside the ocean. Might not be so bad after all! The manager Greg comes over for a chat. He is a really lovely guy. He and his wife have just moved here. They are making some changes and tidying up, as the park is run down. They have a big job ahead in attracting people here.  We find out he

The Onslow Anglican Church.

Loading Salt.

originally came from Camden, and shared some stories about a place we know quite well. Bet he wishes he was back there right now!! The caravan park is almost entirely made up of workers, with a variety of humpys, old motor homes and old caravans, surrounded by gazebos and tarpaulins. There are a few tourists like us, doing the 2 to 3 day thing. We sat down with a drink, and the midgies arrived big time, chomping on John with glee. You could hear the little buggers doing high fives as they chomped away. I hate

Spinifex Termite Mounds everywhere!

2.5 million tons of salt a year.

midgies!!!! So we packed up and went for a drive. Greg had told us that Four Mile Creek was a nice spot to fish and swim. The  water was muddy red and the tide way out. Didn't really look all that enticing. So we parked and just gazed out at the huge cranes building the new Chevron Wheatstone Project, an LNG loading facility. Just lovely!! Then it was back along the road to park at the 1.3 kilometre long salt conveyor, loading salt onto ship. It was so exciting watching the salt whizz by on the conveyor!! Can I show a girl a good time!! Carolyn gazed into my eyes and said "why on earth are we here??" We headed back to town as the sun set.

Carolyn strides the boardwalk.

The impressive War Memorial.

Next morning my stocks were looking up. We went for a walk and found the Anzac Park and the boardwalk. The memorial is really well done, facing East/West, with the sun rising and then setting through the opening. We went for a lovely walk out along the great boardwalk that ends up by the salt loader, and wandered back along the beach to the caravan park. The water is not inviting. It looks like mud flats and is a reddish brown. The beach is covered in shells, and in one part is littered with debris from when the army blew up the old pier. It was a huge structure of

On Onslow Beach near the Loader.

More of the War Memorial.

concrete, steel and timber. A guy told us they hadn't had time to clean it all up. Well I guess it was only blown up in 1983!! Whilst on the score of blowing things up, we also visited the nice little museum, where we found out that the Monte Bello Islands are just off the coast. Remember them? This is where Australia and Britain did the first Atomic Bomb tests back in the 1950's and 1960's. Onslow has got it all!! That night, the midgies came early, but I didn't care as we were settling in to watch State of Origin Game 1. If all went well, and the Blues could win, my trip to Onslow might just be salvaged. Just as Brett Morris is about to score everything goes black, not just us, the whole caravan park, in fact the whole town is in blackout. When the lights came back on it was 10 to 4. Thank God for replays. The lights stayed on the rest of the night, except in Queensland!

Under construction.

Almost complete.

They told us real estate is going ahead, with lots of new apartment complexes being built. Who on earth would want to live, or holiday here?? I guess, that seeing as almost every house has a boat parked out the front, the fishing must be good! The new architectural style, is best described as "Big Donga", as they just stick a box, on a box, on a box and weld them all together! The big complex in the middle of town is lovingly referred to by the locals as "The Detention Centre"!!! The shopping centre is two servos, a big tin shed (Grocery Store and Liquor), a medium size tin shed (Post Office and Newsagent with some clothes and camping gear), and a small tin shed (Hardware Store). Prices are astronomical! We couldn't afford to live here! In the supermarket, items are a minimum of 30% above anything we've paid. The Truss tomatoes looked really nice, but at $14.50 per kg they worked out at around $5.00 each!!! I guess it is remote.

Uncle John serves up coffee.

Fly In Fly Out by Charter Plane.

Out in front of the Visitor Centre cum Museum, we met Uncle John and his coffee truck. He made us a surprisingly good coffee, surrounded by a cloud of flies. I strained every mouthful through my teeth! He told us how he'd lived here for 3 years. He takes his coffee truck out to the airport to meet the 4 charter flights every day, that bring in the workers. He sets up outside the Visitor Centre until 10.00am each morning. He explained how the Shire Management messed up the negotiations with Chevron when in 2008, they announced their big expansion plans for the Wheatstone Project, and the fact that 2,500 new workers would be coming to the town,

Tenders go out to the Oil Rigs

2.5 million tons of salt a year.

which had a population of around 800. Chevron was told that the Shire didn't want their workers changing the fabric of the town. So Chevron built their own camps, and provide everything to the workers who Fly in and Fly out. The town never sees the workers, nor do they get any of their dollars. We were amazed that the town was so quiet. I am sure there is a compromise somewhere. The few people who live in town work in the support industries such as tug boat and lighterage, or construction. Inside the Visitor Centre we met a lovely, and very helpful, young lady, who when she found out we'd already been in town for a day, proclaimed we'd probably already seen everything! The adjoining museum, which was just a gold coin donation for entry, was well done, and you got a good sense of the history from the early pastoral days through the atomic test period and up to the latest gas boom. There were some great exhibits.

Signs of Old Onslow.

Old Onslow Cemetery.

We did take a drive out to Old Onslow. It is about 30 kms away. The whole town moved in the early 1920's. It had been a thriving pastoral district with wool the king.The town was based near the mouth of the Ashburton River, but as it silted up, a deep water port became necessary, and that was found at Beadon Creek, site of the current town. We drove out a good dirt road that followed the Ashburton River, where a number of people were free camping. We had been told that the

Onslow Pub.

Crossing the Ashburton River.

remains of the town could be seen, but all we found was an overgrown cemetery, and a number of signs proclaiming where something once stood. It was interesting, as most of the old buildings had been relocated to the new town or to other rural properties. On the way back to town we crossed the Ashburton River, but it was just more termite mounds and salt lakes. They say the river is great for fishing, with big barra being caught in season. It isn't the

The salt whizzes by.

season and the Ashburton River looks like it is floating upside down at present! Tonight is our last night in Onslow, and I'm really wrestling with what to do. The sign outside the pub says Thursday Night Special - "Chook". Probably worth a look just to see which bit you get. Hope its plucked! However, I am being drawn back to another romantic night out by the salt conveyor. There is something about that salt whizzing by!! A bag of chips and a couple of stubbies, what more could a girl want!!  Wonder if Carolyn is up for it????