Joanne Niswander

By Joanne Niswander

I’ve been traveling again, which leads to another column for any of you interested in another part of the world.

Not across the equator this time, but at the far eastern end of our time zone – Maine. Many of you have visited that state, and I suspect that most of your trips have taken place during Maine’s glorious, but short, vacation season.

By Joanne Niswander

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 I know, there’s nothing quite comparable to Bluffton’s “Blaze of Lights,” but I have to share what I experienced this year on the same weekend of our “Blaze.”

It was Carlsbad, New Mexico’s “Christmas on the Pecos.” For starters, let’s set the scene. Carlsbad is way down in the southeast corner of New Mexico, in the high desert.

By Joanne Niswander

Greetings from Cairns and Cape Tribulation – located on the tropical northeastern coast of Australia. As we got off the plane that brought us north from Sydney to Cairns, we immediately felt the rise in humidity as well as temperature. We were happy to stay in the shade of the tall palms, eucalyptus and myriad other trees that cover this part of the country.

By Joanne Niswander

First, let me apologize for the slow communication. Wireless Internet is hard to come by in the hinterlands of Australia, and that’s where we’ve been lately. I’ll probably be back in the States before I’m able to send my next report. But here’s what’s been happening since my last communiqué:

By Joanne Niswander

Sydney, Australia, October 11, 2000

On a scale of 1 to 10, I’m ready to give Sydney close to a 10 (for a city, that is). My daughter Lee and I arrived here 6 days ago, on a lovely sunny spring day in Australia. We promptly treated ourselves to some of the most beautiful sights of this city that has one of the most beautiful harbors in the world.

By Joanne Niswander

Well, my daughter and I have been in Melbourne for a week and are preparing to leave for Sydney tomorrow. So here are a few more southern Australia impressions to send your way.

When I wrote my first impressions of Melbourne a week ago, I had not yet been introduced to the countryside – only the city. And, although the city has been good to us (they really treat their tourists well), this “country girl” was ready to see something other than tall buildings and trollies.

By Joanne Niswander

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon. My friend Mary and I had just left another friend’s home where we had enjoyed lunch together. One of our table conversations had been about the spiffy new “Motter Metro Park” sign that had recently appeared along Grove Road, just across from Maple Grove Cemetery. 

None of us had remembered seeing anything in the news about it. What was this new park in our midst?

By Joanne Niswander

 In a couple of weeks I will be back home.

Home in Bluffton.

 By Joanne Niswander

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the summer-vacationing side of Woods Hole, the tiny Cape Cod town I’ve been enjoying since the first of June. And it really is an ideal vacation spot, with gorgeous weather this year being a big plus. But now it’s time to tell you about the unique place that Woods Hole presents to the scientific community.

My Joanne Niswander

The sun is warm, the breeze is cool, the harbor is calm, and all’s well at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. I’ve been here for nearly three weeks now, so maybe I have enough of a feeling about the place to pass some of my observations on to you.