<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nick @ Sep 5 2009, 12:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>
I still remember my first hailstorm and tornado warning when I lived in TX - such a foreign concept to me living here.

Barrier reef hey... just doesn&#39;t interest me. But I guess that&#39;s because it is so close, which makes it in the too easy basket? Or because I don&#39;t dive. My friend at WN is always trying to get me to start diving.. seems expensive though.[/b]
Yeah, there&#39;s just something relaxing about watching a thunderstorm rolling in on the Plains.

Nick, it&#39;s so interesting that you, living in Melbourne, have never been to the Great Barrier reef, and here I am willing to suffer 15 hours in coach just to see it. Guess it&#39;s true what they say - you seldom appreciate what you have in your own back yard. I know I don&#39;t.
Example- My first time vistors to LA always want to see Hollywood- Walk Of Fame. I tell them there&#39;s nothting to see, the area around Grauman&#39;s is a tourst trap with nothing but a few" hand & footprints" in concrete, some little brass stars in the sidewalk and a few people dressed up (in homemade outfits) as celebrites and movie characters. But, they just have to go. So I load up the car, drive down to Hollywood, pay to park, pay some panhandler dressed as "Captain Jack" to take a photo with us and then take photos of feet next to a brass star. And this, believe or not, is rated as a highlight of their trip to LA. You would not believe the number of photos I have of feet/shoes next to John Wayne&#39;s footprints.