The week that was...

I need to be more consistent with posting. The problem is all of our pictures are either on the camera still or on the personal laptop...and I'm always on the work laptop. **Sigh**

This week has been busy with work, Bible Studies (note plural), and stuff every day. Tonight is "Late Night Shopping" - but I doubt we go out. What is "Late Night Shopping" you ask? LNS is a wonderful feature of Sydney life and something that is to be looked forward to each week!

Basically, all of the shopping (outside of restaurants and the big groceries) closes every day between 4 and 5. EVERY DAY. Weekends are the hardest - who closes a mall at 4:00?!?!?! I don't know how people ever actually BUY anything? It all costs an arm and a leg, and the shops are rarely open...getting off track...

Back to LNS. Well, a few years ago Sydney decided that Thursday was the day to have LNS - the shops are allowed to stay open later. I'm not sure if it is a legal thing, or what, but Thursdays things are open until 9 most places. OOOOHHHHH...9:00! Wow! I remember being bored at 2:00AM in college and going to Wal-Mart just to have something to do!

This weekend we are driving about 3 hours and going to Canberra - capital of Australia. Like Washington, DC, Canberra is a very planned city. They took this land and laid out a capital - mostly to stop the competition between Sydney and Melbourne for "capital" status. Kind of like mom saying, "Well, if you can't share, neither of you get to play with this!"

Pictures next week. Last weekend we took it easy and went to the Botanical Gardens. Lots of nice pictures that I hope to have up next week as well...

Jon

Just a quickie...

I finally got the slideshow from Katoomba and Jenolan Caves to work - it is the top one on the right. These are photos from our anniversary trip.

Nothing too exciting going on lately, just a bunch of dreary rain. The last couple of weekends we've ignored the rain and gone into different sections of Sydney. We went to the Darling Harbour Jazz & Blues Festival - fun, but more blues than jazz. That same day we went to the Sydney Aquarium and looked at all the cool fish.

Last Saturday we went down to the main shopping drag - George St. We started at the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) - a very old and beautifuyl building that is now a very upscale shopping center. Gotta have money to shop there! The basement level of shops connected underground to the next arcade...which connected to the next arcarde...which...well, you get the picture. We walked for blocks underground - miles if you include all of the levels. We got a few things, but nothing too spectacular. Well, I got a sick Billabong jacket that I totally love, and Clarice got some tops for work, but mainly we walked around and enjoyed the day. We took the bus down and back - saved on parking and gas!

Last Sunday we had some of Clarice's co-workers (the "foreigners" - everyone who is here from overseas) over for dinner. I know, 2 picky eaters who can't really cook hosting dinner?!?! What is this world coming to?? Top it off, I'm an introvert and hate those sorts of things, but I was told it was happening and I needed to help. (insert salute here) :-)

We did pasta (go figure), grilled up some chicken, had a salad (that neither of us ate, thank you very much!), and some toasted garlic bread. Six people came, ate and had a very nice time. No one was poisoned - in fact they ate almost everything. Maybe they were just being polite, but we both thought it was the best meal we had made in Australia so far. We've been struggling finding a pasta sauce we like...getting off track, sorry.

After dinner, Clarice led the group in some Wii while I did the dishes. Nice thing about our place is the sink faces the rest of the room so I could be a part of the group, yet still in my own world doing the dishes. Nice for me, since I didn't know anyone as well. It was a nice time, and I'm sure we'll do it again. Maybe rotate hosting among the group.

Tonight I am going to the Men's Bible Study. Well, tonight isn't a study, per se. They just finished a study, and the women's study is finishing tonight (Clarice will go if she gets home in time), so to keep the groups more or less in sync, the guys are taking the week off and going to see Prince Caspian. I've already seen it, but I'm going mainly for the social time beforehand to meet people. Next week starts a new study.

Tomorrow night we plan to go to a couple's study as well. THEY are finishing a study this week (I guess everyone is??), but we'll be ready to start the next one. We'll make a few friends out of this place, yet!

That's about it. Hope everyone is enjoying the heat back home - it's 65 degrees and cloudy here. Few more weeks and it is over...at least that's what they tell me.

Jon

Our 10th Anniversary...

For our 10th we went up to the Blue Mountains, about 1.5 hours away. Nice drive through the bush and up into the hills. We stayed in a wonderful B & B that was literally across the road from the main overlook in Katoomba, the biggest town in the mountains. From there we ventured everywhere on hiking trails, scenic cable cars, near-vertical trains, and cabled ascenders. Mostly hiking.

The big hike took us down from the Echo Point overlook, down the Giant Staircase, around the valley and up the cable car to the top again. Then we hiked along the cliff until we got back to where we started. Lots of tiredness! Let me tell you, it was a gorgeous day. The valley started out covered in clouds, and as the day moved out the burned off and the blue appeared. Apparently oils given off by the eucalyptus trees mix with the dust in the air to create little droplets like water vapor. That vapor diffuses the light and the primary result is the blue light getting through. That makes everything have a blue tint - hence the Blue Mountains!


Sunday it was dreary (boy did we pick the good day to hike!) and we had been all over the mountainside anyway, so we drove another 1.5 hours to Jenolan Caves - a big cave system just a bit to the west of Katoomba. The road reminded me of the drive up the mountain to my parents place in California...only windier and narrower. Clarice was pretty tired of all the twists and turns by the time we arrived.


We first toured "The Orient" cave filled with colorful stalagmites and stalagtites. Then we took the free audio tour of the Great Arch and Devil's Coach House caverns before going on a last tour of "The Imperial" cave. We basically spent the entire afternoon underground. Lots of fun! Check out the slideshow on the left for more photos!


The way home it was rainy and foggy making driving slow and treacherous. We split the driving and got home later than we had planned, but no worries.


That was out anniversary. Not what we might have imagined last summer, but totally a cool experience! Have a great weekend everybody!


Jon

More animals...

The day before the trip to see the koalas, Clarice and I drove 3 hours up to a Point Stephens, a harbor just to the north of us. Port Stephens is known for it whale and dolphin watching, hiking areas, and other outdoor recreational activities.

What did we do after sitting in a car for three hours??? Sat on a boat! We last went whale watching when we were in Bar Harbor, Maine while visiting our good friend Cassandra. We were skunked. Since then we have always said whale were "made up for the tourists". Well, we decided to give the whales another shot.

Nobody decided to "breach" for us, but the two humpback whales were nice enough to surface several times and splah their tails a bit. Rough seas and swimming whales made me take almost 200 photos to get the shots you see. There are a few others...but those are the best.

On the way home we got to watch bottlenose dolphins play in the foam of a rocky shoreline. There was even a baby and its mommy!

So far we have done something EVERY weekend. Last weekend was our 10th anniversary and the next set of posts will tell you all about it!

Jon

Koala Sanctuary...

A week and a half ago we took a Sunday afternoon to go to a koala sanctuary in western Sydney. It was a nice small preserve, not too crowded and did I mention it had koalas???

They had a time every few hours where guests could pet and take pictures with some of the koalas. LOTS of koalas - everywhere. We walked all over, taking in all the interesting native Australian animals, but I could NOT stop taking pictures of these little guys. They are too cute! Check out the new slideshow on the right!

Don't worry, here's a 'roo for you to "awwwww" at as well:

Tomorrow, believe it or not MORE animals! :-)

Jon