Great Barrier Reef

Sorry for the absence of blog entries….but we were out of town. We’ve just returned from a fantastic vacation to the barrier reef- Whitsunday Islands. We spent 10 nights on Day Dream Island (nice name huh) and Hamilton Island. It was extremely restful- thanks in part to our ratio of three adults to two kids (thanks Jen for joining) yet full of fun and activities. Day Dream (just a 2 hour of flight from Sydney) is extremely small with just one hotel on the island and you can walk from one end to the other in 10 minutes. They had a cool reef lagoon with tropical fish and small sharks. Nate was able to participate in the morning fish feeding- he fed a baramundi and touched a ray. Our daily routine consisted of buffet breakfast, morning nap, pool time, lunch, nap, dinner & hot tubbing (plus lots of drinking)....much like the koalas all we really did was eat and sleep. It is still hard to get used to the wild life of Australia -even on this small island the lorikeets, cockatoos, and kangaroos roamed free and weren't scared of the tourists at all. Check out the video below of Reese and Nate following the kangaroos.

After Day Dream we took the ferry back to Hamilton island....a much larger island- it takes you 15 minutes from end to end via golf buggy. Nate truly enjoyed his role as designated driver and by the end of week was seated in the driver seat by himself steering all alone (you can imagine the look of the on coming tourist drivers- pure horror). Feeling a bit more motivated and energetic we did more on Hamilton- hugging a koala (only allowable in Queensland), renting a tiny catamaran boat off the beach, snorkeling & diving at Reefworld (a floating station at the edge of the reef- with diving, snorkeling and a small mini submarine) and renting a bare boat and sailing to the famous whitehaven beach. There was still a lot of lounging at the pool - they had a cool swim up bar with a good happy hour. Side note, new favorite drink- Summer Love- 1/3 strawberry liquor, 1/3 vodka, splash of OJ and splash of champagne (I recommend going heavier on the champagne)- yummy!!!!! Sorry- back to stories...where was I? Oh yes, pool time. Reese is a water girl- she loved the pool. And Nate the seal (self selected nickname) learned to float and swim with no vest. With a mask and snorkel he was invincible. We'd throw one of his cars in the deep end and he would swim to search for it.

All and all a wonderful time was had by all. Too many pictures to post to the entry- but here is a link to our album http://picasaweb.google.com/northshorerentals/WhitsundayIslandsVacation

Nate at Reef World

Hugging- no pooping on my head this timesailing fun- (this picture is the only time I wasn't clinging to mom)

evening sunsets at the top of the island-tons of bats flying

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays so I must admit that I was a little bummed that it really isn't a celebrated holiday here in Australia. It is gaining in popularity but aside from some drunk partiers and girls looking to dress up as slutty pirates, slutty police officer, slutty princesses (you get the point- it is 80 degrees so bare costumes work well) there wasn't much activity. We searched and searched but the only kid friendly activity was a lame holiday party thrown by the library and a bit of trick or treating in the ex-pat neighborhood. Of course we didn't let that stop us. After all Nate has been dressing up in his spidey costume practicing since July. But when we got to the actual day he changed his mind and decided that he wanted to dress up as the dog from Shaun the Sheep, his new favorite show.
If you haven't seen Shaun -check it out this site http://www.shaunthesheep.com/ - you can download episodes- they are only ~10 minutes each. I am not sure who laughs more and is the bigger fan -Michael or Nate. So with only a few hours to shop and create a costume out of nothing we set off on a search for required pieces - clipboard, dog nose, collar, etc. Check out the photo- I think we did a pretty good job. The rest of the family printed off sheep masks and went as Nate's flock.
Pure joy and happiness can only describe his glow at his doggie look. He was giddy hopping and blowing his whistle down the corso. He and Reese enjoyed just watching the other kids at the lame party - choosing not to participate in any of games. And our shy boy gave up on trick or treating which required talking and asking for candy (I guess I am happy with the fact that he didn't want to talk to strangers) after receiving 1 lollipop.
So much for this Halloween. Hope you all had a great time.

Bitzer the sheep watch dog

Hunter Valley

Now that we've been living in Australia for over a month (we're locals now :)) we decided to take our first out of town trip. We headed North about 2 hours to Hunter Valley to see the wine country- http://www.winecountry.com.au/ . What's not to like about a weekend in wine country- warm weather, pony rides, rolling hills and stunning valleys, gourmet restaurants and then of course there is the wine. Hunter Valley is known for their Semillon and Shiraz (which is quickly becoming a new favorite). I was expecting rustic (wine making out of the barn) but most of the wineries looked like they could have been in Napa/Sonoma. We did visit one winery that Michael had been referred to - apparently we are only the third visitor in 10 years (literally we drove up to the man's house). We were met with warm hospitality-between us and the owner we polished off a bottle- so much for a small tasting at 11am.
Too many wineries and not enough days- we'll need to return ;)

Beautiful valley view:

Nate's first pony ride:

Another day, another new beach!

Another sunny day, another new beach to explore :)
This weekend we checked out the famous Bondi Beach. It is famous for a 1938 freak storm that dragged over 200 beachgoers out to sea (all but 5 were saved). More recently I think it is famous for being a tourist haven and recommended in all the Let's Go Australia guidebooks. Walking around the beach I heard about 6 different languages - none of them Australian English. The place is a backpackers paradise....nice but not worthy of leaving our beach town and driving an hour across the city to get there.
On the positive side of the trip we had a cocktail at the swanky Iceberg's bar- high above the ocean pool (check it out http://www.icebergs.com.au/) carved out of the rocky cliff. Nate liked the swinging wicker chairs. Overall, nice view-worth the pricey drink.
Check out the photos of Bondi

Our poor tired little girl (passed out in the car on the way home)- it was another hard day at the beach.

We finished the weekend at the zoo checking out the new seal area and show. Check out the video from the sky tram ride above the zoo. I'm telling you these animals have the best view in town.

Oh yeah - you blend!!!!

Great movie scene- My Cousin Vinny- Marisa Tomei & Joe Pesci -true Brooklyn New Yorkers arrive in SMALL town Alabama. Marisa Tomei (in a very tight leather/spandex sparkly cat-suit like outfit) asks if they have good Chinese food there (yeah right), and then after being insulted delivers a great retort of "Oh yeah, you blend".

At times that is how you feel as an expat. Sticking out like an Aussie impostor. Of course we have the advantage of somewhat speaking the language; although folks still look at you oddly for your vocab choices. But you don't feel local- you have to pause to convert how many pounds of turkey you want from the guy at the deli counter in milligrams, you need to look the other way when crossing the street, and then there are those heavy coins to get straight (not to mention that you end up carrying around a 10 pound wallet).

Transition update:

We still have no rental house but have been enjoying our vagabond experience of camping out at the office apartment. It is such a great location- we are started to get used to (spoiled) that we are in the thick of all the action. Being homeless of sorts doesn't seem to phase the kids (ok I'm talking about Nate since Reese doesn't pick up on much of anything). Of course he would be with living in a prison cell if his Cars collection was there to play with. According to Nate we are now ok to live in Australia after discovering that they sell the Car movie cars here (at a nice premium of course).

Warning to any locals reading this, please stay clear of the left sidewalks. We have purchased a car (at the cost of a small condo in Seattle; so I guess we could always live in the car). Michael has quickly adapted to driving on the left and has already learned a set of new favorite shortcuts (to the annoyance of our built in navigation system). I, on the other hand, am not 100% comfortable behind the wheel and am still prone to drifting to the left. Today upon returning to our garage was told- "well done, good improvement....only one near collision on the round about"- I guess that is progress ;)

A typical day in Manly

Greetings from Australia. Things are good here. Despite no permanent house we are starting to feel settled. Nate doesn't start school until Jan - I am working on finding him some activities/ classes so we both don't go crazy. In the meantime we've been enjoying the beautiful weather and exploring Manly. We spend a lot of time on the Corso - a pedestrian only wide street with shops and fountains (if you know Miami think Lincoln Road), the beach, and at Ocean World. Nate and Reese love playing and running through the fountains at the corso- we often return home (only a block away) soaking wet. The water frolicking typically occurs in swim trunks but has also taken place fully dressed and in a spidey costume. You can guess the odd looks (and envious looks from other kids) we get. Why not- it is all good fun.

Yesterday we went to OceanWorld (we go so often I think they are starting to recognize us). We sat through the "Dangerous Australian Animal Show". There are so many deadly animals to choose from but they kept it to an hour review. We are talking about a country that celebrates their countdown of "the most deadly snake" like we do Letterman's daily top 10. They passed around the chart topper -"fierce snake". While it was in a cage I didn't feel that safe- the cage was a thin plastic thing you would buy at a toy store for your kid's ant farm. This little guy (who looks a bland, non-threatening sand color) in one bit has enough poisonous venom to kill you 36 times over. A bit excessive no? They say that no one has died from the fierce- to which Michael sarcastically replied - how do we know- there might be lot of undiscovered dead bodies in the dessert. After being scared out of my wits by the fierce we were passed the funnel web spider- a local critter found in Sydney in garages, backyards, etc. I quickly lost any interested in becoming a local gardener. The big finale was when they brought around a baby crocodile for everyone to pet. Obviously there is a different standard for lawsuits and zoo liability than in the US- I can't imagine the Seattle zoo passing these deadly guys around to small children. Check out our crocodile hunter :)

Nate turns 4

Nathan recently celebrated his 4th birthday. Unfortunately we weren't organized enough to give the kid a proper party before we left town. Not that he is wanting for anything especially new toys. Still mom guilt kicked in. Don't feel too bad for the little man...as he ended up getting to celebrate for two days. It is nice to live on the other side of the international date line- you get to celebrate on your Australian birthday and your US birthday.

We asked what he wanted to do for his birthday....the surprising answer....go see the Sydney Opera house. How could you turn down that request? So off we went. We loaded up on the ferry and spent a great evening by the opera house. We weren't able to go inside (no events that night) but that didn't seem to phase him- he was delighted all the same. Got to love pure child joy and an easy going attitude. We had a lovely fancy dinner with the opera house in the backdrop. Better than most of my birthdays. I hope he remembers it.

Nate got a new scooter for his birthday. He started off a bit timid but has already (only a couple of weeks later) is a scooting champ. He announced that he did his first "trick" yesterday. Not Tony Hawk quite yet- his trick was to lift up his leg for a millisecond. Still it was progress. We get him all padded up and hit the beach board walk on a regular basis. It is a pretty common thing to do here....tons of little tykes flying past you with no fear.

Check him out....