Surf's Up Bro!

I am now, a real, bonafide surfer girl! See.....

However, there are not a lot of action shots - there were only two of me actually on my board and neither of them made my photo cd! Of all the luck! You'll have to take my word for it. The only other action shots we got were of the bar at night and the public park, lovingly termed "party park," where I attempted to take on one of the surf instructors - yes, alcohol was involved, but he was VERY skinny! And we saw tons of dolphins swimming from sharks....

Ok, not really - but it's a pretty cool pic, huh? Party on Dudes!!!!!

Hunter Valley Wine Tours

About three weekends ago, we went wine tasting in Hunter Valley. We hired a tour van to drive us and opted NOT to have lunch included - as Tessa is a vegetarian and the rest of us are picky eaters. However, we were still forced to eat meat pies! Of all the things.... We ate our meat pies at the local brewery - which is the obvious place to eat on a wine tour, right - where we got paddles of beer to test the different flavors. It was actually pretty good. We hit up some chocolate places and some cheese places (from which I still have an entire wheel). Overall, it was an AWESOME time - made so by the girls I went with. We came back with some Semillion - a white wine, which is the CLEAREST wine I've ever seen - from De Botoli Winery and an array of Shiraz - which makes at least my dad jealous! It was an all day trip and by the end, I was passed out on the ride home. But I do that in SF too, so it must be a common, worldly experience!

City 2 Surf

Then, believe it or not (and you’d better believe it), we did a marathon. Well, maybe it wasn’t technically a marathon – it was 14 kilometers. And, we didn’t run it – there were WAY too many people. See…

Along the way, we were serenaded by Guns N Roses, or at least people who thought they were….

At about 13 kilometers, we came across our FAVORITE (and only known) burrito place, ran by true San Franciscans. So, we stopped off….

FINALLY, we made it across the finish line, as evidenced by our participatory medals hanging around our necks.

All in about 3 and a half hours, I think.

I got lost at the zoo!

So, I know it’s been awhile. Let me tell you what I’ve been doing that has kept me SO busy over the last few weeks.

First, the girls and I set out to go to the Toronga Zoo. You have to take a ferry to get there – it felt a little like Jurassic Park, like being shipped out to an isolated island where we’re going to be eaten by large, scary animals. As it turned out, the animals were not that scary.

We came across an open area where kangaroos and wallabies were free to wander and we were allowed to freely wander around them. Of course, given the heat that day, they were all sleeping a little bit. One of the pics below shows a kangaroo who hopped into a sack in order to escape the sun during his slumber time.

The koala bears, surprisingly, were out. It’s their hibernation time here, as it’s winter in Australia. Luckily, they had just been fed, so we were able to actually seen them (Dave and his fiancé and sis went the previous weekend and the koalas were all sleeping).

The elephants, giraffe and zebra are all along the side of the island that faces the city, including the opera house and the bridge. So we got some really good shots there. So, I’ll say no more and let the pics do the talking.

So, it is mid-assignment here and my AWESOME family sent me a gift! Fruit here is muy expensivo, so I was in heaven! Tessa said it was "lush." So, here are some pics - and yes, I've already eaten most of it :) Bye for now!

A lovely, but cold, story about three sisters...

So, this past weekend, the girls and I ventured out into the great big Blue Mountains area of Australia. So, we hopped on a bus a listened to our experienced and well versed bus driver tell us about the story of the Three Sisters (twice, actually), which was our first stop of the day. And, no, sillies, those are not the Three Sisters to the left. That's Gina, Jen and Tessa - kaduh! The actual Three Sisters are below - the rocks. We heard many different versions of the story, so I've compiled them into my own storyfor you. Once upon a time, there were three sisters who were the most beautiful of all the indigenous tribes in Australia. And, because all tribes wanted such beauty, there were constant wars for the three girls. Eventually, their father feared for their safety and requested the local tribe scorceror protect them from all the evil men in the world (if only such protection really existed, right ladies?). So, the scorceror turned them into rock (another really bright move), so that their beauty would be concealed from the outside world. As soon as the fighting stopped, thought the scorceror, he'd turn them back. Unfortunately, the scorceror died or the fighting didn't stop before he died (you can pick your own ending) and the Three Sisters have forever remained cast in stone. While the lasses above are quite beautiful themselves, the Three Sisters are below.

So, I guess you can tell we were all bundled up - it was about 8 degrees celcius (which is REALLY cold). Therefore, we proceeded quickly to the next stop where we took a scenic tour of the Blue Mountains, including the steepest railway (52 degrees) in the world! They didn't even hook us in - we all thought we were going to die!

We then proceeded to the Jenolan Caves and went on a tour there. I've included a pic, but face it, you've seen one stalagtite, you've seen them all. They had lights set up in this one as it is Sooo FAR up, that you'd have trouble. This was actually in an area where the townsfolk used to attend services. This was the stained glass window of the church. Also, in case you ever need to know for the next you get stuck in a cave, stalaGmite extends from Ground and just Might touch the ceiling. A stalaCtite extends from the Ceiling and holds on Tight.

Welcome to the new version of my site!

So, I've heard back from many that the website I set up takes FOREVER (and a day) to load. So, I'm switching to a blog type endeavor to remedy the situation. So. WELCOME!