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.