sf 2 oz

Last weekend Alane and Mickey hosted a Thanksgiving feast for a group of about 15! They live in the Horizon apartments in Darlinghurst where the view is incredible (we'll be heading there to take in some fireworks on NYE). They cooked a turkey and everyone else brought various holiday specialties. I made a pumpkin pie with filling that Mike smuggled here from the US in October. We also brought green beans and a few bottles of wine. It was a fabulous fabulous feast..just look at the picture of my plate! Yum. Even though we couldn't be with family, we are very thankful to have such wonderful friends in Sydney!

Yesterday we got our real tree delivered from http://sydneychristmastrees.com/, where I ordered it online. Upon delivery I was quite happy to learn it's a Monterey Pine. A little slice of home in Oz! Most people here in Australia seem to do the artificial trees, which I guess makes sense given the heat. But, being the traditionalist I am I was pretty adamant about getting a real tree. We had to cut a decent amount of branches off the bottom to get it standing up in our el cheapo tree stand -- which, by the way, I had to go on quite a mission to find. Can you believe that K-Mart, Target nor Big W (like Walmart) have tree stands? Next step is to find some more ornaments!

Amy, Tony and Matthew (who is now 15 months old!) visited Sydney last week as part of a two week trip to Australia. It was so wonderful to have them here - we had fun catching up and sharing some of our favorite Sydney activities. Mike introduced them to the city by taking them to Bills for brekkie and on a walk through the Finger Wharf, Botanical Gardens and Opera House. Throughout the week we also enjoyed exploring the Rocks together and trying Kangaroo Pizza, going to trivia night at the Fringe Bar and doing the Cliff Walk from Bronte to Bondi (during a heat lightning storm).

We had a perfect beach day on Saturday so we headed to Manly. Amy and Tony surprised us with a private surf lesson, which was so unexpected and nice! But man, surfing is HARD. We both got up on our feet a few times, but paddling and fighting the waves to get back out beyond the break was really exhausting. We also got to try the new Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop, which recently opened in Manly and is the first Ben & Jerry's in Oz! It was like a little slice of home, except they didn't have our favorite - Half Baked. On Sunday, Sydney was the hottest place in Australia. Hotter than the Outback. Seriously. 108 degrees. I can't believe it but we actually braved the heat and went lawn bowling after breakfast. That afternoon we had people over to our place for some cold beer and snacks before the Pearl Jam concert that evening. They headed to the airport on Monday and left behind a tree and little presents for us to open each day leading up to Christmas. How thoughtful!

We're so glad to have spent time in Sydney with Amy and Tony and Matthew, who is growing so fast and remains cute as ever. I think we all made some great memories!

This month Laura has graciously allowed me to put down my razor so that I can let my inner Magnum P.I. out and grow a Mo (moustache) for Movember.  Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men.  It's actually somewhat of a big deal here and pretty amusing to see all the mos that have started to appear around the city recently. 

I put together a time lapse compilation for you to enjoy, and if you want to learn more or sponsor my Mo you can visit http://au.movember.com/mospace/201317/ . If I raise enough money it might even warrant Mocember, although I think Laura might have something to say about that.

Last weekend we traveled to South Australia to enjoy some wine and wildlife! Inspired by a trip that our friends Chris and Jess did about a year ago, we spent time on Kangaroo Island and the Barossa Valley, one of Australia's most famous wine regions. 

We flew Tiger Airways to Adelaide on Friday afternoon. Tiger offers incredibly cheap fares (20-30 dollars), but you definitely get what you pay for.. there's no online check-in and the service is notoriously bad. Oh well, it got us to Adelaide in one piece! After checking into the airport hotel we took the bus into Adelaide to walk around. There really wasn't much to see there as a visitor except for some interesting old buildings and churches and the University of Adelaide was quite pretty. Our favorite part of the city was where we had drinks and dinner - Apothecary 1878, which I had read about it in the Good Food Guide in advance. Mike had an authentic mint julep in a special pewter cup and after drinks we headed down to a brick wine cellar for a yummy dinner.

We had an early flight the next morning to Kangaroo Island, which we were okay with given our motel was slightly creepy. There was a hot tub in the middle of our bedroom and the curtains didn't quite blind the fluorescent sign outside (a la Kenny Rogers Chicken from Seinfeld). We were picked up by our wilderness guide after arriving at Kingscote Airport and within minutes of being on the road we saw a koala in this big dead tree and a black tiger snake (apparently the 4th deadliest in the world, eek!).  Our guide first took us to a forested area where we saw koalas hanging out in the trees. After morning tea we headed to Flinders Chase National Park to see Admirals Arch and the Remarkable Rocks. Then our guide Peter, who has been a sheep farmer on Kangaroo Island for 30 years, made us a delicious BBQ lunch. In the afternoon we ventured to Seal Bay, a nature reserve and breeding area for Australian seal lions...it was cool to get relatively close to these animals.

With temperatures at 37C (99F), we were all pretty hot so we waded into the water at Vivonne Bay, which was rated Australia's best beach 2002. The water was so turquoise blue and amazingly clear! Peter then drove us through his farm on the way to a local sheep dairy where we got a cheese tasting and tour. It was fun to see the sheep's milking routine and understand all the work that goes into producing cheese and yogurt.

After about nine hours of touring we were driven to our B&B called Seascape Lodge. It was a wondeful place overlooking Emu Bay. After we went swimming at the beach, we had drinks on the deck and the owners made us a three course meal followed by a yummy brekkie the next morning. We felt very spoiled and it was difficult to leave and get on the plane again.

Although, after getting back to Adelaide the fun didn't stop! We drove about an hour out of the city to the Barossa Valley. We visited four fabulous wineries, Two Hands, Hentley Farm, Rockford and Turkey Flat. A lot of the wineries had a really nice rose, which I was loving given the weather. Our accomodation was a self catering little cottage originally built by German emigrants in the mid 1800's. Mike killed a HUGE spider right when we got there, so I was a bit worried about the bug situation the whole time.

The next day we visited two more wineries, Bethany and Teusner. Teusner doesn't have a cellar door so we had a private tasting in the wine production area and liked it so much we purchased a case. On the recommendation of Chris and Jessica, we drove about 30 minutes outside of the Barossa to Wombat Rise, an animal sanctuary for injured or orphaned wildlife.  They had lots of birds including Galahs, Cockatoos, Kookaburas and Owls plus twenty kangaroos, several wombats and more. I got to cuddle a wombat and play with several young kangaroos!

It was a busy weekend, but I feel like we really saw a lot and had some unforgettable experiences. You'll see in the photos that Mike has some facial hair.. nope he didn't forget to shave, he's growing a mustache (aka mo) for Movember. More to come.

Last Sunday we checked out Sculpture by the Sea, a display of over 100 sculptures by artists from Australia and around the world on the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk. Set against such a beautiful backdrop, all the sculptures seemed pretty incredible. We'd never seen such a cool fusion of art and the outdoors, plus it was perfect photography material for Mike. Hope you like the pictures.  

Over the weekend we also went to two Halloween parties and a Mexican Fiesta. Friday night we decorated cupcakes and ate lots of candy, Saturday we carved pumpkins and watched an awesomely bad scary movie about genetically altered sheep in NZ (thanks Jennie and Thor) and Sunday after the sculpture walk we took care of our appetites with homemade fajitas and margaritas at Chris and Jessica's place. We are very lucky to have such wonderful friends here!