sf 2 oz

As part of an amazing month of travel, we went to Cairns to get certified to dive, Port Douglas and Margaret River. We feel so lucky to have seen these beautiful places..

We're both excited to be PADI certified, although we unfortunately didn't have the best experience on the reef. It was very stormy, the visibility was only about five meters (due to the cyclone I think) and Mike got a sinus cold right before the trip which made it painful for him to dive. But we made it through and passed the course, woohoo! We then went up to Port Douglas for a few days to relax. It was pretty rainy, but we got one beautiful day for driving up to Cape Tribulation and seeing the rainforest, Daintree River, beaches etc. The exotic fruit tasting was especially memorable! I would definitely recommend going up that direction in the winter though..given we were there during the "off" season many of the restaurants were closed certain days of the week and it just sort of felt like a ghost town. We were happy with the hotel we stayed at called Martinique on Marcrossan.

We're stoked that we made it to Western Australia. It seems like such a remote place..a place where we may not find ourselves ever again (but who knows). We flew into Perth, but pretty much bypassed the city and drove to Cottesloe Beach. We only made it for sunset since our flight had been delayed five hours, but it was very cool and a novelty to see the sun setting directly over the ocean after two years on Australia's east coast! Sculptures by the Sea was also going on and we actually saw some of the same sculptures from the Bondi event.

Then we drove to Fremantle and had dinner at Little Creatures. I'd definitely recommend this -- such a cool brewery/restaurant and space. The Little Creatures Pale Ale is delish! We spent the rest of the time in Margaret River, which is a stunning area..to have beautiful beaches so close to wonderful wineries seems like something you can't get many places in the world. We stayed at a cottage where we could relax and watch the kangaroos at dusk. I also loved seeing the different birds..tons of black cockatoos!

Well, I hope it's okay to take a honeymoon before the wedding because we just DID!