Costa Rica

We had such a great time in Costa Rica. It all started when Christa and Jeanette drove down to Chesterbrook on Feb 13. We got down a little later than expected as we arrived at 11. After stopping at the bank to take out some dinero, we got to see our good friend, Sarah, and her adorable baby, Jackson. After playing with Jackson and talking with Sarah, we went to bed around midnight. We woke up tired, but excited, at 3 am and were out the door by 3:30 am. Sarah's very nice husband, Jason, drove us to the Atlantic City airport. When Sarah and Jeanette booked the tickets, they didn't realize the Atlantic City airport was close to two hours away from Philadelphia...oops. Poor Jason woke up at an ungodly hour to tote us down to the airport. The nice thing about the Atlantic City aiport is that it is so small, and everything moves really quick. We boarded the first plane after a eating a nutritious breakfast of cheetos and bagels. After the flight to Fort Lauderdale, we had a brief layover (about 45 minutes), then headed down to San Jose. Jackson was wonderful on the plane. He barely made a peep, except to laugh. Everyone around us was in love with him. One lady waiting in the line for the bathroom even gave him a kiss!

We arrived in San Jose and found Brent (Sarah's sister, Ellen's husband) who was waiting for us. As we were starving, he took us to a local restaurant, La Casa de Maiz, for lunch. We had some delicious food that included black beans, rice, plaintains, and chicken. It was great! We then headed off for our two hour drive to their house in Esterillos Oeste. The roads are narrow and wind through the mountains before becoming less hilly close to the ocean. We all dozed off for a little bit, especially the longer we were in the car. We were introduced to driving in Costa Rica, despite being driven by an American. We almost crashed twice, but we were fine!

We arrived at Ellen and Brent's amazing home situated in the hills with views of the mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The house was open and airy and amazing! Since we were not accustomed to the heat, we stripped down out of our winter clothes into some more appropriate attire (i.e. bathing suits) and took a dip in the pool. We then met Ellen's absolutely adorable children, Leana (3 years) and Asher (18 months). Leana is a little grown up and has an extremely extensive vocabulary. She was as cute as could be. We were amazed to see the rumors were true...Asher actually could swim without swimmies or other floating device. How cool is that! Leana showed off her bilingual language skills and told us about taking surfing lessons. Those kids have a wonderful life and are so fortunate to receive so many different opportunities growing up! Ellen made us some delicious vegetable lasagna for dinner, which we chowed down. We stayed up as long as we could chatting, but faded fast. Despite Sarah and Jeanette being positive that the weather would be cool at night, they were quickly proven wrong. The nights were hot and humid, and no sweatshirts or pants were ever needed!

The next day, Brent drove us about fifteen minutes down the road to go horseback riding. Sarah left Jackson with Ellen while Christa, Sarah, and Jeanette took the ride. It was a great ride with a very nice, young guide named Manuel Junior. The horses looked healthy and listened well, which was nice. The tour lasted about two and a half hours and consisted of a ride through the forest, up a mountain, and down to the ocean. As we approached the ocean, Junior asked us if we wanted the horses to run. We all said, "yes!". Little did Jeanette know her horse could truly run...she should have guessed with a name like "Bandito". Sarah started cantoring in the lead, but Jeanette's horse quickly caught up and passed her. In fact, old Bandito literally left the others in the dust. Jeanette's hat flew off and the others could hear her screaming, "I don't wanna go this fast!" repeatedly while she assumed a jockey position and left the reigns loose in her hands...Silly Jeanette sending all the wrong signals to Bandito. Somehow, she did not fall off the horse and the others quickly caught up on the beach, laughing hysterically at the prior events. We then enjoyed the scenery as we headed back to the ranch. That night, Ellen and Brent's friends came over and we all headed down for a local rodeo, but with donkeys. There was also a fair going on, and the kids went on the rides. Christa and Jeanette ate some cotton candy...yummy! We left early because the kids were tired. We found out the next day that there was a big brawl after we left, so we were glad we left!

The next day, we drove Leana to school and were dropped off for a canopy tour by Ellen. There were only six people in total on this tour, with approximately the same amount of tour guides. There were quite a bit of zip lines (about 10-15), and some were quite long. We saw wildlife (ants, spiders, toucans, etc) while ziplining and walking a suspension bridge. Sarah almost took the Costa Rican/Canadian tour guide out as she forgot to brake enough! It was okay...he had a crush on her anyway as he told her, "You're too pretty to be a linebacker" after telling him that she was a linebacker. The tour was lots of fun and we got same great shots of the forest and Pacific Ocean looking like dorks with our helmets.

We had a semi-relaxing day on Wednesday. We took Leana to school again, then headed to breakfast at Las Olas. It was a great breakfast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We found out a local had recently been killed and there was a surfboard with flowers erected on the beach for him. The views were great! Ellen and Brent's friend, Squinch, who was also visiting for the week, used to co-own the hotel/restaurant. We then walked around Jaco a little bit and hung around at the house. We also took Leana to dance class that day...how cute! Later in the evening, we headed down to a hotel called Villa Caletas for sunset. We were amazed by the landscaping and the infinity pool. The place was beautiful!! We were shocked to discover that it was fairly reasonable to stay there...perhaps if we ever return to Costa Rica, we may stop by! After sunset, we headed to a sports bar kind of place called Claritas, which was also on the beach. We had some yummy food before heading home.

On Thursday, we hung around the house again. Christa and Jeanette walked down to the beach by the house. The water was bathtub warm and was not quite refreshing. We saw lots of scarlet mackaws (spelling?) in the trees and some fish in the water. We then went back to the house and relaxed. Later on that evening, Ellen and Brent drove us down to the river, which had been dried up as it was dry season. The river was so dry that we were able to drive through it. We sat down, ate some snacks, and saw monkeys in the trees, which was cool! After the sunset, we drove home, stopping at a "tican" truck stop restaurant for dinner. We had a nice dinner of fajitas and arroz con pollo before heading home.

Friday was eventful for Christa and Jeanette as they took the local bus to Quepos to go white water rafting. After thinking they had missed the bus (it came around 7:30 even though we were at the bus stop since 6:45), it finally showed up! We hopped on the bus, knowing that we would be late for our tour. Luckily, Ellen had lent us her cell phone. We called the tour company, who told us they would wait for us. We arrived quite late for the 8:00 tour (around 9), apologized to the other people, a strange couple from Maryland who didn't really want to talk to us (perhaps they were annoyed!), and then hopped in the van that drove us to the launch point for the white water raft trip. It was a beautiful drive through county roads, passing through a typical Costa Rican village along the way. We learned that four things make up a Costa Rican village...a school, a church, a soccer field, and a bar, preferably across from the soccer field. The guides showed us different fruit and animals along the way and stopped so we could taste some of the fruit. When we arrived, we split into two groups...the couple from Maryland and us. Two guides were in the boat. We got placed with Steve-O, the guide from Northern Ireland, and Danny, from Costa Rica. After lots of scary safety information, we were off in our tiny rafts through some supposed class IV and V rapids. It was so much fun! We had to get down into the tiny space quite a bit. We got stuck vertically at one point and were told to move back in the raft. We went for a swim at one point. The water was cool and refreshing. The trip lasted about three hours. We then took the van ride back to Rios Tropicales, quickly walked to the bus station, and hopped on a bus back to Esterillos Oeste. We hung around with Ellen's family, then took a ride down to the beach for one of Leana's friend's birthday party...however, we couldn't find them. We took the opportunity to get some great pictures of the beach, stopped at the local store to pick up some dinner of macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets, then headed back home. Sarah, Christa, and Jeanette watched all of the children when Ellen and Brent went out to dinner to celebrate their ninth wedding anniversary. We then went to bed.

The next day, after saying goodbye and thanking our hosts for their wonderful hospitality, Brent drove us the long drive back to the airport. This time, we all stayed awake! We stopped at a bridge along the way to view about 25-30 very hungry crocodiles waiting below! We flew back to Fort Lauderdale, met with Sarah's parents for the layover in the airport (they brought us dinner!), waited as a breach in security progressed (nothing major, but all the exits were closed and we were next to go through the security line), and boarded the plane. Jackson slept the entire way home to Atlantic City. Jason, poor guy, picked us up at midnight and drove us back. We woke up the next morning, grabbed breakfast at Ed and Jeanette's favorite place, Nudy's, then drove back home. Now, we're back to reality and the cold!

Costa Rica!

Jeanette, Christa, Sarah, and Jackson will be going to Costa Rica to visit Sarah's sister, Ellen. We're so excited and should have a great time!

Reminiscing

We're making our albums from the trip, reminiscing about what a great time we had! We wish we could do it again. If we could, we would take a longer trip and see more places and cultures. What fun! Oh well...we can dream. Now, if we only get that job for the Australian tourism board! $100k for six months living on an island in the Great Barrier Reef...we'll take it!!!

Costa Rica?

I'm trying to find airfare to Costa Rica to visit with my friend Sarah, her baby (Jackson), and my sister, Christa. Hopefully this will work out...it would be awesome to go on vacation with everyone!

Happy New Years!

We wish everyone a very happy and safe New Year! We hope 2009 is a great year. We are headed up to Ed's place to visit with his family and friends. It should be a great time!

A-Trekking We Will Go

We're very excited to report that we've booked a trip to Peru in April. We will be hiking to Machu Picchu during a four-day, three-night excursion with the company Peru Treks. We're very excited...better start getting in shape now as there are lots of steps to climb in a very high altitude.

Merry Christmas

We wish everyone a very merry Christmas. We hope that 2009 is your best year ever!

Update

We haven't been on the blog in a long time. We've moved back to Long Island and have secured jobs. We're getting used to living back on Long Island and are looking for a house. Hopefully we'll find a good one soon! Hope everyone is doing well. Happy Holidays!

Pacific Northwest

After Yosemite, we decided to drive up Highway 5 instead of driving up along the coast on Highway 1. It was a tough decision, but we didn't have much time. Although many people told us the drive on 5 was boring and ugly, we still found it very nice. We stayed in a little place in Yreka, California one night and had some of the best Mexican food we've had. Ed especially loved it because it was spicy. He had pork with guacamole. Jeanette had arroz con pollo. Oregon was beautiful...very mountainous and green. We stayed in Portland and loved it. It is a very walkable city. We walked through the Pearl District, where Ed was in heaven because there were tons of breweries. We then walked through the Nob District, which had lots of unique shops and restaurants. We then walked down by the water before walking back to the Pearl District to eat at Rogue Brewery. Ed was a little tipsy by the end of dinner, but loved the beer (especially the Smoke Ale) and his Kobe beef balls smothered in blue cheese and his beer cheese soup. We ate outside then headed back to the hotel. The next day we walked through a few more artsy districts before driving up to Vancouver.

Vancouver was beautiful, especially the areas surrounding the city. The city was under quite a bit of road and city construction as they are hosting the winter olympics in 2010. We walked over a long suspension bridge, climbed the Grouse Grind because it cost $35 to take the gondola to the top of the mountain, but climbing up it was free. We thought it was going to be an easy walk, but were in for a surprise when we realized how steep it was. We hiked up over 2000 feet in 2.5 kilometers. At the top of the mountain, we got free access to the shows and caught the end of a lumberjack show in which a guy climbed to the top of a pole with his two axes, then ziplined across a wire only holding on with the axes before finally getting down. We also saw two grizzly bears in the grizzly habitat and some birds for the wild bird show. We could have kept walking up other mountains, but didn't have much time in Vancouver, so headed down on the gondola, which only cost $5 to get to the bottom. We then drove to Horseshoe Bay, which is where the ferry leaves for Vancouver Island, which we unfortunately didn't get to. Horseshoe Bay was a really cute town with restaurants and a few shops overlooking the bay and mountains. We ate outside on the grass overlooking the water. We then headed into the city and walked around for a while before getting some pizza and cupcakes, watching the sunset at a beach, and then watching a magician who was pretty good. Ed's favorite line was when the guy started counting to three in all different languages and proceeded to state that in Alabama, they say, "Uh, one, uh one more, then another one more" and then to knock once, twice, then three times to simulate how Jehovah Witness' count. We then went back to the hotel. We headed to the city again the next day and walked around down there. We walked around Stanley Park, Robson Street, walked down by the water, went through gastown (really cute) and caught a BMX show while walking through China Town.

The next day we were interrogated by the US customs officer for several minutes before getting back into the US. We then headed into Seattle and went to Pike's Place Market, which was awesome. We saw the fish throwing, then walked around and looked at all the fruit, vegetables, flowers, and crafts. Soon after, we met up with our friend Chris from college. He showed us around a little more, taking us to the amusement park surrounding the Space Needle, then down to his brewery where we got a tour of Big Time brewery. We saw what Chris did on a regular basis, then went in search of dinner. After attempting to eat at a Mexican restaurant on the water (it was closed), we walked around the university district in search of food and wound up at a Thai restaurant. It was yummy. We then headed back to Chris' house and watched the Olympics. We headed out for breakfast with Chris the next morning at a German bar (it was quite good) before beginning our trek down to Bozeman, MT.

On the Road Again

We arrived in Los Angeles from Fiji on July 31st. With the international dateline, we had two July 31st, but that's okay as we completely lost June 15th on our way out to New Zealand. After we landed, we drove up Route 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) through Malibu. It was okay at the beginning, but it got much nicer and more scenic the further away from Los Angeles we got. Our first meal was IHOP, which was spectacular. Ed had a huge plate of pancakes for dinner while Jeanette opted for chicken strips. We then stopped in Santa Barbara, which was great. We really liked it there. It was very casual and really nice. There was some sort of Mexican festival going on where they were throwing eggs filled with confetti, so confetti was all over the streets, people were drinking and having fun, and there were bands playing all over. We then continued on to Hearst Castle, which was really nice. You'll have to check out the pictures once we have enough time to upload them. It was built around the same time as the Biltmore Estate that we visited in Ashville, NC. It was really nice, especially the outside...we only toured five rooms downstairs.

We headed up to San Francisco, where we walked the Golden Gate Bridge, went to Fishman's Wharf, went down the windiest street in the world (Lombardi's Street), and drove down Haight Street, where the hippie movement started. We then met up with our friend from college, Colin. We hadn't seen him in years...we had a great time and he showed us around some less touristy areas and he took us to a cool place for dinner, on a hike with views of the city, then up to Twin Peaks at night to look over the city. We really liked San Francisco.

From San Fransisco, we drove out to Yosemite Park. We camped out there two nights, saw a bear about 15-20 feet away from us (but walked by it without a problem after stomping our feet a little), and went on a little hike. The hike was 18 total miles that took us up 5000 feet from where we started. The end was so steep that you had to pull yourself up with cables, then use the cables to prevent yourself from going too fast down. It was called the Half Dome...look it up if you want.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/halfdome.htm


It was a harder hike than the Grand Canyon because it was twice as steep and our legs are still a bit sore. It's one of the the hardest day trips you can go on in the US National Parks. Jeanette said she wasn't going to climb anything after the Grand Canyon, but this was all her idea.

Happy Belated Birthday Casey

Happy Belated Birthday Casey. Sorry we didn't post earlier, but we haven't had access to the internet and/or computer in a while. We hope you had a great day!!!

Congratulations Sarah and Jason

Congratulations to our good friends Sarah and Jason on the birth of their beautiful, healthy 8.2 pound baby boy, Jackson Gregory. We can't wait to meet him and to see you guys!!!

Fiji

Hey everyone,
We've had an amazing time in Fiji. The people are so welcoming and nice. The islands are very relaxing and beautiful. It's like the caribbean without the huge amounts of people and pools and swim up bars (although that's pretty convenient). We did some scuba diving, snorkeling...Ed got hit by a dinghy, but he's fine, and lots of relaxing. We'll be home in negative one hour (we gain a day on the way back). We'll talk with everyone soon!

Airlie Beach

We took a twelve hour train ride from Cairns to Airlie Beach. On our first day here, we took a sailboat out to the famous White Haven Beach in the Whitsunday Islands. Although it was fun sailing, it was cloudy and White Haven Beach didn't look like anything special. In addition, we were only there for an hour and a half so we couldn't explore any of the cool parts of the island because sailing took so long. We did see a humpback whale on the way back which was pretty cool.

The following day we took another boat trip out to the Whitsundays. This time we got to scuba diving three times. The coral was bright and colorful, there were lots of fish, and we saw a shark! We also saw huge sea turtles and really big fish. On the boat ride out, we saw some dolphins. Our divemaster was really good this time and pointed out lots of things underwater.

We're off to Brisbane in a few hours and then on to Fiji in two days.

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday. I hope that you have a great day. You are the best dad ever!

Cairns

We arrived in Cairns and pulled up to our bed and breakfast at night. We stayed in the Cairns Rainforest Bed and Breakfast in a nearby suburb. This bed and breakfast has one of the nicest settings we have seen. The house is gorgeous. The backyard has waterfalls forming deep swimming holes in the middle of the rainforest. They also have a pool for our use. The house has several decks with outdoor dining options. It was nice with the windows open, with a nice temperature, listening to the waterfall and animals of the rainforest while sleeping...it was like listening to one of those nature cds live. Our room was really nice too with beautiful wood floors, a big jacuzzi lined with stone.

The first day, we went scuba diving. The boat ride out left early and was very rocky because it was windy and little rainy out in addition to being in a small boat. It took 90 minutes to get to the outer reef and about a quarter or more of the 100 people got sick, although not us. We went on our first dive. We got in no problem, but the one lady with us lost her flipper right away. We waited for her while looking around under the water. During the dive, we saw a lot of fish, but not as many as we were expecting. The coral was huge...50 feet straight up where we were diving. The colors were vivid and lots of fish were in the anemones (like Nemo). We wondered what the guides spoke about before Nemo came out because they loved to talk about this fish! The dive was forty minutes and there was a decent current we swam into when we were finishing, which made us feel a little sea sick. We were definitely spoiled in Texas because our guide there was awesome. This guide was fine, but didn't point anything out to us, except for Nemo. We then ate lunch, watched the marine biologist feed the fish, and then geared up for our second dive. This time we got on a smaller boat that took us further out and we dove again. The lady couldn't descend this time, so we swam around for about 5-10 minutes in the general area under the water looking at everything. She had actually gotten left behind on a different tour the day before...which is a definite no no in scuba, but more understandable after we saw her dive. During the second dive, we saw a small lagoon ray, many bright colored fish, more coral, and a turtle. Unfortunately, it's hard to describe things, especially since we can't tell a goldfish from a baracuda. We headed back to the boat after this. The boat ride back to Cairns was a little less rocky and less people got sick. We had ice cream and Thai food for dinner, in that order. We then headed back to the B n B and went to sleep.

The second day we woke up at 5 to go white water rafting in Tully, which is two hours away. It was a misty, overcast day, but still warm. On the way up, we passed lots of banana fields and sugar cane farms. There were rain forest covered mountains with mist on both sides of the valley when we arrived. We split into different groups for the rafting. There were 8 boats of 6 people. Our guide was pretty experienced and seemed to be in charge of the others. We went through the grade 4 rapids first, without flipping...even when we tried to flip on purpose. Although really fun, the first half of the trip consisted of us waiting for the other boats to go through. We went through 10 rapids in 2 hours. Right before lunch, he took us through a cold waterfall where we were hammered with water. We then ate lunch (hamburgers, sausage, veggie sandwiches) and started the next half of the trip, which was much nicer as we didn't have to wait as much. We went through many smaller rapids and kept moving. It was a fun trip.

On the bus ride home, we got to watch videos of crashes and flips from previous trips, which was pretty fun. We grabbed some pizza for dinner and came back to the BnB and lounged around.

This morning, we are exploring Cairns. We're taking a twelve hour train trip tomorrow to Airlie Beach. The rental cars didn't work out so off to the train we go. We only have one week left in Australia.

Funniest Story Ever

When we were by the campfire, a Spanish guy from up near Barcelona told us a story. He and his friends were at a bachelor party for their first friend who was getting married. He got hammered and they put his leg in a real cast (I guess they knew a doctor or something). They convinced the groom his leg was broken, he assumed he forgot all that. He got married with the cast on. After that, he went on the honeymoon with the cast on as well. Then when he got back from the trip, they told him he didn't really break his leg. The guy also had friends that got put on a 4 hour train ride naked, handcuffed to the seat. Another friend knew a cop and they put a guy in jail for 2 days, interrogating him about a night he couldn't remember. He is getting married soon and understandably worried.

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

We flew from Melbourne to Alice Springs in the Outback and stayed in a hostel called Annie's Place. Despite some recent reports saying there were bed bugs, we didn't have a problem besides Jeanette not being able to sleep all night as she was scared she would be bitten...apparently you can see them and we checked the entire day. Alice Springs was interesting...a town in the middle of nowhere that had KFC, Subway, K-Mart, etc. We probably don't need to return there, but it was interesting to see. There were some homeless Aborigines, which was sad to see...the most homeless people we had seen in Australia.

We left bright and early the next morning on a three day, two night tour to Uluru. We went on the Mulgas tour, which was lots of fun. The first day was mostly driving the six hours it took to get there, but we did stop for a hike in King's Canyon. We also were able to watch the sunset over Uluru. During the drive, we stopped along the side of the road and picked up some poisonous melons. We then proceeded (in teams of 4 or 5) to throw the melons out the bus window while driving at posts or signs. Jeanette hit a small white post worth two points and Ed didn't hit anything. One of the two Irish girls on our team hit a sign worth one point. We then set up our mugs in the back of the bus and bowled the remaining melons while the bus was driving. It was lots of fun. After watching the sunset, we spotted a couple in the road who was flagging us down. All the people on the bus (19 including our tour guide, Halley) got off and helped push their camper van back to the road as it was stuck in the dirt pretty far off the road. With all the people we had, it was relatively easy to push out. The couple wasn't the brightest to drive their non-four wheel drive camper that far off the road in the middle of nowhere. When we arrived at our campsite, Halley realized three of our swags had been stolen while we watched the sunset. That was a real bummer since there were only a few other cars where we watched the sunset. Luckily for all of us on the tour, she had packed a few extra swags and we all got one. Unfortunately for Halley, there wasn't enough for her. Once we arrived at the campsite, we tore down dead trees and started a huge bonfire. Halley cooked dinner, which consisted of pasta with vegetarian bolognese (more like chili) for Jeanette and added camel to the sauce for the non vegetarians...Ed. He thought it tasted just like beef. We slept under the stars, which were brilliant in the sky. It was quite cold...like 25 degrees outside. We were fairly warm with the fire, sleeping bag, and swag, but the wind could get cold on your face.

We woke up early the next morning and hiked two different hikes totaling 16 kilometers for the day. We first hiked the Olgas, which were mountains near the rock that were created in a similar way. We then had lunch at the cultural center and began our walk around the base of Uluru...the world's largest monolith. No one climbed it because it was too windy, but Ed and I weren't going to climb it anyway due to respect of the Aboriginal people who request that you don't climb their sacred site. We also watched the sunset, which turned the rock a bright red. We had dinner consisting green curry chicken. Jeanette had rice and cheese. While we were there, buses of people were brought in. They had paid $800 to watch the sunset and have dinner. We paid $250 for three days including meals, campsites, admission, etc. After the sunset, we returned to our campsite, tore down some more dead trees, and started our fire. We toasted marshmallows, which were flavored. Most people went to bed around 8, but we stayed up until about 11 talking to people.

The next morning was a little warmer, possibly 40 degrees, and we watched the sunrise over Uluru again. It was extremely windy, so we stayed inside the bus for most of it. One thing we noticed was the desert had lots of trees and some grass. Although it doesn't rain there frequently, the trees have roots reaching far underground where there is a huge supply of water.

Halley dropped Ed and I off at a really nice hostel/resort (YHA, but with a fancy name) while everyone else continued on to Alice Springs for their flight. We were able to shower, eat, relax, and do laundry in the time that it took them to drive back. We caught a free shuttle to the airport and flew to Cairns.

Happy Birthday July Edition

Happy birthday to all of our firends that have July birthdays. Luckily, we are on the computer today which is Jason's birthday. Also happy birthday to Steve and Chrissy. Hope you all (y'all for Jason) had great birthdays!

Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne after driving all day on the Great Ocean Road. Without much energy and noticing everything in our section was starting to close down for the evening, we decided to go to a movie...Hancock. Yay...popcorn for dinner.

The next day, we didn't have much of a plan. We walked around and looked at different buildings in different sections of town. The buildings are really nice, fairly European in style. We tried to get tickets to Wicked and a circus to no avail, and then headed to the dome to watch the rising stars under 18 play Aussie rules football. It was pretty nice out, and we enjoyed watching them play. They don't wear pads, either punch or kick the ball to each other, and tackle each other. It looks like fun. We then got lunch, then walked around the shopping districts.

The following day, we walked to the market. This market had both clothing, both touristy and not (definitely less touristy than Sydney), and food. We enjoyed the market...especially Ed's bratwurst. We also walked around a lot of gardens and around the Melbourne Museum. We figured we had enough museums, so we didn't go in this one. Melbourne seems to be more of a city to live in, rather than visit doing touristy stuff. There aren't a ton of museums, but has lots of nice buildings. We ate dinner at a local brewery where Ed had a couple of pints and kangaroo filet and Jeanette had a chicken and cheese sandwich. It was nice to have good beer for a change, since most of the beer Ed has had so far in Australia is about as good as a Budweiser.

Today, we walked around the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were really nice despite it being winter. It was still really green, just not too many flowers. There is also a drought going on in Australia so there are water restrictions, which means most of the fountains were turned off. We went back to the market for lunch and dessert. We both had baked potatoes and donuts while Ed also had another brat.

We fly out to Alice Springs tomorrow and will be sleeping outside in the desert...we heard it's really cold - below freezing at night. Fun!!!