Sydney!

Our last few days in Australia were spent in Sydney. We took the hop-on hop-off tour bus around town to get our bearings and to get around. We got off at the Opera or "Oprah" house to have a look around and get some great pictures of the harbor bridge. We also saw people on the bridge doing the climb, which we would be doing later on in the day. The opera house was beautiful. Later on in the day we headed over to the bridge climb and it was awesome. It was so fun and the views from the top were amazing! I totally recommend it to anyone who goes to Sydney.

More Bali Photos

Here are some more photos from Bali.

Bali - Indonesia

After my final day in the office Brittany and I boarded an AirAsia flight to Denpasar airport in Bali. We were staying at the Bali Rani hotel, which is actually really nice, but we didn't think so when we got there. We got in at midnight and checked into our room. We walked in and there were mosquitoes everywhere! And then we went in the bathroom and there was the biggest wasp I had ever seen in my life. We had them spray the room and we locked the wasp in the bathroom. We crawled under the sheets and went to sleep. In the morning we went out to buy bug spray for us and for the room. We also learned that the rainy season is not the best time to visit Bali! We had fried rice for breakfast and then met our tour guide Wayan for our day of exploring Bali. We were very lucky as it was the second to last day of a very big religious festival so there were all sorts of processions and decorations. We traveled around on our way to Ubud to visit Ketut from Eat Pray Love. We past some processions and lovely rice fields. When we got to Ketut's he was very busy preforming ceremonies at his family shrines, but we were able to get a photo. Next we went to see the volcano. It was pretty amazing. There is a resurgent dome inside an ancient caldera. We drove around the rest of the island on our way to the Temple of the Holy Waters. We were lucky again due to the festival as it was full of people taking ritual baths in the waters. The next day we went to Seminyak for our massages at BodyWorks spa. We got the exfoliating massage an it was amazing. First we had an hour massage. Then we got scrubbed with salt and spices. And then we were washed and covered in yogurt. After that we were washed again and then we sat in a bath full of flower petals. After the scrub we went to get our manicures and pedicures. That was fabulous and they did a great job, but it was so hot and humid that I almost passed out! After the spa we went to KuDeTa for lunch on the beach, it was delicious and in a beautiful setting. We went back to our section of Kuta for some shopping and then went down to Nusa Dua for dinner to eat at the famous Bumbu Bali restaurant. The food was amazing and the Satay Chicken was sooo good. The next day it was pouring down the rain so we just layed low until our shuttle to the airport. All in all we had a good time, we are just waiting to see if we have dengue fever from all these mosquito bites!

Brittany in Perth!

Hello everyone! Brittany came out to Australia to visit for my last two weeks in town. I took a day off from work and we went on the Pink Bus tour of the Swan Valley wine region. The tour was really fun and we went to 3 wineries, a chocolate factory, an aboriginal art gallery, a coffee bean roasting house, and a brew pub. I also took her to Caversham Wildlife park where we were able to pet the Koalas and feed the Kangaroos. Here are some photos from our excursions.

Adelaide and the Barossa Valley Wine Region

Hello all! I just got back from my 5 day trip to Adelaide in South Australia. I had a great time. I went to the Barossa Valley, the wine region of Australia. I toured a few wineries, and of course tasted as well. I had my first taste of Port Wine, AMAZING. I also discovered Australian Champage, or Sparkling Black Shiraz. It is so good and such a novelty. They didn't have white varieties in Australia so they made red champagne. It was so good I bought 3 bottles, and a bottle of Port. Smuggling it in my checked baggage may be a problem, but where there's a will there's a way! I also went down to the south coast and put my toes into the great Southern Ocean. I went to Granite Island and saw the Little Penguins, so cute. I also toured the city and saw some great birds. All of Australias common birds are actually really exotic (to me anyway) parrots and they have beautiful feathers. I have included a few photos. I also went to the Platypus EcoTours reserve and saw my very first duck billed platypus. It was so amazing! They also had lots of hand reared kangaroos and they were so friendly and would come up to you and ask to be scratched behind the ears. Enjoy!