1st Actual Guest - JR (Chicago)

The first person to cave and actually use their hard earned vacation days with us to actually try and relax was JR.  Not sure how it worked out for him as we are not very experienced at hosting.  We did show him around, let him test out the bedroom with the extra furniture, and found a great spot under a tree next to Grant Park to listen to Lollapalooza for free (safe from the rain).  We also came back home and jammed out to the next day of bands at home since Red Bull TV was streaming the concert.

 

Big Move - First Home

We had been talking about it for awhile but finally pulled the trigger.  We closed up shop in Nashville and headed north to Chicago to look for a full time residence.  It was an easy enough shift for me due to my travel consulting job and Jolene had no problem switching back to a hospital she had worked at up here when we temporarily lived here seven years ago.

The house search wasn't easy as we stayed at four different places (using Airbnb and Craigslist), went through two real estate agents, and easily saw over 100 properties.  However, it all worked out!  We've finally bought our first home, moved in, and started to meet all our great neighbors. 

We were also fortunate enough to have Jolene's parents visit right after the purchase.  We of course did not treat them like guests, but put them to work from sunrise to sunset for a week straight.  They both helped Jolene fix and clean stuff that I'm sure I would have left alone for a decade but I'm really glad it's done now.  THANKS!

 

Solo Scotland Trip

I can feel that my days are numbered when it comes to business taking me to the UK.  I don't know how many trips I'll have in the coming year but I feel that I'm nearing the end.  This has led me to look for any excuse to make it back to Scotland (my favorite place). 

Since I was going to be in Ipswich/London for two weeks between workshops I hopped a train Thursday night and did a long weekend in Edinburgh with a trip to the highlands as well.  A little bit of Bens, Glens, and Lochs with a touch of Scotch, Castles, and Lochness Monster searching will sooth the soul. 

I never did find Nessie but I did get to hit a few of my favorite pubs like Greyfriars Bobby.

 

 

 

Toronto & Niagara Falls

I took advantage of a quick business trip to Toronto to also sneak down the following day and see Niagara Falls.  I'm pretty sure I've never been and Jolene had planned to take me next time we were in the area. She begrudgingly accepted that it made sense for me to go since I was less than two hours away.

View from hotel window

Toronto was great and King Street was the perfect place to find food, drinks.  The sports pub had American Football on one TV and of course all the others were permanently talking about the Blue Jays.

After my meetings I rented a car at the train station and drove South towards the border.  It was pretty painless except I caught the end of rush hour and was essentially driving through the crowd walking to a very big Blue Jays vs. Yankees match-up (they were racing to the playoffs).

After finally getting to the falls late Monday night I still had no idea which direction they were initially but could feel the mist from the front door of my hotel.  I did eventually figure out what ledge to look over to see them lit up and the giant cloud of mist that is essentially always sitting there from the constant fall of water.

The following morning I caught the first boat to go up next to the falls.  On the Canada side the boats are named Hornblower and on the US side The Maid of the Mist.  Some may consider it unlucky but I had the very front spot on the boat which allowed for a clear view and a healthy dosing of mist.

Front of the boat!

Nashville Labor Day Weekend (with a guest)

Looking to burn some vacation days and get out of the burgh for a weekend JR drove down to visit us.  We still live in a lively area so time was easily filled with long daily pool trips and short stops at local hotspots for grub and drinks.

It was definitely great to catch up on stories while slowing down as we near the end of Summer.

You can take them out of Pittsburgh but you can't take the Pittsburgh out of them!

Cairns, Australia - The Great Barrier Reef

We saved the best for last.  No Australia trip is complete without seeing the Great Barrier Reef.  One of the best places to catch a boat out to some of the inner and outer spots to dive or snorkel is Cairns, Queensland.  To add to the challenge, we also rented a car for our few days there.  I never got the chance to drive on the left in the UK so it was fun to finally test it out.  I'm pretty sure Jolene was more freaked out by the experience and she was just the passenger, but there was a traffic circle every half a mile so anybody not from New Jersey would most likely be nervous.

Cairns is essentially a beach town with a strong dependence on tourism of the reef and the nearby rainforest.  They have made a great public lagoon for people to swim in because you are not allowed to swim in the ocean next to town due to the frequent saltwater crocodile sightings that don't play well with others!

The morning after arriving, we went out with Reef Excursions and snorkeled at two different outer reef locations.  We opted against taking any under water photos because it honestly took all our concentration to not swallow any water while trying to breath correctly with the snorkel.  Jolene did convince me to wear a wetsuit to protect me "just in case" but as far as water temperature it was a little cool but not bad.  By the end of our first drop off I had made progress on the breathing and was able to dive down and swim with the various schools of fish and even had a chance to swim side by side with a hawksbill turtle and even various schools of fish in the ravines created by the different parts of the reef.  Just the simple fact that there were so many different types of bright coral and fish easily kept you mesmerized in a dead float near the surface looking down.  I never did sight the infamous clown fish but I did have an altercation with a couple monstrous wrasse fish.

The next day we stuck to land after a boat ride back that was a little choppy.  Unfortunately for Jolene, the Gillie highway up into the tablelands is the most curvy 19 km of paved surface I've ever been on. (While this put Jolene's stomach on edge it was the Japanese kid behind her that eventually lost his cookies).  We went with a small group into the tablelands to search for Australian animals in their natural habitat and even do some walking through the rainforest at night to spot some of the nocturnal animals you'd not ever find otherwise.



Exploring next to an old Cathedral Fig Tree

Armed with binoculars we were guided around by a German-Spanish gentleman (Tappy) with a doctorate in environmental biology from Venezuela that had an immense knowledge of everything we ever wanted to know and more.  He knew of the best spots to see these animals and had a good eye (g'dye) for spotting them in the dense forest during the afternoon and again once we were hiking around in the dark that evening.


Night Time Rainforest Animal Sightings

We got a chance to spot a ton of animals (green ring tailed possum, lesser silty owl, brush tail possum, musky rat kangaroo, northern ringtail gecko, huntsman spider, agile wallabies, flying foxes, platypus, and tree kangaroos).


Flying Foxes (actually bats)

There are definitely great stories that go with all of these, but the colony of mating flying foxes, and sneaking down the edge of a wooded pond to watch the active platypuses were quite memorable.  Also, we broke off from our group temporarily at Barrine Lake (crater lake) and with Jolene's help spotted a musky rat kangaroo ourselves.


For our final day in Cairns we explored by ourselves and let me test out my driving on the wrong side of the road.  We ended up taking the skyrail across Barron Gorge National Park up to Kuranda.  This included amazing views of the gorge and the canopy of the rain forest.  Once in Kuranda we enjoyed our day in their various animal parks and exploring the small shops.  We were able to get up close to all sorts of local animals and we tested out our unofficial fear of birds as well.  It was only appropriate that we got a quick strong rain shower (while in the rain forest) but we ducked into the Frog Café and enjoyed the view until it passed.




Kuranda Rainforest Walk



Jolene, Lanna, and Mike

This was also our final chance to allow Jolene to truly cuddle with a Koala.  Her name was Lanna and let's just say Jolene has not stopped talking about her.  While the official handoff of the koala was an event, she soon settled in and decided Jolene was her new/favorite tree.



If your trip to Australia is meant to see the truly amazing diversity of it's flora and fauna, then Cairns is a great place to go as a jumping off point.  It definitely helped us get up close to what is still there and needs all of our help to protect it for the future. 

Northern Territory, Australia - Uluru and Kata Tjuta

No trip to Australia is complete without at least a solid effort to learn about its history.  One very long and critical part of that story is that of the aboriginal people of Australia who have been there for tens of thousands of years.  A great place to hear some of those stories and try to get a feel for some of that culture is at Uluru (Ayers Rock) and the surrounding area.  The giant red monolith has become another famous icon of Australia even though most of us know nothing about it.



 The entire Uluru-Kata Tjuta area was returned to the Anangu people in 1985 by the Australia government and they now currently manage it and lease some of the land to the government.  The area is amazing and the geological causes along with the Dreamtime stories that have been shared with outsiders make it all that more fascinating if you are willing to slow down and take it all in.















We signed up to go on a small group camping trip that guided us through the national park to see Uluru the first day along with a memorable sunset, and then Kata Tjuta the next day.  Hiking around both rock formations brought about a lot of interesting views and also allowed us to take a look at some old aboriginal art as well as we discussed the local flora and fauna.  Camping under the stars in a swag (Australian sleeping bag for the bush) was by far the most memorable part.  We listened to songs around the camp fire sharing local port and beer with the others in our group (who were mostly visiting from Germany).  While the temperature dropped quite a bit since it was the winter, it was no match for the cozy swags.   Jolene and I both ended up waking up in the middle of the night and were able to see the Milky Way and watch shooting stars zoom across the speckled sky.

Jolene took immediately to the camping life.  Helping wash the group's dishes and sweeping up our campsite. 

On our final day, we stayed in the Yulara Resort area and were able to sit in on a great talk from a local descendant of the aboriginal people.  He talked through the various weapons they used for hunting and protection.  He did an amazing job of story telling as he explained hunting techniques while holding various types of boomerangs and spears.  He would emphatically end each lesson on how many animal legs would be broken or if any additional pouncing or smack over the head was needed to bring down the prey.  This final talk before we began the next part of our journey really helped solidify the importance of this area to humankind.

A special thanks to Rhett from Wayoutback Tours for guiding us through this amazing area, sharing what you've learned, and also communicating and supporting the requests of the Anangu as we visited their land.