Keith & Karen Visit Us Down Under!

Hey Everybody!

Hope the winter weather isn't treating you too badly. Just hang in there because soon it will be that time of year when we say 'only six more weeks of winter'. Truth be told, we're both missing the snow a little bit. The weather here has been a bit inconsistent; there have been some really nice days with nothing but sunshine, then we'd get a few cloudy and rainy days. At least the temperature is cooperating with most days being between 25 and 32.

We've just said good bye to a couple more visitors; my mom and dad are about to get on the

plane to begin the long journey home to the great white north. We had a wonderful time together for the two weeks they were down under! The first few days were pretty active for the travellers, including a 10km hike through the woods on a path from Manly Wharf to Spit Bridge. There was some pretty rough terrain, but some very nice views made the walk well worth the effort! Another highlight in the first few days included climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Dad feared the height a bit, though he said it was pretty easy to overcome as, once again, the views the trip offered were well worth facing the fear. The day was capped off with a tour of the famous Sydney Opera House and a show in the Concert Hall.

After a weekend consisting of a walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee, laying on the beach once we arrived in Coogee, and spending some time in Hyde park, Mom and Dad headed down the south

coast to do their own thing for a few days including stops in Canberra and Melbourne. Some of those highlights included a penguin encounter on Philip Island and a tram car dinner (which we heard had good champagne and lots of it ... the giggling over the phone that night said it all!).

Upon their return to Sydney, the heat was on! The day they got back was fairly calm and quiet, but when Saturday reached a high of 41 - where else could we go but Coogee Beach? While Dad claimed not to be a huge fan of the water, it became quite evident that he rather enjoyed it after spending close to 80% of our visit to the beach in the ocean. After the massive thunderstorm that afternoon, the temperatures returned to bearable, and the fun could continue for the

remaining week. Australia Day was one of the events we were all looking forward to; we headed into the downtown area for the afternoon - there just happened to be countless old cars on display, so naturally Dad wanted to check them all out. When we were ready to find some shade, we made our way to the Botanical Gardens to watch the Tall Ships race, also known as the re-enactment of British Settlement in Australia. We finished off Australia Day with a dinner cruise on the harbour; the food was fantastic and the entertainment made it seem like we weren't even on the water. The following day was spent in Wollongong, and after touring my campus and the harbour area, we enjoyed dinner at the Five Islands Brewing Company overlooking the ocean.

We spent our last full day together finally making the trip to Taronga Zoo; something Leah and I have wanted to do since we got here a year ago! We got to see all of the typical Australian animals - koalas, kangaroos, wombats, wallabies, and penguins. Some of the other highlights were lions and tigers, a few bears, some very entertaining gorillas arguing over branches to eat. The only thing better than the seal show which included some balancing acts, high diving, and of course some splashing of the crowd, was when we met the newest edition to the Taronga

elephant family, Luk Chai. The elephants of course put on their own show, including some logging, football and soccer, but I think we all had our eyes on the 6 month old, 302kg baby elephant! To cap off the day and the trip, we went for the highest dinner possible at the Centre Point Tower in Sydney and enjoyed a gourmet dinner while taking in a revolving view of the entire city - twice.

While it's always hard to say good bye and all good things must come to an end, it was a two week period we all very much enjoyed and will never forget! We're planning to enjoy the upcoming weekend, which seems fitting since Monday will hopefully mark the end of holidays for me! While it won't be teaching just yet, it will be a Day Care job, but more importantly, it will finally be money coming in instead of going out!

Hope you are all doing well ... thanks for reading our novel!

Take care and we'll be in touch soon!

Jeff & Leah

xoxo

Happy 2010 Everybody!

Hope you all had a wonderful time ringing in the new year and also that you've recovered nicely fron all the celebrating. We spent New Years Eve with Luke and Tamara at one of the several lookouts in Sydney. This one in particular was called Mort Bay Park, and was on the west side of the bridge, a little further down the harbour. We got there extremely early trying to beat the crowd, and we were more than successful! Despite the weather not looking the greatest, we packed a cooler full of food for the day and went to stake out the best view - and since we were one of the first groups to arrive, we had all the options! We set up our blanket and chairs to ensure the best view of the fireworks with the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge as our backdrop.

While we were waiting for the sun to set, we spent a lot of the day just talking, playing cards, reading books and magazines, napping and anything else we could do to make the wait not seem so long! As I said, the weather wasn't the greatest and we did get drizzled on a little bit, but not enough to spoil the excitement of waiting for the greatest fireworks display. The park got progressively more and more busy as the day went on, as people set up their tents, frisbees were being thrown, a game of cricket off in the distance, barbecues were in full force all just waiting for the show to start.

Once Luke got off work around 4, he showed up with some pizzas for dinner, and we continued the wait. At 9.00pm the wait was over ... sort of. The 9.00pm fireworks display was mostly for the kids; it was still a very nice display lasting around 10 minutes, just a warm up to the real

deal. From then on, we had a couple of drinks, discussed some New Year's resolutions and other plans we have for 2010. At 10.00pm, 11.00pm, 11.30pm and 11.55pm there were some short blasts to keep everyone on the edge of their seats and well in tune with the countdown in anticipation of the real deal at midnight! A new year has never been so bright and so loud! The show was really fantastic and we're hoping the pictures and video all turn out fine because it really was spectacular. After fighting with the traffic, we headed back to Luke and Tamara's to finish celebrating and ultimately crash for the night.

Since then, we've mostly just been getting the apartment ready for the arrival of Mom and Dad (Keith and Karen), doing some shopping to cash in on all of the post-holiday sales, and of course relaxing because after all, it is summer here down under!

Hope all is well with all of you in the freezing snow!

Take care,

Jeff & Leah

xoxo