August US visit details

Hi all - here are some of the main details of our August US visit so far:

*We arrive in Portland on Thursday, Aug. 14 at 12:45pm. So excited! Who's going to be there?

*We'll be out camping with (hopefully) everyone we know in the Portland area on Friday & Saturday, Aug. 15 & 16. (Who's getting the keg of Bridgeport? - seriously).
We're hoping someone will volunteer to take us to Won & Jordan's house on Sunday so that we can pick up Andy's truck (hint, hint).

*We depart Portland for Minneapolis on Wednesday, Aug. 20 - will spent Wednesday night in the Minneapolis area with Larry & Deb Sweany and Ray & Marcia Brown. We're going to hit the closest Outback Steakhouse to check-up on its authenticity.

*Friday, August 22 - attend Steve & Marnie's wedding in Duluth!!!

*Sunday, Aug. 24th - fly Minneapolis back to Portland.

*Depart Portland headed back to Melbourne on Thursday, Aug. 28th at 5pm.

We are really excited to be coming home for a visit and to attend this very special wedding.


In other news, we leave this Sunday for a week-long vacation in Cairns and Cooktown (far NE corner of the country) to see good-ol' Jason Nielsen, the Great Barrier Reef, and who knows what else.

We chatted with Zach & Buddy in Alaska via webcam this past weekend - so great to see both of them. Buddy couldn't look more content - we're beginning to doubt that he will see the need for returning to the city-life of Portland next year after his much loved Alaska wilderness. Andy dropped a "Maybe we should live in Alaska for 6 months when we go home," suggestion, to which I didn't really have a response.

Hoping summer has gotten off to a fantastic start for everyone. For many of you, see you in 2 months!!

Cheers!
Love, Christy

Snow capped mountains in Australia???

Well, I may be using the term 'mountain' loosely, but last weekend I went on a trip with the Monash Bushwalking and Outdoor Club to Mt. Feathertop. Feathertop is about a 5-6 hr drive from Melbourne (I told the folks that if I drove that far from Portland I would be in California :) and, at 6300ft, it is the 2nd tallest in Victoria (for comparison, the tallest in Oz is Mount Kosciuszko, at 7310 feet). It was a good trip with a good bunch of folks, and as usual in Melbourne, it was basically a mini UN summit, with a German, a Malaysian, a Norwegian, a Canadian, some Americans, and of course a few Aussies in attendance (one nicknamed Dingo, the 2nd of which I've met in under a month).

The skies were ultra clear, which meant good visibility, sunny and warm (mid 60s) during the day but bitterly cold (upper 20s) at night. Oddly enough, my first glimpse of Australian snow and sub-freezing temps coincides with the officical beginning of winter here. Thankfuly there was a warming hut complete with wood burning stove near our campsite, which, in combination with the Johnny Walker, was enough to temporarily keep off the chill. The only other group there was a bunch of old timers celebrating a woman's 70th b-day - if I'm still able to do a trip like that when I'm 70 I will be one happy camper (get it? man, that's really bad.....).

In other news, we just bought flights up to Cairns to see our buddy Nielsen in about a month. Cairns and beyond is what they refer to as the 'tropical north', and is basically known for jungle, crocs, and the Great Barrier Reef, and we have all of these on our 'things to do' list during our visit. So, in terms of travels, we are looking at Cairns in June, the US in August, Alice Springs (central Oz, with the big rock, aka Uluru) in Sept, then NZ in Oct. We are definitely headed to the poor house, but we're gonna have a blast getting there....:)

Cheers,
Sweany