Hi everybody. We don't have very much time to update the blog today as we're paying for our internet time as we go during these days of 'homelessness.' In a nutshell, we had a fantastic 3 weeks in New Zealand, all of our errands are finished up here in Melbourne, we're meeting up with friends for one last night out tonight, and we fly to Honolulu tomorrow (Saturday)! It is very weird to be wrapping things up, and we've certainly got more to share about how it feels, lists of things we'll miss, etc, so be sure to check back in the future. In the meantime, here's a couple of pictures from NZ and we'll see you back on the mainland on April 10!!!
Hi all. It's a bit late to be starting a blog entry tonight, but I promised my mom some photos of Stacy's visit by the end of Wednesday. Andy's cousin, Stacy, was here for a visit for 9 days. We spent some time in Melbourne, then all flew to Cairns, where we enjoyed a rain forest gondola ride, a crocodile adventure farm, and a day-trip to the Great Barrier Reef. The reef trip was by far the highlight, although all of it was super fun. Then we flew to Sydney, where we spent 2 days at a more relaxed pace of sightseeing. Stacy, thanks so much for coming! It was great to see you and spend time together, and to show you around a bunch of Australia! Til the next vacation...
Please send your positive thoughts and prayers in the direction of Victoria, Australia, as our state continues to battle what is being described as, "Australia's worst natural disaster ever," & "Hell on Earth." 173 people have lost their lives since Saturday due to bushfires, and the devastation is quite unbelievable. A few people have written us emails asking how close they are to Melbourne - on Saturday they were basically in a horse-shoe shape surrounding Melbourne. Today they appear to be mostly to the northeast and east of Melbourne. The closest is approx. 60 kilometers from Melbourne. On Saturday the sky was certainly an eerie shade of gray. On the bright side of tragedy, the heroic efforts of many individuals and the giving that is taking place is incredible. Thanks for thinking of us.
It reached 46.4 degrees Celsius today here in Melbourne. The governor stated yesterday that today was going to be a bad day, and encouraged everyone to stay at home unless absolutely necessary to be out and about. Andy and I obliged by sleeping late, moving the computer into the bedroom, turning the bedroom AC on, napping, and watching I think 5 episodes of Entourage. We kept joking, "Hey, the governor said to stay home."
Tonight we're headed out to dinner with a couple that recently moved to our South Yarra neighborhood from DC. I met the gentleman last week one day at the shop, as he just sounded too American for me not to ask where he was from. It is an interesting position to find myself in - last year around this time, we were having dinner with a couple from the US who had been here nearly 2 years that were preparing to move back, and we were the new ones to Australia. I remember feeling kinda jealous that they were so close to going home. Now here we are on the flip side of that, and we've started thinking about how some things we love to do here in Melbourne are now on countdown. So many 'lasters.'
OH! I nearly forgot - a huge "Welcome to our World" to little Tyson Senske!!! We can't wait to meet you, Tyson! Our thoughts are with you, Travis & Val!
All here is good. Melbourne experienced a record-breaking heat wave last week, recording temps as high as 45.1 degrees Celsius (that's about 113 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday. Luckily, we were on a 5-day trip to explore Western Australia - we somehow managed to fly out of Melbourne on the day the heat wave started & fly back into Melbourne on the day it ended. We weren't sad to miss it. Instead, we spent a day exploring the city of Perth, 2 days exploring Rottnest Island, and a day exploring the Perth harbour suburb of Fremantle. Rottnest Island is a small (11 x 4.5 km) island just 19kms off the west coast of Australia. There are no cars allowed on the island, so most people are either leisurely walking or biking around, which is refreshing. And it is stunningly gorgeous - whomever counts these sorts of things declares that there are 63 beaches and 20 bays, all on this tiny little island that you can bike around in about 3 hours! Which we did on rental bikes and with rented snorkel gear for 1 day - it was really great! But, the island is also a little weird. For starters, it was an Aboriginal Prison for many years, and many of today's accommodation options are old military cottages and barracks. In addition to that, and just when Andy and I had started thinking we had seen nearly everything that Australia has to offer, the island is home to an estimated 8,000-12,000 quokkas. Do you know what a quokka is? Well, we now do, so let me tell you - a quokka is a small marsupial, which has the appearance of an itty-bitty kangaroo, or an extremely large rat, depending on how you look at it. Also let me tell you that Rottnest translates to "Rat's Nest," the name given to the island by Dutch explorers way back in the day. So, check them out in our pictures and you can decide for yourself. After 2 days on this island, Andy and I both agreed, "That was pretty cool, but also very weird." Sometimes I think this could be the blanket statement for our entire time in Australia in general. From there we took the ferry back to the mainland and spent our last night in WA at an Irish Pub, even going so far as to spend the night in one of the pub's heritage rooms right upstairs, and right next to possibly the biggest leprechaun in the entire world. It was a memorable night to say the least! Here's some recent pictures:
Now we're home, we're working (Andy's in the red for paid-time-off at work), & we're pretty busy getting organized for Stacy's upcoming visit and our departure from Melbourne. Here's a brief rundown of some upcoming big dates: *Stacy's here Feb. 14-23. We'll be in Melbourne, Cairns, & Sydney all within 8 days! *We move out of our apartment here in Melbourne on March 8. *We'll be in New Zealand March 9-30. We're booked to do 2 pretty excellent backpack trips, so we're kinda "in training" right now in preparation. *We'll be back in Melbourne March 30-April 4. *We'll be in Honolulu April 4-10. *We'll land in Portland April 10! We plan to spend about a week reorganizing and repacking in Portland. *We'll spend about 3 weeks driving to Anchorage and back to reunite with Buddy and hang out with friends in Anchorage. *We gain access to our house in Portland on May 12, so hope to be back in Portland (permanently!) right around that time.
Somewhere in there we're expecting the arrival of a little Senske and a little Sweany (niece or nephew Sweany) which we're very excited to hear news about.
So, this is probably one of the last few Sweany Australia Thoughts and Happenings entries. From here it will be NZ, HI, and AK if everything goes as planned.
In closing this entry, I'd like to share the following experience. Andy and I attended an all-day music festival called Big Day Out here in Melbourne on Jan. 26. We saw a ton of great music, met some great people, and even threw in a Bungee-Shot ride at the end of the night! Neil Young was the headlining act, and as he sang the song Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere that night, you could find Andy and I glancing at each other and smiling, both thinking about home, even in the midst of such an amazing scene, in another very amazing country. Read the lyrics and then listen to a version of the song if you like - I think you'll find that the lyrics could not be more perfect for our situation down here:
"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"
I think I'd like to go back home And take it easy There's a woman that I'd like to get to know Living there
Everybody seems to wonder What it's like down here I gotta get away from this day-to-day running around, Everybody knows this is nowhere.
Everybody, everybody knows Everybody knows.
Every time I think about back home It's cool and breezy I wish that I could be there right now Just passing time.
Everybody seems to wonder What it's like down here I gotta get away from this day-to-day running around, Everybody knows this is nowhere.
Hello everyone - Happy New Year! Here's a little video to get us all in the mood:
Lots to catch up on, but I'll leave most of it to the photo slideshows. Andy and I had a fabulous Christmas vacation, which we spent in the city of Adelaide, touring the Barossa Valley wine region, and on Kangaroo Island, all of which are part of the state of South Australia. In 1-week's time we managed to stay in a hotel, a lighthouse hut, a private beach house, and a beach hostel. We saw amazing rock formations, colonies of fur seals, views from the top of Cape Borda Lighthouse, and a nighttime cannon firing! Here's that video (it's mostly dark and quiet, but wait for the end!):
Here's our Christmas getaway pictures:
We had a 1-day vacation catch-up day, and then Steve, Michelle, & Cami arrived right on time here in Melbourne on Dec. 28! The following 2 weeks were a whirlwind of travel (by numerous taxis, rental cars, planes, trains, boats, buses, monorails, and trams) filled with plans & pies, lists & laughs, reservations & 'roos, (okay - I'll stop with the clever alliteration, but only because I can't think of a 'w' word to go with wine)...New Year's Eve in Sydney, zoos, aquariums, tree-top walks, beaches, food, wine, cricket, and just a little bit of vomit - poor Cami's travels kinda caught up with her for a couple of days in Sydney, but she made a strong recovery. It was spectacular traveling and experiencing more of Australia with more family!
We are getting more and more excited for our permanent return to the US here in the next couple of months. We have moved our return flights via Honolulu up a month to April 4, and have decided to spend about a week in Hawaii, get organized in Portland for a few days, get Andy's truck and ourselves ready, and drive to Alaska to reunite with Buddy. I can't wait! More details as the dates get closer. We are also looking forward to another family guest next month - Andy's cousin Stacy is coming from Sioux Falls for a visit! The next couple of months are going to go very quick, I think, and Andy and I and Buddy will find ourselves back in our home before we know it.
Hope you are all well and surviving what we have heard has been quite the winter, especially in the Pacific Northwest. More soon-
