Blossom

Amy's parents have a really cool cat named Blossom. Dylan and Blossom have become good friends. Blossom feeds herself by tiping over the box of her food, and then pawing her food out of the little pouring hole, piece by piece. Because it takes her a while to get each piece of food out of the box, she doesn't eat very quickly. It is quite amusing.

Posted above are photos of Blossom eating her food, hanging out on the deck, and even watching the kangaroos with Dylan.

Kangaroos

Now that we have driven away from civilization, we see kangaroos everywhere. As Aussies say, there are "heaps" of em ("heaps" is their word for "lots"). Last night, we saw a mob of about 45 of them, hanging by the side of the road. (Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera.) There is usually only one large male leader per pack. The leader is easy to spot because he is about as big as an NFL player. The females and young males are only several feet tall.

Kangaroos come out right after the sun sets. Before that they just lay around in hiding, like the ones we saw at the zoo. Once it cools off, they move around so they can eat and find water.

Kangaroos hop right through Amy's back yard all the time. We fed them so they would stay around long enough to photograph them.

Merry Christmas From Australia

We want to wish everybody in America a happy holiday. We are having an Aussie-style Christmas. We are staying at a house that overlooks an isolated white sand beach. In the morning we opened presents. Then we cracked open some beers (they start early here) and went down to the beach. It was amazing. The sand was soft, the water was clear, and there was nobody there but us.

Here is a picture of Paul on the beach. He is making fun of Dylan for being a “yank,” as he always does.

Amy’s house is very crowded this Christmas. Amy’s friends from Ireland, Chris and Julie, are currently travelling in Australia and did not have a place to spend the holidays. So, in addition to Amy’s family, there are some random guests from Ireland and some random guests from America (us). It was really nice of Amy's parents, Rob and Sandy, to host so many strangers at their home over the holidays. It is also interesting to hear so many different accents.

Driving to Potato Point

We picked Paul up at about noon on Christmas Eve and drove all day to get to Potato Point (near Bateman’s Bay). We drove for 7 hours on roads that were incredibly curvy and, at times, barely paved. We drove directly through Kosciusko National Park, which is directly east of Albury, and stands between Albury and the coast. We drove over some mountains that were over 4,000 feet.

When we stopped in a rugged little aussie mtn town, Dylan put on his hat and said that they would probably mistake him for a cowboy. Paul quickly said, “mate, nobody here is confusing you for a cowboy.”

Rod Laver Arena

This afternoon it clouded over and poured so we needed to find an indoor activity. Since Amy's apartment is near Melbourne Park we decided to see if there were any tours offered at the tennis center. Instead, when we got there, we were surprised to find the finals of the men's wildcard tournament being played indoors at Rod Laver Arena. We got to watch a great tennis match, and at the end we saw the winner be presented with a wildcard into the Australian Open.

Melbourne Zoo

This morning we had hot and humid weather, but since it wasn't raining we finally made it to the Melbourne Zoo. The zoo was just a 10 minute train ride from the city. When we arrived we went straight to the kangaroos because even though we have been in Australia for almost 2 months we hadn't seen a kangaroo yet, except dead ones on the side of the road. It was really neat getting to see the selection of the animals at the zoo here, which was a bit different from Woodland Park Zoo. Aside from seeing the kangaroos, the highlight was the orangutans which were playful as always.

Our afternoon in Melbourne

After lunch we took a free tourist trolley ride around the city. Then we walked along the Yarra river. By then it was about to start pouring again, so we hurried and took the train back to Amy’s apartment.

Our morning in Melbourne

This morning, after the rain let up, we took a short train ride into Federation Square. From there we took a self-guided walking tour of the city. We walked through a number of alleys that were packed with stores, coffee shops, and snack-bars. Eventually we wound our way to Queen Victoria Market, which is like a larger version of Seattle’s Pike Place Market.

Rainy day in Melbourne

When we woke up this morning it was pouring rain. We decided to wait until tomorrow to go to the zoo. Instead, we waited for a break in the rain. Then we ventured out into the city, to find things to do that were near covered buildings.

We're in Melbourne!

We just arrived in Melbourne (pronounced mel-bin). We are staying with Amy. She has a really nice apartment in a great part of the city.

The drive down was not too bad. Kristen and I split the driving. Kristen drove for a whopping 30 minutes, which made her exhausted, so we switched seats and she slept while I drove the remaining 3 hours (it was long b/c we hit rush hour traffic). It was different from driving in the United States because for long streatches there is basically nothing around. We did see lots of signs warning that koala bears cross the highway. And unfortunately we also saw quite a few dead koalas. I spotted a dead kangaroo as well.

As we arrived into the city, Kristen realized how much she prefers city life. All of a sudden there were many good radio stations to choose from and delicious looking restaurant options everywhere. She was so excited by this that she didn't even mind the traffic.

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo. I am excited to finally see a live kangaroo.

Christmas in Bateman’s Bay

Paul and Amy invited us to join them at Amy’s parents house on the coast for Christmas. We are really excited. We have been asking around, and evidently Bateman’s Bay is a really cool spot. It is directly east of Albury, on the coast. We are driving there on the morning of Christmas eve. We are timing the drive to avoid driving at dusk, when you are forced to slow way down to avoid hitting Kangaroos in that area. Hope we can spot one without hitting it.

The house were are going to is the one with the big red roof. Nice spot, isn't it?

Andy

Andy is the best Get A Grip junior player. He is 15, but he is easily as mature as we are. He coaches tennis, waits tables, and does well in high school. We really like Andy. We help him with his game, watch his tournament matches, and give him rides home from work. Andy's goal is to play tennis at an American university. Andy’s parents, Louie and Ria, really appreciate how friendly we are with Andy. They had us to their home for tea (dinner) last night.

Dylan’s Tennis in Albury

Dylan wanted me to post an update on his tennis and how tennis works in Albury, and say hello to all of his tennis buddies back home...

When we got here, Dylan asked around to find the best players in town. He quickly found Rodney Wurtz. Rodney is a 50 year old guy that has helped Australia capture the senior equivalent of the Davis Cup. In addition to being a strong player, Rodney is the guy that runs pennant, the enormous competitive league system that is based here in Albury. There are seven sections, section one being the highest and section seven being the lowest. There are many teams that compete at each level. There is also an “open” level that is reserved for the top 10 players in the region (five teams of only two players each). Each Saturday, pennant is held at the Albury Grass Courts, which has about 35 real grass courts. It is an all day affair.

This Saturday, Dylan played for Rodney’s section 1 team. In preparation for the grass courts, Dylan went down to the grass club on Friday and got his first good hit in on the grass. Then on Saturday Dylan played tennis all day. He did not like the grass courts, but he did pretty well anyways. Dylan lost his first singles match, but won his second singles match and his team won the doubles point. His team won overall.

Dylan isn’t sure whether he’ll work on his serve-volley game and keep playing the rest of the grass season, or whether he will wait for the winter season, which is played on synthetic courts. Dylan much prefers the synthetic courts because they play a little slower and more consistent than grass, and it is easier to win points without coming to the net.

Moving

Several days ago, we moved out of Paul’s house. We were sad to move. We both miss Paul (and living at his house) a lot.

On the bright side, our new accommodations are nice. (see pic.) We will be living with a young couple, in a newer house, in a great location. The couple (Kirk and Kaz) and renting us their guest bedroom. They seem very nice so far.

Paul

The devilish looking bloke in the picture is Paul, the guy that has been putting us up for the past few weeks. In addition to providing us with a very nice home to live in, Paul also cooks us wonderful meals, invites us to his parties, introduces us to his friends, plays tennis with us, and helps us plan fun trips to take around Australia. Paul is our best friend in Australia.

Paul’s girlfriend Amy lives in Melbourne. She comes up to Albury at least every other weekend. She is very sweet, and just as hospitable as Paul. She has offered to let us stay at her place when we go to Melbourne.

Book Recommendation

This is a really funny book about Australia, written from the perspective of an American. I just finished reading it, and I enjoyed it so much that along the way I reread most chapters aloud to Dylan. I highly recommend it.

Bill Bryson has authored many quasi-travel books. I enjoyed "down under" so much that I quickly read a second Bryson book, and have now started a third. Even if you are not interested in learning about Australia, I recommend reading one of his books on another region (i.e., Britain, USA, etc.), because Bryson is really witty and his books are hilarious.

Kristen teaching a lesson

This is a picture of Kristen and one of her students, Isaac.

Walk in the woods

Two nights ago we got a little rain storm. After it finished raining, we went for a walk on the outskirts of town. We walked in an area that is popular for biking. We went walking at dusk, because that is the most common time for kangaroos to come near town. (Kangaroos are spotted often around here, but we still haven't seen one.)

Kristen and Kate

This is a picute of me and Kate goofing around after our morning lessons at Scots School. You can see from the picture that the court surface we are on is synthetic turf filled with sand. This is the main tennis court surface in AUS. Like clay courts, sand from the court gets into your socks and shoes when you play on it. The surface feels funny to us since we are used to American hard courts, but at least it is soft and comfortable to stand around and teach on.

I am also adding a picutre of Kate's cute daughter Charlie. She came with us to tennis this morning.

Beechworth Trip

We took a trip to a town called Beechworth on Saturday. Beechworth is a popular tourist town. It is an old gold mining town.

Travelling there was fun. It was a beautiful 45 minute drive through hills and countryside. When we got there we ate at a really cool pub/brewery, located down an alley behind the shops on main street. The beer was great. The weather was nice (meaning not too hot), so we got to sit outside. Near our table, they were re-potting plants and one of the pots said "blossomtime," which was fun for us because it reminded us of Dylan's sister.

When we finished eating, we walked around the town and ate ice cream cones. We admired Beechworth's really neat looking prison. Beechworth is also famous because it was the home of one of Australia's most famous criminals, Ned Kelly. Ned wore a metal helmet into shootouts with cops.