Melbourne with Graham & Mom

We flew from the Outback to Melbourne and spent the weekend there. Graham drove down from Albury to meet us. In Melbourne, we rode a tour boat up the Yarra River, went to an Aussie-Rules-Football Game at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (an arena which holds about 100,000 fans), and had a nice dinner with Amy Pollock. The next day we rode the trains, shopped, and toured the old Melbourne Gaol (jail). Then we drove back to Albury and had dinner at Paul's. This week we are showing Mom around Albury.
-D

The Red Interior

Last week we met Mom in Melbourne and flew to Alice Springs, in the middle of the continent. The dirt was extremely red! We rode camels and saw the Royal Flying Doctor Service - the medical service that flys tiny planes to little dirt runways in the middle of nowhere, to extract people who need medical care. Then we drove five hours through the most remote part of the world we've ever been to (we only passed about 6 buildings/residences) until we got to Uluru (the biggest rock in the world). We saw a wild camel and wild dingos.

Update

This is a private court at a house here in Albury. I teach tennis to the family that lives here on Thursday evenings.


This is Kristen in the kitchen at her office.


Evidence of fall.


It's now fall. There aren't too many deciduous trees here in Australia, but the leaves are starting to fall off of the few that there are. The weather is perfect: cool in the mornings and evenings, but comfortable shorts weather in the afternoons.

I have unfortunately come down with a cold. I am trying to rest a lot this week because I want to be healthy next week when my Mom gets here and we venture into the red interior.

Kristen is still enjoying her job. She looks just as nice in her work dresses as she does in tennis skirts, don't you think?

That's all for now.

-D

Coaching in Daysdale

The schools are in between terms here in Albury, and most kids are on vacation. This week I am running a holiday tennis program in Daysdale, Australia. Daysdale is over an hour away from Albury, and it feels like it's in the middle of nowhere.

The town of Daysdale consists of one bar/hotel/take-away-joint, about 7 houses, and a run-down old football and tennis club. When we drove into Daysdale, we laughed because we could already see the end of the town. We took a picture of the one paved road in the town. We didn't think there could possibly be many kids in the program, but they drove from all over the countryside to get there and we ended up having about 24 kids.

Some of the kids bike to tennis. They only have to bike about 2 miles to their driveway, but then it's another 6.5 miles down the driveway to their home.

Traded in the Magna for a BMW!

Here is a picture of Dylan in our new car. Just kidding. Our car is being serviced, and Graham lent us his car. We hope the mechanic takes his time with our car...

Returning to Albury

After a fun filled weekend, we caught an evening flight back to Albury. We had an awesome time in Sydney and would highly recommend Sydney to anybody. We consider it one of the nicest cities we've been to. Special thanks to Graham for being an excellent tour guide.

Sydney: Day 3

On Sunday we got an extra hour to sleep in thanks to daylight savings. In the morning it looked like it would rain, but we headed off to ride a ferry to Manly anyway. Once we got going on the ferry, the weather suddenly cleared up and was beautiful the whole day. In Manly, there is a row of shops, pubs, and restaurants, that spill out onto a beautiful beach (where topless sunbathing is the norm, apparently). We walked around, ate lunch, and then caught the ferry home. Our ferry was held up by police boats on the way back into the city because an old man jumped off a ferry and swam to the prime minister's waterfront estate.

Sydney: Saturday Night

On Saturday night we went to the Queen Victoria Mall, which has to be one of the nicest malls in the world. Dylan bought some new shoes. Next, we went to the Sydney Opera House Bar, which has a great view of the harbor at night, and must be one of the classiest bars in Sydney. It was really crowded and really fun. Then we had a late meal and took a cab accross town to go bar hopping at some of Sydney's less classy establishments. Sydney night spots are very crowded and don't slow down until very late at night.

Sydney: Day 2

On Saturday we got up and started our all-day walking tour of the city. We walked to the Opera House and all around the harbor. Then we walked up on the Sydney Harbor Bridge to get a good view down at the harbor and the city. For lunch, we went to Darling Harbor. Then we rode the monorail back into the city and continued our sight-seeing.

Sydney: Day 1

On Friday we left early from work and flew to Sydney from the Albury Airport. We took a small plane and the flight was around an hour. When we got to Sydney we walked around the city for a while, before going to dinner with a lot of Paul and Graham's friends.

Concert in Melbourne, Now Off To Sydney

We went to a concert in Melbourne last weekend. We saw Maroon 5. Brandi Carlile and One Republic opened for them. It was a great show and a fun weekend. While we were down in Melbourne we did some shopping and some wondering around the city.

Later today we fly out to Sydney. On Monday we'll post about our trip. Should be awesome!