Sayonara Japan

Homecoming montage!!! 

Well, the time has come to say "sayonara" to Japan... and I have to say in hindsight it has all gone by pretty quickly... now if you had asked me 1 year ago I would have told you this tour was never going to end! It is still soaking in that we have been here for 2 years... and it truly is bittersweet now that we are leaving. I know at a few points (ok... maybe more than a few) I wanted nothing more than to get the heck off of this island, but I stuck it out and really tried to make the best of it! What I got was an amazing adventure!

It has been a WILD ride these past 2 years... (understatement of the century), but we have made it through somehow and now it's time to go back to reality with hopefully no deployments lurking in the shadows...

There is so much we will miss about Japan... the food, the people, the culture, and how much there is to see. I will miss our weekend tours and traveling all over to explore different parts of Japan and have new experiences. In the short time we were here we have done so much, not just in Japan, but in other parts of this side of the world as well. Some of the highlights for us were climbing Mount Fuji (obviously), experiencing all the different foods (and sweets), our trip to Kyoto, and getting completely lost in the culture and the people here in this amazing country.

Damian and I each made a list of the top 5 things we will miss the most (we could have easily made much longer lists!!!!).

Damian's FAV snack!

Damian's Top 5:
1. Fresh sushi (cheap)
2. 7-11
3. Quiet travelers
4. Easy public transit
5. EVERYTHING is more efficient

Beth's Top 5:
1. FOOD (pastry shops, sushi, noodles, sweets, kit-kats, all of it)
2. Wicked clean public restrooms
3. Taking the train EVERYWHERE
4. Chu-hi's (apple, peach, and sparkling chardonnay)
5. People watching (especially the little Japanese kids in school uniforms and the really old Japanese people on the train)

Top of Mount Fuji

It is now time to close this chapter of our lives, and we are excited for the next as we move to the Washington DC area and Damian will be stationed at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. We are very thankful for all the wonderful people we have met here in Japan and hope to keep in touch with many of them and are hopeful that our paths may cross again someday. Japan will always have a special place in our hearts and our minds, but for now we say sayonara.

Two Years at Sea

So... after bugging Damian for 2 years about writing a "guest blog" he has finally agreed... what a treat!!!!

Two years ago, with 2 sea bags stuffed with a smorgasbord of uniforms and gear, I flew half way around the world away from my newly wedded wife to start my new role as the Ship’s Nurse onboard the only forward deployed nuclear aircraft carrier (USS GEORGE WASHINGTON CVN-73, aka GW) in the Navy.  The first thing you need to know is that I applied for this position and I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to experience this aspect of Military nursing (which few nurses will ever experience in their life).  After several painful hours of traveling around the world, my last leg came to a sudden stop, literally. 

My first experience as the Ship’s Nurse was landing on the flight deck in the back of a C-2 Greyhound (see picture at right) going full speed and coming to a sudden stop in less than 1,092 feet.  Now that may seem like a lot to some people, but I promise you that it isn’t and I was grateful that I was in the back and couldn’t see a thing. Let’s recap, in less than 48 hours I flew from San Diego to the GW, which was trying to out run a typhoon (fun, but extremely exhausted). 

At this point in my military career I had been on only one other military ship; translation I had no idea what to expect or what I was getting myself into.  This might be a good opportunity to describe GW a little bit.  An aircraft carrier is truly a modern marvel.  The GW is 1,092 feet long, 257 feet wide and 244 feet tall and can carry 6,000 sailors.  It is ultimately a huge floating airport where space is not wasted.  There is so much to this ship that even after 2 years I still get lost and discover new areas I didn’t know existed.  Fun Fact: the GW is the 17th busiest airport in the world!

What did I do onboard? Medical is not a big department first off considering we are the only medical facility for 6,000 sailors.   Thankfully we care for a fairly young and healthy population.  We do have the ability to perform emergency surgeries and we do have a 3 bed ICU on top of a 50-bed ward, as well as other services such as Physical Therapy, Laboratory, and Psychology just to name a few.  When I did perform patient care, it was mostly for Post Operative recovery.  Of course we can’t count out the Medical Emergencies around the ship. 

Medical Emergencies ranged from dehydration to falls to physical injuries.  These occurred throughout the day and night (mostly at night of course), which meant we were on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  However, even now I am surprised at how few physical injuries we saw over the past 2 years considering there are so many ways for someone to injure themself on a ship. 

CAPT Lausman (Commanding Officer)

As the sole nurse I had to wear many hats and fill many roles.  This allowed me the opportunity to meet a ton of people outside the Medical Department, get to know them and learn their role on the ship.  Which was extremely helpful when I started studying for my Medical Warfare Device; SWMDO (Surface Warfare Medical Department Officer).  This was a huge accomplishment and a very proud day for me when I earned the ability to wear this device on my uniform.  To earn this device, you are required to gain a general understanding of all the systems in the ship and know how they work and affect one another.  There is so much that you need to learn that it is not uncommon for this process to take over a year. Once I felt ready, I sat in front of a board and got grilled with question after question about the ship.  There is only one way I can describe the process, it is like getting kicked in the teeth several times over.  I look back at everything now and smile, but I know Beth has several emails from me where I probably was ready to cry. 

This has been a challenging assignment for both Beth and I.  We have worked hard to make this tour the best it could be, especially since we are still newlyweds.  Nothing like deploying for 14 months out of a 24-month tour; in a foreign country…shout out to Beth for putting up with this craziness.  The USS GEORGE WASHINGTON has been an amazing experience.  I have met some amazing people, made life long friends and learned more about the Navy than I ever thought possible.  Like everything it is a bittersweet good-bye, but it is time to move on. 

Hope you all enjoyed the guest blog.  See you all stateside!!!

Last Minute Sightseeing

As our time in Japan quickly comes to an end Damian and I have tried to fit in a few last minute trips! Of course the day we decided to plan a full day of sightseeing it down poured, but it didn't stop us! First stop was breakfast at Eggs n' Things which is a Hawaiian cafe located near Enoshima Island- about 1 hour by train from Yokosuka. Breakfast was delicious and then we headed to the Enoshima Aquarium for the morning! 

It was a really impressive aquarium. One of the things we liked best was that all of the tanks had simulated wave/water movement- it definitely made it seem more like the ocean for the fish! They also had amazing jellyfish displays- there was even alight show which was super cool because the jellyfish turned different colors with the lights! They also had about 10 different species of jellyfish!!!

SHARK!!!

Squid...

There was a dolphin show which was pretty good... nowhere close to Sea World good but still we enjoyed it. They had giant sea turtles, penguins and seals too! There was an area where you could pet animals in the tank and they had a bunch of little sharks that Damian enjoyed! We enjoyed a few hours at the aquarium looking at sea life then we walked across the bridge to Enoshima Island so Damian could eat some sea life!!! Since we went there in November he has been talking about getting one of these squids they grill right in front of you so of course he had to have one before we left Japan! It was cool how they cut it all up and Damian said it was oishii! 

After Enoshima Island we got back on the train and headed to check out one of my favorite temples... Hase dera! The hydrangeas are in bloom this time of year and are absolutely gorgeous! The temple was packed but definitely worth it! You climb up all these stairs and there are hydrangeas everywhere that are all different colors! They even placed a giant hydrangea flower in the Buddha statues hand at the temple- very cool! We had already packed up our umbrellas with all of our other stuff to ship to the U.S. but thanks to the 100 Yen (approximately $1) store we each got a new clear one that worked perfectly for the day! 

It wouldn't be a stop in Hase without walking a little further down the street to go to our favorite ice cream place to get green tea/sweet potato swirl one last time! It was even better than I remembered it!!! 

Japanese Word of the Day:

Ika (eee-ka): Squid

Princess For a Day (Butlers Cafe Edition)

Butlers Cafe is a restaurant located in the Shibuya area of Tokyo and thanks to my friend Lois who found it and researched it we had a really fun afternoon there! The cafe has been open for 7 years and was created after a bunch of "maid cafes" had opened up all over Tokyo. The Butlers Cafe is for women customers to come and enjoy a relaxing atmosphere with good looking male waiters who are actually all Western so the Japanese women can practice speaking English with foreigners. On the day we went, the "head butler" was Japanese, but all the others were from France or Australia.

Notice our tiaras!!!

Before we venture down this very unique day, I would like to share with you some of the house rules of Butlers Cafe... there was a full page when we arrived that we had to agree to before we became "Princesses."

-No taking pictures (you must ask a Butler to take pictures for you)
-Ring bell at table for service
-No cell phones
-You must be escorted by your butler to the powder room
-No pulling out your own chairs/holding your own purse
-2 order minimum per person
-No asking personal questions to your butler or trying to find them on social media (you will be banned from cafe)

You get the idea... after reading the rules we were all a little nervous, but it was great fun! After we finished reading the rules, we rang the bell to alert our butler we were done... I lifted the bell and a beautiful sound rang out... then in unison all the butlers at the cafe say "yes my princesses" as one of them comes over to see what we need... oh boy!!! We were served rose water and given the menus to look over... A lot of the food is Italian and then there are drinks, teas, and cakes! I ordered apple rosemary tea served in the cutest tea cup and saucer ever!!!

One of the most interesting choices on the menu was a surprise drink that is made especially for you by the butler looking deep into your eyes and asking you a few questions... Lois was brave enough to try this out! Butler Maxime from France came over to the table and asked her a series of questions and also asked us for some input... then he looked deep into her eyes for 5 seconds and came back with this drink about 15 minutes later! It has some sort of alcohol in it, but he explained why he chose each color for the parts of the drink... the bottom is pink because her favorite animal in the Koala and Koala's are cute and so is the color pink. The top is red because the way her friends describe her means she has a big heart, and most importantly the middle is blue because when he looked into her eyes he could see forever like the ocean or the sky!!!! This was pretty awesome!!!

When our orders arrived all of the butlers came out to the table together to present our meals... they made us close our eyes as we waited for them to set up the table... when we opened them we were pleasantly surprised to see our plates had been customized using a little information form we filled out when we first arrived! Very cool!!!! And the chocolate cake was absolutely delicious too! With our meals came our tiaras! They each put a tiara and now we were officially princesses! I do have to say it was really nice being called "Princess Beth" all day long... poor Damian didn't know what hit him when I came home later that night... I obviously insisted he refer to me as "Princess Beth" for the rest of the evening... which didn't really work out for me to say the least ;) hehehe

Before leaving I was able to get a picture with one of our butlers (for a small fee of course) and he wrote a little note on the back! Too funny! When it was time to leave the butlers first de-crowned us and took our tiaras (booo) then collected all of our purses and then escorted us all to our chariot (the elevator) where they gave us a chocolate candy and bid us farewell. We had such a fun time and laughed so much! Only in Japan would you be able to do something so unique!

Japanese Word of the Day:
Hime (he-may): Princess

Hakone Highlights

Pronunciation: Hakone (ha-ko-nay)

Hakone is a mountainous town located about 1-2 hours from Yokosuka. It lies within the area of Mount Hakone, an active volcano and is popular for tourists because of it's hot springs (onsens). Because Damian and I did not have time to have a getaway in Hakone during our time here we decided to do a tour to see the "highlights" before we left Japan! The picture to the right is what it looks like on a clear day... we however went on a rainy/foggy day and were not able to see Mount Fuji (booooo).

That's me in the middle...

The first stop was Hakone Shrine located on the shore of Lake Ashi. It has a beautiful "floating" torii gate as well as a lot of steps to get to the top! As I mentioned above, Mount Hakone used to be a very active volcano... the people in the area took the "explosions" or eruptions to be an expression of evil. The story goes that the evil was caused by a nine-headed dragon... (please note, I did not make up this story). Anyway, a monk on the mountain was able to exorcise the dragon and turn it into a protector of this shrine where he lies today. At the actual shrine you can wash your hands in a fountain that looks like a nine headed dragon.

All glass...

Foot bath

Too cool...

The next stop was on a boat ride across Lake Ashi- it took about 45 minutes and was really beautiful and peaceful. After that we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum for a Japanese style buffet lunch (yummm) and a few hours to walk around the ground of the museum. The concept of an open air museum was really neat! The open air museum has been there since 1969 and has over 100 sculptures. We spent over 2 hours walking all over and exploring the many sculptures and buildings on the property. They also had a bunch of really neat structures for children to actually climb on. This was an extremely unique experience. They even had an entire building dedicated to less famous Picasso works. And of course we stopped by the hot spring foot bath to rest our weary feet... and it felt amazing! There were nice smooth rocks on the bottom to massage our feet as well as oranges floating on the top which smelled good and were there to provide "mental calmness" I think- still looking into the oranges!

After the open air museum we took a cable car ride up "Owakudani" which literally mean "great boiling valley." This consisted of an active volcanic valley with active sulphur vents and hot springs. Trust me- the smell of the sulphur was extremely strong! The specialty of this area is "kuro tamago" which means "black egg." They boil the eggs in the sulphur hot springs which turns the outer shell black. They do this in large crates with dozens of eggs at a time- see picture at left. It is said that the black eggs have regenerative properties and eating one will add 7 years to your life... eating 2 will add 14 years to your life... and according to our tour guide, "eating 3 will make you blow wind." (I can't make this stuff up!) But seriously it is said not to eat more than 2 1/2 eggs (an extra 17.5 years to your life)! You can hike up the actual hot springs and buy 5 eggs for 5oo Yen (about $5- what a steal)! How could we not eat at least 1 black egg... it is just a hard boiled egg with a black shell... At first I was a little skeptical, but after seeing it peeled it was no big deal. In the end, Damian and I each added 14 years to our lives with these eggs! I mean, even Hello Kitty has jumped on the black egg bandwagon...

Japanese Word of the Day:
Tamago (ta-ma-go): Egg

Rae-Ann Takes on Japan... Whoop Whoop

Upon arriving back to Narita International Airport from our amazing trip to Australia we were greeted by international traveler Rae-Ann (Lawrence-Jodoin-Storz)!!!!!!!!! Slightly jet-lagged but still smiling! She arrived on a nice rainy evening in Japan... a little chilly and the 3 of us had a long ride back form the airport, but the next day was a brand new day...

Welcome to the land of the rising sun SIL!!! The sun was blaring by 4:30 AM!!! It was a beautiful day in Yokosuka, Japan! After breakfast of champions... Dunkin' Donuts of course, we got ready and headed to the USS George Washington for a tour! Damian took us all around the ship including the "bridge" where Rae-Ann got to sit in the Commanding Officer's chair, went for a little walk on the flight deck, walked the the hangar bays, to the "focastle" to see the anchor chains, and a thorough tour of the medical department including radiology!!! It was a great tour as usual with an exceptional tour guide!

Next stop was out in town to Mikasa Park where there was a curry festival going on with entertainment and lots of food vendors. Damian got some meat on a stick and Rae-Ann and I got chu-hi drinks! We hung out there for a little bit then headed to a few local stores and then out for sushi-go-round sushi which was so delicious! We had Japanese beers, udon soup, and lots of sushi! SIL even tried a few new things... new beginnings! It was definitely the most fun I have has at a sushi-go-round... I sure will miss these things when we leave Japan!

Monday morning we headed out in the morning to explore Tokyo for the day. I wanted to make sure she saw as much of Japan as possible in just a few days! We boarded the trains and headed up to Tokyo from Yokosuka, about an hour and 10 minute ride. First stop was The Tokyo Skytree which is the tallest tower in Japan and only 1 year old... it makes you dizzy just looking up at it from below.... we didn't venture up in it but did take some pictures and look in some of the funky shops around it! Next up was lunch at a vending machine noodle place... so amazing to have a hot lunch for 2 in less than 5 minutes, that you ordered from a vending machine! Classic Japan! After lunch we headed to Asakusa to see the shrine, pagoda, and many beautiful buddha statues around it.

From here we headed to the other side of Tokyo to the Meiji Shrine- one of my favorites! This is one where you walk for awhile on a wooded path before you get to it- very different from Asakusa! At the Meiji Shrine, we filled out a wooden "ornament" that you can buy and leave there with your wishes on it for the gods to read. You can see what we wrote to the left... From here we went to Harajuku- which is a street famous for it's wild fashion and "Harajuku Girls" who dress is some pretty interesting outfits... we were lucky to see so many on a Monday afternoon! After this we went to Shibuya Crossing- one of the busiest crosswalks in the world... and we crossed a few times and checked out the area... including some very interesting love hotels... yikes! A very long day but we packed it all in! Homeward bound to Yokosuka!

The next day we headed to Kamakura, a very historic area in Japan with of course LOTS to see! We started with the Big Buddha and then went to Hase-dera which was Rae-Ann's favorite temple. Amazing views and lots to explore! We had a fun time exploring it together!  We got ice cream... Sweet Potato/Vanilla swirl for SIL and Green Tea/Sweet Potato swirl for me! Then we were off to the major shopping area in Kamakura where we bought lots of unique gifts! and had fun looking in all the shops! Unfortunately everywhere we went was super crowded this day... a true Japanese experience I suppose!

The next day we had our Kimono dressing class that we went to on the base. Lucky for us we were the only 2 students and had the run of the place. Our teacher dressed us up in traditional Japanese Kimonos and taught us all about them as well... everything is very symbolic- right down to the patterns to the length of the sleeves to the different ways they tie the obi. We were able to pic our own Kimonos and Obis (the middle part) which was pretty neat! We had lots of fun with our instructor and took a lot of pictures in silly poses with our props... enjoy a small sampling to your left! The teacher kept telling SIL how cute she was and everything she did was... luckily I taught SIL the Japanese word for "cute" earlier that day!!!

Later that night we all went to a Yokohama Baystars baseball game and had yummy chu-hi's and had fun cheering with all of our new friends! We sat in the bleachers which is the BEST place to sit if you ask me! The chu-hi's went down a little too smooth and the next day was a quiet day for us!

The last day SIL was here visiting we did a few things around the base, then got to go to LT Storz's "hail & farewell" which was really nice... a little long, but they had wine!

It was a great trip and we were definitely sad to see SIL fly back to the U.S. It was an amazing trip and we can't wait to see her again soon!!!

Japanese Word of the Day:
Kawaii (ka-why-ee): Cute
(I know this is a repeat, but it's a good word you can use a lot)

12 Amazing Days in Australia

So, as many of you already know, Damian and I spent 12 amazing days in Australia at the beginning of this month. We were originally supposed to go in March for our anniversary but we had to postpone it due to Damian's deployment... no big deal because we still got to go and had an amazing time!!! Australia is really big... I think we sometimes forget how big it is and forget it is even down there, but it is a very large country and very spread out. We traveled to Cairns (pronounced "Cans"), Melbourne (pronounced "Melbin") and Sydney (pronounced as it is actually spelled)! For those of you not familiar with the land down under I have provided a map for your viewing pleasure to see where we were. Sydney was a 10 hour flight from Tokyo (and only 1 hour time difference for us)- not too bad. We spent a few days in each city and were able to see so much. Also, keep in mind we were there at the beginning of May which is the beginning of Autumn in Australia.... This was hard to get used to as I was ready to break out my summer clothes, pastels, white pants, etc and it's basically how the beginning of September would be for us Northern Hemisphere dwellers.... Oh and one more thing... yes the toilets flush in the opposite direction, but after the first flush it didn't phase us anymore!


Cairns

Sea Temple

We stayed at a little beach town outside of Cairns called Palm Cove. It was really cute and our resort was walking distance to all the restaurants/shops along the beach. As we were checking in they made sure to tell us we could not go swimming because it was still jellyfish season (*not so fun fact: box jellyfish are extremely venomous and a sting can be fatal), and also that we could not walk on the beach at night because of a recent crocodile sighting! What a bummer! It was a really nice resort with lots of trees and a lagoon pool that went around the entire courtyard. It was really nice. We were a little way back from the ocean, but could still hear the waves at night. We got all settled in our room and saw we had a bottle of wine compliments of our amazing Travel Coordinator from Down Under Endeavors. I have to give them a big shout out because our trip was so incredibly amazing and they booked every last detail for us. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting a custom vacation. I truly cannot say enough amazing things about this company! 

The kangaroo whisperer...

Ok, back to the fun stuff... the first day ended up being a free day for us due to a tropical storm on its way. We decided to go to a local zoo owned and operated by a family in Cairns. It as only a 15 minute walk from our hotel so we headed off to Cairns Zoo. The biggest reason we were going here was to cuddle a koala, but there was lots of other great animals to see there as well. This was actually a great first day to our trip because we got to see a lot of the native animals in the zoo before heading out in the wild to see them. 

Buster!!!

Let's talk koalas for a moment... they are marsupials, NOT bears even though they are referred to as "koala bears." They are pretty docile creatures and spend most of their day sleeping and eating eucalyptus (eucalyptus tree is also known as a gum tree) which gives them all the nutrients and water they need. There is a law that koalas cannot be cuddled for more then 30 minutes a day so they really only let you hold them for a minute. Damian and I each got our picture taken with "Buster" the koala who was very cute and very cuddly and then we got a family photo of the 3 of us. They also had a "maternity ward" at the zoo for the baby koalas and the moms- wicked cute! There was a rescue koala at the zoo named "Buttercup" and she only had 3 legs because she was hit by a car, but she lives at the zoo where she is safe and they actually breed her as well! At the zoo we also were able to feed kangaroos which came right up to you and ate out of your hand! We also saw cassowary birds (see below for description), crocodiles, snakes, lizards, wombats, wallabies, and dingos... oh my!

Daintree Rainforest

Afternoon tea by the river

The next day we were off to the Daintree Rainforest for the day. It was a few hour drive from where we were staying but we had lots of stops along the way! It was a pretty cloudy/drizzly day as the tropical storm neared, but what does it really matter if it rains when you're in the rainforest!?! We had a great tour guide who was very knowledgeable of the wildlife and also Australia history and the local area so he had lots of great stories to tell us on our ride. First stop was a riverboat ride down the Daintree River to look for all sorts of wildlife... crocodiles, birds, etc. Because it was a cool day we only saw a few baby crocodiles on the shores as the bigger ones were keeping warm below the surface. We saw some great birds... king fisher, herons, and an ibis. After the river cruise we headed into the rainforest for a little "walkabout." It was really quite beautiful and lush! We had a few other stops as well to see the beautiful scenery. We also stopped along another river and had some tropical fruit tastings... some we liked and some not so much as well as afternoon tea, which I grew quite fond of. 

Cassowary Bird

The Cassowary bird is a very interesting bird and very important bird to the rainforest. Unfortunately they are endangered mostly because they are hit by cars in Australia (see road sign to left). They are so important to the rainforest because they eat some 400+ species of plants, berries, and seeds found in the rainforest and they help to disseminate them around with their droppings. Without these birds, many different types of plants in the rainforest will also become extinct! Although we didn't see any in the wild during our time in the rainforest we knew what to look for because of the one we saw at the zoo.

On our last day in Cairns, we went out to the Outer Great Barrier Reef! We left in the morning and the seas were still very rough from the storm that came through the night before... it was a very quiet ride over on the large boat. It took about 2 hours to get from Cairns out to the Outer part of the reef and Damian and I both needed to take some medication to help calm the seasickness. There were about 60 people on the boat and it was rather large. Half the people SCUBA dived and the other half (us) snorkeled throughout the day! We went to 3 different reef locations and it was all incredible!

The afternoon was better as the sun came out and the water was clear and the coral was absolutely breathtaking. The pictures do not do it justice, but are still pretty cool.
The Great Barrier Reef is truly a natural wonder of the world. I have snorkeled a bunch of times before but never right in the middle of the ocean so I took a floaty noodle with my just in case. It was a little bit exhausting since the waves were still pushing us around, but once you got your face in the water it was all worth it! Trivia Question: What is the only animal you can see from space? Answer: Coral. I love that little tid bit of trivia!

The following day we spent the morning walking on the beach and lounging at the pool, then off to the airport to head to Melbourne which was at the southern part of Australia and much cooler weather!

Melbourne

3 hours later and we landed in Melbourne and it is about 30 degrees cooler than Cairns and raining to boot! According to Luxury Travel magazine, the Langham Hotel in Melbourne is the BEST Australian Hotel for 2013... lucky for us that's where we were staying! Not only was it an amazing hotel, but it was right in the heart of the city and walking distance to everything! We had beautiful views of the river and the riverwalk which was a nice gift from our travel agent! We were tired from traveling and went out for a quick dinner then to bed... the next day started bright and early at 0400!

Up at 0400 on a sleepy Sunday morning in Melbourne to go on a hot air ballon ride over the city. Melbourne is one of the only cities in the world that you can actually do this directly over the downtown part of the city. Silly me, I assumed we would get there, hop in and away we would go.... nope we got the FULL experience, from setting up the balloon, to filling it with air, and then afterwards getting to help break it all down as well. Sort of neat to be there for the entire process. It took quite awhile to fill the ballon and then we were airborne around 0600. It was chilly up there too, but the heat from the hot air kept us warm intermittently! It was a 60 minute flight over the city and we were flying anywhere from 800-2000 feet... it truly is a science with figuring out the winds and where to land etc... There was 10 of us in the ballon and the "driver." Depending on the weather and wind conditions they have over 35 launch sites and landing sites all over the city- pretty neat! It was incredibly to be flying over the city as the sun came up that day. We landed in an open field on the other side of the city and as we were coming down we could see people coming out of their houses in their bathrobes watching us... it was fun to wave to the kids from up there!

We were done with our hot air balloon ride and it was still early Sunday morning so we went to get some breakfast on the river then walked around downtown Melbourne. There were a bunch of street fairs with crafts etc. It reminded me a lot of Seattle with the cool rainy weather and the VERY relaxed attitudes of the people. There was also a "free trade" expo set up that we walked through which was pretty neat... Damian almost bought a pair of sneakers made from recycled plastic bottles... haha! We hung out in the Federation Square area with some coffee and enjoyed some good people watching until the afternoon when we had our next activity scheduled! Federation Square had a bunch of folding chairs that you could grab and sit in... AND free wifi!!! Looks like Damian was quite comfy...

Late afternoon we were off to Phillip Island, about 90 miles southeast of Melbourne to watch the Penguin Parade! We have NO pictures from this Penguin Parade because you are not allowed to take pictures of the penguins since the flash hurts their little penguin eyes! At sunset each night the littlest penguins in the WORLD come ashore in groups to cross the beach and head to their burrows. These little penguins are only about 1 foot tall and weigh around 2 pounds! Seriously the cutest things I have ever seen! Damian and I had VIP seats for the Penguin Parade which meant we got to go to a special bleacher section and watch them pretty close-up waddle across the beach. They cross right around sunset as this provides them protection from predators! The conservation efforts there were pretty impressive as protecting these little penguins was the highest priority. They even count them each night as they come across the beach... the night before we went there was 834 penguins crossing the beach! It was pretty funny watching them "run" across the beach! Very unique experience, once in a lifetime kind of stuff here people! On the ride home we watched a movie on the bus called "The Sapphires" which is based on a true story about a singing group of Australian Aboriginal girls who went to Vietnam to sing for the U.S. troops during the war. I highly recommend this movie!

The next morning we headed off on a food & wine tour of Yarra Valley which was about 1 hour away from Melbourne. We went to countless wineries and paired our wines with lots of cheeses, lunch, and some sweets! At the end of the day we had done 32 wine tastings!!! There were a few full glasses mixed in, but mostly just a few sips each! We had some really great wines at a few of these wineries that we wrote down so we could try to get some once we are settled back in the U.S.! Our favorite vineyard was the Debortoli Winery which is family owned (from Italy) and they also have other wines in other parts of Australia that we could taste! They had more whites than red but we were pleasantly surprised with each one. The BEST part of this winery was the cheeses. There was a delicious marinated goat cheese and then we finished off our tasting with a dessert wine paired with blue cheese, which we usually do not like, but with the wine it was divine! Remember how it is Autumn in Australia at this time of year so the vineyards were all a beautiful golden color!

After our long day of wine tasting we headed back for a quick nap at the hotel and then met up with Damian's friend Mike (from high school) who lives in Melbourne! We had dinner in Chinatown and then went to an uber trendy hipster bar that was pretty much in an alley and the seats were made from wooden pallets! Very cool!

The next day Mike and his friend picked us up and took us off the beaten path to Treefern Gully up in the mountains outside of Melbourne for a little rainforest hike adventure! This area was the inspiration for the 1992 movie "Fern Gully." Within the forest was an area known as William Ricketts Sanctuary. He was a man inspired by the aboriginal people of Australia as well as a strong connection to the earth and created these extremely unique and powerful sculptures out of clay that he incorporated into nature. There were hundreds of his sculptures that were on top of rocks and tree stumps and looked like they belonged there. We then went to the top of Mount Dandenong to see the valley below and the city in the distance.

Thanks Melbourne, it's been fun!


Sydney

The next morning we were off on a quick flight to Sydney for a few days! Once we arrived at our hotel which was in the historic "Rocks" area of the city we didn't waste anytime exploring! Sydney Harbor is absolutely massive, but we were right in the middle of it all and only a few blocks away from the iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge and Sydney Opera House. Our first night we walked down to the Syndey Opera House to explore and watch the sunset from the Opera House Bar. 

The next morning we headed off to the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The bridge is known to be like your "uncle" who get's in all your family pictures.... this is true as no matter where we were in the city you could see a little piece of the bridge sticking out. The bride is the largest steel arch bridge in the world! Built in 1932, this bridge has 6 traffic lanes, 2 rail lanes, a bike lane, and pedestrian walkway... nothing has been added since it opened in 1932.... think about that for a minute... How incredibly progressive of the designer/builders to make it so big. This bridge is truly magnificent if you think about how they built it- without all of the equipment we have today and this bridge will most likely out last the newer bridges being built now! The bridge climb took all together about 3 hours... there was safety briefings, you had to change into the jumpsuit, go through a metal detector, take a quick breathalyzer test and prepare for the climb... We all had safety harnesses and headphones so we could hear our guide as well. Everything had to be attached to you... sunglasses, hats, etc. You could not bring you own camera or anything in your pockets! Once we were up on the bridge the climb wasn't that bad at all... amazing views, a lot of stairs, and a few very steep ladders! At the top we got to make a free 10 sec video... sort of cheesy, but I had to share anyway!

If you ever make it to Sydney put this on your list for sure! After the climb we went out for lunch and beers... Damian had a Kangaroo Burger (yum?) and I stuck to a yummy veggie pumpkin and goat cheese pizza!

Later in the evening we went on a sunset dinner cruise of the harbor. It was great... champagne, wine, good food and amazing views of the city from the water...

The next day we didn't head out on our tour until late morning so we spent our morning in the Sydney Botanical Garden enjoying a nice stroll and some coffee. We wandered through these beautiful gardens for a few hours and finally made our way back to the hotel for our next and sadly our last Australian adventure. We were off on a very unique wildlife tour!

This wildlife tour was so awesome! First of all there were only 4 of us and a guide which definitely made the experience even better and personalized and it was extremely interactive! We had to drive a ways to get out into the bush at first, but then we were able to get out and walk around looking for wildlife. During the late afternoon we spotted emus, deer, wallabies, and kanagaroos... then we all got out of the vehicle and walked looking up in the trees for koalas. Our guide finally spotted one after looking for about an hour and we were able to see it clearly with binoculars! It was so high up, but it was awake and moving around a little... so cute! We also got to check out a GIANT wombat hole where they sleep during the day! I called out to Mr. & Mrs. Wombat, but no one answered... go figure!

Next we headed out to a giant field where we patiently waited for the sun to go down and all the animals to come out and play. Many of Australia's animals are nocturnal so a daytime tour would have been a waste of time! Once it got dark we all go "torches" or as we call them in America... flashlights! They were giant flashlights and we were all hanging out of the vehicle shining the lights and looking for beady little eyes to pop out at us... you wouldn't even believe how many animals came out at night! It was almost overwhelming because everywhere we shined our lights there were a bunch of animals! Damian and I spotted a mother wombat and her baby which was so cool to watch them. We were able to get pretty darn close too without scaring them away- the lights didn't bother them very much.

The kangaroos were just about everywhere we looked! And we were even able to catch 2 of them "fighting" or playing around! You can even see the one standing on his tail while he kicks the other one... such a classic kangaroo move! ha! One of the best things about being out in the wide open bush away from the rest of the world was the stars... they were so bright and the milky way was like I had never seen before. Our tour guide pointed out the southern cross and a few other constellations. We turned our lights out for a bit and just took it all in. It was an awesome ending of a great vacation and adventure together!

So many people have asked us what the best part of our trip was and honestly it is hard to say... we did so many different and unique things that you can't really compare them to each other. We went from the beach to the bush.... from above the city to below the ocean... a truly unforgettable trip!

Upon arriving back from Japan- our SIL was waiting at the airport in Tokyo to greet us... stay tuned for our adventures with her!!!