Our Road Trip to Melbourne

Hello everyone...i just spent about an hour writing all about our excursions with many pictures and descriptions...and for some unknown reason, it shut off and deleted it...so this is going to be less thorough and you can blame the internet cafe for this unfortunate event.

On another note, Lauren and I just got back from a wonderful week-long trip to Melbourne. We spent the first 2 days driving down the coast from Sydney, past Melbourne, and on to a town at the end of the Great Ocean Road (one of the most beautiful stretches of coast in the world just west of Melbourne). On the third day, we drove down the Great Ocean Road back into Melbourne. All along the way, we stopped to eat, explore, watch the tennis matches, etc.


(Jervis Bay...our first stop after leaving Sydney. Some of the most turquoise waters known for dolphin spotting...although we didnt see any)


(we took many pictures of road signs along the way...we finally got this one showing the distance to Melbourne after about 5 other failed attempts)


(DAY 2: At Kings Lake, one of the many lakes in Lakes Enterance, the town we stopped in and stayed our first night)


(Laura and Lauren with their new lifeguard friends in Geelong, a city about an hour west of Melbourne. We stopped here to eat lunch and watch Roddick beat Fish on our second day)



(The Great Ocean Road...Bay of Islands and the famous 12 Apostles (just above)


(The view from the windy windy road, which Laura so wonderfully mastered, as though she were a real local...yes i will toot my own horn. no pun intended)


On day 4 of our trip, but our first day in Melbourne, we went to the Australian Open. We got to see men's doubles semifinals, and the womens singles semifinals...Serena Williams v. Nicole Vaidisova and Kim Clijsters v. Maria Sharapova. We tried desperatly to see the Roddick v. Federer semifinal, but they were sold out and so we instead watched on a huge screen in the beer garden of the Aussie Open grounds. Looking back, we are quite pleased that we did not spend $120 to see Roddick get his ass handed to him in straight sets.


(A really really awkward picture of us in front of Rod Laver Arena. and yes, parker IS holding that hat, which she proceded to purposely leave in the hostel. She wanted a floppy hat, but according to her, "it flopped in all the wrong places")


(Hanging out in the Heineken beer garden)


(Serena after her win against Vaidisova)


(Sharapova v. Clijsters)


(so hot! poor andy..)

The rest of our trip consisted of celebrating Australia Day on the 26th, and exploring the city and the St. Kilda area, where our hostel was, oh and finding Lauren another nose ring, due to the tragic loss of her old one on Australia Day.


(Australia Day!!)

Keeping it Classy: Boxed wine and Porridge

Well, it is official...we realized last night that we had reached a low point when our dinner consisted of really really mushy oatmeal and boxed "soft dry red" wine (its not even classy enough to have a specific grape name!). Upon tentatively planning our itinteray for the rest of our time here, we realized that we are going to need a lot of money...so we have decided to cut back on the less imprortant things (like good meals). We have not been grocery shopping since before christmas, so we had to make do with what little food we had (we had leftover oats from the apple cobbler i made). The only food we currently have is the always delicious oats, soy sauce, cheddar cheese, and olive oil....so what it comes down to is that we try to work a lot, not only to make money, but to get free meals when we work. I think we may cave soon, however, and head to the market.

Anyway, on another, more interesting note...here is a rough itinerary of our future travels:

january 22-28th: melbourne for the australian open and australia day
feb-march: our last month in coogee (kinda sad)
march-april 15th: driving up the east coast in our van...then heading into the outback and red center
april 15th-25th: back in sydney for Laura's parent's visit
april 25th-may 1st: tasmania
may 1-15: new zealand
may 15-end of june: japan, china, thailand, indonesia
end of june: back to cali

Now you see why we really need to save up...good thing we heard that beers are only 25 cents in thailand!

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2007!! We rang in the new year together (Lauren arrived back from Perth on the morning of new years eve) at the best firework viewing point in Sydney, Mrs. Macquarie point. It is one of the only places in Sydney where you can see the opera house and the harbour bridge right behind it. Laura had to work until 4pm on new years eve, so our roomates were kind enough to save a plot of grass for Lauren, Laura and Josh (who also had to work) until we got there at 7pm...they had already been there for 12 hours because the place gets packed with people really early! Fireworks were set off the bridge and 6 other barges in the harbour so that everywhere you looked there was a synchronized display of fireworks...it was quite impressive...here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.


Josh, Laura, Lauren, Steph, and Eve at our picnic area while waiting to ring in the new year.

our amazing view of the opera house and the harbour bridge! (thanks roomies for holding down the fort for us!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!