Road trip and catch-up

Ok, ok... it's been a long gap but I swear it will be worth it.

After the last post, we took the ferry out to Manly so that Scotty could have a songwriting session with the husband of one of the Klick ladies, and I wandered around on the beach and had an excellent curried egg salad sandwich from the Manly Deli. After Scotty finished working we wandered around a bit more, saw Manly beach, and then headed home on the ferry. The next day was pretty uneventful. The weather wasn't terribly nice so I stayed in and did a lot fo reading. I'm sure we did something both those nights, but I don't remember what exactly. We went for pho one night.

Manly beach:















Bluebottle! Ew, and ow, if it gets you:















Friday we left for our road trip. We got a slightly later start than we meant to, but had a really nice drive down the coast. We stopped in Kiama for a late lunch, but just missed the kitchen being open at the hotel on Manning St. The bartender suggested the bakery down the street, Sevbak, and boy were we not disappointed. They had the best meat pies we've had here (mince pies are super-popular late night food in Sydney), and really good cookies too. We went to see the Kiama blowhole, which is a place where, when the waves hit strong enough down below, water shoots up through a tunnel in the rock.

Views from the road:















We continued down the coast and took a quick break at Jervis Bay. Whales often stop into the bay with their calves on the way down south for the summer, so we got out and looked from a hill. The only place Scotty found any was in the swimming pool nearby.

Jervis Bay:
















Scotty whale-watching:















The highlight of the day was stopping at Pebbly Beach about an hour before sunset. Pebbly Beach is next to Murramarang National Park, and is an area where kangaroos come down to graze at night. Although they're wild animals and you're not encouraged to feed or pet them, some of them are pretty friendly and we were able to get super close. Most of the babies were old enough to be out on their own, but one mother 'roo had a joey in her pouch, so it fulfilled every childrens-book based idea about kangaroos we'd ever had in our lives, except for those involving boxing.

There were also these cute little parrots running around:















Mama 'Roo:



















This guy just hopped right up to us and smelled Scotty:















This little joey let me pet his tail:















We stayed the night at an Ecopoint resort near Pebbly Beach, and really wish we could have had more time there. It was a mix of cabins and campsites, but with a nice pool, beach, bar, and restaurant, and lots of cool activities that we didn't get there early enough for, like kayaking. We had this HUGE possum on our deck that night. Here's his butt:
















The next morning we stopped in Batemans Bay for camera batteries, breakfast, and to find some wi-fi. It was our longest driving day and we were heading inland. We stopped in Canberra, Australia's capitol, and took a tour of their crazy futuristic parliament building. Canberra is a planned city, built along the lines laid out by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin, both of who came from Frank Lloyd Wright's workshop (after being horribly mistreated by him, naturally). It's an interesting city in regards to how thoroughly planned it is, but it's terrible to walk anywhere and everything is hidden in parks except for Parliament and the War Memorial, which we unfortunately did not get to see.

Parliament Funkadelic:















The view from Parliament to the War Memorial:















I'll start from there next post.

Best day in the park ever

So, I'm crazy about these bats right? And today I found the place where they nest. And I realize something the bats and I have in common, which is absolute ferocity when woken up. They kept bumping each other and waking up and yapping at each other and then climbing further away in a huff and curling back up to go to sleep. It was like looking in the mirror.
















Then I saw a big ol' frogmouth, just hanging out a foot off the path.















And then a mob of 20 cockatoos landed and started picking food out of the grass and fighting over an apple. They also intimidated an ibis and forced him to run away. They're bossy little dudes.





























How could anyone ever not love this city?

Our last Sydney weekend

The next couple weeks are going to have a lot of travel, so this was our last Sydney weekend. We started out by going to a suburb called Glebe, which is almost a tiny little Portland... lost of good international food and cafes, and a street market selling crafts, clothes, food and jewelry. We wandered around there for a while, and then headed out to Bondi Beach to meet Kim and her husband, Karl, and some of their friends for drinks. This is the week of the Melbourne Cup, so most bars have their TVs set on all the races leading up to the big day on Tuesday.

Kim, Karl, and Lori on the beach:















Scotty with the two Tims (Aussie travel personalities and clients of Kim's) and Ed and his moustasche:















Kim and Karl headed home, and we went for some kebabs and falafel at Bondi before heading home. We were suddenly reminded that it was Halloween on the bus home. It's really not a big holiday down here.






































We got back to the hotel, put on our moustaches, and headed down the street to a bar, but no one there was dressed up... nor were they amused by our moustaches. Oh well.

Sunday we walked across the Harbour Bridge. It made me appreciate how insane it was to build an eight lane steel bridge in 1932. The thing is massive! And only cost 16 lives... not bad when you consider they had no safety equipment. When they were getting ready to open it, they loaded it with a couple hundred locomotive engines to make sure it would bear enough weight. It did, and it has. And it's provided some pretty amazing views as well.















At the other end of the bridge is Luna Park:



















It's basically Coney Island, if Coney Island had never gone all seedy (for the record, I love Coney Island). That doesn't mean it's not demented though. They were playing instrumental versions of murder ballads in the children's area, and there are a number of creepy telenovela-style portraits scattered around the rides.

I believe Scotty has a Luna Park video in the works, so I won't spoil anything else for you.

We took the ferry from Luna Park to Darling Harbour and went to Sydney Wildlife World, which includes koalas who have lost so much of their instinct that they'll sleep on the floor:



















And really scary spiders so that you'll never want to walk in anyone's yard here ever again:



















We saw an extremely hyper cassowary and lounged around with the 'roos.















Scotty climbed this cassowary statue at his own risk.



















This is the least obscene picture I have of this guy, who sat around scratching his belly and nards for most of our visit.















Sunday night we went for pasta at a place called Bill & Toni's, and had a good cannoli and coffee at the cafe downstairs afterwards. We then went for a walk with our stated destination being Mrs. Macquarie's chair, but we got distracted by the flying foxes (aka GIANT BATS) in the Domain and never made it. They're really spectacular at dusk... some have wingspans of almost 3 feet. We watched they for a while and then walked down the fleet steps to a pretty night view of Sydney, and eventually wandered home.

Stick bugs for Nate!

We saw these ones at Sydney Wildlife World. They let you pet them. They're the largest stick bugs in the world. The huge green ones are females, and the little skinny guys are males.

Last two days, in brief

Yesterday: Scotty worked. I had a homebody day because it was drizzly again and I was suffering from severe museum fatigue. At night we went and saw "This Is It" at a fancy little art house theater, with drinks beforehand at the only cheap bar we've found.

Today: Scotty worked. I figured out the buses and went to Bondi Beach since it was beautiful out. I was all settled on my towel and thinking about how the sound of the waves sort of muffled all the other noise, and how peaceful that made everything, when the people behind me started blasting their Motley Crue. It just made it fun in a whole other way.































I wish I'd gotten a full-butt shot of this guy... his suit said "BONDI" on the back. Very cute.



















We went to drinks with the Klick team, and just got back so I can't tell you what else we've done today.

Oh, and I just thought these trees were pretty:

Walking day

The rain finally let up today, and so while Scotty went in for his second day in the office, I, like the lady of leisure that I am, went for two long jaunts. The first was a walk to Potts Point and Kings Cross, by way of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

I hadn’t planned on going in, but I noticed it was free, so, y’know, why not. And I know I come from the museum world, but I was totally thrilled by the place. At least half of the museum is dedicated to modern and contemporary art, and they do an amazing job of showcasing Australian contemporary artists right alongside the Alselm Kiefers and Bill Violas of the world. There are great collections of Aboriginal and Asian art of various flavors. They also had some clever and fun installations built around the statues in front of the building. See photo below.




















After that I walked down around Wooloomooloo Bay and up a big set of Stairs to Potts Point, which is a ritzy little neighborhood with some nice cafes. I had a killer coffee and tuna salad sammitch, and them walked down through Kings Cross and back home to our hotel.

My afternoon walk was out to Glebe, which is Sydney’s own little Portland, with hippie kids and a University and coffee shops and cheap eats everywhere. No Dutch tacos or bacon maple bars or fried marionberry pies though.

In the evening we went to dinner with Scotty’s uncle (read: friend of his dad) Larry, and we finally made it to Surry Hills for a proper dinner of Japanese food and gelato afterwards. Success! At long last! Scotty and I took turns getting freaked out riding up front on the passenger side (the left side) of Larry’s car, where by all rights there should have been a steering wheel, but there wasn’t, and we kept making turns that felt horribly wrong and disorienting. God help us on our road trip.

Australian Museum

Natural history! Birds! Spiders! Holy shit, a whole lot of spiders!

This is the one I'm most concerned about:















But I wouldn't like to see this one either, even though it's harmless.
















Or this one:















Or this giant wasp:
















These I'm ok with:















































All of the bug specimens bring up a question: why are museums still doing the pin-a-bug-to-a-card thing? Surely technology has advanced far enough to give us improved methods of displaying dead insects? Or is it just for the sake of old-timey aesthetics?

And to everyone who ever tried to send me on a snipe hunt... eat it. I found one.