Gold Coast

Wow has it been a busy week! We started with going to the Gold Coast on Tuesday which is in Queensland and we stayed in Broad Beach. Now I've been to two states in Australia! We flew out on Tuesday afternoon and when we arrived let me just tell you how nice the weather was! OH yeah and also when we got on and off the plane we literally walked outside and walked up a flight of stairs to get on the plane. When we got to our apartment/hotel it was nice, a bit on the older side but not bad. We went to dinner on Tues at a nice Italian place and had really good food. We were both wearing jeans and T-shirts and people were looking at us like we were insane! Because it is their winter over they are all bundled up even when it's only 70 degrees outside.. pathetic! Wednesday we shopped for about 5 hours but to my defense it was a HUGE mall! And we went out to Cavill Ave that night to a pub called O'Malley's and wathched the Rugby State of Origin. Basically there are three state of origin games through out the year and it's Queensland vs. New South Wales. Wed night was the final game of the three so it was fun to watch. Rugby is seriously intense and they all beat each other up. I LOVE IT! Thurs we just toured some more and flew back home. I snapped quite a few pics along the way here's a small glimpse. Our hotel Local Beach First night at Uno the Italian restaurant Our complimentary milk HAHA! Sweet, right?! Some really good people watching here! Surfer's Paradise

Fingal Bay

After Nelson Bay we continued driving and first we went up to the top of this hill that overlooked Nelson Bay, let me just say it's gorgeous! You could see everything it was really awesome. Then we went to Fingal Bay and I ate my first scallops and chips aka french fries. The scallops were really good, just a flat potato that's fried, how could it not be good right? We walked on the beach after our snack and again the sand is amazing. The sun came out for a few minutes but was behind clouds most of the time. I also saw a blue bottle which is essentially a small jelly fish. It was washed up on the shore and looked really cool, apparently they can be deadly, yikes! Tomorrow we are going to the Gold Coast for two nights, and rumor has it that it's going to be about 20 celsius.. about 70 I think so Im pretty thrilled about that. We'll put up some pictures when we get back. This is a picture overlooking Nelson Bay and Fingal Bay. Here is a Blue Bottle that I was talking about. It seems as though some had washed up to shore during some storms. Great camera work Jimmy!

Trip to Nelson Bay

We went up to Nelson Bay on Saturday and on the way is an animal park that we stopped at to see kangaroos, koalas, sheep, etc. We were seriously the only people in the entire park that were above the age of ten and didn't have kids. The park was really muddy because of all the rain we've had so our shoes were awful looking! We were able to feed sheep, baby lambs, goats, camels, kangaroos, horses, and pigs. I stayed away from the pigs they were gross! I was nervous to feed the camel and was going to chicken out until Jimmy told me, "Jill when will you ever get to feed a camel again, just do it!" So I did and Im glad, his mouth was like a suction cup and it took him about 2.5 seconds to eat all the food out of my hand. Right as we were leaving we found this hilarious "cut out" family.. Merd and I couldn't resist! We had so much fun and here's some proof. How cute is he! Look at the little Joey in the pouch They really loved Jimmy..only b/c he had food! Gotta love this one! This Kangaroo is sitting exactly like Belle! Directly on his ass! Greedy Bastard! He was literally climbing over the fence to get Jimmy's food. To think that we were petting cute little Lambs and the following night Jimmy had Lamb Shanks for dinner! He was joking that it was the cute little white one that Merd is feeding. Sad.

Newcastle

From the second we got into the car in Sydney I have been super picture happy! I try to keep it ready because I don't want to miss anything! Merd drove me around Newcastle today and I must say she does a pretty good job of driving on the other side of the car and road. I saw some beaches and even walked on the amazing sand! I feel like my dad just cut some wood with his saw and dumped it onto the beach. It feels like dust and doesn't even stick to your feet. I exchanged $500 and got $605 Australian dollars.. not too bad when you get more than you gave them! Their money feels waxy and so much more clean and colorful than ours. WE all know how obsessed with cars I am so I had to take a picture of a Toyota Prado AKA a Lexus GX470 back home. So weird! Oh yeah and the Acura TSX at home is a Honda Accord/Euro here. Last but not least Rusti the labradoodle next door is so cute! This is how she hangs out during the day, and she never barks! That is my kind of dog :) Oh yeah this is Jill writing by the way. Here is my Australian money that I exchanged over today. You have all of the bills from 50 to 5 and then they have 1 dollar and 2 dollar coins in addition to 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent and 50 cent coins. Here is the car I was talking about. Here we are in front of Dixon Park (one of the 5 beaches that Merd took me to). First time that I felt Australian sand...did you know that they transport sand to Hawaii??? It literally feels like saw dust! Here is Merd driving. She started laughing when I said that I wanted to take a picture. It is weird right? Last but not least, here is what they call the Newcastle penis. It is a look out over Noby's Beach.

Goodbye California

So Jill and I flew out on Tuesday from LAX and went directly to Sydney. Our flight was a little over an hour delayed so we ended up taking off about 1:20AM and arrived around 8:30AM on Thursday Sydney time. Jill was upgraded to premium economy but I wasn't so we regretfully declined so we could sit together in Economy. BAD IDEA! After about two hours we were both wishing we had bigger seats, even if they weren't next to each other. As soon as we were able to use our TVs in the headrests, I found out that mine didn't even work. I asked one of the attendants to reset it and they did twice and it still didn't work. I was in the middle seat and next to a guy that felt he needed to take up the entire arm rest so I felt claustrophobic the entire time. We missed out on our Cadbury Hot Chocolate, both of our snacks in between meals, and didn't receive the sleep masks while everybody else had one. I got fed up about 2 1/2 hours into the flight and took a sleeping pill and didn't see Jill for another 5 hours. So much for sitting next to one another! Anyways, we learned our lesson and will never decline a upgrade again! On a brighter note, here are some pics of us on our way :)

1 day!

Jimmy is literally packing the car as I write...we are headed down to Sydney and it is now less than 24 hours before we take off! I am so excited that I don't think I will even sleep at all tonight!

3 days and counting...

So I officially am done with Hunter Water as of yesterday. I now am at home for two more days and then off to Sydney. It is only Thursday and I am starting to pack. It is weird to think that I will only be packing mostly summer clothes considering it is 9 degrees Celcius today. Translation...around high 40's F. A bit cold for me to say the least. Anyways, Jimmy told me today that no matter how soon I get done packing we are both leaving at the same time. :) I just am getting too excited and can't wait! Off to packing, but I will see you all very soon!

3 Weeks!

Just wanted to let you all know that it is now down to 3 weeks until I come home. I am so excited it is basically all I think about. I have been out of work now for a month, but got a call from the agency on Friday telling me that Hunter Water wanted me back for a week. I go back to work tomorrow which means that I am not sitting around the house with nothing to do. My mind will be occupied for a week with work stuff so then I will only have to worry about the two weeks I will have left which will fly by! See you all soon.

Byron Bay

This past weekend, Jimmy and I went up north to a place called Byron Bay. The reason we went in the first place was because he was doing another triathlon...I know, he is a little exercise crazy right? The triathlon over the weekend was Olympic distance and he finished the race in 2 hrs 42 minutes. But just to back track a little, on the way up to Byron (all 8 hours of the drive) we passed by two "Big" items. Apparently they have these all over Australia. The first one we came across was the Big Banana. Pretty big right? The next one along the drive that we passed was the Big Prawn. They don't call them shrimp here...so that line on the movie Dumb and Dumber isn't correct..."Let's put another shrimp on the barb-e." Anyways, back to the Prawn... After I got done taking those tourist pictures, there was more to come when we got into Byron because it is the most Eastern part of the Australian Mainland...as you will see the picture... This lighthouse was where the photo above was taken. You will see in the following picture that you can follow the path all the way down to the water. This is just another picture of Me and Jimmy at another lighthouse...sort of a tradition now. So, back to the triathlon. This one provided bibs to wear (the top he is wearing is called a bib or a singlet) and let me tell you it was hilarious because it was a little short and tight. After we had a good laugh, he started his race and 2 hrs and 42 minutes later he crossed the finish line. I was so proud of him I had to just give him a hug...sweaty and all. He decided to take a picture of that moment and I have to say I think it is our best picture yet. Although I tell Jimmy that he is crazy almost on a daily basis, I support everything that he is doing with the triathlons. Byron Bay was the one he wanted to finish most of all and he did in good time might I add. So Jimmy, when does the training for the first half Iron Man start? :)

Manly

On Saturday night James and I met up with some friends for dinner in Manly (which is a place in Sydney). We went to a Tapas restaurant and can I just say there was a lot of food and 2 jugs of Sangria and nothing was left on the table. Leave it to our group to dominate all of the food and drinks! Anyways, James set up the reservation and when we got there the waitress said that it was made for Sunday instead of Saturday. Through all of the drama, we finally got a table and we ended up sharing it with another party of five. A little strange at first but it worked out really well. It was a great time. This is my friend Meg. Oh, I can't forget Doyle in the corner... Here is Me and Jimmy. Doesn't he look handsome? :-)