April 07 - a little travel!

We have great news from back home! Polly's younger brother Joe has gotten engaged to Sara! We're so excited for them. The have quite a few busy months ahead of them while they change jobs, move to Marietta, buy a house, Joe find a job, and figure out how to live together. :) I thought only Polly and I would ever try to cram so much in short periods of time. Best of luck you two! Congratulations!

I love April. Perfect weather, and lots of public Holidays. Australia still celebrates Good Friday and Easter Monday as Holidays. Also, April 25th is Anzac Day, marking the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for the Australia and New Zealand Army Corp. There are lots of symbols of Anzac here, there's an amazing bridge that we use to get into the city, as well as Anzac cookies!

We took advantage of the Easter Holidays and went north to Port MacQuarie for a wonderful long weekend. It was about 5 hour drive, and it was a very chilled beach town with simply amazing beaches. The water was warm so we swam, did a long afternoon canoe, and just walked around the town.


We also went to see a Koala Hospital, as well as the Billabong Nature park where we got to pet the Koalas as well as feed and pet the kangaroos. They are so cute! Polly digs the Koala lifestyle...they sleep like 18 hours a day!



We wrapped up April with a weekend trip to the Blue Mountains, about a 1.5 hour drive to the West. They are absolutely beautiful, and are named the "blue" mountains due to the hue of blue from the eucalyptus trees. We took a few nice hikes, and did a few touristy things as well. A group of 11 of us rented a house just a short walk from one of the nice trails that had cliffside views. Pete, thanks for organizing!


Blue Mountains:

View of the famous "3 Sisters", and of course, a shot for Stephanie:




On our way back to Sydney, Polly and I stopped at Featherdale Nature Center and got to play with more animals. I think it was the first time I've seen a Bald Eagle up close. What magnificent animals they are!

Bald Eagle, and Polly with her favorite Australian animal:

Happy Feet, and a sign I'm sure just to tease the Americans:

Look closely and you can see a little Joey peeking out!

This guy needs to talk to Jenny Craig.

Polly's work deals are working out great. Between the 5 different employers, she works full time. She's had a few offers for full time work, but in the boating industry, that means a lot of weekends, and she in my opinion wisely has stayed away from that. She's been working Saturdays as well to save up, as she plans not to work while her parents are here in June. After her parents' visit, she may look into something fulltime. We are very much looking forward to their visit.