First Weekend Away... Newcastle!

Chris and I decided to take our first weekend trip away. There was actually a motivating factor behind this trip. Chris has decided to get his motorcycle license and had to take a class. The first class that was available was in Newcastle, NSW which is about 2 hours north of Sydney.

We headed up early Saturday morning and arrived in Newcastle just in time to drop by the Bed & Breakfast that Chris booked for us. He should most definetely NOT be a travel agent! (Just kidding Chris... the place was perfect... for a good laugh now!)

The couple who started the Bed & Breakfast were very sweet. They told us about all the hotspots in Newcastle (that was a short conversation), recommended a couple of beaches to go to (beaches were AMAZING in this town), made us breakfast in the morning and showed us pictures of their children.

Before I get into the stories of their children, i'll show ya a couple pics from my drive/walk along the beaches of Newcastle (while Chris was riding his motorcycle around a parking lot).


My first stop was Bar Beach where I grabbed my beach chair (please note: this beach chair was previously used as our "couch" in the apartment), vegged out and just read my book. If you haven't read Eat, Pray, Love yet, I highly recommend it!


Next I went to Nobby's Beach. The sand was white, the water was blue and clear to the bottom, the waves were big and the beach was surprisingly NOT too crowded!

I grabbed my camera and walked along the water toward the lighthouse and the jetty. I met this really nice girl named Marney on my walk. We ended up meeting up with her later at a local bar that was right on the water.

So it was about 4pm and time for me to go pick Chris up. When I got there, he was still in his class... Here's a little preview**:



**Please note that this does NOT mean I approve or want him riding a motorcycle (especially because the FIRST thing he does is run over a cone)!!!

We ended up going to dinner at a place called Goldberg's on Saturday night. It was delish. Sunday we decided to head upto Nelson Bay (about 45 minutes up North). We didn't stay very long, but take a look at what we found!!!



By the way... You know you're in Australia when you see this on the side of the road:



I've had some issues with this blog posting, and i'm getting annoyed, so i'm going to take a break and finish more later and put a link to the rest of our pics... Stay tuned! We still have funny pics of the B&B owners...

Dr. Marvin, I'M SAILING!!!

It was a friend's birthday this past weekend so we rented a sailboat to take us through the harbor. It was Sydney at it's finest! It has been raining here for days, and someone must have been looking over us because the weather was beautiful for our Sailing adventure!

Here's a preview of our trip...

Sydney at sunset:



Reverse Titanic:



Chris and Casino Boat:



Ummm...Which way to the beach boys?



The Crew...



Click here for more pics!

American Gangster.... Sydney Style!

Last night Chris, myself, Scott (from Scotland), his wife Laura, Reegan and Inga went to go see American Gangster at the Open Air Cinema. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it is potentially one of the best places in the world i've ever seen a film! It's a great place to watch a movie as it's RIGHT on the water across from the Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House and the CBD (Central Business District). To give you an idea of our view...



We arrived around 7pm and sat down at their outdoor bar/restaurant to enjoy the view, some food and wine getting ready for the screening to begin...



As most of you know, I have just a bit of trouble concentrating on much for an extended period of time. So with the view, the bats flying across the city (which thousands of them do every night) and cockatoos flying around and chirping away it was a little difficult to focus on the movie at first. However, for those of you who haven't seen the movie... I highly recommend it!

Here's a quick little preview of our experience:



To top the movie night off, it began raining for the last 15-20 minutes of the movie. It was actually pretty funny. They handed out ponchos and everyone was just chillin' in the rain and watching the American Gangsta!

Titanic...Minus the cold and the iceberg

Do not be confused! This is not me on the Titanic...



Chris and I headed to a friends house for dinner on Saturday night and took the local ferry over. My friend actually rides this ferry to work every morning... What a commute!

Take a look at some more pics here of our ride over during the day and Sydney at night from the harbour!

This is one of my favorite shots...

Back by popular demand (and some complaints from our audience)... we now introduce the Didgeridoo!

Due to some nasty fanmail* that was received regarding the lack of posting over the past week, I'm happy to say that we are back in full force**. Anything for our audience!

This past weekend was quite an exciting one in Australia. It was Australia Day on 26/1/08 (That's January 26, 2008 for those of you in America). Here's a brief little history on Australia's equivalent celebration to July 4th in the US:

Australia Day, celebrated annually on 26 January, is the official national day of Australia, commemorating the establishment of the first European settlement on the continent of Australia. The date is that of the foundation of a British penal colony at Sydney Cove on Port Jackson, New South Wales, by Captain Arthur Phillip, who was to become the first Governor. Australia Day is an official public holiday in all states and territories of Australia, and has also been known as Anniversary Day, Foundation Day and Invasion Day.

For you history buffs please click here for more information.

Now let's get to the fun part... Australia Day is quite a display of proud Australians wearing flags and/or painting flags on their faces, lots of parties, lots of open markets with arts, crafts and food, lots of tall ship races in the harbor, lots of music, lots of excitement and LOTS of fireworks! (Please note that Sydney is OBSESSED with fireworks and pretty much sets them off for any reason).

We spent Saturday walking around the city where we started by watching some traditional aboriginal dancing down by the botanical gardens. It's called the Woggan-ma-gule. This ceremony honours the traditional Gadigal custodians of the Eora Nation, and gives recognition to the original shoreline of Sydney Harbour.



Next we walked up through "The Rocks" which is an area with cute shops, bands playing on the street, fun pubs and people dressed up EVERYWHERE.



We then taught Chris how to play a didgeridoo - see below:



Proceeded to Hyde Park where there was a vintage car show, food and more... Here we are getting into the spirit with "Tomato Sauce" (otherwise known as ketchup).



I don't have the rest of the pictures of fireworks that our neighbor took, but feel free to look around at some other pics of the festivities from Australia Day 2008!

Click here for more pics.

We miss everyone and hope to speak with you all soon!!

*Don't worry Sims family, I won't mention the specifics on who the nasty fanmail came from... but, watching the toilet flush 5,200 times? You really do miss us in California huh?