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Thanks and Happy New Year!
~jenn

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Peppermint Palms Christmas

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Nothing to do but wait

 

After a rather enlightening birthing class this weekend, Matt and I are finally realizing the magnitude of what is to come.  Oh yeah, sure, we’re really looking forward to all the baby stuff, but is there any way we can skip the birth part?  Matt would probably also like to skip the teenage years as well if that’s an option.

The hospital bag is packed. Doctors and midwives appointments are scheduled.  The cot is set up.  Decorations are on the wall.  The grandparent’s flights are booked.  Baby Schuck has been given explicit instructions not to arrive before Nana gets here on Sept 30^th.  But then again we all know how well they listen to instructions (I’m liking Matt’s preference to skip the teen years more and more.)

So, what have we been up to aside from birthing classes and midwife appointments?  Well, we’ve been eating good!  My cooking skills continue to improve.  There were strawberries for sale at the market this weekend so we bought a carton and made some strawberry pie.  Have to say, this was my best pie crust yet.  Look how yummy it was.  I’m having a hard time waiting for Matt to come home at night, I really want to go in the kitchen and eat it all by myself.

I’m also getting pretty good at homemade pizzas.  Truth is, that was sort of a matter of necessity.  I am not a big fan of the pizzas here because even if you tell them to burn the crust, it still comes out undercooked.  So, we’ve been making our own.  Thick crusts, thin crusts, honey wheat crusts.  We’re still learning, but it’s been a tasty journey.

 

We’ve also made a new friend.  This is Sir Clamington.  He’s been keeping me company this week.  I’ve been scanning the beaches, super eager to find a shell that still had both sides and really hoping one with a pearl would just magically wash onto the shore.  I’m pretty psyched just to watch my little clam blow bubbles and today he came out to say hello!  Check out the video.

I’ve had a touch of the nesting syndrome.  We found some cute Noah’s ark wall stickers to decorate the baby area and I’ve washed and folded all the clothes and linens.  I even taught myself how to knit and am making a soft fluffy baby blanket.

The due date is one month from today.  We’re still not telling our name options, so don’t ask.  Hopefully the next update will be from not just the two of us, but we three!

Until then, take care out there!

Melbourne and The Great Ocean Road

Matt and I decided to squeeze in one last vacation before the baby comes.  Melbourne was on my must-see list, so off we went.  It was only a 3 day weekend, but I think we did pretty good for only spending two days of sight-seeing. 

The trip started a bit rough.  I decided to forgo my usual pre-trip organization which includes printing maps from the airport, hotel and air confirmation numbers, etc.  Perhaps it was less of a decision than the fact that my brain doesn't seem to work as well these days.  When we went to pick up our rental car, they were none to impressed with me.  I'd forgotten to change over my account into my married name and (silly me) only brought my Australia drivers license.  I did have my marriage certificate, but seeing as the girl wasn't bright enough to open it before declaring it didn't have my name on it, I don't think she really cared.  After some convincing she let us go.  I find it funny that I had to show 4 types of identification to rent a car and the airline never asked for ID once.

So, we're in our rental car and Matt asks if I brought the GPS.  Nope, failed again.  It's now about 11pm and we see a Hilton hotel off the freeway.  Home sweet home!  Except, we miss the exit.  Turns out the exit signs downtown aren't labeled the same as the google maps on my phone.  So, a detour threw downtown and a random breathe test later we arrive at the hotel.  Only they can't find our reservation.  Turns out there are two Hiltons and we just didn't go far enough.  The desk clerk did print direction, but Melbourne just isn't easy to navigate.  We checked in to our real hotel sometime after midnight and all's well that ends well, we'd been upgraded to a suite!

Saturday was city tourism day.  There's a free tram that goes along the outer loop of City Centre.  Our first stop was the markets, naturally.  There were so many market stalls we could have spent the entire day there.  Anything you wanted, you could get: leather goods, new clothing, vintage clothing, baby goods, toys, knick knacks, you name it.  We gave up after 20 or so aisles.  We never even made it to the food or wine stalls. 

One of the coolest things about Melbourne was the cultural districts.  We knew which one we wanted to hit over any other: the Greek district.  It's not easy to get good Greek food in Australia but we couldn't have been more pleased with Stalactites.  We love a good gyro!  There were some beautiful patisseries in the greek district too, I just didn't have enough room in my poor squished belly.

Next we walked down to the shopping district.  I loved how every alley way was taken advantage of.  If an alley wasn't occupied by a sweet hidden bar then it was  packed full of cafe's and eateries.  My favorite spot was the Block Arcade.  A covered shop-filled hall with beautiful European decor.  It also had a chocolate shop and the Hopetoun Tea Room.  The tearoom was established in 1891 and had a line that went around the block.

Sunday was driving day.  No need for GPS this time, just a long windy highway.  It was a rainy day, but all was forgiven since everywhere we looked you could see a rainbow or two.  We decided to take it easy on the camera this trip, since we took 200+ pictures of waves in New Zealand.  This time we just enjoyed the drive along the coast. 

On the way home, we stopped in a surfer's village called Torquay.  Matt looked at a few surfboards, one of these days I'm going to talk him into actually buying one.  We bought the little girl the cutest souvenir, a pink and purple wetsuit.  She won't fit in it until she's closer to one but it was just too cute to pass up.

I have to say I won't miss flying again for awhile.  Planes weren't made for pregnant women.  We loved Melbourne though and I'd love to spend more time in the city some day.
Hope you enjoy the pics.

 Melbourne Pics - Picasa Web Albums

New Zealand - Full of zeal

July is here and Matt and I are finally ready for Christmas (2011)!  Probably has a lot to do with our recent trip to New Zealand.  We hadn’t needed a coat or seen snow since early last year.  It was a truly breathtaking to see again.  It’s also possible that our Christmas spirit was enlightened while watching some old holiday episodes of our favorite TV show, “Chuck”.  Season 5 is finally on its way via the recently wed Jim & Jodi Fisher!  Congrats, guys!

Lake Pukaki

Back to NZ, properly pronounced EN-ZED.  Really there’s entirely too much to see and do in a weekend.  We were told by our friends who’d spent weeks there, that you could easily spend a month there and still not see everything.  For a two tiny island, they really are quite substantial.  I knew straight away in coming to Australia, that if there was one place I had to go before we went home, it was New Zealand.

The hardest part of planning our trip was deciding which island to go to.  North Island, known for its adventure and outdoor activities probably wasn’t the best idea for someone who is 6 month pregnant, so we opted for Christchurch, South Island.  Plus – it was the only major city that wouldn’t take two days to get to from Bowen.

Despite the fact that it was clearly their off-season and there were still some places like the museum closed due to last year’s earthquake, I can easily say we weren’t disappointed.  Honest, we have over 500 pictures to prove it!  I don’t think there’s a spot on the island where you can’t see the mountains.

Day 1: Coastal & Lake Drive


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We decided to spend the first day just enjoying the scenery offered to us.  We drove down the coast, making plenty of stops to enjoy the waves.  They were enormous!  Here some shots from a spot where we pulled back around because the waves were so large you could see them from the highway.  It’s near a little town called St. Andrews, marker B on the map above.

We continued on towards the coast snapping pics of mountains and coast as we went toward Waimate.  The brochures for a little diner looked promising all though in the end, there was no diner to be found.  A stop in an old timey candy shopped made up for the disappointment though.  I’m actually enjoying one of my peppermints just now.

The goal was to be at Lake Tekapo by sunset, but in truth I think we preferred the sites of Lake Pukaki better.  I’m sure you can see why as our views of Lake Pukaki had gorgeous mountain scenery behind the glass-like lakes.

But let’s not take anything away from the charm of Lake Tekapo, its beauty can certainly hold its own against anywhere else in the world.  There’s a small little church there called Church of the Good Shepard.  It’s a teeny little multi-denominational church.  The church was built to memorialize the pioneering sheep-herding families of the area.  There’s also a monument to the original sheepdog, clearly something NZ takes a lot of pride in.

Day 2: Christchurch

Day two was a lazy day.  We started out with breakfast at the Antiqua Boat Shed, a historic little spot right on the Avon River where you can rent a boat and punt down the river.  Sounds nice, doesn’t it?  If only it’d been a little warmer.

Canturbury Museum

Restoration of Christchurch

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Ferrymead Heritage Village.  It’s this adorable little village hidden in an industrial area of Christchurch.  The houses and shops are all restored to their Edwardian splendor.  Again, it was the off-season so there were only a few volunteers working, but it worked to our advantage as they were extremely kind to us.  One of the volunteers was cooking on the old stove and invited us back into the kitchen to warm ourselves.  He informed us that the house we were in was fully functional and he even used to live there from time to time.  Many of the shops were closed, which was a shame because I’d have really enjoyed the little move theater.  We took a personal tour on the tram and the conductor educated us a bit about the old trolleys they’re working to restore.  If you’re interested in more about the town here’s a link with pictures of their tourist season http://www.ferrymead.org.nz/photo_gallery/

We had found out the All Blacks rugby team was actually going to be playing in Christchurch that night against Ireland.  Just a bit of history, we arrived in Australia at the height of rugby season last year and the All Blacks are our favorite team with Ireland being my second.  Unfortunately, the tickets were all sold out by the time we found out about the game, but we knew we’d have just as much fun if we found a nice pub.   Believe it or not, it was actually an Irish pub we landed in.  The place was packed to the gills with roaring fans.  We had a blast!

Day 3: Kaikoura Seal Colony and Whale Watch

Sunrise on the way to Kaikoura

Kaikoura is a quaint little town 2+ hours north of Christchurch.  It’s famous for it’s whale watching expedition as well as the seal colony.  We were scheduled on the 10:30a expedition.  When we got there to check in there was an “Extreme motion sickness warning”.  I don’t generally get seasick, so let me remind you all that the fact that I did get seasick on the sailing trip was in fact how I guessed that I was pregnant!  When the staff heard that I was expecting, they called the captain right away.  He preferred I either wait for the noon boat.  I can’t tell you how kind the staff were to us, they promised us that if the noon boat was still too bumpy they’d send us over to the Air Watch plane or refund the money. 

Lucky for us, wasting time in Kaikoura is easy to do.  We headed towards the famed seal colony to meet some interesting characters.  They were everywhere!  They completely blended in with the rocks and I nearly stepped on one before I realized just how many there were.

Time to head back to the Whale Watch tour.  The seas had calmed down enough that I was welcomed aboard.  In fact, I was welcomed a little too well.  When we were given instructions prior to boarding the boat, they asked if the lady who was 6 months pregnant would please pre-board and sit towards the back.  It ended up being a good day for whale watching, as we saw 3 of the regular visiting sperm whales.  The crew were excellent as well, warning us when the whales were about to head back down so we could have our camera’s at the ready to catch the tales fly.  For anyone that want to visit NZ this is definitely a do-no-miss!  http://www.whalewatch.co.nz/

On the way home, we stopped to enjoy the waves last time.  Despite the fact that it was barely 30F outside, there were a handful of surfers out there catching the waves.  Matt stood outside in the cold for nearly 30 mins just watching and taking shots.

Before I conclude my trip, there’s just one more thing I want to make note of.  We stayed at the most charming little hotel, Heartland Cotswold (http://www.heartlandhotels.co.nz/hotels/heartland-hotel-cotswold-christchurch)  It was beautifully furnished and old fashioned in style.  Not to mention it had not one, but the two best restaurants we’ve eaten at since we left the states.  The lamb shanks at Tudor English restaurant were to die for.  St. Germain, the French restaurant served me the best steak I’ve ever eaten in my life.  When they brought out the plate, I was a bit nervous at this grey crusty looking thing.  But then the waitress scraped off about a ½ lb. of salt to reveal a gorgeous filet.  It still makes my mouth water thinking of it.  If it wasn’t so darned expensive to get there, I’d go back to NZ just for the food.

And since we actually took over 550 pics, I didn't want to torture you all with so many pictures so we're trying something new on this post.  Here's a link to the 130 favorite photos I've already shared with friends and family on Facebook.   Facebook Photos

Meghan comes to vist - Ultrasound #2

So, I’m sitting here in my cozy sweater and fuzzy pants, under my fuzzy blanket, mourning the fact that I had to close the windows because it’s too cold today.  It’s 60°F today.  I suppose this is winter in Australia.  Just because it’s windy and overcast my brain is telling me it’s cold outside!

It’s hard to believe that just two weeks ago Meghan was here.  That week was truly perfect weather.  Blissfully warm, but not hot, days and cool nights perfect for snuggling under the covers with the windows open at night.   So glad she got to experience Queensland at its best.

It was a week full of new experiences for her too!  Hopefully they were all good, but you’d have to ask her to be sure.  We went to the beach almost every day.  Matt taught her how to skimboard and bodyboard.  I like to tell myself that my semi-professional photography skills just made her look good, but truthfully she just picked it up way faster than I did.  See for yourself. 

We also took her to the Billabong Sanctuary to see some of the native wildlife.  One of the things I like most about the zoos here is how interactive they are.  Kangaroos are just roaming around the park hitting people up for food.  If you know Meghan, I’d have to say this day was pretty special for her.  I’m fairly certain she’d opt to clean her patients bed pans over dog-sitting any day.  But that day, she was a temporary animal lover!  She petted a dingo, fed some birds, let a kangaroo come right up and eat out of her hand.  It didn’t even end there…check out these pics of her holding a koala and a wombat!  I just love wombats so I had to get in on that action too!

Unfortunately for me, I’ve got a temporary aversion to boats.  My bout of seasickness back in January was my first clue that I was pregnant.  So I decided to go baby shopping while the two of the drifted out towards the Great Barrier Reef for some scuba and snorkeling time.  Sounds like they had a blast!

Don’t feel sorry for me though, my excitement was just around the corner.   We scheduled our second ultrasound for the week Meghan was here too.  Since she wouldn’t be able to make it back for the birth, we thought she might enjoy being the first to know what we were having.  The sonagraphers here are extremely well trained and very detailed, so we spent nearly an hour with him looking at the development of our babe’s eye lenses, lips, heart chambers, kidneys, etc.  We didn’t get the typical cutesy image, but we did get a positive id on her teeny little girl parts!!!!  Won’t she look super cute in these teeny little clothes from Auntie Megs?

We topped off the trip with a celebratory dinner with Mexican food and margaritas.  Mine was a mocktail, naturally.  It was a great way to wind down the trip with a hint of home. 

Thanks for coming to see us, Meghan!  We love you and miss you!

Check out the rest of the pics on Picasa Web:

Beach time with Meghan	Meghan Comes to Australia	Billabong Sanctuary

Easter Weekend (The Cathedral Tour)

I saw on a talk show that all bad news should be given as a sandwich: good news, bad news, good news.  I think that was Australia’s way of saying “Sorry, we ruined your Easter weekend plans”.  That said, I guess that’s how I’ll begin with our Northern Queensland adventures.

The good news: Matt got a four-day weekend! Excellent news!  We decided to take advantage of the time to head north towards Cairns, apparently a must-see city.  The plan was to make it a nice, leisurely vacation where we get to see some cool stuff without feeling exhausted Tuesday morning.  We’d see some gorgeous coastlines, check out the rainforest, and we’d fit in some baby shopping while we’re in the big city.  Oh, plus we had to fit in mass on Holy Friday and Easter.

It was such a simple plan.  We’d only do half the driving on Friday and stop for church at 3pm in Townsville.  That would leave plenty of time for baby shopping too.  One teensy little oversight: the Australian economy closes down for Good Friday.  Woops!  We’ve encountered our bad news, so lets get back to that good news.  We got to check into the hotel early and freshen up before our hike over to the lovely Townsville Cathedral.  Plus dinner at the hotel that night was an All-You-Can-Eat seafood buffet.  Hello, you big beautiful mountain of crab legs!

Saturday was a breeze!  An easy drive through the sugar fields and banana farms.  In case I haven’t told you yet, the Queensland grown bananas are amazing.  Matt and I tend to stumble upon the most amazing things completely by accident, so when we passed a sign that said “Paronella Park 20km” we figured we should give it a shot.  We weren’t disappointed in the least.

We pull up to the park entrance and had a giggle that this place in the middle of nowhere had parking attendants guiding us to the open space up front.  We saw a bridge over a waterfall and assumed it was just another little park at the bottom of the falls.  We balked about the price of admission until we confessed to one of the staff members that we’d not really heard of the place other than Matt having a vague remembrance of a flyer.  “It’s like no place you’ve ever been,” says the staff member, “most of the people here are either coming back again or coming because someone told them not to miss it.” $38 for a 2 year entrance fee.  Why not?  So we paid and were told to wait for our guided tour to start.  This history of the place is pretty amazing.  (It’s a story best told by them: http://www.paronellapark.com.au/history.html) Even though there was a fire in 1979, you can still imagine the glory this place once held for those who got to witness it in its heyday.  We took plenty of pics…and more than enough pics of the little turtles that have figured out people had food.  Little beggars!

 

 

Cairns was a pretty neat town.  Luckily most of the shops and restaurants stayed open down on the esplanade.  It didn’t hurt our luck that the Rhapsody of the Seas was docked there over the weekend.  The streets were flooded with international tourists, but if that meant they kept the economy flowing, the more the merrier. Side note: this was the first time I’d ever seen a cruise ship up close and I can honestly say I had no idea they were so big!

We decided to catch the 7pm Easter Vigil.  Walking time again…. At dusk the squawking starts and the flocks are on the move, only they aren’t birds.  They’re bats.   It was a long eerie walk.  Why do things always look so much closer on the map?  The Cairns Cathedral had some of the most beautiful stained glass I’ve ever seen.  Unfortunately, I don’t have that personality like so many of our friendly Asian tourists that lets me feel comfortable taking pictures in church.  But I have no scruples when it comes to Googling.

 St Monica's Cathedral Creation Windows
(Click a window for more information)

And finally, it SUNDAY!!  Our Easter obligations complete, today is ours to roam.  Matt’s only request is to drive the Defender through some rainforest.  We headed north up the coast towards Port Douglas.  We enjoyed some of the most beautiful coastal views imaginable.  I don’t think our pictures do the coast any justice.  Just imagine the color you’d expect the ocean to be in paradise and that’s what it was. 

Our first stop (after a few sidetracked scenic view stops) was the Mossman Gorge.  It’s a series of skywalks through the Daintree rainforest guiding you to some beautiful views of the gorge.  I almost wished we’d brought our swimmers; it looked like a nice little swimming hole.  Next we headed inland through the tablelands.  Can’t say that was as exciting as the coastal drive, but we did make a few scenic photo stops.  One of those stops was way off the beaten track, called Emerald Falls. I only made it half way up the walking track before my back and my little baby told me it was time to turn around.  It was still a nice view with the sound of the falls all along.  We didn’t make it back to the Kuranda in time to catch a ride on the skyrails, but by that time we didn’t care.  We’d already had all the fun we could handle! 

We were back in Cairns in time for a delicious dinner at the Turkish restaurant.  We both had lamb, our Easter tradition.  Then to top off the night, we waked through the night market and finished the evening off with gelato!  I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect weekend!

Click here to view the all the photos from the weekend: