Taronga Zoo, Sydney Aquarium, 1 year Wedding Anniversary, and Stand up Paddle!

Kristen, Mikey, and Nathan at Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo

I cannot believe it is February 22. We have been in Australia now for 7 months and will be home in 4. Where has the time gone! So much has happened since my last blog which has kept me busy and away from the computer. Nathan has gone back to France. He left February 12. In the last two weeks of his time here there were things he had to do before leaving the country. He had not seen a kangaroo or a koala so to start we took him to Taronga Zoo. MIkey and I are always excited for an activity and especially one that involved animals. This zoo really surprised me. It was beautifully set up on the hill in Mosman right north of the city with a view of Sydney harbour, Sydney city, Harbour Bridge, and Opera House around every corner. It also got a nice breeze since it was elevated which was awesome since we picked about the hottest day to go to the zoo. We saw so many cool animals including Australia's specialities, a baby gorilla that had just recently been born, a baby elephant though not nearly as tiny as the gorilla, penguins, seals, lions and tigers, chimpanzees, and so much more. There were animals I had never even heard of!! We had a great day together and these pictures will tell you everything you need to know so enjoy!!

Kangaroo, you know this one well!

Kangaroo sleeping under tree

Elephants and the baby!

Seal that kept swimming close to us

Tasmanian Devel

Chimpanzees!!

Eastern Long Neck Turtle, really long neck!

Sydney Harbour view from Zoo

Al Pacha, big bird that cannot fly

Penguin

Silver Back Gorilla

Can't remember the name but cute!!

Spotted Deer

Hippopotamus

Giraffe with Harbour Bridge

Zebra

Giraffe with City

Sydney Aquarium

February 6, 2011 was Mikey and I's 1 year wedding anniversary! I can't believe that a year ago we were in Captiva Island Florida getting married and one year later we live in Australia. I know I say this often but I am still reminding myself that this is not a dream! We had to do something special and it is Nathan's last Sunday so we decided to take him to the Sydney Aquarium. Mikey and I have been wanting to do this as we have heard great things about it. We made our way into the city and got some lunch at Darling Harbour where the aquarium is located. We then headed inside for some marine life! It was a perfect day to be inside since Sydney had its longest and hottest heat wave ever and today was the peak. The only thing is I think everyone had the same idea as the aquarium was pretty crowded. But again awesome! We saw a platypus, lots and lots of fish, an awesome shark exhibit with all the different kinds of sharks swimming above you as you walked through a glass tube, Dugong, huge rock lobster, lion fish, rock fish, lots of cute varieties of sea horses, a barrier reef exhibit and more. They even had this shark monitor system and screen set up where they track the sharks that live along the NSW coast. Scary to see how often they are right out front in the ocean and so close to shore! They even name them. Another great start to the day and final memories with Nathan. Enjoy the photos!

1 Year Wedding Anniversary

After the aquarium Nathan got on a bus back home to do some packing and Mikey and I made our way to the Sydney harbor to celebrate our 1 year. We had dinner and drinks at the Sydney Opera House Bar which was a neat spot. It is sort of tucked under the Sydney Opera House but you can see the House and have a perfect isolated view of the Harbour Bridge, Sydney harbor, and Sydney city. Live music accompanied us as well as the first cold front in a week which brought a little rain. The opera house brews its own beer which is fun so we had the Sydney Opera House Organic Pale Ale which was really good!! After this we took the Manly ferry across the harbor to Manly where we hung out the the Wharf for a little bit and then took a bus home since we had to work the next day. It was a perfect day. His gift to me earlier that day was an original photograph of Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge at Dusk as he knew that that was where we would be at dusk on our anniversary. Not to mention that is my favorite time of day:) I got him a personalized puzzle with a picture of us from Lennox Head. I picked this picture because it represented Australia perfect, a headland on the ocean. Well this headland was a lot of grass!! So this 300 piece puzzle ended up being quite difficult. Let's just say there were some "Shoves". But the gifts were both paper and when I asked MIkey if he knew he was supposed to do paper for tradition he said no. Lucky guess!

Stand Up Paddle Boarding

Also for our 1 year wedding anniversary Mikey brought home a stand up paddle board from his work. This is something that is quite popular over here and I have been wanting to try! So we walked down to Narrabeen Lagoon and all tried our hand at this stand up paddle boarding. I realized right away that It is much harder than it seems. I really enjoyed it and found it very relaxing to glide on the water. I look forward to trying it again!

As you know Nathan is gone:( We miss him very much but are excited to have our new roommates, Katie and D. Katie is from melbourne, Florida thought we did not know each other when we lived there and D is from London and has been traveling since last April.

Love Always,

Kristen

surfing late july thru nov

Mikey 30th Birthday and More!

Mikey Turns 30, Narrabeen Sunsets, French Crepes, and Ku-ring- ai Chase National Park

Happy Birthday Mikey!

Happy Birthday Mikey!! 30th birthday. A huge milestone and what a great place to spend it! Thank you for all of you who put your vote in on what we should do for the big day. His birthday was a Monday night so we all had to work the next day so we couldn't go to big. The pub was 1st place but a nice dinner was second and that is what we ended up doing. We walked down to Lake Side Thai right on Narrabeen Lake and had nice dinner with the two of us and our roommate Nathan. If you know MIkey you know he loves his THAI!!! All the other things that were on the poll are all things we really want to do and will do so don't worry! It will all be done. If you know Mikey you also know he hates to make a big deal about birthday's and anniversaries so I think he was happy that it was a Monday and we only have a few friends because it ended up being low key which was just the way he would have wanted it. It was quality time. The following Friday we did go out with our two friends across the street that definitely wanted to celebrate the big day but had to work. We had a good time.

Narrabeen Rainbow and Sunsets

Narrabeen has really offered up some beautiful sunsets I would like to share with you. Along with the colors there always seems to be this rainbow that happens often and in the same place. It is so pretty and comforting since it is been there lot and always in the same place. I call it the Narrabeen Rainbow. Not to much to say about these lovely moments just enjoy the pictures:)

French Crepes and Foie Gras

Nathan's French Crepes have been one of our favorite past times since we have been over here. And every time he makes them we have a French lesson and usually some chamapgne!! I think we are improving(on the French). Nathan makes the mix and then he pan sears it and puts grated cheese, ham, and the yolk of an egg in what he calls the "salt ones." And of course we have to have what he calls the "sweet one" foliowing the salt one. This consists of adding vanilla sugar to the batter and then pan searing it and adding nutella. SOOOOOOOOOOO good!!!!! We have had them twice now and on a Sunday. I told him that we should start have crepe Sunday. He said that is fine if I want to make them!!! He has that wonderful French very frank since of humor. We also had the chance to try his Grandmothers Foie Gras that she sent him over for Christmas. She makes it herself and cans it and what a treat that he shared it with us! Speaking of Nathan we have sad news:( He will be heading home to France in 2 1/2 weeks. He has been here 4 months now in Australia working very hard but is ready to see his family. We completely understand and will miss him terribly. We have really grown to be friends and we all appreciate each others company. We wish him the best always and look forward to his coming to America and visiting us in Florida and us making our way to France someday soon.

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park

Mikey and I finally made it to Sydney's National Park. Ku-ring- gai Chase National Park, which is located 10 minutes north west of us. We took a picnic that we ate at Duck Pond and then drove up for a 20 minute hike to a beautiful lookout over Akuna Bay, the national Park, and in the distance Palm Beach Lighthouse. We were the only ones out on this rock ledge and it was very peaceful and exactly what we needed. Some peace and quiet and time together to reflect on this New Year and all we have done and want to do. We have both been picking up at our works for January which is very exciting. Sydney Dance Company also reopened after the holiday break and I went on Saturday and took Intermediate Ballet from 10-11:30 and Intermediate Contemporary from 11:30-1. It was awesome and felt amazing. Except that I have been sore since Saturday(today is Tuesday) The waves have picked up so Mikey has been surfing every day at lunch and every night after work. We also had the World Juniors Surf Contest right down on our beach at North Narrabeen and we got to see some of that which was cool. The Australian open tennis has been on tv every night so that has been exciting to follow since we can't watch the playoffs:(

Miss and Love everyone as always.

Mikey and Kristen