Friday, October 8, 2010

Arrival Pictures (finally)!!

Well we've finally gotten around to posting our arrival pictures.  Hurray!!

This is the delicious Italian Hot Chocolate (think liquid chocolate in a cup) we had one of our first days here.  Apparently the Aussies love European style coffee shops, meaning lots of versions of esspresso but no drip coffee.  Fortunately we are fans.


Thank you to Elena & Steve for the delicious fruit basket!  What a tasty way to celebrate our 5 year anniversary.  <3!


Check out the Australian money - so colourful and plastic!  Did you notice my extra U is color?  Nice, huh?


This is our new car - 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer.  Perfectly good, basic, simple.  Perfect since learning to drive on the left and remember that the blinker and windshield wipers are switched is hard enough!


We drove up to visit the kitties in Quararantine a few weeks ago.  The place we stopped for lunch was a combo restaurant/bar/gambling/hotel/dance club/gas station/drive-thru liquor store.  Yes, all of that.  It was bizarre.  And the food was surprisingly good.  Laurel had swordfish.  Here's a pic of the drive-thru liquor store.  Yes you can actually get your beer to go without ever leaving your car.  Think NC Brew-Thrus.  So far this is the only one we've seen, but still...


The US Embassy arranges a variety of events that we can participate in.  One of which is the monthly hike.  These vary in location and intensity.  The one we went on was at a campsite called Nomadgi National Park, which is right outside of Canberra.  4 hours and 700 meters later (somehow most of that was up) we were done.  We might need to get in better shape before we do another one.


 


After the hike we had a bbq lunch at the campsite.  All around us kangaroos were hopping around.  They must be used to people be there because they didn't seem phased by any of us.  Look how cute the joey is in her pouch!


We'll have more pictures soon!  Miss you all!!!

4 comments:

  1. is it legal to have a pet kangaroo? If not, I vote you get one! the gas station/liquour store/casino reminds me of something you could find in Louisiana, but WAY more classy. Looks like ya'll are having a blast!

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  2. haha i have no idea if it's legal to have a pet kangaroo! greg would love one. actually he'd like a wallaby, which is basically a miniture kangaroo. i wonder what the kitties would think of that?

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  3. I believe you about the "mostly up" aspect of your hike - after all, my dad walked barefoot to school, 5 miles there and back, up hill both ways, so it's obviously an international phenomenon.

    I noticed that Greg's mom is much more attentive than Laurel's mom. No basket, card, etc. from Laurel's side of the family. They must not love you nearly as much :(

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