Forrest Caves?

While we were visiting the country horse races back in January, we decided to visit the Forrest Caves.  While the name makes no sense to me, I knew it was a place that Jeff would love.

The coastline of Australia is unbelievable, with hills, rock formations, huge dunes, and miles of sandy beach as far as the eye can see.

Huge dunes...easily 100 steps to get down to the beach...

Gorgeous, untouched view of the beach and Forrest Caves.

The Forrest Caves were formed millions of years ago when a nearby volcano exploded and the red ash settled forming red rock.  The formations in the rock that have formed from the waves crashing down and around them.

Huge dunes and wind blown trees on the way to the beach.

What are the Forrest Caves?

The beach was nearly empty - I think we saw four people during the couple of hours that we were there.

Just the two of us on the beach.

Inside one of the Forrest Caves and the waves rolling in.

Jeff climbed out on the rock formations.

View of the Forrest Caves.

I think Jeff is contemplating the jump...

Me and Toots on top of the Forrest Caves.

Sea urchins in the stranded pools of water.

The sun setting across the sea rocks.

We'll definitely be back to check out a sunset or sunrise.

Homeward Bound - Part II

After visiting with my parents in Westminster, we headed north to Michigan to visit with Jeff's family.

It seems as though the jet-lag was going away, as we remembered to take pictures on this portion of the trip...

We visited with some of Jeff's college friends and got to meet the new twins of the group, Arya and Nikhil - babies of Neal and Mona.  They are so stinking cute!  So good to finally see them and get to see Mona (we missed you, Neal!)

Mona, Nikhil and Arya.  I'm certain she'll get him back for pushing her
cute little face in :)

After visiting with the babies, we also got to have lunch with Mr. Squatch, Jeff's best man in the wedding and an all around great guy.

That evening, we went to the Red Wings vs. Oilers ice hockey game and had great seats.  There were some jerks sitting around us, but fortunately, they didn't ruin the game for us - they were more sideline enertainment...the guy directly in front of us actually had his name etched in his belt.  His name was Matt.  He like high-fiving Jeff.  Jeff loved it, too.

Great seats on center ice.  Win #19 on the Wings incredible record setting
home win streak.

Me and Jeffie

We spent some time at the Henry Ford Museum, where I nearly got run over by a coal powered train, and Jeff got to go back in time and hang with the parents in the Plymouth Voyager.  And what trip is complete if you don't get a pic with the Oscar Mayer Weiner-mobile.

Jeff didn't even try to save me.  Baldy (or was it Big Bull?)
 was telling people that we were from Australia, so not to
pay us any attention.

Just like old times.

"I'm an Oscar Mayer Weiner..." so goes the song...though not sure what the
next verse is.

We followed up the visit to the Henry Ford Museum (highly recommended, by the way), with a trip to Miller's Bar for unbelievably good, diet crashing, artery clogging cheese burgers.  Man, they are good.  Perhaps the best.

We also go to spend a bit of time with the nieces and nephews.  They are growing up fast, so it was good to get to hang with them.  We went to swim lessons, played Xbox Kinect, and generally just goofed around.

Bean and Finners getting ready for swim lessons.

Ava, Baldy, and Bean showing their rafting skillz.

Erica's competitive spirit couldn't be harnessed...even against her 4 year old son.

No one (including Jeff) knows why he was wearing ski goggles.  Whiskey could
have been involved in the making of these pictures.

AND, we celebrated Christmas with them.  They, too will become AFL and Rugby fans, just look!

We made them pose with the presents...they weren't supposed to touch them.

Brian and Bean showing their Aussie pride.

Rumor has it that Bean hasn't taken the hat off since we left.

Cute little Finners.

Right before we went to the airport to fly home, we got to see Brian play soccer...and they won!  We must be good luck!

He's prepping for a header (in the orange shoes).

So good to see you guys - we had a great time, though I think I was more tired after the trip :)  Never a dull moment!  We love you!

Take #52.  And I think we're all looking at the camera!

Homeward Bound - Part I

We have been very bad about updating the blog after our trip to the US.  So, in an effort to redeem ourselves, here's an update of our visit to the US.

After my week in Switzerland, I left on Friday morning and flew from Geneva to London to Washington, DC.  where I met Jeff who flew from Melbourne to Auckland to Los Angeles to Washington, DC.

I again had the "privilege" of flying on British Airways, and it was just as fantastic as my previous post, "A Winged Whinge."  Jeff, on the other hand flew Air New Zealand and United and had a good experience.

Once we both arrived in Washington, DC (within about 30 minutes of each other), we set-off to Westminster to see my parents.  While my parents have {nearly} always lived about an hour and a half outside of Washington, DC, I rarely fly into/out of the DC airports.  So, with Jeff's iPhone not working and no GPS, we tried to figure out our way...which we did, but we took the long way - by about an hour.  After LONG flights, not the brightest idea that we've had - to not bring our GPS - lesson learned.

Saturday my parents hosted a gathering of our friends and family and it was so nice to see everyone - but we were so busy catching up with everyone that we didn't take any pictures.  Not one the whole weekend :(

As we have quickly become AFL fans, we have forced everyone to become Geelong Cats fans, too!  Shirts, stubby holders, hats, and scarves were handed out in hopes that everyone would wear them on Super Bowl Sunday!

We loved seeing everyone - thanks for making the trek over on such a blustery day!  Can't wait to see everyone again, soon!

The House that Steve Built.

In addition to to learning to surf while we were in Noosa, we also went to visit the Australian Zoo, which is known to most of us as the Steve Irwin Zoo.

Jeff was most excited to visit the zoo to see some of the tricks of the Crocodile Hunter.  In addition to crocodiles, there were tigers and koalas and roo's (oh my!).

We had a great time and loved getting to see some of the animals so up-close and personal.

Cute and cuddly Koala.  With talons for nails.

We think this is an American Alligator. 

Wombat taking a nap.

Cutey Kangaroo cleaning his nose and whiskers. 

Jeffie bonding with the Roo.

Nap time.  Part of me thinks they gave the 'Roos some Valium,
they were so calm and sedate.

There are signs that warn you not to try to put your hands
in the Kangaroo's pouches.  Apparently they don't like that.

Ele-PHANT.

Jeff dominated this croc.

They think he's about 80 years old.  Still has another 80 years
in him.

A little close for comfort.

He's having lunch of a chicken.  A whole chicken.

One more Koala.  I love them.

Jeff wants to be part of the IRWIN family.

Our sweet ride.  Jeff thinks it looks like the Phantom's car.

Blue Bikes.

The city is full of these blue bikes that you can rent, ride to a different part of the city and leave them there, called the Melbourne Bike Share.

Blue Bikes.  52 bike stations around Melbourne

I like to ride bikes and speak of it often.  The problem is that generally, once I get on the bike I really remember that there are parts of riding bikes that I don't like - mainly, going fast.  I had an accident about 5 years ago, and I'm a little gun-shy.  

It was a beautiful day, so Jeff decided to humor me this weekend and rent bikes to head into town to get tram passes.  

View of a regatta right near the Blue Bikes.

This was what I saw most of the time.  

The black speck on the left hand side of the
sidewalk is Jeff - I could barely see him.

As we were coming back to our house from the CBD, we had to go down a pretty big hill, and a grandma passed me.  I'm not kidding.  Not even a little bit.  I got to the bottom of the hill and Jeff was waiting to mock me.

Later that night, after a bit of a rest from our bike ride, we headed into the city for dinner.  We ate at a new restaurant, Meat Market.  

View of the CBD from the Yarra.

It was delicious.  Easily the best steak I've had since I've been in Australia.  And, we were lucky enough to see the fire show from the Crown Casino.  

Fire show outside of Crown Casino.

Fireball.  Shown every hour on the hour.

Post Fire Show.  Just as exciting.

Just for the record, the fire show at the Crown Casino is NOTHING like the water show at the Bellagio.