As you all probably saw on the news Sydney had it's first ever dust storm last week. It happens quite often in other Australian cities, but has never happened in Sydney before. I woke up about 6:30am Wednesday morning to get ready for work and the first thing I noticed was that it was unusually dark. The next thing I noticed was a red glow from below the window shades, when I opened the bathroom our opaque window was glowing red! I opened the window and everything was just glowing! I though the city was burning down until I turned on [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Alice springs in the afternoon and chilled by the pool at the hostel for a while showered and went to bed so we could wake up early before the sun the next morning when we would meet our group. Sunday morning we spent driving to our campsite near Uluru stopping of at a few cattle stations along the way. After we set up camp we drove to the olgas and did a hike there, on the way back unfortunatly it began to rain. After the hike we were meant to go watch sunset on uluru, but with the [View Full Entry]

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These pictures are from my visit back to Seattle and San Diego. The first ones are at the Sounders V. FC Barcalona game, and the next ones are from my weekend down in San Diego. Lauren and I went on a wine tour in Temecula, not quite as good as the last wine tour in Hunter Valley but still fun. [View Full Entry]

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The other weekend I went on a wine tasting tour to the Hunter Valley with one of my roomates Elsa. We coulden't have wished for a more beautiful winter day. We wen't to several winneries, and tasted some cheese and chocolate as well. It was great fun and I bought 2 bottles of wine, one which is a really sweet fruity white wine that tasts like candy and you are supposed to drink in over ice, and the 2nd was actaully a red wine! I know shocking! But it tasted like cinamen and was actually quite delicouse! At one of the [View Full Entry]

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Our Camping Trip... So a few months ago I wanted to go camping, problem was no one had a tent. Grant's parents rememberd this when his birthday came around, and guess what he got... yup a tent. ha ha. So a few weeks ago we decided we needed to put the tent to use and went camping in Nora Head for a quick little weekend getaway out of the city. It was a great little trip, we explored some of the beaches, and there is a very pretty lighthouse out on the point. We also drove into The Entrance and saw [View Full Entry]

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As you all know I arrived In Sydney quite a while ago, Feb. 21st in fact. Here are some pictures from the past 2 months. Not much to say, I haven't been having to many crazy adventures here just living, working, and chilling. [View Full Entry]

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After a long day of flying from Manaus to Sao Paulo, we finally arrived in Rio just before dusk. Our cabbi was very energetic and friendly and gave us what i'm sure was a brilliant navigation as we drove through the city, unfortunatly as it was all in portugese, we only understood a word here and there but he was quite entertaining none the less. That night we stayed at a Hostel Called the Mango Tree, which was an amazing location just a few blocks from Inpanema, we went out to a restaurant around the corner for dinner and had our [View Full Entry]

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Before I start with Manaus, yesterday we visited a tiny isolated village along the river called Boca Da Valeria. There are thousands of these along the river, and every time we pass one everyone runs out and waves at us. The people that live here are called ribeirinhos or river dwellers and they live off the resources of the rainforest and the river. There were only a dozen or so modest wooden homes in the town, and a tiny school. There wasn't a lot to see here, but this was the real Brazil, nothing designed to entertain tourists here. You could [View Full Entry]

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Last night we entered the Amazon river which is over 200 miles long at the mouth of the river! Quite impresive. Today we docked in Santarem interesting fact about this town it has American roots, as more than 100 confederate soldiers and their families settled here after the Civil War. When we arrived in the mourning we took a taxi into town, and just wondered and window shoped. I wished I had more room in my bag for a hamock they had some really cool ones for only like 10 dollars that people use when they travel by river boats. The [View Full Entry]

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Today we visited Devil's Island, well actually it was Isle Royale, tourists aren't allowed on actual Devil's Island still. Isle Royal once served the headquarters for the prison on Devils island which was opened by Napoleon III and became a horrific place of exile. I guess somewhere around 80,000 prisoners were sent there but only 30,000 ever made it out alive. Although it was cool to see some of the old prison facilities, the highlight of the island for me was the wild life!!! We saw agoutis, and lots of monkeys!!! I had a pear in my bag that I was [View Full Entry]

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