(Sort Of) Back Home Again

Welcome! This is the first of what I anticipate to be many entries to this Blog with a revised focus. Since Australia is(nearly) done, we still want to keep our friends "on this side of the world" up-to-date with our lives back in North America. Our experience living in Australia was an amazing chapter in our story and one that we don't intend to end permanently. But, now we're home and one thing we did learn that we need to be more intentional about keeping in touch with friends and family - so we plan to use this Blog to continue that process, with your permission, of course!

I returned from Australia a little more than 1 week ago and find it amazing how I'm already so deeply immersed in the "normal" stuff that made up our life before we left. Being back home, back in the offices of my previous employer (more on that later) and - whether I like it or not - back in winter - sort of makes being in Australia seem like a dream. Then, when I call Nancy from my snowbound hotel room in Montreal to see how things are going as she does the final preparation for moving our personal effects home - I am reminded that we have been a part of something very (wonderfully) different and I miss it in a profound way. It's certainly good to be home and we are looking forward to connecting face-to-face in the very near future but there is a bit of sadness associated with leaving Brisbane.

Holy Cow! It's (Sunday) March 16th today and it should be Spring but - and the pictures are real and not Photoshopped - it's obviously going to be a while before Spring gets around to showing up! When I was home for a few days before coming up to Montreal (Quebec - Canada) for work, there were some major icebergs off the shore of Lake Michigan in front of our house. It's sort of pretty but better if you look at it from inside, where it's a bit warmer. I'm a sunset loving kind of person and there have been a few good ones to enjoy since returning but these aren't the "sit on your deck and watch with a nice glass of red" kind of sunsets at all. At this time of year, the sun sets sort of straight behind our home and then as summer comes, the sunsets move north - just the opposite of Brisbane (and just one of the many "opposites").

Then, on Tuesday, I came up to Montreal to join the team I'll be working with for the foreseeable future and found that the effects of last week's winter storm were still present. Montreal received more than 30 centimeters of snow on the weekend - bringing the season's total snowfall to 319 centimeters (that's 125 inches for the metrically challenged) - "Toto, we're not in Brisbane any more!" Montreal is actually located on an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence river and they have to gather up all of their snow, put it in trucks and drag it somewhere to be disposed of - a long and difficult job that really makes things interesting. When I can into town from the airport on Tuesday night, they had the only (direct) route into the city completely closed while they tried to get some of the snow removed - that was (not) fun! People's cars get stuck along the city streets and then you can't plow, making the street narrower then normal and strangling traffic; what's not to love? Luckily, I'm (still, sort of) used to this stuff and armed with all of the appropriate gear, you can make it through just fine. I've told many of you that I enjoy jogging in the winter weather (you can always peel a layer of clothing off) and so I brought my coat, waterproof boots, gloves, etc. with me so I could get out during the weekend into Old Montreal (or, as we like to say "Vieux Port Montreal") so my next entry will focus on that experience. For now, enjoy the video of last weekend's storm in Montreal (Michigan missed it completely) - no words but I don't think you really need any.

I've added a "subscribe" feature to the blog as well as a "what's on the bookshelf" conversation starter (if you want to discuss books - I'd love to have that discussion) and - as always - we look forward to hearing from you as we go forward!

Our Vacation - Part II

As I am preparing this - it's my last day before departing back to North America. This won't be the final chapter in the Blog but we are definitely getting close! At this point, I'm guessing we'll need a whole entry on the single topic of Nancy's friend (Shelly) coming out for a visit since she was supposed to be here on Sunday and she will finally get here today (Tuesday) after many misadventures. So, on with the show!

We returned from the Granite Belt on a Thursday, threw our stuff in and out of luggage and rushed off to the airport to fly to Melbourne on Friday AM. My great idea about making things simple by using a cab turned to poop when it didn't show up in time for us to make the flight and it ended up costing us about $250 for that plan (the cab fare plus the re-ticketing charges - no extra cost for my frustration). Once we arrived, we found our way to the Rendezvous Hotel which has a great location in the center of town and right across from the the Flinder's Street train station & Southbank - a recently renovated section of the town where there are plenty of restaurants and shops within walking distance. We took our time looking around and had a great dinner before heading back and hitting the sack - we were heading out on the Great Ocean Road on Saturday.

We (finally) found our rental car and got out of the city and I must say, it was a less-than-spectacular day from a weather perspective. The day tended to alternate between overcast to downright windy & rainy but we kept pressing on in hopes that the clouds would part for us ... and they did! Every now and then, we would stop of a stretch and a cup of coffee (the Great Ocean Road stretches for nearly 400 kilometers (one way) including the distance from Melbourne) and the sun would generally favor us with a few minutes of its presence. We'd get back in the car and it would seem to revert to overcast and/or rain! As we considered the next 90K stretch of twisting and turning roads to get to the "mother lode" of the trip - The 12 Apostles - it was really bleak but Nancy convinced me to continue and we were rewarded with a great 15 minute parting of the clouds (I'm serious). The trip took the whole day - we ended up with a deluxe dinner at Macca's (McDonald's) due to how late it was getting as we drove back to Melbourne - but it was really worth it. Next time we would plan on driving out one way and staying the night at one of the seaside towns along the way rather than trying the entire trip in a single day.

The next morning, we were up and on a tour van to examine some of the vineyards in the Yarra Valley. Having just been to the Granite Belt, we "paced ourselves" a bit better on this tour and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, some nice wine and a wonderful lunch with some new friends from Texas, Scotland and various places in Australia. The Yarra is within a 45 minute drive from Melbourne (population - nearly 4 million) so these wineries are a bit more "posh" and well funded than their Granite Belt brothers, therefore potentially a bit less personal, but we did still get to see some Pinot Noir being made right in front of us (it is harvest time down here) and had a chance to meet a few of the characters that tend to inhabit cellar doors.

On Monday, we jumped up, checked out of our hotel and boarded our train for Bairnsdale - the home of our friends, the Varneys. Chris picked us up at the train station and David met us at The River Grill for a wonderful lunch (see the menu in the photo - I had the spatchcock) and the we organized ourselves to visit "Varney World". David comes from a small town about an hour drive from Bairnsdale called Orbost - a town on the banks of the famous Snowy River - and is extremely excited about his hometown and the piece of land he has there. Many people have seen "The Man From Snowy River" movie - well, this is the real deal! And we got to put of feet in the river (actually, we were informed that this is a local tribal practice that needed to be done or we would not be allowed to leave). We had dinner and stayed the night at David's parent's home (Barb and Kevin) and then went out to the homestead the next morning to meet "the girls" (David's cows and calves) and to survey his domain in what is an extremely beautiful part of the world. "The Man From Snowy River" was actually based on a famous poem written by "Banjo" Paterson so follow the link if you'd like to know more.

After a day mostly spent on the property, we drove back Bairnsdale and said our good byes before David drove us back to Melbourne where we had a great dinner and then checked into the airport Hilton to grab our flight back to Brisbane on Wednesday AM. All-in-all, our time in Melbourne produced some really wonderfull days of vacation that we will never forget when we think about our time in Australia. Now - it's time to get things packed up and for me to get out of here!