Autumn in the North, Spring in the South

We just got back from a trip to the US... where 'just' means 'about a month ago.' We'll get back to proper posting soon - we promise.

Autumn in the North

Our main reason for going back was Naomi's brother's wedding. The trip also gave us a chance to catch up (not enough!) with a few friends and family in New York. It was a great week... so great that we kept forgetting to take pictures. But here are a few:

Our first night, we managed to keep ourselves awake long enough to go out for dinner. The jet-lag delirium actually made for a good time. Here's Naomi with her friend Rachel:

We stayed with our friends Jeff and Maryse. Jeff was Colin's office mate for 5 years when he was at NYU. J&M are lovely hosts, and we wish we could have just moved in.

Among Jeff's many virtues is how he sings to himself while eating a bowl of guacamole:

Or maybe he was just making guacamole. We can't remember.

But the singing was infectious. We all got into singing/dancing:

After family and friends, our third priority was food. We ate (real!) bagels, pizza, donuts, and pickles. These were all eaten too quickly to get captured on film.

We also made it to a real American diner, where we ate ketchup (not called 'tomato sauce'!), a shiny piece of pie made mostly from corn, and curly fries with American cheese on top.

The fries were a once-in-a-lifetime experience, because we'll never, ever do it again.

The wedding itself was wonderful. Impossible to capture properly, but here are two scenes that capture parts of the mood:

Colin had to come straight back to Australia to teach, but Naomi was able to make a stop in California and visit some friends. And to bike across a certain bridge:

Spring in the South

Life back here has been good. We found ourselves easily slipping back into our routine. But we've been enjoying spring's arrival. After arriving, spring retreated for a few days, then came, retreated, came back, and has now retreated again. This is the nature of Melbourne weather: it's never quite one season or another.

But the good days have been glorious. Here's a flower in our backyard:

Also:

We voted! Here's hoping...

Love to everyone up north!

The Marshalls take Melbourne, Part 2

The adventures continues...

Our last post about Colin's mom's and brother's visit focused on things we did outside of Melbourne proper. Braving winter, most of our time in the city was spent inside, focusing on the most distinctively Melbourne things we could.

Warm drinks

Once again, Melbourne has been rated as the world's most livable city by some people who think one can be objective about such things. They claim that the rating is based on transportation, crime rate, etc.

But the real reason is Melbourne's finely-crafted elitism about coffee. There is lots of excellent coffee, and coffee pride, but people are pretty low-key about it. Melbournians know their coffee's great, so they don't need to rub it in.

So we made sure to take M&P out to one of the fancier coffee places, called Seven Seeds. Here they are, armed with their coffees:

On the other side of the table was Naomi, along with her cousin Paul and his girlfriend Erica. P&E came to Melbourne for the weekend, as part of a larger Australian trip.

Notice the cartridge container holding the menus.

Jumping ahead a bit, here's what one drinks when it's too late in the day for coffee:

Victoria Parliament Building

As it happened, M&P&P&E's overlapping weekend also overlapped with Open House Melbourne, when a number of buildings were open to the public. We stopped at a few, the most exciting of which was the state parliament building. We waited in line for about an hour, entertained by queuing Aussies (two of whom explained cricket and footie to M&P), and a wandering state official, in the suit below:

The wait was worth it, though. We got to sit in both chambers of the parliament, both of which were very nice. Here's Peter in one:

And here's our guide (and his friendly co-guide, who kept us moving from room to room) in the other chamber:

Red and green - nice color-coding.

We all took pictures:

Footy!

Since before our arrival in 2011, people told us that we had to go to an Australian Rules Football match. We would tell people that neither of us were especially into sports, but nobody seemed to think that was relevant. M&P's visit was the perfect excuse to go.

We braved the (slightly) rainy and (a bit more than slightly) cool night, walking to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds along the river:

Equipped with ponchos, we lucked into being just out of the rain. Here are two happy Marshalls:

Colin's most common reaction throughout the game was, "wait, that's legal?" Apparently, most things are legal (according to one source: if the ref. isn't looking, everything is legal). 

It was a lot of fun. We saw the Carlton Blues defeat the Richmond Tigers. Colin was a bit disappointed, since he has some default inclination towards any cat-themed team. Getting home, mom found the Blues' song on Youtube. 

If you're wondering what the game looks like, here's a video of the two teams. It's from this year, though not the match we saw. But Carlton wins.

Desserts

Melbourne is not especially known for its desserts, but it does them pretty well (as we've documented ad nauseum in earlier posts). M&P tried several places on their own, and got to experience a Lamington.

We took them to our favorite cake shop on Acland St, Monarch. Monarch features lots of 1980's style magazines, and a viciously good Kugelhopf:

Our final night was again dessert themed. We were all sad that the visit was ending. So we ate desserts from Chocolateria San Churro (a chain dessert place that we've found pretty reliable), and watched some Olympics.

Hard saying goodbye... why couldn't the Pacific be 1/2 the size? 

Still, there's a lot to be said for getting perspective about how lucky one is. We're lucky to have such fantastic families, and to be living in a fantastic city. Not getting to have both all the time makes us appreciate them all the more...

The Marshalls take Melbourne, Part 1

Colin's mother Mary and brother Peter came for a visit at the end of July. Neither had been to Australia before, and it was a treat to show them around. We have a bunch of pictures, so this will take a couple posts.

Here they are with Naomi, trying their very best to look cheerful while staring directly into the sun:

Phillip Island

For the past year, we've been hearing about two places to the southeast of Melbourne: Phillip Island and Wilson's Promontory. Braving the 'winter' weather, we decided to take M&P there. 

They brought just enough of the North America heat wave with them to give us some clear skies (off and on). Our first stop was at a town by the bridge to Phillip Island called 'San Remo.' 

We got there just in time for a pelican feeding. The feeding seemed to be sponsored by a fisherman's co-op fish & chips place. Somehow, the idea was that watching pelicans eat fish would put one in the mood to eat fish oneself. Though the general principle "inspire people to eat by having them watch birds eat" is a bad one, it worked in this case.

We had two main animal-oriented stops on Phillip Island (these being the Island's main tourist attractions). The first was a koala sanctuary. Inside the visitors' center was a giftshop, some informational signs, an espresso bar, and the largest, saddest-looking stuffed koala we'd ever seen:

Perhaps the stuffed koala was sad because it hadn't been treated well. The signs told us several things not to do to the koalas:

Our first thought was, "what kind of jerk would shout at a koala, or shake its tree?" But then we spent a while gazing up and the (mostly) motion-less grey furballs high up in the trees, and started thinking about how long the drive had been and how much admission had cost. Then it started to make sense.

Fortunately, a couple koalas were awake, and not at the tops of the trees. Here's the hands-down winner of the cuteness contest: a sleeping baby koala peeping out from under its sleeping mother's arm:

After the koalas, we drove to the western tip of the island, where the above picture of M&P&N was taken. Very dramatic waves. There were seals on some rocks called 'The Nobbies' off in the distance, but we couldn't quite see them.

Here's Peter at the scene:

The penguin viewing is a massive event. Up to 3,000 squeeze into bleachers along the beach, waiting for groups of penguins to appear out of the waves just after sunset, and waddle up to their homes. On the way home, they sing their weird, sort of charming, 'snoring duck' song.

No photography was allowed of the penguins, unfortunately. But you can see some pictures on the official Penguin Parade website here.

Wilson's Prom

The next day, we drove west to the southernmost point on the Australian continent, a park called 'Wilson's Promontory.' Melbournians rave about the place, and we'd been eager to see it. Rain clouds were floating around, but we were spared. We started with a walk through a gum tree forest. Here's M&P next to an area where there had been a massive landslip (i.e. landslide) only a couple years ago.

Wilson's Prom reminded us of the Freycinet Peninsula in Tasmania: dramatic beaches against massive granite hills. Here's a characteristic view:

One of the beaches is called 'Squeaky Beach,' because, we were told, the beach squeaks when you walk on it. Here's Colin and Peter on the sand.

We didn't hear any squeaks. But we were later told one had to be barefoot for that. That wasn't an option when we were there - far too chilly.

Next time: Around Melbourne

Next time, we'll have more about the parts of the visit in Melbourne proper. But here's a hint: a silhouette of Peter cooking behind some first-rate granola he made for us. In other words, our main focus was food... it runs in the family.

Colin goes to Uluru

We're a bit behind on posting! The most recent excitement was a visit from Colin's mother and 'little' brother. But that will have to wait for a later post (or two).

So, going back a bit: earlier this month, Colin went on a trip to Alice Springs and Uluru (which Europeans also named 'Ayer's Rock'). Naomi wasn't able to come along, sadly (but we're aiming to go back together!). Colin's traveling companion was our friend Adam, famous from some of our earlier posts.

Here's Adam, in the zone:

Needless to say, the pictures that follow are not as pretty as the ones Adam took.

Alice Springs and the road to Uluru


Colin did not fall instantly in love with Alice Springs...

Actually, Colin is now realizing that, since he is writing this post alone, he can switch to the first person. Let's try that again...

I did not fall instantly in love with Alice Springs. I took a few pictures of it, but none of them are worth sharing. It reminded me a lot of a dusty suburb of an Arizona/southern California city. Tall fences around all the houses, a weird overall sense of isolation, and implicit but clear divisions between the ethnic groups.

I've heard that some people love town - Adam knows someone who lived there for years, and really liked it. Perhaps my view would have been different if I'd been there in time for the Beanie Festival.

I had thought of Alice Springs as right next to Uluru. In the Australian sense of 'right next to,' it is: just a bit over 400 kilometers away.

The landscape was much more varied than I'd expected, too. Areas of (well-grazed) grass, hills, and a fair amount of scrubby trees. The main wildlife we saw looked like this:

That's a road-killed something being eaten by crows and a wedge-tailed eagle (the largest flying bird in Australia). I think we saw at least 4 scenes like this.

The road itself (which runs all the way from Adelaide on the southern coast to Darwin on the north) doesn't have much traffic. But it does have a good number of 'road trains' - huge trucks hauling multiple trailers. Here's one:

After many hours, one finally sees this in the distance:

Uluru

During the 5-ish hour trip, one finds oneself wondering "is this going to be worth it?" After all, it's not cheap getting there (even from within Australia), there are tons of nature specials about Uluru, and there's no difficulty finding pictures of it online - a Google image search for 'Uluru' yields over one and a half million results. Add to that that there will be busloads of tourists around it at all times of year. 

But, yes, I have to admit, it was worth it. It's more than a finite human mind can really take in, and that's even without thinking about the role it played for the Aboriginal community for thousands and thousands of years.

I can't think of a description that doesn't cheesy. But the one that came to mind was this: Uluru seems alive, as though it were rotating through the earth like the back of a whale.

Here's one view from the sunny side:

An erosion on the shadowy side:

And here's a full moon rising over it at sunset:

Yes.

Not alone


I am not, it turns out, the first person to take a picture of Uluru with the sun setting on it. In fact, there are two designated 'sunset viewing areas' - one for coaches (i.e. tour buses) and one for cars. Everyone packs up against the fence, cameras at the ready:

Not only that, but the same drill is repeated the next morning, for sunrise. Here's my picture:

And here's everyone else trying to get the same shot:

It was cold, though, just getting down to freezing at night. Some people were braced for it, others seemed to have trouble internalizing the fact that they were in a cold desert.

Other red rocks

Though Uluru is right the most famous red rock formation, it is not the only one. About 50 kilometers away are a series of 'heads' called the Kata Tjuta (an image search for 'Kata Tjuta' only yields about 350,000 results).

They're smaller than Uluru, but there are 30-some of them. Very beautiful:

Further east is a different formation. I'm not sure about the name of the range, but the place we went was called 'King's Canyon.' The red rocks contrasted beautifully with the white of the ghost gum trees:

 

In the canyon itself was water. And ferns! More beautiful contrasts:

This is what it all looked like from above. Pretty otherworldly.

Other things: Salt, a camel, and melons 

The red rocks were certainly the highlight of the trip, but there were other interesting bits.

One was a salt lake. Despite the fact that it had been months since the last (tiny) bit of rain, the lake-bed was still mushy:

Camels were brought into the area back in the day for transportation. Some escaped, and now occasionally show up on the roads.

There are also melons growing:

Yes,  melons. They're not native (I was told), and they're common along the roadside. Food is very scarce, so one wonders why nothing is eating these. The answer (I was told) is that they are so salty that nothing can really eat them... except the occasional cockatoo, who will crack them open for seeds.

Coming up next: The Marshalls take Melbourne.

Far North Queensland Honeymoonniversary Adventure, Part IV: Mt. Sorrow, Spiders, Fig Trees, and Dairy

This will be our last Queensland post (about the last trip, at least), since we've got some other topics we need to get blogging about. So we have four topics this time.

Climbing Mt. Sorrow

We were looking for a nice hike in Cape Tribulation. We were pointed to the most significant trail in the area - a hike up Mount Sorrow. Various signs and brochures warned us that it was steep and required "above average fitness." We figured they were probably being overcautious. 

Still, we did notice that the sign at the trailhead was a bit ominous:

Things were uphill for a bit, then they leveled off for a while. We were wondering what all the fuss was about. But then we came to this:

It might be hard to tell from the photo, but this part of the trail went almost straight up. It was so steep that a rope was attached to some trees for dragging oneself uphill. It was then that we understood the warnings.

Thankfully it was the "dry season." Someone later told us that during 'The Wet,' the trail had so many leeches that it looked like the ground moved.

Even without leeches, we did feel some sorrow, especially when the steep climb turned out to lead to... another steep climb. And another. But we finally made it to the lookout point (a metal cage). 

It was worth it for the view. Here's the scene with a Ulysses butterfly in the way: 

Observing Spiders

There were many spiders. Don't worry, these are all zoomed views, they were not this big. But they weren't tiny, either.

This one was hanging on in the corner of a car park.

We called this one the "batman" spider:

This last one lived just outside the kitchen window of the Cabe Trib Farmstay. The window didn't have a screen... it didn't need one. This spider's body was about as big around as a human thumb.

Admiring Trees

This type of fan palm is unique to this area. We liked them a lot.

We learned that rainforest flora have had to adapt to very difficult conditions and have done so in many clever ways. This is a cauliflorous tree:

An amazing type of rainforest tree is the Strangler Fig. They basically grow in the air, with their seeds landing in a tree canopy and their roots growing downwards along the trunk. They eventually wrap themselves around the host tree, "strangling" it. As far as we could tell, there wasn't an upper limit on how big they could grow.

Here are a few examples:

Here is the "Curtain Fig" - apparently the most popular tree in the Tablelands. It was massive, amazing, and very difficult to photograph:

Consuming Bio-Dynamic Dairy

As avid readers of our blog might know, we like food. In addition to eating it, we also like photographing food and putting the photos on this blog. If you have been disappointed that this series of posts did not include many food photos, this is for you.

We visited the Mungalli Creek biodynamic Dairy in the Tablelands. We thought the sign was cute (you might need to click on it to zoom):

We had a frittata and a 'pot de fromage' for lunch, but couldn't resist having some dessert, to go along with the beautiful view:

This was bush orange cheesecake and a latte. One of the points of pride in the Tablelands is that it is the only area where they can grow all the ingredients for a perfect "cuppa" (in Australian that means a cup-of tea or coffee). Here you can see all local milk, coffee and sugar. This was our favourite meal of the trip. The foam on the latte was unbelievable - so thick and sweet that it felt like eating coffee ice cream.

Coming up soon: Colin goes red.