Super Sonic Whale Watching

Aram here, taking over the A^2 Down Under blog for a minute per Ann's request. I have been summoned to inform everyone on our whale watching adventure.  As am sure many of you are aware I have been on break for about a month. A bit much in my opinion, but the whole work/life balance is a pretty nice thing to have. At the beginning of this prolonged break we were looking for things to do and decided to go whale watching. Ann did a little research and found a well recommended service out of Manly, only a short ferry ride away from our place. We booked the tour and showed up on the day of the tour with recommended attire and soon found out why we wearing winter gear on an otherwise warm day. Our part tour guide/part extreme sports athlete showed up driving this:

I am pretty sure that these boats are meant for search and rescue missions but Blake (our tour guide) uses them for whale watching in the winter and 45 minute extreme boat tours in the summer. The thing was rocking 3 Yamaha 300s and we all straddling jet-ski like seats with support handle bars and were instructed to stand up if it got too bumpy. The dash of the boat had warned the driver that the vessel frequently got airborne and Blake let us know that it was windy day. A windy day ended meaning lots of airtime and the ride out was in my opinion the best part of the trip, twas thrilling.

After our thrill ride out to sea, Blake let us know that he was not only a skilled boat driver but also had a fair knowledge of hump back whales. As it turns out hump back whales were almost extinct in the 70s with only six to seven hundred left along the Australian coast but thanks to protections (thank you hippies) they are in the tens of thousands and their population grows by 10% each year. In fact scientist do not know the age limit of hump backs due to none dying of old age during the course of their study. Here are some images of the majestic creatures:

Well, I guess that is it for now, don't want to take up too much of your day.

Cheers,

Ann and Aram

PS Here are some shots from our thrill ride back to shore. The elderly lady next to us was confused as to why we were so closed to shore but we appreciated the ride, bravo Blake.

Barrenjoey Head Lighthouse

Aram and I decided to do an adventure one day and spent quite a bit of time on the city bus.  We ended up traveling to Barrenjoey Lighthouse in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.  We picked up the bus north of our house.  We ended up being on the bus for 1.5-2 hours.  When we arrived, we had to walk into the park and then found the trailhead to get up to the Lighthouse.

Barrenjoey Lighthouse sits at Sydney's most northern point--Barrenjoey Head at Palm Beach.  It is positioned 91 meters above sea level.  The lighthouse was built in 1881 from sandstone.  It's oil room, lighthouse and keepers' cottages remain unpainted in the original stone finish.  

We took the Access Trail up and the Smugglers Track down.

Didn't realize how high up it was.  

Double beaches--Left is ocean side.  Right is bay side.  

Some weird tree that looked like a hive on it

Looking out at the Pacific.  Didn't see any whales.

Headstone of first lighthouse keeper

Pineapple Tree!!

Overall had a really fun day exploring even though it was a little chilly.

Let us know if you have any questions about life in Australia.  Post them on the Facebook post and we'll get them answered.

xoxo, Ann and Aram

Footy Game

So our favorite sport here in Australia is Footy.  I did a previous post on it.  We finally got tickets and went to a game.  It was crazy to see it in person versus on TV.  We took the train to a station and it was starting to get full of Swans fans.  We ended up walking to the stadium versus taking a bus.  We just followed the crowds there.  

following the crowds of people

Before the game

Had to get a group selfie!

Beautiful sunset for the game. 

Fish and Chips for the game

We got our Swans gear of the game

Crowd going crazy for a goal

The Sydney Swans were playing Gold Coast Suns.  It's getting closer to playoff times so every win for the Swans is huge.  They didn't start the season off too well, but have been having a great run right now.  Final score ended up being 118-51 with the Swans winning.  

 Buddy Franklin going for goal, but gets a behind :(

Overall had a super fun time at the game and continue to cheer on the Swans.

xoxo,  Ann and Aram

More photos of things we've done :)

So one night Aram, Greg, Brooks and I went to a concert.  It was Ports, a band from Northern Ireland that G & B have seen before, and then the other band was All Our Exes Live in Texas.  It was crazy at this venue because there are no chairs, so while people are waiting for the show to happen, they just sit on the floor.

Felt like we were at a picnic

 This band was extremely talented.  One of their songs is the theme song for Northern Ireland Tourism.  Then they did a song using interference from two cell phones.  I tried to upload the video, but it isn't working for whatever reason.  It's amazing!! Greg said he's seen this a few times and it works every time.  Super talented.  Had a fun night!

So since I haven't been able to work yet, sometimes when it's cold and rainy out, it can make for a long day.  So Greg is teaching me how to play the guitar and I'm doing PT on him to try and fix 'years' worth of bad posture and low back pain.  Pretty good tradeoff if you ask me.  I'm learning "Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty.

Good thing we have a big kitchen table.

Aram and I went to Bondi Beach the other day to see what that beach is all about.  Definitely has a Southern California vibe.  We did find burritos though, so we were super happy about that.

Caught him mid bite!

We had been missing some Mexican food

So after we filled our bellies with food we went down to the beach.  Aram put his feet in the water....it is cold!  We couldn't believe there were actually a lot of people swimming without a wetsuit on.   And there are a lot more surfers here than at Manly beach.

Water way too cold, but still pretty blue.

After sitting on the beach for awhile and just relaxing, we decided to go get Gelato from this shop we passed on our way there.  It smelled so good when we walked by.  So many flavors to choose from! This was just one section of their selection.  I ended up with Salted Caramel and White Chocolate.  So darn good!

We then walked around and saw the Iceberg Club.  Usually this is filled with seawater, but we were there on a Thursday and the pool is closed for cleaning.  Still pretty cool to see though.

Aram took a photo of me not taking a photo lol

Definitely enjoying time by the beach.  Ready for it to warm up a little bit so we can actually go swimming.

Xoxo, Ann and Aram

Long overdue update

Sorry guys I haven't updated the blog here recently.  I have been under the weather for about 10 days.  Still trying to go out and do some things with Aram since he's on break, but then usually need a good nap.

Aram finished up his first semester of grad school last week.  Overall he thinks it went pretty well.  But schooling is definitely different here compared to the US.  He now has a month off from school, so hopefully we will go do a little traveling.  I think our plan is to take the train down to Melbourne and also maybe hit up Gold Coast.

Celebrating being done with finals with good pizza and a walk down by the Harbor.  

Kookaburra in Wendy's Secret Garden

Before I got sick, I had gotten into the routine of going to the gym every morning.  It was super nice because there would be almost no one there at 8:30-9 am.  My gym reminds me somewhat of my high school and college weight rooms.  Nothing too fancy, but everything you need.  All the people are very friendly as well.

Still working with Creighton and the Australian Physiotherapy Board in order for me to get a license here to work.  One of my professors contacted them showing how my schooling was more advanced than the degrees here and it should transfer over, but it is a no go with that route.  So still working on getting the last of the information.  Hopefully it comes through soon.  There is a job opening really close by the house that would be awesome.

So there have been adventures to the Sydney Fish Market with Brooks where we saw the biggest King Crab ever and I tried grilled octopus. I couldn't really look at the octopus on a stick when taking a bite, but it wasn't too shabby.  Not something that I would order on its own, but would have a bite of it.  Instead I had the largest grilled prawn I've ever seen.

octopus on a stick

And this crab was still alive!

Had a hard time getting over the tentacles.

 Aram and I went to 'the Rocks' for a Saturday morning market.  Got breakfast and then did some shopping.  Got some really good dried mango with no sugar added.  Apparently when places add sugar it is because they picked the mango too soon so they have to add it in order to it to taste better.  Also saw the only street contortionist.  It was pretty crazy seeing her get into this tiny box.

Always love taking the ferry back home.

One evening out we went to Redfern to watch Brooks' choir sing in a play.  It was fun.  Couldn't understand any one in the play because they all had different accents, and were trying to do a Spanish accent.  The singing was really good!

Afterwards we ate dinner with some of the choir members and then went to karaoke.  Brooks and Greg sang and Aram sang.  I did not.  Instead, I have videos of their singing and will hold onto it for blackmail (JK JK).

Overall things are going well here.  I'm just ready for some warmer weather and to not have this cold anymore!  Hope to hear from everyone back home.  Let us know if you want to visit :)

I'll do another post this week with some more things we have done.

We miss everyone back in the States and are jealous of boat and pool pics.

xoxo, Ann and Aram