juice & snacks

Yeah, we’re big baseball nuts. We couldn’t wait for baseball to start in the Bay, so we flew out to Arizona to get our fix! This was our first MLB Spring Training out in Arizona, & we can’t wait to do it again next year.

We wake up in obscene hours here in Bay to catch a 7:00am Saturday morning flight from SFO. We land in Phoenix, shuttle over to the rental car complex (a 10 minute bus ride from the terminal) to pick up our PT Cruiser, then drive straight to Scottsdale Stadium to watch the Giants play the A’s. The game ends at 5:00ish, so we take a 15-minute walk from the park to our hotel to freshen up for dinner. It was the night of the Pacquiao fight, so we walked over to a local steakhouse for a little dinner, boxing, & mechanical bull riding.

After church on Sunday morning in Tempe, we went straight to the A’s Spring Training ballpark at the Phoenix Municipal Stadium, sliding into our seats a bit before showtime. It felt good to see the ol’ boys back on the field. On top of that, we were blessed with gorgeous weather during our whole trip & the A’s winning both games during our visit.

No, I didn’t get any iPhone signatures this time, or caught any homerun/foul balls, but one cool baseball-related thing that happened during our visit: at the restaurant on Saturday night, we were almost sure that Alfonso Soriano from the Chicago Cubs was dining at the table next to ours.

baseball, Photo of the day, photography, travel

I love little kids & how they find great amount of joy in the small things. Marcus’s parents spent hours the day before hand-crafting the decorations, but he finds much pleasure with the store-bought mylar balloon. To be fair, they were pretty shiny, big & non-threatening!

Sure, baby Marcus won’t remember his first birthday party, but he knows that he’s surrounded by people who love him! Happy birthday, young lad. Thanks to the parents for the awesome Hukilau lunch! Your many hours of preparation showed.

Photo of the day, photography

When we initially decided to go to Cairns, we wanted to go for the Great Barrier Reef and to hold a koala since Queensland is the only territory in Australia where it is legal to hold a koala. However by the time we got to Cairns, we were exhausted from all the travel and just wanted to relax. Since it was the end of our trip, we decided to take it easy so that we could go back to reality relaxed and refreshed. It was a tough choice, but since we enjoyed Australia so much, we knew we’d be back.

Instead our last few days in Australia were spent enjoying the beautiful weather and relaxing in Port Douglas and Cairns. Unfortunately, stingrays also enjoy the warmer weather so we were advised to stay away from the ocean. We were able to enjoy the nice oceanside views, but when it came to swimming that we resorted to the saltwater lagoons at our hotel.

After being on the move for the majority of two weeks, a relaxing time in Port Douglas was just what we needed. Though there weren’t a whole lot of other things to do, we did enjoy walking around the towns of Port Douglas and Cairns. Port Douglas was definitely more of a resort town whereas Cairns was more of a port town since most of the Great Barrier Reef tours go out from there. The one tourist spot that we highly recommend in Port Douglas was the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary. Had it not been for a strong recommendation from my brother, we probably would have overlooked it. It’s located just off the main road as you enter Port Douglas and looked like a tourist trap. However, once inside, it was was a great way for us to see some of the native animals of Australia and to experience some of the different habitats. We really got the authentic rain forest experience as it started pouring when we began walking around.

We didn’t spend that much time in Cairns, but it did have a nice restaurant row along the harbor where we enjoyed a nice final dinner at the Waterbar. It came highly recommended from my massage therapist and it did not disappoint.

Overall, Australia was a great experience. One day we definitely hope to return and explore even more. Ian and I really enjoyed our honeymoon, most of all because we really got to spend time with each other. In our day to day lives we see each other all the time, but we are always distracted by one thing or another. It was nice to be able to spend quality time together, to talk, to laugh and to have fun. We realized how important this time out is for our relationship and made a promise to make sure that we make time for it in the future.

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When we were initially looking into our trip to Australia, the travel agent we were consulting who had spent some time in Australia, highly recommended The Great Ocean Road and we’re glad we did. While it’s not something to do if you’re low on time, it is definitely worth it to make some time for it. The round trip journey from Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road up to Port Campbell and back again took us about 2 1/2 days. We probably could have made it in less time but it was a good pace where we felt like we got a chance to see everything and didn’t feel rushed. There our tour buses that will take the inland roads to see the major sights but to me it just doesn’t give it justice.

The first day we went from Melbourne up to Apollo Bay. We left pretty early in the morning because we were told that the most picturesque spots were from Lorne to Apollo Bay. It looks like they’ve done some construction recently because the GPS we borrowed from the rental car place was going crazy because it thought we were going off-road. (Thank goodness we got an International plan for Ian’s phone to look up some directions!)

The views were really impressive. We took our time driving and stopped frequently to take a break from the windy roads and to take in the views. The thing that made the views so impressive were the vibrant contrast of the colors of the cliffs, the ocean, and the sky.

Apollo Bay was a nice place to stay however lot of the inns were still closed because it was not yet peak season. We also found that it was kind of difficult to find accommodations online and that selection was much more limited than what was actually available. It is possible to get recommendations at the Visitor’s Center in Geelong but we didn’t want to take a chance by waiting until last minute to book.

Apollo Bay was a small, seaside town, but there were a lot of choices of places to eat and there were some really cute souvenir shops.

The next day we went from Apollo Bay to Port Campbell. Most of the roads on this leg of the journey were inland, but they were still beautiful in their own right. Being from the city, we don’t get to see that much lush, green farmland and forests so it was a pleasant scene. This part of the drive was the shortest leg of the trip.

The highlight of course are the 12 Apostles which are right before Port Campbell. Again the vibrant colors of the rock formations, the greenery and the ocean are really what make this sight amazing. It’s hard to describe what it is about it, but it is quite breathtaking.

Port Campbell is also a really small town but we didn’t find it as charming as Apollo Bay. There wasn’t a whole lot to do so, but the Best Western we stayed at was very quaint though it was the most expensive accommodation on our trip!

For the trip back to Melbourne we took the inland roads. We were quite entertained by all the public service notices along the side of the road. From telling us to drive on the left side of the road to warning us about motorcycle safety it was quite shocking at times but very effective.

Flickr: Honeymooning in Australia

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Those who have known me from childhood know my affinity for penguins. My parents told me that one year I asked for a penguin for my birthday and when they gave me a stuffed penguin I was extremely disappointed because I wanted a real penguin. I don’t know what it is about them but it also led to one of my favorite baseball players, Ron Cey who was known as The Penguin for the way he ran the bases.

When I heard about the Little Penguins on Phillips Island, it became one of the must sees on our honeymoon. There are thousands of Little Penguins standing at about 6 inches tall that return to their burrow each night after a day of fishing. During the parade you get to sit on the beach or stand on elevated platforms and watch as they make their way back home. It was one of the big highlights of our trips, for Ian just as much or even more as for me.

There are lots of tour groups that make the trip out to Phillips Island, but for us it worked out better to head over there ourselves. Fortunately we left really early because traffic heading out of Melbourne was terrible. There was a lot construction on top of Friday traffic. It took us about 3 hours to get out to Phillips Island versus the 1 and 1/2 that it was supposed to. We were nervous that we were going to be late to check-in. When you go to the Penguin Parade, you need to call the day before to confirm your arrival time because the “Parade” start time varies based on the sunset. In retrospect it might have been a good idea to spend the night out there since the parade ends at about 9:30-10 and it was a long journey back to the City on a dark, unfamiliar road.

I decided to book the Private Penguin Experience which is limited to a group of 10 people and has you sitting on the stand in front of the grandstand where the general public sits. You also are assigned a ranger to give you some added insight into the experience.

As luck would have it, Ian and I ended up being the only ones in our group. Our tour guide, Sven was very knowledgeable and gave us a fantastic tour. He told us that we went at a great time because breeding season was early this year and that we would be able to see some chicks waiting for their parents to return. It was nice because we had reserved seating so we were able to walk around until the last minute before the penguins arrived. We were also able to go to several viewing platforms which was really neat because at different spots the birds perform different rituals. for example, once the birds get out of the “danger zone” they stop for awhile to preen themselves before continuing on their journey. We also saw a female penguins heading in the opposite direction picking up penguins. Sven told us that is a sign that there is going to be a second breeding season as they were picking up shells to get calcium. Little tidbits like that really helped make the tour special.

Even if we had not done the private tour, watching the Little Penguins waddle their way home was adorable. We did in fact see chicks waiting for their parents to feed them. The most amazing thing was how loud the penguins were. I never imagined their cries to be that loud and piercing. The cutest thing was watching the penguins hop off some of the ledges on the side of the road. Another place we spent quite a bit of time at was at these man-made burrows they have built inside the museum. They say that they don’t force any penguins to live there but several families have chosen to live there. We were able to see one family in particular feed and preen each other in their burrows which was really cool because had they not lived in the special burrows we wouldn’t have seen it.

One of the great things about Phillips Island is that they try not to disturb the penguins’ natural habitat. Sadly because people in the past didn’t know how to turn off the flashes on their cameras, we were unable to take any pictures but I think both Ian and I both have strong images of this visit in our minds.

Flickr: Honeymooning in Australia

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