Fishin' fun!

First of all I need to apologize to those of you, if there's even anyone left at this point, who have been checking our blog for updates the past couple of months. Sorry- Debbie has really dropped the ball on this one since returning from Aus. We've been traveling quite a bit domestically and will be doing posts for our trips (New York, Chicago, and yes, Hawaii still!)

Yesterday was Debbie's first time to Houston. Why go to another hot and humid city in TX you ask? One, or actually three, words: deep sea fishing! We braved the possibility of a miserable sea sick Debbie, woke up at 4am, drove almost 1.5 hours, and jumped on a boat bound for the gulf of Mexico with some of Whit's co-workers for a long day of fishing at sea. The results? 5 F's :
-FUN
-FEARLESS FAT FISH (and even a baby shark!)
-FATIGUE

It was an awesome experience for both of us. We caught huge snappers, king fish, ahi tuna, and a grouper. The fish put up a fight, as they weighed almost as much as some of Debbie's former students. The waters were described as "eerily calm" by the boat captain, but the light breeze felt good under the sun. If you find yourself in our neck of the woods anytime soon, please come on by for a fishy supper!

Fishing is hard work! Our left arms were sore the next day! Look how far Whit's rod tip is in the water, he's really fighting to get that fish!

Look what I caught, Ma! It takes 2 hands to hold this bad boy up!

Opps! Debbie got a baby shark on her line while trying for more snapper! First shark of the day, and it went back into the sea.

This poor snapper family was just minding their own business, swimming along on a sunny Tuesday afternoon... I doubt they thought all 3 of them would end up together on a boat thanks to Debbie!

Group photo at the end of the day with all our catchings! Good for us, bad for the fish. We caught snapper, king fish, ahi tuna, a shark, and a fat grouper. Time to fire up the grill!

Fall photo shoot

Debbie’s good friend Dollies was kind enough to share her passion in photographer with us one morning. These photos were taken a day before we left Melbourne, mostly in the Botannical Gardens with the beautiful fall colors in bloom. Photography is Dollies favorite hobby and she is quite talented! Thanks for the fun photo shoot, Dollies!

Farewell for now, new friends!

Just as hard as it was to say goodbye to Melbourne, it was also sad to bid farewell to some friends we’ve made during our time there. Though it was reassuring to know that it was more of a “goodbye for now” as we’re hoping to see them again. Here are some photos of our new mates:

We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Veggie Bar, with our new friends, Dollies, Hendri and Yuma days before we left. Debbie met Dollies at the church’s English Corner class and the two hit it off really well. Dollies even did a great photo shoot for us, and you can check out her skills in a future post.

We got invited to a real Aussie Sunday Roast at our friends Sarah and Chris’ home in a suburb outside of town. What a treat it was! Debbie met Sarah through her volunteer gig at Opportunity International. It’s safe to say that Sarah is both a talented donor relations manager and a gifted chef!

Through English Corner, Alpha Class, City Bubs Bible Study and church, Debbie met many girls. Here she pictured with her new Taiwanese friend, Rebecca, whom she enjoyed regularly meeting up with for a coffee and to practice conversational English.

FOOTY!

If you ask some locals here what's their favorite thing about Victoria during the autumn and winter seasons, you are likely to get a one word answer- Footy! Footy, short for Australian Rules Football is a fast pace, good spirited game, often mistaken by foreigners as rugby. There are 36 total players on the elliptical field during play, and at the particular game we attended (Collingwood vs. Carlton- 2 old time rivals), over 88,000 spectators!

On game days fans sport their team colors proudly, in the form of a scarf or jersey. We have grown to be fans of footy, and cheer for 3 teams, which is quite unusual since it feels like you're to only go for 1 team, perhaps decided for at birth by your family. In no particular order we go for: Collingwood Magpies, St. Kilda Saints, and Geelong Cats. We're still working on learning the team songs. :)

Go Pies!

Friday night Footy at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)- great weather, great vibe, 2 great rivals = heaps of fun!

Our team won, so it's tradition to sing the team song afterwards- "Good old Collingwood forever, we know how to play the game! Side by side we stick together, to uphold the Magpies name! Good old Collingwood!"

Weekend fun in Sydney!

It was fun playing tour guides in Sydney as we met Kevin & Josephine there on the last leg of their Aussie adventure. Here are some photos from our weekend.

2 Asian girls, 2 American boys, and 1 fast boat to get to dinner!

Mmmm... who can say no to a roo & rump Firday?! I can!! (Not too sure about Whit with that face he's making.) And don't even get me started on the half price schnitzels! It's safe to say that we don't plan to dine at The Pub With No Name.

Kevin "acting" in one of the Opera House's theater; Jo, being his adoring fan/paparazzi

On the ferry back from an afternoon in the Sydney suburb of Balmain. A big reason for going out there (besides the scenic ferry ride), was to try "the best macaroons in the Sydney." We got to the bakery around mid afternoon and it looked like someone came through and bought out the place in fear of a famine approaching. I was then told to come around 8 am the next morning if I wanted some macaroons. No thanks!

Whit, that umbrella is not a golf driver! :)

View of Darling Harbour at sunset from our hotel room

Bay area comes to Aus!

For the past week we've had the pleasure of our good bay area friends, Kevin and Josephine, visiting Melbourne on their Aussie adventure. They soon discovered that while Sydney is considered the "sexy" city to visit, Melbourne can definitely hold its own with shopping and eating.

Are we in Japan or Australia?! :)

The view inside Melbourne Central- you can find virtually anything here- from haircuts to pet shops, supermarkets, cafes, designer boutiques, historical tower museum, to long distance trains. Talk about a 1 stop shop!

Out for Mexican food in Melbourne!

The Barossa Valley

Or simply called "The Barossa," it is one of the top wine regions in Australia. And where there's a top wine region, there's a Whit. So this past weekend we traveled to our 6th state/territory in Australia- South Australia, all for the purposes of 3 R's (rest, relaxation, and red wine).
The Barossa is a 1 1/2 hr. drive from South Australia's capital city of Adelaide. We had a fabulous weekend staying at a B&B in a vineyard very central to some great wineries. The weather was pleasant, we enjoyed delicious local foods, and drank a healthy amount of wine. We love the fact that the Barossa has a strong German heritage (go Keuer's!) and is relaxed without being too sleepy. Cellar door workers are friendly and knowledgeable, happy to show off their wines. We concluded from our weekend there that this is now our favorite wine country, trumping Napa!

The view from our B&B in Gnadenfrei (don't ask how to pronounce the name of the town, we're still figuring it out)

Wait, is that Whit with a glass of white wine?! How unusual!

No, we're not visiting a University, but wouldn't it be cool to take a wine course at this winery? We'd spend our time in between classes drinking wine on the perfectly manicured lawns.

The grapes that hold the beginnings of a great bottle of Barossa Valley cab sauv ... they tasted pretty good too. Harvest time must be just around the corner, we reck'n!

Our church for a Sunday- a quaint country Lutheran church that had the following sign out in front: "A Bible in the hand is worth 2 on the bookcase." The people there made us feel so welcomed!

The Best Summer City

Since our last blog post we have been savoring the summer in what must be the best city to spend it in- Melbourne. Between late nights, outdoor cinemas, festivals galore, nightmarkets and warm (but not too warm) weather, we have come to believe that this city knows how to do summer well. Melbourne really does come (more) alive during its summer months, and though autumn technically started March 1st according to the Aussie calendar, there's been a very nice and slow, if any, transition into fall. Let's hope it stays that way for awhile. :)

Here are some photos of what we've been up to in the last month, visiting places new and old, and just simply continuing to love our time here.

Great Ocean Road day trip

Split Point Lighthouse- we were able to go all the way to the base, but not inside. Whit exclaimed, "This is the first time I'm touching a real lighthouse!" Debbie replied, "Me too!" :)

A visit to Lorne on the Great Ocean Road again... can you spy a Whit?

Queen Victoria Night Market

Picnic at St. Kilda Beach (the nifty free sunshade really helped!)

Beach by day, beer & Scrabble by night- Since bringing back travel Scrabble we've been pretty religious on playing every weekend. So far Debbie holds the high score with 1 single turn scoring 27 points (fox, ex, if) and the highest point value for 1 word (zinc- 15 pts.) We can tell we're getting better each time we play! Perhaps the micro brews help?

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year! Gung Hay Fat Choy!

We just finished a 2 week long Chinese Lunar New Year celebration, and Melbourne was full of festivities. Though Debbie doesn't have the means, nor skills for that matter, to cook the traditional and yummy foods her mom makes during the New Year period, she and Whit have compromised by eating an abundance of Chinese suppers and snacks. Debbie is also enjoying being able to say "Happy New Year" a month later and not get any strange looks.

Southbank, turned Chinese market for the weekend, selling everything from fresh sugarcane juice to incense sticks and fortune telling. I'll only take the former, pls.


This was truly a hilarious sight- there was petting zoo set up with animals from the Chinese zodiac and kids were running around inside trying to pick up chickens to proudly display to their parents. Meanwhile the parents were cringing at what the kids were stepping in. Not too sure where the lama looking animal animal fits in to the zodiac ...

Gates of Chinatown! It was so crowded that day, it really felt like we were in China!

Melbourne- we're baaaack!

After I frustrating housing search in Sydney we have moved back to our beloved city of Melbourne. We packed up an SUV, full to the brim (all Debbie's fault), and drove from Sydney to Melbourne this weekend. It's not very common that people drive from one city to another, hence the Sydney to Mel route (& vice versa), being one of the most frequently flown routes in the world (per Whit, per Qantas).

We survived the estimated 10+ hour drive and even made it back to Mel in time to watch the Australian Open women's final in Fed Square with the crowd. We enjoyed a nice summer evening, picnic dinner, and cheering for both players. It's good to be back!

Guess who added an extra 870 km to this new SUV?

We're baaack! And it feels gooood! :)

What a great evening for tennis watching in Fed Square!

The match, as seen from the large screen in Fed Square. It was almost as good as being at the real thing- only 1 km away!

Happy Birthday, Whit!

Whitney Paul Keuer turned double 3's on January 24th. Happy 33rd Birthday to my favorite mate! :)

The birthday paparrazi strikes, right outside the bathroom!