Smarter than the average bear

Our trip to Tasmania began in Hobart, the state capital. After breakfast at a scrumptious cafe (which happened to be on Kelly St! ), we ventured to the Museum of Old and New Art (the MONA).  Owned and built by a thirty-something guy who made a bunch of money in online poker, the MONA is quite a provocative place full of art from all around the world.  Check out the MONA's website at http://mona.net.au/.  Here's a sample of some of the work that we found particular interesting:

Tattoo Tim
This guy travels the world as a museum exhibit.  He plans to donate his skin to a museum.  

You'll have to ask us if you want to know what this is.   Let's just say it's inappropriate for our younger readers.

Fat Car

Bit Fall

From Hobart we drove to Freycinet National Park and hiked the 30km Freycinet Peninsula Circuit over two and a half days.  Beautiful landscape, amazing beaches and sneaky creatures.  On our first night, Adam had a hunger pang shortly before bed and decided to have a few bites of hot salami.  He wrapped the salami back up in its thick plastic wrapper, dropped it in a Ziploc baggie and put it inside his zippered pack outside our tent door.  We woke in the middle of the night to find a wallaby right outside our tent happily munching away on the hot salami.  After shooing the wallaby away Adam examined the pack and found no holes.  The salami thief unzipped the pack, opened the Ziploc bag and peeled off the thick plastic wrapper!

After a long, hot day on the trail, we were determined not to be burglarized on our second night.  We set up camp on the other side of the creek from where the wallabies seemed to be hanging out, buried the last of our food deeply in our packs, triple checked to make sure all the zippers were closed and hung our garbage up in a tree.  FAIL!  Before a pair of possums attacked the garbage in the tree, they opened the zipper on my pack, found our breakfast (a bag of oats) and had themselves a wholesome meal.  Adam, always one to look on the brightside, was happy the thieves were polite enough not to chew holes in our packs.   

Beachfront Property

Top of Mt Graham

Mama and her Joey

The Salami Thief

We can't wait to go back to Tas! Xoxo

Year in Review

We celebrated our one year anniversary this past weekend. It's hard to believe one year has passed since we got married, especially because we have not had our wedding yet:). During our anniversary dinner, we decided to recap the meaningful events from the past year. We wanted to share this to-be-annual tradition with all the important people in our lives. Our list includes memories that are happy, sad, adventurous, drunken, bittersweet and painful. Here goes...

February 23, 2011
Got married at NYC courthouse
-Lauren, thanks for keeping our secret

"Secret" honeymoon to Colorado
-Feasted with Dad and Leslie at the top of the mountain
-Snowshoe hiked with Taga and JP to the peak of Keystone

Our Engagement
-OD leads Kel's limo scavenger hunt around the city to all our favorite places
-“Will you marry me?”....”Of course I will, I already did!”
-Dinner at 1 Wall with family, Bondi Bar, Karaoke until the sun came up

Fool's Fest / Jessie and Amber visited NYC

Weekend at a B&B in New Paltz, First visit to Full Moon (wedding venue) with Mom and Dad

Kelly moved to Australia

Cousin Jeremy and Chelsea got married!

Adam and Dad rode Gran Fondo NY, first 100 mile bike ride

Adam moved to Australia

Exchanged rings on St Kilda Pier

Mom retired from teaching, 24 great years at the JDS

Road trip down the Great Ocean Road
-Carter turned one!

Carmen and Acacia got engaged!

Moved in to the new apartment in St Kilda

Kelly's birthday, the big 27
-First guests at the new apartment

Adam's birthday, the little 32
-Weekend down the Mornington Peninsula with some fine wine and tasty eats

Queensland
-Fruit farm, ocean kayak, big sea turtles, cassowary, Glenn the koala, exotic ice cream,
Aboriginal dreamtime stories
-The Great Barrier Reef - Kel's first scuba dive, tiger shark, whales

Adam went back to school
-Good-bye finance, hello freedom

Road trip to Bendigo
- Vineyard B&B, pottery lessons, delectable lunches
- Caitlin and Steve got engaged!
- Mark and Kristen got engaged!

Rosh Hashanah dinner with lots of new Aussie friends

Grandma and Grandpa's 60th Anniversary!

Melbourne Marathon
-Kelly PRs

Derby Day (Victoria's version of the Kentucky Derby)

Weekend in Grampians National Park
-Mt Difficult, feeding kangaroos, The Balconies, olive farm, film festival

Thanksgiving at the White house

Marysville Marathon (Trail run)

Girls' weekend down the Great Ocean Road

Adam finished school

Hadley and Rich got engaged!

NY Trip
-Brunch with family, Sunday Funday
-Lunches in Philly with Beers, Scotty, Jill, Earp and Bartman
-Rangers game with Sis and Damen
-Breakfast with Taga and JP
-Kel buys wedding dress
-Christmas celebrations
-Dinner with Beers, Poston, Carmen and the ladies

Weekend in Sydney
-Manly Beach, Garfish, Opera House, The Rocks, History of the World in Reverse, Wildlife
Photographer of the Year
-Benjamin David born, a rough start, daily thoughts and prayers started today

Celebrated our first Australia Day with an Aussie barbie at Jackie and Russell’s

T'Gallant and Merricks Beach with Claire, Steve and Bentley
-Lauren kicks ass in Queens

Weekend at Queenscliff for Running Camp
-Ally and Dan got engaged!

Elsa Valentina born!

Sad news from Earp

Maroondah Dam Ultra Marathon - 50km

February 22, 2012
Packed for our anniversary weekend in Tasmania

***

We hope to continue making memories with all of you in the years ahead.

Catching Up

So blogging isn't really our strong suit.  We'll try to fix that in 2012.  Just a quick run through of what we have been up to the last couple of months.

In December I took another trip down the Great Ocean Road with a couple girls from work. Adam started working for a children's fitness program and also as a women's running coach.  We flew to NYC on December 17 and spent the holidays visiting friends and family.  It was a great trip and we were so happy to have seen so many people during our two week visit!  We flew back on New Year's Eve, which turned out to be a pretty good night to fly since the airports were empty and the planes had quite a few empty seats.  We even got a free upgrade from NYC to LA!

Since we've been back in Melbourne we have been enjoying the summer.  We've been to the outdoor cinema twice, headed to Sydney for a weekend and attended the Australian Open yesterday.

We had fun in Sydney despite torrential rains at times.  We took the ferry to Manly Beach and on the way got a nice tour of the harbor, including the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.  In Manly we indulged on a delicious fresh fish lunch.  Sydney is home to the largest fish market in the southern hemisphere.  We walked a ton to get the lay of the land, saw a show at the Sydney Theatre Company (it was a history of the world in reverse, from the current day to the big bang) and enjoyed the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit at the Australian Museum.

We've got a lot of fun things planned for the next couple of months: kite surfing lessons, dog sitting, St Kilda festival BBQ at our apt, weekend running camp in Queenscliff, long weekend trip to Tasmania, potential visit to Ayer's Rock, and a trip to Adelaide/McLaren Vale/Kangaroo Island for Easter/Passover.  And then in May we have our first visitors!!!

"The Tennis"