Mushi

We got our first piece of mail from the states today! Mushi sent us pictures from Sasquatch. As you can see, it was an excellent group and a wonderful time.

It was really exciting to get something in the mail - it's kind of like Christmas. Not only was it mail, but it was something from a friend, and who doesn't like that?! It made me happy for the rest of the day. So, thanks for the sweet magnet, Mushi, it's up on our refridgerator!

We're looking forward to hearing more from your road trip back to MI!

~Sazza & Ezza

Sad News...

My grandpa died on Thursday, July20 at 10:45 PST. He was very sick and had started bleeding internally from his cancer spreading. He went peacefully, in his sleep. Even though I knew it was coming, it's still very tough and very sad. It's a hard time to be away from my family, but I've got Eric's shoulder to cry on.

Papa Joe, I love you and I will miss you.

Address

For all of you that have asked, both before and after we've left, our address is as follows:

1/29 Park Street
St Kilda VIC 3182

Please feel free to send us anything, especially love!!!

We Made It!

So, we made it to Melbourne! It was a bit harrowing at the beginning, as our flight out of Seattle was delayed, so we had to take a different flight on a different airline (and drag what felt like 800 pounds of baggage along with us!). Luckily we had Lari and Amos around to act as our pack mules. But, we finally got that all sorted and then found that we were marked to get "extra special" attention from airport security. But, we made it to our flight on time and we were off and running.

Our flight from SF to Aukland was quite nice. Air New Zealand was super cool, with On Demand movies, TV, and video games in the seatbacks in front of you! On top of that, we were served an excellent dinner. With good food and all that entertainment, the 12 hour plane ride went by quite quickly (and I was even able to sleep a bit too).

Once in Aukland, heavy fog rolled in and our flight to Melbourne got cancelled. We got put on a later flight, but this meant instead of having a 3 hour layover in Aukland, we now had a 10 hour layover. Although they gave us food vouchers, no airport is entertaining for that long.

But, we finally arrived in Melbourne, with all of our luggage. It's winter here, so it's a bit cold (about 50 F) and it rained today, but it's a great city! Today we went to the aquarium, which is the best I've ever been to (more on that in another post) and had a great time.

OK, we're off to bed now. It's late here and we're tired.

We can't wait to hear from you all!!!

~S & E

First Blog

So, I'm not at all sure how this will all work out, but hopefully this will become a tool for Eric and I to keep in contact with our friends and loved ones while we're off in Australia!

We're leaving on Wednesday, July 12 at 6:07 PM PST. First we're going to San Francisco, then to Aukland, and finally to Melbourne. In all, we'll spend roughly more than 22 hours on the plane and will lose a day. Needless to say, I'm so not looking forward to the plane ride. Eric and I have, however, been planning to combat a terminally long plane ride with music (we got a splitter so we can both listen to the same music), cribbage, travel scrabble, and, of course, sleeping. At least we're flying together so we can put the armrests up and try to sleep on each other!

Otherwise, we're both trying to prepare for this adventure - i.e., packing. So, not only do we need to pack for this, but we also need to put the rest of our stuff in storage - ugh. No one thinks packing is fun. But, it seems as though we will be able to fit all of our stuff in a 5 x 10 storage space.

So, it's all starting to come together nicely. Eric and I are both in good spirits and there's no stressing here (can you imagine eric getting stressed out about anything?!?) and now we're just counting down the days and trying to be as prepared as possible without overpacking.

Well, dinner is finished...I'm off to eat. Check back in in about a week or so, when we get to Melbourne and I'm sure we'll have a lot more to say (and pictures!)