Day 1 - Great Ocean Road Part 1

We made it! The flight was pretty long, but 4 episodes of Stranger Things Season 2 and much-needed sleep made short work of the 15 hours. I feel like I've gotten pretty good at sleeping for about 15 minutes until one of my body parts falls asleep, adjusting to re-establish blood flow, then falling asleep for another 15 minutes until another part falls asleep, then adjusting, etc. etc. Anyway, the food and service were great. I (Jeremy) think I tried all of the coffee-related drinks on the menu by the time we landed - and they were all pretty good.

After we landed and got our rental car, we set out for the Great Ocean Road, which a scenic drive along the south-eastern part of the country. It's pretty reminscient of Highway 1 on the California coast (other than the whole drive on the left side of the road thing). Bridget got some great views while I tried to compensate for being on the wrong side of the road (and the wrong side of the car) while keeping up with traffic going 80 - 100 kilometers/hr (not miles/hr, mind you). But it wasn't too bad. For anyone else who's experienced this reverse car thing, my tally for the wipers/blinkers mixup is at 4 so far. Anyhoo... the coast is magnificent. Sandy beaches interrupted by steep bluffs beaten by the relentless surf. The road is dotted with pulloffs for tourists (like us) to enjoy yet another of the innumerable scenic views. The weather was overcast when we started driving, but once the sun came out, the water turned that picture-perfect turquoise color.

In case you were curious, the high temperature for today and tomorrow is 70 degrees before heating up to 90-degrees on Wednesday. Looks like that may be a beach/surf morning before heading back to Melbourne! Oh, and another bonus (that I had apparently forgotten) for the southern hemisphere (aside from it not being winter) is that the days are super long! Sunrise around 6am and sunset at almost 9pm! Not quite as long as the days are in Alaska during the summer (we were there a few summers ago) since we aren't that close to the antarctic circle but still pretty nice!

Tomorrow we'll be heading further west on the Great Ocean Road, so there'll some more spectacular pictures coming !

Started the flight with some sparkling wine!

It wouldn't be a blog post without food! Breakfast on the plane

Melbourne sign outside the airport

Waves rolling in

Someone is a risk-taker...

Another view of the water

I spy a Koala!

The blog is back!

Welcome back to The Adventures of Jeremy and Bridget (Part 2)! If you haven't followed us before, we started our blog in the summer of 2011 before moving to California. We've kept it going on and off since then (and had to create a "part 2" due to space limitations), but will be resuming blogging for this trip since it will be likely be worth reading (not that our other trips weren't, but you know). If you have some time to burn and want to catch up from the beginning, here's that link (link - just skip back to the beginning). Oh, and comments are welcome! Positive, inquisitive, or snarky...up to you. :)

Anyway, we took off this morning from SFO around 10am to start the journey. Wonder how much luggage it takes to travel for a month? Us too! We'll see if our two carry-ons and two backpacks are enough (see below)! Also, note for next time - don't have Bridget cut my hair 15 minutes before we're supposed to leave; we'll be late (sorry A&V). But we made it to LAX for our layover (Santa rides Virgin America, BTW) and are currently waiting for our flight to Melbourne, Australia tonight. In case you were curious, 7 hours is quite a bit of time to sit at an airport for a layover and wait. But since this is LA, and not Beijing, we didn't leave the airport to hike the Hollywood sign or anything. Binge watching TV shows passes quite a bit of time, it turns out. Well, there isn't much more worth writing about so we'll sign off for now and see you on the flip side (of the equator, that is)! #dadjoke

Proof!

Will this be enough?

Jamaica

I had the wonderful opportunity to go with my parents to Jamaica over MLK weekend in January and it was SO BEAUTIFUL there. We stayed at this awesome all-inclusive resort and didn't feel the need to leave for one second. We hung out at the pool, went for walks, got a massage, went out paddle boarding, ate at all kinds of different restaurants, and drank lots of cocktails. It was a wonderful weekend.

A view of the pool. I think it was the biggest pool I've ever seen

Dinner at an indian food restaurant

The hotel felt open and grand - everything was beautiful

Cocktails with mom!

The beach was limited, but it was pretty nonetheless 

One of the many pools around the premises 

Little white dot in the middle is a sailboat :) 

The water was a beautiful crystal blue 

Some more cocktails. They gave me a few extras... 

Sunset view from our balcony

Lots of love for my dad <3

Tiny gecko we caught on the balcony 

A different perspective and only *one side* of the massive pool. 

Paddleboards! Our first time and it was a lot of fun! I would definitely go back to this resort! 

Joshua Tree and San Diego

We did this trip over New Years last year. We started off in Joshua Tree National Park and we saw lots and lots of Joshua trees. 

The official tree

It was a lot of dessert

We did some hiking and driving around in the park and we got to this look out. 

We had to work a little for this picture. It was at the top of a nice path, but it was cold and crowded. 

Very interesting cactus plants - the desert changes as you go through the park so you see all sorts of different varieties if you have a keen eye

Just one day in Joshua Tree - but it was enough to cover the whole park. 

First day in San Diego - walking around and seeing the ocean

Some people get WAY too close to the seals - they are wild animals with big teeth! 

This is a hike along the northern part of the city. You can see in pictures below the erosion that happens when it rains. 

Redwoods up north

I realized that I am almost a year behind in my blog posts. Clearly this is not my forte. Here are a bunch of blog posts for your enjoyment and vicarious travels.

Last Thanksgiving Jeremy and I took a long trip up north to visit the Redwood National Forest up by Eureka. On the way up, we drove along the "Avenue of the Giants"  and saw some amazingly huge Redwood trees. I can't get the formatting right, so you will just have to deal with some funky alignment.

This particular tree shows a few interesting facts about history. It is call the "Immortal Tree" because someone tried to chop it down, hence the axe. The fish shows the height to which the water in a flood several years back reach. In the picture below you will see the creek that rose over 20 feet to get up to that fish. 

And we weren't necessarily in a valley, so this mean that there was A LOT of water everywhere for this tree to be so far under water. 

This is Fern Gulch - the walls were made of ferns! 

This was my FAVORITE part of the trip. We happened to be at Fort Bragg over the King tide, which caused some HUGE waves. It was SO pretty! 

A little perspective - see the red dot on the right. That is an adult person! BIG WAVES!! 

On our way back home, we stopped over at a small park and we found a very interesting tree there - an albino redwood tree. How can that be, you may ask? 

Redwood trees grow from the same root system. Many times you will see them in a ring around where the "parent" tree has lived and died a long time ago, but the young trees remain. This particular albino tree can not complete the process of photosynthesis because it doesn't have the chlorophyl (hence why it is white) in its cells. It is basically a leech that pulls nutrients from the root systems of the parent and sibling trees so that it can survive. Crazy, huh?! 

 Stay tuned! I hope to get more caught up this week - we will see :)