Seppos Return

It's official - LT and I are returning for a visit to the Land Down Under in October of this year! We're excited to get back to celebrate the marriage of our friends Matt and Jess, reconnect with old friends, visit our old haunts, and have some more adventures!

The trip will be a little over two weeks (not enough time!), spent mostly in Melbourne and a few days camping out on Fraser Island.  In no particular order, here are the things we're excited about doing/seeing:

1. Baden Powell
2. Tribeca
3. Yarra Bend Park
4. Dimmies/Potato Cakes
5. Mrs. Parma’s
6. Ride Motorbikes
7. Bendigo / Maryborough
8. Brunch in St. Kilda
9. Flat Whites
10. Vic Market
11. Fish and Chips
12. Ride the ferris wheel in Docklands
13. Drink some of Tony’s Grappa
14. Dumprings
15. Yarra Valley
16. Fraser Island
17. Kangaroos
18. Mountain Goat Brewery
19. Mates to see:
1. Jonesy
2. Nicka
3. Marnie
4. M@tty
5. Jess
6. Johnson
7. Shan
8. Ben E
9. Jay
10. Erica
11. Brett
12. Krystyna
13. Dennis
14. Sindhu
15. Chris O
16. Jenks
17. Bradford
18. Anton
19. Lisa
20. Sam
21. Emma
22. Josephine
23. Rhyse
24. Ads
25. Wendy
26. Bruce
27. Steven
28. Mikey

Stay tuned for more blog updates as we approach!

One for the ages

Return of the Seppo

Sadly, we've really dropped the ball on keeping this blog up to date over the past three months, but not without good reason.  Although not yet mentioned on this blog, Lydia and I are ending our tenure here in Melbourne to repatriate back to the US, specifically Atlanta.  The move is bittersweet and was not an easy decision; it involved a number of aspects and life choices (family and friends, financial, and temporal considerations), but ultimately we believe the time is right.

We will sincerely miss our friends here in Melbourne and it is with great regret that we'll have to miss some of their key life events- engagements, weddings, and babies.  Although we won't be able to celebrate with each of them in person, we're looking forward to staying in contact via Google Hangouts and email, and we certainly plan on returning in the not-too-distant future, if only to visit.  We're also looking forward to them visiting us in the States where we can hopefully share our lives with them.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to help fill the gaps we've left in the blog, particularly in regards to our moving preparations, our recent travels to Uluru, Perth, and Northern Queensland, and our farewells.

We officially fly out tomorrow back to Atlanta (coincidentally marking exactly two years in Australia), so today is officially our last day (for now) of our Australian adventure.  We can't thank our family back in the States and friends (both here in Australia and overseas) enough for all of their love and support.  We've made lifelong friends, accumulated unforgettable stories and adventures, and gained invaluable and unforgettable life experiences here in Australia.  We're looking forward to the next chapter of our lives continuing our adventure back in the US.  Although we won't be in Australia, we'll forever be Seppo Yanks.

An Island in the Sun

Alas, we find ourselves neglecting our beloved blog once again.  To our readers, please accept our earnest apologies, we promise it's for good cause.  While not publicised yet on this blog, we've had some considerable life and traveling developments over the past two months, which has been keeping us quite busy.  Stay tuned, as a windfall of posts shall follow.

To break the lapse in posts, here's a quick one of a timelapse I've put together from our long weekend in Fiji in May:



 And a couple of photos for good measure:

Wilson's Prom

A quick video recap of our camping trip down in Wilson's Prom last weekend.  Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of the hike or of Waterloo Bay where we stayed the second night, as I wanted to minimize weight for the 24km of hiking and I didn't want to risk dropping/soaking/destroying my camera on the hike.  In retrospect, I should've brought it, but oh well... as the song says, "No time for cameras, we'll use our eyes instead."

For those curious of how beautiful the scenery was, check out the below photos from the interwebs:

Photo courtesy of couriermail.com.au

Photo courtesy of kgrahamsjourneys.wordpress.com

5 Minutes or Less: It's a family affar (part deux)

A more substantial post to follow, but just wanted to share that Lydia and I had the pleasure of showing my sister and her boyfriend around greater Melbourne and Tasmania when they were in town a couple of weeks ago:

Thanks guys for coming to visit and for all of the fun!

Keeping up with the Jonses

Congratulations to Luke and Marnie Jones on their wedding this past weekend!

It was a beautiful ceremony right on the beach, and the reception was a party to be remembered.  We couldn't be happier for them!  I first met Luke over a year and a half ago at work.  After he warmed up to my Americaness (he was hesitant at first), we quickly became good friends, and he's become one of my best "mates" here in Australia; he, along with Nick (pictured below) have taken upon themselves to teach me the ways of their homeland, including the superiority of the metric system, the soft pronunciation of the letter "R," and what a B&S Ute is.  Not long after meeting Luke, Lydia and I had the honor of meeting his girlfriend Marnie, and we quickly all became close friends - we even spent Christmas together with their respective families.

I promised my other best mate that I'd post a picture on the blog.  You're welcome, Nicka

We wish them the best in their future lives together, and in their approaching travels.  Come April, we'll lose them both to an adventure over in Europe, which we're (selfishly) saddened by, although we suspect it won't be too long before we meet again, be it in Europe, Australia, or the States!

Good picture of Luke and Marnie, average picture of Lyds and myself