This is Part Two of our week in Muskegon. We saw the collegiate league Clippers play ball on June 20th at historic Marsh Field. ⚾ The next day was gorgeous so we were back at the beach. 🏖 We took a drive north of Muskegon along the coast. 🚙 Chris and Wayne stopped by Lori's house on their back from Manistee to their home in Battle Cree...

Hey everybody 👋 We drove to Hastings, Nebraska on 6/11 to celebrate Steve's mom's life with family and friends (she passed away last December). I was honored to have her in my life for 40 years. Most of it was from afar so we talked on the phone often. This is one of my favorite photos of her. Miss you M! ❤ Got to catch up with Amy S ....

We made it back to LAX on June 1st. We took our customary walk over to In-N-Out to see the planes land and have a bite. 🍔 After a few days adjusting, we drove out to Indio to see our friend, Chris. So dry and hot! 🥵 We had a good tour of the La Quinta museum. 🖼 Saw some classic Dorothea Lange photos. 📸 Had to get over to Shield's for d...

We headed back to Melbourne from Adelaide on May 27th and took 3 days to drive along the coast. Part of the journey was along the Great Ocean Road. 🚙 We stopped first at Mount Lofty just outside Adelaide. As we rounded the corner up in the hills, the fog descended. We took a short hike to experience it. 🥾 The fall colors were still the...

Hey everybody, I am waaaaay behind on blog posts. Today is June 18th and we are back in the US (Muskegon, MI right now) but this is from a visit while we were in Adelaide in late May. It is a focus post about our visit to the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA). If that doesn't sound interesting, I would skip it. 👋 The Life of Stars,...

This is a focus post about the aboriginal art galleries at the SA Museum. If that doesn't sound interesting, I would skip it. 👋 The South Australian Museum is responsible for the largest and most comprehensive collection of Australian Aboriginal cultural material in the world, and works with Aboriginal people to bring the collection's ...

More about our stay in Adelaide ... We enjoyed an interesting mass transit option during our stay - the O-Bahn. 🚐 The O-Bahn Busway is a guided busway that is part of the bus rapid transit system servicing the northeastern suburbs of Adelaide. The O-Bahn system was conceived by Daimler-Benz to enable buses to avoid traffic congestion b...

Forgot to send this one before the Adelaide posts - we stayed in Hahndorf on May 17th. We arrived on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and could not believe how many people were there! Most of them were on their way home by 6pm so we had more of it to ourselves by the time we left on Monday. It was definitely a weekend getaway for many in t...

We left Che in Seville on may 16th and made our way northeast to Adelaide (stopped in Horsham for a night). 🚙 From Experience Adelaide: Originally called Tarntanya (red kangaroo place) by the Kaurna people, the original custodians of the land, Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia (approximately 1.3 million people) and was fi...

This is a focus post about the Healesville Sanctuary near Seville, Victoria. If that doesn't sound interesting, I would skip it. 👋 We took a guided tour to learn more about their rehabilitation and conservation efforts. So many new friends to make! We became members and visited twice but there was still more to see. 👀 Hello ibis (aka b...

We were in our final week of pet sitting with Che so we took in more local sights. Those eucalyptus trees .... man ..... 💪 More roos out at dusk on our Mt Lofty hike. 🥾 Saw a wombat (aka ground koala (aka tree wombat))! Terrible photo so added a stock one too (looked freshly bathed in the stock photo). 🤩 More roos at the golf course ne...

More fall gardens! We were greeted by enormous gum/eucalyptus at Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden. 🪾 Native rhododendron in bloom. ⁕ The jewel of the visit was the replica of London's 2013 Chelsea Flower Show winner, the Australian Native Garden. The Chelsea Australian Native Garden was the first ever Australian entry to win the prestig...

Hey everybody, I am sending this on 5/10 in the US so Happy Mother's Day to all those celebrate - hope you have a wonderful day! 🤗 Thank you for following our travels. We have been so damn lucky over the last three years and it has been wonderful to see many of you along the way. We miss Boulder and our friends & family very much but w...

This is a SHORT focus post about a small art exhibit we saw in Warburton. If that doesn't sound interesting, I would skip it. 👋 Ali Griffin is a multidisciplinary artist based on Wurundjeri Country in Victoria, Australia. With over two decades of experience in advertising and design, she adeptly translates complex briefs into compellin...

Hey everybody 👋 We had a rainy day so decided to go to the movies. It was early on a Saturday so chose The Magic Faraway Tree just for fun. It was entertaining and watching it with a theater full of young children really made it special. Their laughter added to the whole experience so I highly recommend seeing it in a similar manner if...

Hey everybody 👋 You probably already knew this but I did not - Australia has six states and several territories (only the Northern Territory shown here). Our visits in April - May were limited to Victoria and South Australia. We left the pet sit in Frankston South on April 18th and drove north a few hours to Seville (stress on first sy...

This is a focus post about the McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery near Frankston. If that doesn't sound interesting, I would skip it. 👋 We enjoyed a lovely day at this sculpture park which included over 100 pieces. Tree of Life by Phil Price 2012 This was our favorite - it was 10m / 33ft tall and moved so well on the breezy day we wer...

This is a focus post about the Australian Sand Sculpting Championships. If that doesn't sound interesting, I would skip it. 👋 The rules of the competition and it was more carving than building a sand sculpture. I thought that I took photos of each sculpture's description but I didn't so I can't offer more than photos in this post. They...

We left Melbourne on April 10th and picked up a rental car to drive to a pet sit in Frankston South (house in red circle). We watched Frankie (dog) and Tinka (cat) while their family went on holiday to Lord Howe Island. 🏝 Tinka loved the sun and Frankie was more of a loner who enjoyed her crate time. 👋 Our hosts left us a snack basket ...

This is a focus post about a street art tour. If that doesn't sound interesting, I would skip it. 👋 We booked 'An Insider's Walk' street art tour with David as our guide: Melbourne reveals itself differently when you walk with an artist. David sees layers where others see surfaces – stories imprinted in bluestone, centuries buried bene...

This is the second and final post about our trip to Melbourne. 🇦🇺 We checked out Pan Asia night at the Queen Victoria Market on April 8th. 👀 This dad was warming up the dance floor. 🕺🏻 The Melbourne Comedy Festival was in full swing and we got some tickets to see Kitty Flanagan. We enjoyed her on the law office sitcom (Fisk). The stand...

🇦🇺 🇦🇺 🇦🇺 🇦🇺 🇦🇺 🇦🇺 🇦🇺 We flew from Auckland to Melbourne / Naarm on Saturday April 4th. The state of Victoria had made mass transit free (due to high gas prices) so many folks decided to enjoy the city for the school holidays (the first 2 weeks of April). 🚊 We enjoyed a lovely lunch along the Yarra River on Easter Sunday. ⛱ Funny story ...

We flew from Nelson to Wellington and then had a bumpy ride into New Plymouth. Always happy to see the black sand beach and our favorite bike bridge. 🤩 Susan and Brent hosted us (and their friends Cathy and Fred) for a delicious dinner. Susan was holding Lola who was part crocodile. Snap! 🐊 Sweet Daisy was much more friendly. 🐾 A beaut...

After 2 weeks in Golden Bay, we drove back over the Takaka Hill towards Nelson. 🚙 We had heard about the Riuwaka Resurgence and stopped to take a look. This is where the Riuwaka River emerges from the Takaka Hill. 🗺 The pool at resurgence point and the river was stunning. 📸 We moved on and stopped for a wander in Motueka. Saw this sign...

This is the last post about our stay in Golden Bay. ☀ We had heard so much about The Langford Store (and Post Office) so we made the trip to see it and wow, we were not disappointed. 🤩 It was filled with Kiwiana which are iconic items from historic New Zealand (usually mid 20th century). So much to see! 👀 I was proud that I resisted th...

This is the second post about our two weeks in Golden Bay / Mohua. We drove up to Wharariki Beach at low tide. 🚙 We parked and followed the track through the bush for about 15 minutes before arriving at the beach. 🥾 The Archway Islands were putting on a show. 📸 The clearest tide pools I had ever seen and good wind for our kites. 🪁 Beau...

Hey everybody 👋 Since we had heard so much about Golden Bay / Mohua on the northwest side of the South Island, we decided to spend two weeks to fully explore the area. 🗺 We started with a 6 hour Farewell Spit / Onetahua tour. You can access the spit by foot for the first 4 kms (2.5 mi) but only one tour company had access had access to...

This is a focus post about the driftwood on the beach in Hokitika. If that doesn't sound interesting, I would skip it. 👋 Hokitika is located on the west coast just below the alpine mountains on the South Island. As a result, some of the wood which is brought down by the alpine rivers to the sea washed up on the beach. The result was a ...

Hey everybody 👋 This is a short post about a 4 day tiki tour of our own on the South Island. We flew from Queenstown to Nelson on 3/5 and rented a car to drive over to the West Coast town of Hokitika. We had been there a few times and always enjoyed this quiet, funky place (cloudy or sunny). We found a spot which backed to the beach wh...

This is the second post about our friend Amy's visit and includes many of her photos too. We left The Catlins on March 2nd for another tiki tour north through Central Otago to our first overnight stop in Arrowtown. 🚙 We stopped at see Mel at The Penny Drops studio. This was our second visit in two years so Somerset remembered us (not r...