This weekend was pretty jammed pack full of all kinds of fun events. I was a little worried going into the weekend since both my girlfriend and I were both sick but I miraculously recovered by Friday.

I went to a friend’s 30^th bday part on Friday. The hype around the party was that we were going to have a pizza eating contest. This contest stemmed from a conversation over NYE about one of my friends who participated in an annual White Castle eating contest at his work. My friend ate 20 for the second year in a row and the winner ate 22. I thought that was very weak and said I could easily eat 20. Well somehow the contest we did turned into a Little Caesar’s Hot-n-Ready contest.  I really did not plan on participating. Needless to say I came very close to eating the whole pizza in the 12 minutes allowed to win the contest. I was half a slice away and came in second by only a couple bites.  I should have won it though as I thought I was far behind the winner. I also struggled because I had a huge lunch of Mexican, already had a couple beers (the guy that won had zero beers at that point), I had a fatty breakfast, plus my teeth were sore from my new braces. All I can say is that I probably ate at least 6000 calories that day. We ended the night at the Tin Can in Tower Groves.

I lounged around on Saturday and ran some errands. I still can not believe that Seattle beat the Saints. What a turn around in two weeks! We went to Café Eau on Saturday night for a 30^th bday party. I was pretty amazed by the turnout. The place was packed. They had a band who I think was called King Pin. It was awesome because it was basically a live version of PaddyO’s after a Cards game. They played all the classic 80’s and 90’s songs while also playing some of the new hits. Becki and I will definitely be going back.

We did not do much on Sunday. We watched some football games and my girlfriend got the new Evo Shift 4G. The jury is still out but I was sort of expecting more out of the Android operating system (especially since this is a recently released version (2.2 Froyo). It was my first time using Android and I was not overly impressed. I liked some of the live interaction but everything seemed a little too complicated. I keep seeing that Android’s market share keeps going up thus why I was expecting a totally unique UI. It gives me new found respect for my Blackberry OS 6 UI as I think it is simple to use while delivering all my needs.  I also watched the season premier of Californication and the series premier of Episodes. Californication was awesome and I am glad it is back. Episodes was sort of boring but I will give it a couple more chances. I saved Shameless for later in the week but I liked the early season premier episode last month. I can not wait for the start of Big Love’s final season next week!

Oh, I forgot to mention that this was the first week of having Invisalign braces. As I may have posted before, I have been toying with the idea for over a year but could not bear to spend that much money since it is not covered by my insurance. I found out about the pretax flex plan which saved me money since the money is taken out before taxes so I took the plunge. Overall my experience has been good. I do get a little choked up every once in a while but I was expecting a lot worse since I have a pretty sensitive mouth. My teeth are a little sore but I really only notice it when I take my retainers in and out to eat. The main thing that I did not realize until I got them was that my diet is going to totally change. My short addiction to soda will probably die and also my snacking since I can basically only drink water when I have them in and have to brush my teeth before I put them back in. Needless to say it is going to be a long 10 months but it will be worth the pain.

One of the things I love about Christmas is the extended time off for work. My work gives us two days each for Christmas and New Years and most of our supplier take the week off between Christmas and NY so its a big week to also take off. I normally take off the week before Christmas to have a huge break but was limited in vacation days due to the Australia trip. Thus, I only had 12 days off.

I may have wrote and said that Becki and I were going to tackle some big home improvement projects like painting base boards and refinishing her hard wood floors on her second floor but none of that happened.  Instead we relaxed and went to a lot of holiday parties with family and friends. Below is a summary of a little bit of everything.

Kinect

We got a Kinect for Christmas. We bought Kinect Sports and Kinect Dance Central in addition to getting Kinect Adventures with the device.  First off, you will find that most people do not know what a Kinect is so Microsoft is not doing something right. I know they are running a bunch of adds but they seem to not be sticking. Maybe it is the weird name. The Kinect is pretty awesome and everyone that has played it with us thinks the same. Dance Central is hard for Becki and I so we do not play it but others find it easier and fun. We love Kinect Adventures. The rafting and the 3 other adventure games are pretty fun but I can see the game getting old. The sports game is a lot of fun. It really mimics the actual sport in many ways. My favorite is volleyball and track and field. I am pretty sure you could play a game on this for an hour a day and would be a great work out. We were sore the whole first week we played. You always work up a good sweat when playing.

Sporting Events

The MU – Il basketball game was very entertaining. I do think that the IL foul was intentional but it was a tough call at the end of a close  game. The IL player should have never fouled in the first place anyway. If he wouldn’t have fouled they would have been down 3 with the ball and a lot of time.

The MU – Iowa game was very disappointing. I was expecting a slaughter knowing that Iowa did not finish good and was missing several star players. Maybe MU thought the same and did not bring their A game. Maybe MU does not get pumped up for bad bowl games when they deserve much better (the same thing happened last season). I blame a lot of it on Gabbert. He threw two costly interceptions. I find it lubricious that he is projected to be the #2 QB in the NFL draft and a possible top 5 or 10 pick. He might have the build and skills of a prototypical NFL QB but he has shown all season that he can not make it as a star even in college. I wanted him benched earlier in the season.  This must be a horrible draft year for QBs after the great year last year. I would hate to be the team that drafts Gabbert wanting to build a franchise around him.

The Rams are depressing….that is all I can say. You could say that they did much better than last year but I am not going to give them that cop out. They were in the position to win the division and choked. They had a weak schedule and could easily only win a couple games next year due to a harder schedule. I think three things need to happen. Get rid of the Offensive Coordinator. He is not getting it done in my eyes. He calls all the wrong plays at the wrong time. The second is to draft a WR in the first round. The third is to sign a big name WR. We can not wait for a rookie to pan out while Bradford is at the top of his game. Get in done Kronke!

Becki and I were fortunate to get front row tickets to a Blues game. It was awesome being on the ice but definitely not worth the $250 face value of the tickets. The tickets were all inclusive so that included food and drinks two hours before the game until 30 minutes after the game. There was only one place to get the drinks and food but fortunately it was in our section. I also caught two pucks but gave them both to kids sitting around me.

Family

I think I went to 5 different Christmas parties with both mine and Becki’s families. All were fun and I ate a ton of food. Its always nice catching up with family. It is weird because I think I get the majority of my family time visits in over a 40 day period between Thanksgiving and New Years.

New Year Eve

We went to Mango for a group dinner for NYE.  On a sort of different subject, Mango’s website was just blocked by my work’s internet filter because it said it was porn…pretty weird. We had 5 other couples. Overall, I would say the group was disappointed. The person that made the reservation specifically asked if there would be a special menu for NYE in which she was told no. Of course there was when we got there.  Thus everyone spent a little more than they wanted to but that wasn’t my problem. My problem was that the place was not full but it still took like 3 hours to get through our dinner. I thought that is why restaurants have special menus to avoid this. I enjoyed my food although I thought the portions sucked. Most of the people I talked to were not impressed or didn’t like it at all.  Thus after a bad group experience in Vegas and two years in a row of quasi service for NYE, Becki and I decided we are going to avoid group dinners and NYE dinners. It’s as simple as that! The party that Becki and I hosted was pretty awesome. We had a small gathering and basically just played Kinect all night. I was impressed as some of my friends stayed up till 3:30 in the morning and with their impressive jumping skills.

This was a pretty jammed pack weekend. We braved the mall on Friday evening to do some Christmas shopping. It was dead so that was a plus. We also watched Get Him to the Greek. It was a funny movie. The P Diddy scenes were the best.

We had a trivia night on Saturday for a family at my girlfriends work. It was a fun time and we did relatively well (16 out of 40). The funny thing was that we bombed on the sports category (2 of 8 ) but did well on all the others (avg 6 of 8 on the other rounds). I have realized that I am pretty good at useless trivia. We finished out the night at The Famous Bar. I am going to go and elect that bar to be the smokiest bar in St Louis….an award previously held by Rue 13. You could smell the smoke as you approached the door. My car still smelled smokey the next day. I can’t wait for January 1 to get here so St Louis and the county are smokefree.

Sunday was a big day for home work at Becki’s. We put up the Christmas tree and decorations. The blurry picture above does not do the place justice. Her house really looks great. I also installed a new front porch light above Becki’s front door. It sounds like an easy task but not on an old house. First, I had to drill out the screws of the existing one since they used flathead recessed screws that were as soft as butter. Secondly, I now didn’t not have screw holes to install the mounting plate for the new one so used some self tapping larger screws to mount it permanently. Besides that and the fact that it was 20 degrees, it went pretty smoothly and the light looks awesome.

In TV news, Becki and I both started watching The Event. That show is sort of additicting. It is my new favorite out of the new but old season (it is actually the only new show I watch besides Boardwalk Empire).

I went out with my lovely girlfriend on Friday night for our 1 year anniversary since our first date.  We went to Vin de Set which is where we went on our first date. We ate a ton of food (our bill supplemented this). We started with a mix cheese plate, then I had a three onion soup, then we both got the beef tenderloin medallions. The main entrée was awesome. It has great mashed potatoes, asparagus and the steak was so tender.  We got a cheesecake to go which we ate on Saturday which was extremely delicious.

I had most of the day Saturday to myself since Becki was hosting her sister’s baby shower.  I caught up on Dexter and all but one episode of Fringe. Fringe was very good and I had not watched a single episode yet this season. I really like the mystery in the show. I also like the crazy technology that is shown in the parallel universe. I also watched the MU Tigers basketball and football games. The basketball team has a ton of talent. Right now, they look a little lost since they have so many scorers. Hopefully they will gel and have a great season. The football game was pretty good too. Blaine had his best game throwing in a long time (in my opinion) but they still are not very consistent. They seem to forget about the crossing patterns and short throws up the middle in which they rock at. Becki and I closed out the night watching Iron Man 2. It was a pretty good flick.

We did some shopping on Sunday. I looked at the TV that I am toying with getting. Its going to be $1500 on Black Friday. I didn’t think I was sold on the LED technology but I will now only buy one with it. Best Buy had the same two 55″ platforms next to each other (one with LED and the other just a regular LCD).  The LED LCD was so much more vibrant. I also got the Kinect but its a Christmas present so I wont get till open it for another month. I watched the Rams game too. They look pretty good but couldn’t stop Atlanta. I also have no clue who that shuttle pass was going to at the end of the game.  On the tv front, I watched the season premier of The Event and Sarah Palin’s show. The Event was pretty good and I think my girlfriend liked it too so going to play catch up if I can find a place to watch the 2nd episode since I lost it in my DVR issues a couple months ago. The Palin show is good too. It makes me want to go to Canada.

The past weekend was a pretty fun weekend. I ran a ton of errands with my girlfriend on Friday then called it a night. One thing to note is that we went to The Rack for the first time. I was not impressed…I was expecting better deals and more of an offering.

On Saturday, we went to a friends to watch the Mizzou game. What a disappointment! MU safeties played horrible and we did not play the same style of offense that we have been. Blaine looked horrible in the pocket with happy feet. Needless to say our National Championship dreams our over and probably the Big 12 tourney but we might pull a Kansas and actually benefit by not being in the tournament and still get a BCS bowl game if we win out.

My girlfriend and I dressed up as people from the roaring 20′s. She was a flapper and I was a mobster. We went to a friend’s party Saturday night. It was a lot of fun and we had the best costume (in my opinion).

I watched the awesome Rams game on Sunday. They look pretty good. Imagine if they wouldn’t have blown all those leads.  My girlfriend and I had a small BBQ for Halloween night and welcomed trick or treaters.

Here is my Halloween picture set.

This past weekend was pretty awesome. Too bad I only slept like 7 hours the whole weekend but it was well worth it.

I went to a friend’s wedding on Friday that my girlfriend was in. The wedding was at a small church in Affton and then the reception at Andre’s. I was impressed with the whole night knowing how much they spent and how well it was put together. It gives a little hope…lol. Becki and I had a blast at the reception and we danced a ton.

I woke up 3 hours later after going to sleep to drive down to Columbia to see ESPN’s College Gameday. After a car pickup and a car switch we finally were on the road. We got to COMO and headed for our favorite new tailgating spot. We were extremely excited to see that we could tailgate in the lot next to Reactor. I am not sure what happened to the rule that you could only tailgate 3 hours before the game but I am glad to see it’s gone.  We walked to the Quad and it was packed. I didn’t know what to expect and it exceeded my expectations. Supposedly we set a record for Gameday attendance. We walked back to the tailgate to begin the party. We cooked some good brats and hamburgers courtesy of Ted. The weather was great and I even wore flip flops. Not bad knowing it is late October and it was supposed to rain all day.

The game itself was awesome. In case you didnt hear. MU defeated #1 OK. The opening kickoff got the party started and it did not stop. We played pretty awesome but we did make some major mistakes. Field the first punt was a big one. We had huge momentum and great field position. The wind was swirling so the return man should have made no attempt on the short kick. The other was clock management. I have no clue why we chose to pass on 3rd down with the time winding down. I also like my friend Matt’s conspiracy theory that Bob Stoops punted at the end of the game because they knew they were going to lose and didnt want to risk MU scoring again so their BCS number wouldnt hurt since that would have made the game a blow out.

I don’t know what happened on Sunday. All I know is the Rams lost a game that they should have won. The dropped so many easy interceptions and seemed to dominate the first half only to totally fall apart in the 2nd half (didnt we see that last week) and lose the game. Also, where was Denario Alexander?

Picture of the week are here.

This was what I would call a pretty lazy weekend. It was the first weekend that my girlfriend and I were both in town for a while so we did a lot of lounging. We ran errands on Friday and did a little housework. I tried to be a plumber which I thought would be easy. I guess I needed to consider the facts that (1) my girlfriends plumber friend has repeatedly worked on the tub (2) the house is older and has older fixtures. Needless to say, I took out the stem and recognized that there were several seals broken and missing. The whole issue with the tub was that it was leaking at the stem but I could also tell that it probably wasn’t sealing between the lower bath head and the shower head because the seal was totally gone. We went to Home Depot to find seals which we couldn’t so we just bought a complete replacement kit. Unfortunately, the kit had the wrong size stem. I am guess there is a standard now but not back when this bathroom was designed. We went to Ace and it really is the place because it had all kind of stem kits and seals but the person working there wasn’t very helpful and we couldn’t find anything that looked close. I ended up reusing a seal (that probably was not a good idea) and buying an oring where I needed a washer gasket. I did get it to seal and it works pretty good except the fact that the water pressure is only 75% of what it was before. I’m assuming because of the seal I reused in a different place. That a weekday goal to fix.

We watched the MU game on Saturday which really pumped me up. So much that I bought tickets for the game this weekend. How can you pass up tickets for Homecoming weekend, the first visit by ESPN’s College Gameday crew, and the #1 team in the nation? I sure couldn’t. We went to a friends wedding rehearsal that night and went to the MAC for the dinner portion. It was a good time and the place was packed.

Not much happened on Sunday either. I watched the amazing upset by the Rams. I am super excited about Denario Alexander’s excellent first game. Becki and I watched some shows on the DVR that night and were very successful on our first attempt of making lasagna. It was amazing. Here are some more pictures of the process.

Update: I fixed the water pressure issue with the shower head in like 2 minutes. The o-ring I bought ( that wasn’t the right fit and needed to be a washer gasket) was compressing into the chamber under pressure and causing restrictions. I just cut it out and going without it. It is only used to seal between the shower head and the bottom outlet which must make a good metal to metal seal since it does not leak.

This was a jammed pack weekend.  There was oodles to do in St Louis this weekend which worked out well since the weather was amazing.  Unfortunately, there was so much going on that I missed out on the Soulard Oktoberfest but I hear it was a lot of fun.

This was reunion weekend at Washington University. There was a reunion reception at school, a gala, and there were supposed to be individual class parties. Our class party (albeit for only a 1 year reunion) sort of fell apart in the last week when we lost our venue so we decided to go see Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps. My fellow MBAers always talked about this movie and Gordon Gekko. Thus I watch the original 1987 movie on Thursday and loved it. It used a ton of financial buzzwords that we used pretty regularly in our studies plus it was suspense and action packed. We had a group of about 10 or 12 people hit the Esquire Theater on Clayton. First off, that theater sucks. The seats were uncomfortably small, there was actually a tear on the screen, and we could hear sounds from other theaters. There were probably only 10 other people in the theater on a Friday night so not sure how they stay in business. The movie was okay. The movie was basically based on the financial meltdown two years ago with aspects of the 1^st Wall Street movie. It would probably be cool for the average moviegoer but we discussed this crisis in great detail in school so it wasn’t any insight that I already didn’t know. The movie was also a little too sappy for me and didn’t have the action as the first one. Thus, I only give it a C. Everyone else were a little disappointed too. We went to Brandt’s for a couple free adult beverages courtesy of AB. I had not been there in a long time and I guess they changed management and structure. It was fun catching up with some of my classmates. Some of us went to Blueberry Hill to meet others and grab some snacks. I finished the night at “T Town” as my friend Mike puts it. Talayna’s is right next to his house so I went for an hour or so. It will probably be the last time I go back…lol.

I ran some errands on Saturday waiting for Becki to return from Sweden. I have a funny story. I have been searching high and low for a shower organizer that I actually like. It seems like no one makes a wide but short organizer. They either come in small or large where the small one is short and narrow and the large one is tall and wide. I might make one myself. Needless to say, I’ve bought some really expensive ones only to take them back. Why make a top shelf that is only 12”s from the shower head? Just doesn’t make sense to me.  After my second run to Bed Bath and Beyond in a week (and not last), I watched all the great college football games on before meeting up with Becki. Becki and I had dinner at Onestos in SOHA (as Matt puts it) for a friends bday dinner. The place was pretty good and we ordered way too much. We went back to the bday couples house to sit by a fire, talk about transgenic rats (we really know how to have a good time), and play with some dogs.

Becki and I went to the country on Sunday for Becki’s grandma’s 85^th bday. We were a little past Gerald, MO. It is sort of funny because it is very much like the area I grew up in but seems like a lifetime ago that I lived in that surroundings. We went on a hay ride and saw cows (both a first for my girlfriend), rode ATV’s, and had some good food. The ATV trails were pretty awesome. There were like 6 or 7 ATV’s with trails though fields and the woods over 50 acres. I had a ton of fun. The only bad part is that my throat is killing me today. I am hoping it is just irritated from all the dust and grass getting in my face from off-roading.

And that is it. I am glad to see Mizzou won its football game. I watched the first quarter and was a little scared. The same goes for the Blues winning their first game. Hopefully the Blues come out to a strong start. I can not say the same about the Rams. It looks like they got a little of a reality check. I did not watch the game but I heard the Rams started with an onside kick that was not recovered. I do not agree with that strategy and it probably put a bad tone on the game. At least we held them to a field goal that drive. I think we can squash any hope of winning the division despite how weak it is. I also looked to put up a strong week in fantasy football….possibly the best of the week.

Are you ready for one of the longest posts ever? My past two week vacation post have been very long and this one is not an exception.

The trip started off with a big worry. We did not know that a visa was needed for going to Australia. I felt stupid being an avid traveler but I am pretty sure I looked through my corporate travel page before and did not see this requirement. Needless to say, it was an electronic one so we were able to get one at the checkin counter with a little hassle. I am not sure what to think of the flight from Los Angeles to Syndey. It sucked sitting in coach and I definitely did not sleep more than 2 hours of the 14 hour flight but I was actually expecting worse. Each seat had their own DVR (which went down on the whole plane with about 4 hours left). It had all kinds of new movies that were not even on DVD yet. I watched Shrek Forever and Last Air Bender. I passed on A-Team, Robin Hood, and Iron Man 2 since I wanted to see them in a HD. The other thing that sucked was that we were two rows behind the baby row which never stopped crying. What even bothered me more was that two of the mothers were talking to each other as loud as can be when everyone was supposed to be sleeping. Have some common curetesy please!

Sydney

We arrived early Friday morning to Sydney after leaving St Louis on a Wednesday afternoon. Needless to say we really wanted a shower but we could not checkin since it was only 9AM and checkin was 2PM at the hotel. Thus we wandered around Darling Harbour along all the other waterways until we got to Circular Quay. Circular Quay is where the famous Harbour bridge and Syndey Opeara house is. We eventually found our way back to the hotel after cutting back through the city and checking out the various shops and markets. One of the big things we noticed while walking around was that this was going to be an expensive trip. All the food was expensive. Like $25 for a hamburger (that is not good anywhere in Australia) and $4 for a bottle of water at a local 7-11.

One of my distributors was super gracious to take us out site seeing on Saturday.  We grabbed some cofee and breakfast in Hunters Bay then made our way along the coast to Manly. We stopped at the Grotto Point Reserve to get a view of the Harbour opening then went to see the opening in an up close view at North Head – Sydney Harbour National Park. The views were breath taking. We made another stop at Manly to walk on the beach then went to the Freshwater Reserve to see Queenscliff Bay and more of the Pacific Ocean. We headed an hour north to Ku-Ring-Gai National Park. It reminded me very much of Lake of the Ozarks but with sharks in the water and sailboats instead of cigarette boats. If you can not tell, there is a ton of water ways in Sydney. I never realized this. There were harbours among harbours that were all super blue. We got an amazing view from West Head Lookout.  We had a late lunch on the water and went back to the hotel. We took a ferry ride through the harbour right at sunset back to Manly to meet up with my distributor for dinner. The ferry ride was pretty cool and a shade under 35 mins. Manly was a very hip town at night with vibrant nightlife. A must for any person wanting to have a good night on the town. I had a delicious native fish called a Barramundi for dinner. We stopped at a German pub for after dinner drinks then rode the ferry back to Darling Harbour to pass out.

We went whale watching on Sunday morning. The swells were pretty out of control that left many people sick. I am super glad I took Dramamine with swells 10 to 15 ft high. We did see a bunch of whales but none of them were close enough to get a great picture. We did see one breach too but didn’t get a picture. We also saw a seal up close and a bunch of dolphins jumping in the distance.

The rest of the week we both worked. We fit in some medioce and expensive meals. Our only quality meal was at I’m Angus on Darling Harbour. It was an expensive steak but worth it. In the next 4 days we wandered around town whenever we got a chance. We went to Paddy’s Market in China Town. It was a cross between a flea market and New York’s China Town. We also went up in the Sydney Tower. The views were nice but the place was under construction and so unorganized. We had not planned to but we did buy a pack at Sydney Tower that gave us passes for the Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife World which were both a stone throw away from our place. We were not planning to go to these since we were going to the Zoo in the Sunshine Coast but it wasn’t that much more and we had time. The aquarium was pretty cool. They had some huge large fish and shark exhibits built right into the harbor. Wildlife World would be cool if you were not going to the Australian Zoo but almost everything you saw was behind glass so not the experience that we had in Australian Zoo. You could also get your picture next to a Koala where we got to take a picture holding one at the zoo.

Sunshine Coast

We had enough of Sydney so traveled to Sunshine Coast on Friday. The Sunshine Coast is north of Brisbane. We were originally planning to go to the Gold Coast which is south of Brisbane. Supposedly the GC is the Miami of Australia but we wanted to get as north as possible from Brisbane in the hopes for warmer weather. This was the leg we were worried about because it was on a low cost airplane company which had strict wight limits for luggage. The max was 40 lbs and an additional $10 for each 2.5 pounds over. Needless to say we managed to meet the requirement with an additional carry-on. We would have bought more at Paddy’s Market if we knew we would be okay.

Unfortunately the Sunshine Coast wasn’t very sunny. We were told by locals that they can go months without rain normally over this season but of course rained for the two prior weeks to our arrival. Fortunately we only had rain for a brief time during the day but there was an overcast most of the trip. The one exception was Monday but it was still hit and miss. Due to this and the fact that it was still spring, the Ocean was pretty unswimable but I did bear the cold one day (briefly).

Our resort was pretty cool. It was another Novotel and was in the tiny town of Twin Waters. The place was very desolate but it was a true resort with a bunch of activities on the grounds like a private lagoon, boardwalk to the “river”, heated pool, free kayaks, and a supervised beach on the ocean. The place was pretty packed. We were hoping for the opposite since it was still spring. Unfortunately it was a school holiday that week so the place was packed full of unsupervised kids. We basically didn’t go in the pool at all because there were 100 screaming kids in it at all time with only about 10 parents. We did go out on kayak on the lagoon the first day which was nice. We never got one of the catamarans as they were in high demand and we did not want to wait in line. We walked about 2 miles down the beach into a small town of Mujimba then walked back to our place. We ended up eating dinner in Mujimba at the Loaded Lizard. It was one of the only two restaurants close and was basically where we ate dinner most nights.

We rented bikes on Saturday from our hotel. I did a rough Google Map driving path and it looks like we biked around 30 miles. Not bad for some old rusty beach bikes. Becki took the brunt having a pretty bad bike and a really sore back side in the end. We basically biked in three directions checking all the small towns which were basically just small resort/surf towns. It is what I would have expected Daytona to be like back in the early days. I felt like I was in South California too with a bunch of long haired “beach bums” walking around with no shoes and surf boards.

We went to the Australia Zoo on Sunday. We were told that this is the #1 tourist destination even though it is not near any big city. This is because this is the zoo that Steve Irwin (the late Crocodile Hunter) was associated with. The zoo was pretty cool. They even picked us up at our hotel in a zoo bus for the 45 min drive. The experience was a little over whelming at first because we realized you could go in all different directions and it seemed like we really needed to go to all the shows because that is the best time to see the animals. We finally got our bearings and plan to see what shows and at what times. We fit in hugging a Koala for a fee then went on our journey. My favorite part was the roo area. They basically had two 15 to 20 acres parks where a couple different kinds of kangaroos were roaming freely. You could buy food to feed them and pet them. All totally unsupervised; I did not see one too person in the area. Since it was a holiday, Bindi (Steve Irwin’s daughter) made an appearance with her younger brother so we got a special treat. Saturday night was Mexican night at the Loaded Lizard. We made reservation the night before there after we were told that it would fill up. It was okay Mexican food. What would you expect out of a country with no Mexican people?

Monday was a relaxation day. Nothing was planned except lounging around. We walked to the other end of the beach where the beach meets the river. This is where I decided to go swimming since the rip tides were not bad. I was actually pretty scared to swim in Australia. The combination of bad rip tides and sharks were very crazy. All of the beaches in Sydney had shark fences where none of the beaches in the Sunshine coast did because of the desolation. The water was cold but I got use to it. I just love the feeling of Ocean salt water on me. That night we ate at one of the restaurants in the hotel while listening to a pretty good acoustic one man band. Great day overall!

Tuesday was the big day we were looking forward to all trip. It was a visit to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and also has the largest perched lake in the world. It was a 4 hour drive to the island so it was definitely an adventure. We basically had two tour companies to choose from and we chose Fraser Island Adventure Tours because they had the most details in their brochure. The day was pretty sweet. It was basically an off road adventure traveling up to 90km/hr along the beach. The beaches are used as highways north of Noosa so I say we probably drive over 100 miles on the beach getting to the island. The beaches are part of the Great Sandy National Park which is a huge spot for backpackers and campers. We rode in a big 16 passenger off road vehicle. We were lucky enough to sit in the front so we had awesome views. The tide had not come in for the day so the ride was extremely bumpy.

The ride back was super smooth as the tide compacted the “road” for us. We stopped for tea and cookies on Rainbow Beach which was actually one of my favorite parts. The water was blue and the cliffs were amazing. We got to see some really awesome beaches. We then continued North till we finally hit our ferry point to go take us to the island. You wouldn’t believe how many pictures we saw of people getting their SUV stuck. The sand got pretty deep at times and the tide could easily get your vehicle stuck then gobbled up against the rocks at high tide. Fraser Island was pretty cool. We drove through the island to see Lake McKenzie which is the largest perched lake in the world. The pictures made it look awesome but its hard for a crystal clear lake to look blue when its cloudy and drizzling. It was still a good experience. The lake had no life in it since it was a little acidic thus why it could stay so clear. We also went to a a pretty cool rainforest. The water was so clear in the creek running through it that you can hardly tell that there is at least a foot of water running through it. We also saw some dingos and whales driving back along the beach. We rounded out the night by going to the Loaded Lizard for Chicken Schnitzel night. I had a delicious loaded chicken which made it taste like a pepperoni pizza.

Wednesday was the super long day of traveling. First we had to take a two hour bus ride to Brisbane to catch the plane (we flew into the regional airport 2 miles from our resort when arriving). I was disappointed once we got on the plane because I thought we had premium coach flying back but apparently the plane type was different then the one we flew to Sydney and American’s website did not know this. I slept about a whole hour of the 13 hour flight but did watch some good movies. The best was A-Team and Date Night. Both were very good. Date Night was one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. I laughed out loud a lot. We also were able to get a flight 3 hours earlier from LA so our layover was only 4 hours instead of 7 which put us in around 7.

Overall the trip was very good but super expensive. A lot more than I had planned but I have no regrets. It was a trip that I always wanted to go on and I did more tourist things than any other trips I have ever been on. The only think I can say is that I probably wouldn’t recommend going to Australia right now as an American unless the exchange rate gets better or your super serious into scuba. Even with going scuba diving, we have the second best reef in the world in the Caribbean and it’s probably a third of the cost. The trip will forever be one of my favorites despite the negatives that I have claimed. It probably would have been one of the best had it been sunnier and warmer.

Here is the link to all my pictures.

I am extremely busy so just gonna go over the highlights. I tailgated bright and early at 7AM for MU’s first game vs Illinois on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We got the same spot as last year but no rain so it was pretty awesome. We grilled some great food, had some adult beverages, and hung out with a bunch of friends that I do not always get to see. Overall an awesome time. Some of us went to my place to watch the game while others went to the game. MU of course won and we reconvened at Over Under for some post game celebration. I had dinner at Ozzies afterwards and was in bed by 10AM.

I went to Sugar Creek winery on Sunday with my girlfriend, her sister, and her brother-in-law. Apparently everyone else had the same idea on a beautiful Labor Day weekend. Fortunately, we were able to score this awesome tent (the only one there) after sweating in the sun for an hour. We felt like we were kings. The wine was good but the place was definitely understaffed since it took 30 mins to an hour to get a bottle of wine at the single counter they had going. Still a great time.

I had another jammed pack weekend last week. I watched The Lovely Bones which was actually very good. Even though I knew the plot of the story, I did not know how it would play out so it was good. Peter Jackson did an awesome job. The movie was actually a little trippy. I went to a friends garage sale on Saturday morning and hung out at his house for a while then hit up a couples shower. Sunday was the big day of the annual Scott Air Show I have gone to the last 3 years. We normally go on Saturday but Sunday was just as fun. We took the metrolink there and basically saw every flight. We even got to see the Blue Angels which apparently havent flown at Scott in like 20 years. The show was awesome. We made a surprise stop at the Casino Queen for a $12 buffet. All I can say to my eating friends is that we need to hit this up again. They had an Asian, Italian, American and other kinds of foods. I stuffed myself silly.