Ayers Rock (Uluru) was such an amazing place - truly in the dead middle of the country and there ain't nothing else around except a lot of red dirt and desert. (On a side note, am I the only one that always accidentally spells desert as DESSERT? I think that shows where's my head's at). Ahem. Moving on.
Anyhoo - it's the craziest flying in, it's such flat and red land, there's nothing nothing nothing and then WHAMO this huge beautiful red rock out of nowhere! No wonder the Aboriginal natives found it so precious and sacred - that thing is amazing.
The resort nearby is truly the only thing going and we had a great time hanging there for a few days.
When we first got there it was crazy hot but then a cool sandstorm came in and made things cooler so we enjoyed the pool for a while.
Unfortunately, the sand storm cancelled our dinner plans (out in the middle of the desert, watching the stars, more on that later), so we just ate at one of the restaurants on the resort and took it easy. The next day we hiked around the rock and it took over 3 hours and 5 liters of water, holy moly!!! It was such a beautiful hike, so special and quiet - you could absolutely feel the spirituality of the place. For most of it, it was just Rob and I, we seldom saw other people.
I think this is one of my favorite videos of the trip, slays me every time!!! I of course was going for an artistic shot of how remote and desolate it was out there, and I wanted to show how huge and glorious that sacred rock was...and then this weirdo came out of nowhere :) hahahahaha!!!
Here are some sampling of pics from our hike:
We cracked ourselves up, we had a false alarm dingo sighting. Now, to be fair, there was the movie, and the Seinfeld reference and tons of signs telling us to be wary of dingos, so when we saw this dude (followed by 4 other just like him)
we totally freaked out and started yelling. Poor thing was probably like "what are these weird whities screaming at?" because turns out, they were domesticated dogs that belonged to the local Aboriginals, as we found out later from a park ranger. Hmmm, good to know. I still like to say we faced off with a dingo, though. You'd be proud, Elaine.
Some aboriginal cave drawings, so cool!
That night was so cool, we had dinner out in the middle of the desert called the Sounds of Silence - we watched the sun set over Uluru, sipped on champagne and met some awesome people. It was sooo much fun!
Wild camel! Who knew there were such things? :)
I'm telling you, I'm all about eating dinner in the middle of the silence desert, but eating gourmet food on linen tablecloths and surrounded by lovely company. We had such a special night chatting with the other people at our table.
The next day we rode camels at sunrise and it was simply one of my most favorite things we've ever done - sooo much fun!!! We camel's name was Lazy Daisy which is misleading on loads of levels - not only because he's a HE but also was the champion camel racer for years and years in Aussie! And now he's a lazy old man :) Rob's camel was named Nico and he was a belching buddy. He was so cute, his face was next to me the whole time, and he kept nuzzling me and burping at me to just let me know he loved me.
And right on command, here's cute but gaseous Nico belching for me! Adorable...and again one of my favorite videos of the trip, haha!
Here's some pics from our fun day:
And here's the link to all the pics on our Picassa album...I'm sure you're becoming a pro by this point!
Holy crap, have I waited sooo very long to say this. I think I'm FINALLY starting to notice some improvements with my vertigo!!! It's such a miracle and I'm so thrilled.
It started with such a small thing but has made me so much more aware of the daily symptoms that I experience, and from that, it's snowballed into my awareness of small improvements all over the place! I was watching TV about 2 weeks ago and there was a commercial where a dude had a helmet camera and was skiing - I had to (obviously) look away but then I realized that I hadn't had to look away from the TV in a few weeks! I know this sounds so small, but truly, looking away from shows and commercials was such a regular occurrence because so many things made me dizzy, so to notice that I hadn't had to do that in a while was HUGE!
Rob and I started talking that other small things had improved as well. I've been able to be on the computer longer, given the day. Today, funny enough, happens to be a dizzy day, so I'm blogging this while looking away from the screen, but a week ago I was on the computer for longer and was thrilled - it's the overall progress, for sure! My girlfriend also pointed out that my walk/gait is so much better, she said I'm not walking so much like an old lady any more and my doctor notice I'm not so wooden when I talk (meaning, I move my head more, I'm sure I always kept it animated voice-wise, knowing me, ha!)
Anyway, I know these all seem like tiny little things but I'm incredibly thrilled because when I'm living with symptoms every single day, it's incredible to notice ANY improvements, and that makes me have so much hope for my body continuing to heal and heal! Hopefully this is just the beginning and it'll just get better from here.
It's funny, the Ellen show is giving away a trip to Australia and I wrote an essay letting her know I would love to give that as a gift to Rob. I know we've already been, but I firmly believe that trip was our one ray of sunshine last year, and when we came home to immediate home destruction, it added to what was already such an incredibly tough and heartbreaking year. Yah, it's not realistic to expect to win that contest but it really got me thinking that it was so amazing to watch Rob so happy and relaxed there, and I've just been so incredibly grateful to him for all of his support, love and steadfast partnership throughout this entire process. I cannot imagine a better partner in life, and while I would never have asked for this awful health detour, I'm so very grateful to have had Rob by my side throughout the whole ride. I wouldn't have survived it without him.
Onward and upward!!!
The doctor still has some tricks up his sleeve, he's talked about various treatments that are still waiting in the wings and possibilities for treating my vertigo (thinking outside the box kind of treatments, cutting edge kind of stuff) such as inner-ear steroid injections and IVIG. More on that here, if interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intravenous_immunoglobulin
We're drawing some interesting blood work and having some good "larger picture" discussions, so I really appreciate his efforts to keep plugging away at my symptoms.
The oral steroids have totally helped my ear injection aftermath and the ringing and pressure is soooo much better. All good things! I hope to be able to report more and more healing, and I hope you're enjoying all the Aussie pics!!!
I'm going to end with an amazing quote from Martha Washington that I think really sums up how I've tried to look at my 2012 - she nails it. "I am still determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may be, for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances".
After the Blue Mountains, we drove onward to the local wine region called Hunter Valley. It was absolutely glorious and I'm so bummed we couldn't stay longer - we stayed at the most quiet and majestic place nestled in the valley. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and delicious wine from the area, then in the morning, had a scrumptious breakfast out on the veranda - and low and behold came along a little 'roo! I was happy as can be and the locals were (kindheartedly) laughing at how excited I was about seeing the little guy...
Look how close he let us get, I loved him!!!
My little buddy:
We were so sad to leave our Guest House, but we managed to soothe ourselves by going wine tasting. Wanna know something crazy? It's free to go wine tasting in Australia! I mean, absolutely totally 100% free, like you don't have to pay at all, can drink all the tastings you want and then you're under no obligation to buy!!! Reason #204 why we wish we lived there :) The wine was absolutely delicious and unfortunately we only had room in our bags to bring home one, so it made it tough to choose. We still haven't opened it, it's like the chosen child.
After wine tasting, we drove to the adorable little beach town of Port Stephens and we had the greatest little place on the water! We loved it there too, it was a darling little harbor town and absolutely FILLED with dolphins (that's why we went) - we went on a dolphin cruise and hit the dolphin jackpot!
Here's a few shots from Port Stephens:
At the end of the cruise, it was fun, they let the boom net down and allowed the kids to go out back to sit in the water and play on the slide. And by kids, I mean us. Us and the kids. No judgies.
What a fun few days that was!!!
Here's the link to our Hunter Valley slideshow that will either play, or take you to our Picassa site:
Again, I've lost the will to cut down on all of my photos, so you'll have to skim through them yourself - so sorry. I'm sure you can forgive me, my 2012 kicked our butts :) Moving on - who wants some fuzzy kangaroo therapy? I do, I do!!!
After Sydney, we rented a car and drove to the "nearby" mountains - called the Blue Mountains due to the Blue Mist that rolls in from the Eucalyptus leaves. And by nearby, the locals mean "the traffic is horrendous and you will sit in bumper to bumper traffic but because you're driving on the wrong side of the road you'll be grateful you're going only 10 kph". Rob was such a rockstar driving a car on the other side of the road AND managing the crazy streets of Sydney - it was a white knuckle ride for a while, fo' sure.
Anyhoo, on the way up to the Blue Mountains, we had read that there is a great place to see wild kangaroos just off the beaten path and so we ventured out and I'm soooo glad we did - we hit the kangaroo jackpot!!! Rob and I hiked to a clearing, it was so quiet, all you could hear were the sounds of the forest and then we saw all these beautiful kangaroos including a mama and her adorable joey!!! It was heavenly - we stayed for over an hour just watching them.
This is by far one of my favorite pics of the trip, I mean, couldn't you just die of cute overload?
Here's Mama and her baby showing off their bouncing skills...
And the joey had some crazy zooms just like a cat or dog does - so dang funny!
It was hysterical, as we were going "awwwwww" over the Mom and baby, we noticed that a total fight had broken out between two of the dudes - it was so dang funny to watch because (1) they totally didn't seem serious and (2) they fought like girls. Like trashy girls straight out of the Jersey Shore or something. You'll see what I mean. The fascinating thing was watching them hold themselves up on their back tails - they could support their whole weight!!! In the 2nd video, it's hysterical, they take a time out mid-fight. It's exhausting being so bitchy.
Anyhoo. After all the oogling of 'roos, we kept driving and it was crazy how the thick fog hit so quickly - by the time we arrived at our hotel, we could barely see 30 feet - thank God for GPS (we nicknamed our GPS chic Deila for Dumb Dumb Shiela, she sure did take us some funny places over the trip). We had chosen our hotel because it within walking distance of Echo Point, the scenic overlook of the famous 3 Sisters rock formation, but the fog was so super duper thick, there was no way to see anything!
We were bummed, but rallied with an awesome dinner in the adorable quaint town - and it was the coolest - in the morning, the fog slowly burned off while we were at breakfast and then TA-DA!!! There they were - glorious!!!
After a gorgeous brief hike to a waterfall, we took a terrifying cablecar (thank goodness for my vertigo meds, eh?) to the bottom of the valley and walked around the ancient ferns, it was glorious.
Here's a link to all of our pics - you can either watch them via slideshow from our blog or click on them to go straight to our Picassa Blue Mountains album.
I know, I know, we've been home for over a month now, but what a 6 weeks it's been. Floodageddon happened. The ear infection to end all ear infections happened and will not be discussed. And in all of that, I lost the will to post our Australia trip pics on our blog. Lame-o, I know, but there it is. There's just simply too many, we were there for 3 weeks, we took about 2000 pics, and now I'm over it. So I'm going to be totally lazy and at least post the links to the picassa albums so you can look at our pics if you're interested - I'll be nice and break them down by area...so you're not overwhelmed.
These ones in Sydney will be the worst, I promise, because we were there 5 days and took TONS of pics! So, feel free to scan them quickly and enjoy...I'll give you a few days to digest before I hit you with the next area.
It's hard to describe Sydney in just a few sentences, but we absolutely loved it. We hit up tons of delicious restaurants, saw beautiful scenery, met such wonderful and friendly people and just generally fell in love with the city. I hope you can see why by looking through our pics, it's an amazing place!
Highlights of Sydney include meeting our Croatian family - Nick, Senka and Steve, staying at our amazing hotel with views of the opera house and bridge, spending a rainy day at the amazing and intimate zoo, walking around the beach areas and enjoying the opera house (and a great Ben Harper concert there!).
Here's a video of us on the gorgeous Harbour Bridge, check out that view:
And here's a windy video I took of Rob when we were at Bondi Beach - absolutely gorgeous. That sun is freakin' intense there!!!
No need to wait for the entire photo slideshow, just click on it below and it should take you to our Picassa Sydney album. Enjoy!!!
Ok, clearly after this plague that hit me, I need some immunity boostin' so I tried a new recipe that Dr Oz, Dr Weil and Ming Tsai all swear by. And if those dudes say this soup wards off the bugs, I'm a gonna main line it. Stat.
It actually ended up being delicious and even my anti-tofu soup critic gave it "hey that was pretty good!" Now lets see how often we have to eat it to stay healthy because CRIPES.
Like a squinty eyed mole, I emerged from our dusty house yesterday, blinking into the sun and brushing the couch dust off me. After 3 weeks of this awful ear infection, I finally scraped myself off the couch and went outside and it was HEAVEN hanging out in the 'sac with our neighbors and those crazy little monkey kiddos. I still have a lot of fluid and ringing in my ears but since my energy is so much better, I'm hoping my ears will come around shortly. If not, it's to the ENT for me. Weeee! For now, I just look like a kooky lady walking around with cotton balls in my ears (anything else hurts too bad, sound is my current mortal enemy)....what else is new.
Here's G and his little girlfriend Sophie enjoying the sun...
Since I haven't been on for so long, here's the update with the house. First, the good....we finally have our washer and dryer back!!! After 5 weeks of doing laundry at friends' houses and my lovely neighbor Lindsey shlepping our dirties back and forth to her house (seriously, she wins neighbor of the year award) - we finally were able to get through about 8 loads ourselves. I will never take my washer and dryer for granted again, they're my favorites. We got new tile in the laundry room too, it's pretty!
The other good is we finally got our first floor hardwood put in yesterday (of course, ironically, one day after our cleaning lady came. We literally had one night of a clean house and then BLAMO the house was covered in dust again. Sigh) - it's gorgeous! Amazing how it really extends the space and makes the first level look bigger. Well, that and that there's no furniture down there too. :)
Ignore the free weights at the bottom of that photo, by the way, apparently the flooring guys needed them to help keep a problem area glued down. No one stub their toe, please.
And now the bad...We're still mid-construction and are eagerly awaiting carpet and baseboards upstairs, so until that happens, everything from the 2 linen closets, bookshelves and spare bedroom have been displaced to other parts of our house. The piano and couch, for example, can't be brought upstairs to the new "library" room until the carpet is put in and the office furniture is brought downstairs...so for now it hangs in the hallway. It's a look!
Which leads me to the UGLY. Still looking like an episode of Hoarders around here. Let me give you just a taste. You like what we've done with our spare bathroom tub? I thought you would.
To all our future guests, I can't even tell you how eager we are to get this all put away, I promise you won't be showering next to our suitcases and towels. I swear. Pinky swear.
I'm sure you're sitting at home right now, distraught with worry over your powerful and crippling curiosity of what Rob & Beth are up to. We get it. Never fear! A solution is here! Here's a little peek into our mundane and sometimes, just sometimes, exciting lives. Sit back, relax and enjoy...We're a good time. 'Nuf said.
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