East Coast Adventures and New Friends

Oh man, I did not know it has been that long since we have updated the blog!  Where to start?!?  Well, first off we just got back from a great week in Melbourne.  The city reminded me of a mix of San Francisco/Chicago.  This city is absolutely beautiful with so much to do!  The weather is unpredictable and I had to learn the hard way.  The forecast said high of 80F and by noon it was rainy and about 50F.  So, if you ever go, make sure to pack for all types of weather.  Merrick was there for training and he ended up having a lot of free time.  We went and did the Great Ocean Road which was one of the best road trips we have ever done in our lives!!  We stopped a lot along the way and saw some great sites.  First sight we saw was Bell's Beach where they filmed the movie Point Break.  This is Merrick and Ben Stoudenmire's favorite movie.  Merrick thinks he is Bode and Ben is War Child (Idiots, sorry he made me put this in...).  I have only seen bits and pieces of the movie.  So, he was a lot more excited than I was.  

(Merrick is home for lunch and wants to put in his two cents)

Hey guys, its me again, Merrick.  Yes, Bells Beach was really awesome.  My favorite part of the Great Ocean highway was watching Pam be an Asian Tourist with her camera the entire road trip.  It was hilarious, people thought I was her tour guide until they saw us kissing or holding hands, then they were really confused.  Like last time, everything is going great!  We are getting ready for Peter Park to come in a few months and saving some money for our next couple of trips (Bali and SE Asia).  I miss all you guys a lot and we will be doing Magic Jack phone calls sometime really soon.  Take care and talk to you all soon! And now back to Pam....

Look at what this tourist captured.

Leave it to Merrick to make fun of my ethnicity.  I hope none of you believe his ridiculous story.  He is just trying to take the attention off of himself for him looking like a fool.  The funny thing about this picture is that he was trying to take an "artsy" photo and had no idea that his huge crack was popping out! I took about five pictures of this and this was the gem of the bunch!  We had a great time doing the GOR.

Merrick's favorite alley way

We did a lot of walking around the city finding really cute alley ways of restaurants and bars. Our time in Melbourne consisted of a lot of sushi,  Irish bars, and graffiti alleys.  We also did a lot of window shopping.  Girls, this is the best shopping I have experienced in my life!! They are jammed packed with really cute boutiques!!  I had to keep the wallet locked up!

  We also met up with some of Merrick's co-workers Michael and his wife Stacey.  We really get along with them, he's from Texas so it feels good to talk to a fellow American.  Haha.  They have five kids together and are only 36 years old! We love them and they have been a huge help to us here!  Stacey is my absolute favorite person to talk to! She reminds me of Merrick's mom and sister. She is a trip!  We met up with Mike, Stacey, and the kids for Jackson's 5th birthday at a place called Outback Jack's.  As soon as we walked up the kids were everywhere and Stacey looked at me and said, "this can be you one day..." haha!  We were sitting there and I was holding 4 month old Charlotte and she was getting hungry so I passed her over the table to Stacey and Charlotte's little foot knocked over my beer which spilled all over Adelaide(3 years old) and she starts to cry, then Sydney(7 years old) comes along to comfort Adelaide and Mike picks up Adelaide and she accidentally kicks Sydney in the eye and she starts crying. All a while, Jackson is jumping in the booth with 2 steak knives in his hands and the older brother Hunter is chilling watching tv.  Phew, what a life!! Stacey got everyone under control in about 2.3 seconds.  She is super mom!!  It was a great time and Merrick and I will be holding off on children for a while.

Other than that, Merrick and I are waiting on the arrival of our first guest, Matt Pete!  He has sent us his itinerary and he will be here November 21st.  We are leaving for Bali the 23rd and going to celebrate Thanksgiving! This should be interesting.  I feel like I am going to have my hands full.  But, we'll see what happens.  I'll just be an Asian tourist and document everything!

We also had to say goodbye to some really good friends we made here, Natalie and Stu.  They stayed with us the week before they left and it was such a fun time.  We got really close to these crazy UK kids and we will miss them a lot.  We all went out to the casino on their last night in Perth and it was really interesting.  I met some new girls and I must say...I was totally out of my element.  It was fun getting to know these girls, but there wasn't any number exchanges.  

I'll keep up with the blog a little bit better, but a little reminder won't hurt!  Thanks Samantha!  Oh yeah, y'all inbox me on FB your addresses.  We are trying to get organized here for future plans!! :)

We miss you guys!!