This weekend we hosted my in-laws for the first time in our new house.  Since we’re getting a little closer to being finished with the unpacking, they wanted to come see the new place.

I decided I wanted to be super domestic this weekend and cooked a few yummy treats.  I wish I would have thought about taking more photos along the way.

For dinner, I made ‘Easy Chicken and Dumplings’ in the slow cooker, which turned out quite delicious!  Josh and I have leftovers for lunch today, and he seemed pretty okay with eating it again, which is a bonus for me since I usually make our lunches in the morning.  This is actually the second time I’d made it, I think it turned out a little better this go-round.

I love slow cooker recipes, simply because they’re really easy to put together, and you rarely have to look in on them during the day.  Then a few hours later, you have yummy food ready to eat (and your house smells so good in the process)!

I do want to suggest a product for when you’re using your slow cooker, it helps with the cleanup once you’re done.  They’re called Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners.  I randomly came across them in the grocery store one day, and recalled that Josh hates washing the slow-cooker after a meal has been in it for 8 hours, so I threw them in my cart.  I kept forgetting that I purchased them until Josh reminded me that he’d really like for me to try them out.  Anywho, you place the liner in your slow cooker before you start adding ingredients – it keeps the ceramic portion clean (for the most part), making it much easier to wipe down after using it.  Josh (our resident dish-doer) is a fan!  And the plastic is BPA free, if that’s something you’re wondering about.

The recipe was shared by my 409 friend Jenny, but the original recipe comes from the Crockin’ Girls (formerly known as the Crock Pot Girls).

Easy Chicken and Dumplings

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1 can Cream of Celery soup
3.5 cups of chicken broth
1 chicken bouillon cube (optional)
2 T. butter (since I get the butter flavored biscuits, I don’t typically add this to the mix)
1 cup diced onions
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced/shredded carrots
—————-
1 can of Pillsbury Grands Biscuits [not the flaky layered kind!! I opt to use the Homestyle Butter Tastin'® biscuits]

Throw everything in the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours (OR cook on high for 4-5 hours). One hour before serving, shred the chicken in the soup and then take your roll of Grands Biscuits and cut them up into pieces (I cut my biscuits up into 5-6 pieces). Throw them on top and let them cook for about an hour or until they are not gummy on the inside.

Just after adding the Grands biscuits

While I don’t have pictures of the finished product, trust me, it’s delicious!

Later in the evening I made a great dip that I’d been introduced to by a book club friend, Allison.  She made it one night, and it’s fabulous.  Everyone that was there begged her to send the recipe to them!

It’s called ‘Apple Dip’, even though the dip itself doesn’t contain apples – it’s best paired with Granny Smith apples (something about the tartness of the apple and the sweetness of the dip causes an explosion of awesomeness for your taste buds).

Apple Dip

2 pkgs softened cream cheese
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 bag heath bar chips or 5-6 crushed heath bars

Blend cream cheese and sugars with mixer or by hand.  Add heath chips.  Enjoy! (Note: Josh, who hates green apples, tried it at the coaxing of myself and his mother and said that it was really good! I considered that a win for the day. )

So. Good.

I will say that this recipe makes a lot of dip!  We ended up having it after dinner, so everyone was full and though I’d cut up 3 apples for the dip, the apples were consumed but there was a lot of the sweet stuff left over.  You could easily half this recipe if you were serving to a small group (3-4 people).

Sunday morning, Josh and I got up to make scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits.  Even though we ate around 9 am, it was still too early for me to remember to take even one picture.  Oops.  And after all of my domestic energy was released, we opted for fast food for dinner last night.  Time to hit the grocery store this afternoon…

Did you try any recipes over the weekend?  If so, do share!  I’d love to hear about them (and maybe even try them myself)!

[#14 of #52]

We’ve been in our new house for almost 3 weeks now, and things are slowly progressing.  We still have a lot of boxes to unpack, which I have no desire to do.  We also still have a few things at our old place.  Since our lease doesn’t end until the end of this month, we’ve been a little slack about finishing up and getting everything out of there.

Just *some* of the boxes we moved...

I hate packing.  I also hate unpacking.  I wish there was a way to magically make everything appear in its place, without me having to do anything.  In some cases this is happening, since Josh has taken the lead on unpacking – which is only natural, since he did most of the packing.  Thanks, Josh!

In addition to bringing all of our old stuff over, we realized there’s a LOT of other stuff that we still needed.  While Josh was sitting with the cable guy getting things situation, I might have gone a little crazy at Target…

Just one of the cartloads that has made it into the new house

We needed new bathroom items (since our current ones don’t match the new décor), needed king size sheets (since we only had queen-size before), a mop and bucket, etc.  And while I was there, I saw a bedding set on clearance that was totally adorable.  It was originally $100, and I got it for $30!  I haven’t taken it out of the box yet, so I’m hoping there’s nothing drastically wrong with it.

It's not too girly, right?

Surprisingly, Josh wasn’t appalled by the choice when I sent him this picture of it (after sending him 15 picture texts while at the store).  It is, after all the back-up to our primary bedding set that I got from West Elm (on sale at that!).

In addition to buying loads of new stuff, our boys have had quite the transition in moving to the new house.  It took a day, but Runner really has come out of his shell.  Once we brought Birdie into our life, his personally changed a little, and he was more reserved.  Now that we’re in the house, Runner is so lively and happy!  I think he likes the added room to run around – and more places to hide from Birdie.

Who needs art for decoration?

It took Birdie a little longer, but he’s finally adjusted.  He’s still not a fan of the sound of pots and pans clanking, but he’s been scared of that noise for quite some time.  He does still end up under the covers of our old bed in the guest bedroom every now and then – I think it feels like ‘home’ to him, but he’s definitely full of energy and can make it from the bottom floor to the top floor in four seconds flat.

My parents came up to help with the move (primarily to watch the cats while the movers took things from the condo to the house, and while they unloaded at our new house).  Luckily, my dad was able to help with some of the tasks that I’d be no help with.  He helped Josh install the new dryer plug for our dryer (there was a mismatch between the prongs – older house, newer dryer – it was bound to happen).  They went off to The Home Depot to pick up supplies for that job, blinds for the downstairs door, and he even helped drywall a hole made by an evil woodpecker (I’ll post more on that later).

In checking out the fireplace, dad found out how to open the flue, which was helpful and entertaining.

When they opened the flue, they found a squirrel.  One that had been deceased for a *very* long time.  I didn’t take a picture of it, due to the laughter that I could not contain.  Dad used the “gripper” to pick it up and throw it outside.  He was going to toss it over the fence, but it hit a tree, and now it’s on the ground off of our deck.  Lovely.  I guess we should take care of that soon.

In any case, we’re enjoying starting to make this place ‘ours’ and I’ve already started on a list of projects that we want (and/or need) to do.  Should be quite the adventure as new homeowners!

[#13 of #52]

Not only is it Valentine’s Day, but there’s another celebration that will be taking place tonight in our household – Runner’s birthday.

Call me the crazy cat lady, but he’s my first furbaby and I love him dearly.

Our seven year old, Runner.

I adopted Runner over Labor Day weekend in 2005 from Columbus, GA.  Yes, I drove 3+ hours to adopt a cat that I found on Petfinder.com (crossing off #4 from my life list).  I’d called ahead to let them know I was coming, to make sure he’d be at PetSmart so I could adopt him, but when I got there, he was no where to be found.  I was so upset.  Luckily, someone was able to drive over to the shelter before it closed to bring him in for me to meet.

Before he arrived, I’d already filled out all of the paperwork and paid, knowing I was taking him home with me.  There was no way I could put the pictures I’d seen of him out of my mind, he was going to be my new cat.  When they brought him over to me, he literally wrapped his arms around my neck and started purring, I was in love.  We made the drive back to Middle Georgia, and he purred and drooled the entire way there (thanks Mom for driving with me to get your first grandpet).

September 2005, our first photo together.

He was approximately 8-9 months old at the time, so I opted to make his birthday February 14th, so I’d always have a Valentine (give me a break, I was totally single at the time with no prospects in sight!).

I shared my love story with Josh last night, but it was only fitting that I shared Runner’s story today.

[#12 of #52]

So I can’t take credit for finding this little survey, I’ll give that to Jessica.  I just thought it was a good idea, and totally fitting since it’s Valentine’s Day.  So here’s the link for the link up, if you want to see how it all started (there are a lot of responses!)

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?
Josh and I went on our first date in December of 2007

2. How did you meet? {What’s your “love” story?}
Josh and I met at work, and at the time, we didn’t really talk much since we didn’t interact on a work level.  He was dating someone, and I had something going on elsewhere that I was going to explore a little later in the year.  My situation didn’t work out, but Josh was still seeing this girl.  We were both working pretty late on projects at work in the fall, each from our own residences (oh how I love working from home).  I’d learned that Josh was a fan of Nip/Tuck, which was one of my favorite shows.  On nights that it came on TV, we’d be online working and chatting about the episodes.  This later turned into more chatting online and some during the day at work.  And then it got flirtatious.  He thought I had a boyfriend, but I was definitely single.  Once he realized that, and after seeing me looking totally hot at our company holiday party, he asked me to go to the Falcons vs. Saints game with him that weekend.  I told him that since he was dating someone, I wouldn’t feel right going with him.  The next day he ended things with her, and asked me to the game again.  I said yes, it was our first date, and things progressed from there.

Our first date: December 2007 - Atlanta Falcons vs. New Orleans Saints

3. If married, how long have you been married? {do tell}
Josh and I will celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary this April.  I can’t believe it’s been that long, time really seems to fly lately!

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?
We got married at The Grande in Kennesaw, GA.  We had approximately 130 guests, so it wasn’t large, but it wasn’t small either.  Average sized, I guess you could say.   Everything went off without a hitch, except for the fact that I was getting over bronchitis and coughed through the entire ceremony and our getaway car died one exit after we left the reception, so we had to take a taxi to the hotel by the airport.  I didn’t stress though – we were married and our flight was the next morning, so we didn’t have anything to worry about!

Taken by 35 Atlanta

More pics: http://blog.thirtyfiveatlanta.com/?p=2363

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!
Hrm…nicknames.  Babe, baby, A-hole (Amy), J-hole (Josh), and other playful names that randomly pop up.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
a. He’s driven and is a hard worker
b. He’s funny 95.7% of the time
c. He loves me and will do just about anything for me

7. Tell us how he proposed?
Josh and I planned our first vacation away together, a week on Seabrook Island, SC.  We’d rented a condo for the trip, had plans to spend time in Charleston here and there, and really just enjoy a week away from work.  Since we’d talked about getting married in the month of April, had even looked at rings, I figured he’d propose on this trip – but I was trying not to get my hopes up.

On day 1, I got stung by jellyfish, which worried Josh about how the rest of the week would go.  Luckily, I managed to get past the pain of the evil jellyfish lashing I’d received (he even offered to pee on me to make the sting go away – I did not agree to this, but appreciated the gesture).

Josh had told me he made reservations at a nice restaurant in Charleston our second to last night in SC – and I *knew* that would be the night he’d propose.  I brought a fabulous dress that I bought in Vegas a few months prior that was stunning, so that I would be ready for pictures afterwards.  We made it through dinner, nothing.  We walked down to the pier and spent some time on the swings listening to the waves and watching the stars, nothing.  Then we decided to go back to the condo, nothing there either.

I kept a positive attitude, knowing that there was a chance this was not going to be the trip that he proposed.On our last day in SC, we went back to Charleston to do a horse-drawn carriage tour of the city.  We spent the day enjoying ourselves and just goofing around.  On our way back to the condo on Seabrook Island, Josh wanted to stop at the store on the island before heading to the beach to watch the sunset.  He was acting really weird, and wouldn’t let me come in with him – which of course made me suspicious.  When we got back to the condo, he told me to relax and watch TV – that he was going to be busy for a little while, and went into the kitchen.  At this point, I’m even more suspicious.He packs up his backpack and said he was going to head down to the beach, and that he’d call me to have me join him.  Um, very suspicious now.I get the phone call for me to come meet him, and he stays on the phone with me.  When I walk out to the car, there’s a rose sitting in the driver’s seat.  Apparently, he took a bike down to the beach instead of the car.  He has me verbally describe where I am as I’m driving down to meet him.  When I arrive, he tells me to walk down to the beach, and meets me at the bottom of the stairs.He’s setup a towel with a bottle of champagne and a tub of strawberries.  I sit down and I notice a little silver box inside his book bag – the zipper was open.  He begins telling me how much he loves me and how happy he is that we’re together and that he’s had a great time on our trip.  Then he points over at a boat in the water, and as I look (only to find that there was not a boat), I look back to find that the silver box is now in front of me.  Super suspicious at this point.

What I found when I got down to the beach

I open the box only to find a small piece of paper that reads, “What were you expecting to find in here? Haha! Sometimes messages are carried in bottles by the sea, maybe there’s one for you?“  I look at him (slightly annoyed because he tricked me) and he points out that there’s a bottle down by the water, and that I should go get it.  After retrieving the bottle, I open it to find a poem, and Josh tells me to read it outloud.  My voice quivers a bit, and I slowly unrolled the scroll, in the event “Will You Marry Me?” is at the bottom of the page.It wasn’t.  Talk about an emotional roller coaster!He then asks me to do him a favor, to stand up with him for a second.  He then takes my hand, gets down on one knee, and starts a string of beautiful words that I was too emotional to fully remember.  He then asks me to make him the happiest man alive and to marry him.  What do I do?  I laugh.  Not laughing at him, but nervously laughing.  I say yes, he placed the ring on my finger, and we took pictures as the sun set on our perfect day.

Self-photo since no one else was on the beach

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
Hrm…tough one.  He knows I’m not a teddy bear kind of girl, but I don’t really see him with rose petals either.  He’s a “I get my wife a card because that’s what she wants and then plan a dinner out on the town for the two of us” kind of guy, which is pretty much perfect.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
I could do either, to tell you the truth.  On our honeymoon, aside from a couples massage, the only other thing I wanted to do was have a private dinner during sunset on the beach.  Most nights, I’m a movie on the sofa kind of gal – but I wouldn’t pass up dinner on the beach, ever.

10. Tell us one thing you’d like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
Quit our jobs and travel for a year.  Thing is, that’s not something Josh wants to do.   I’d even settle for 2-3 months, maybe trekking around Europe.  Or if money were no object, maybe a round-the-world cruise.  Something travel related for sure, and if it can include golf (for him), then even better!

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine’s Day.
On the actual day, I have a training session at the gym after work, so probably nothing much.  I plan on giving him his V-day card tomorrow though.  We were supposed to go to dinner this past Saturday, he made reservations in advance and everything!  We woke up on Saturday and I was feeling pretty bad.  After we painted the master bathroom, I felt worse.  We decided to postpone our dinner until this weekend.  Now I think Josh has what I had this weekend.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine’s day?
All I ever ask for is a card.  Reading words of love in something that I can keep forever, definitely is worth more to me than flowers, chocolate, or something else.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
We haven’t been married all that long, so I can’t say that I have a lot of advice.  The thing that comes to the top of my mind is: Don’t take yourself too seriously; be sure to laugh.

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.
I’m breaking the rules and going with three.   Cause it’s my blog, and I can.

Love is not wanting to take your eyes off each other.

Love is being able to act silly.

Love is never wanting to let go of each other.

So there you have it, our love story.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Care to share your love story? I’d love to hear it!

[#11 of #52]

If you know either Josh or myself, you know we’re pretty competitive, even more so with each other (in a friendly way).  We both enjoy watching sports, but I’m a bigger fan of watching them in person than on TV.

I graduated from Mercer University for my undergraduate degree and Josh graduated from Kennesaw State University (KSU) for his.  Neither school had a football team while we were in school, so men’s basketball was one of the big sports.  We started dating in December 2007 and in looking at the Mercer men’s basketball schedule – I noticed they were going to be playing at KSU the following month.

I convinced Josh that we should go; it’d be fun to watch our old universities play.  Josh agreed and we made it a date.

We pulled up to KSU and I was donned in orange, one of the few in the crowd.  There weren’t too many people in attendance, but I was glad that we decided to come.  The game was back and forth the whole time, but it was the Bears who took home the win.  It was a good night for me.*

Our first Mercer vs. KSU basketball game - January 2008

Bears win!

The next month, KSU would be playing at Mercer.  It was a Friday, so Josh and I took the day off and went down to Macon for the weekend.  Unfortunately, it was the Friday before Spring Break at Mercer, so the campus was really quiet.  I took him over to the Engineering Building, the University Center, and even to the top of the Administration Building (my favorite).  That night, we entered the UC to watch our teams play each other again.  The Bears were defeated 65 to 61 by the Owls, so Josh was rather happy.  Thus began our decision to go to every Mercer/KSU game as possible.

Mercer vs. KSU - February 2008

Owls win...

Over the years, we’ve managed to go to 6 of the 10 games, primarily the ones held at KSU (it’s an easier drive).  If we can’t make it to a game, and it’s on TV, we’ll watch it at home.

This weekend, Mercer played at KSU.  After a 30 point lead against the Owls in January, I figured this would be another blow-out, so did Josh.  We got to KSU early for a Mercer alumni dinner, where Coach Hoffman spoke and President Underwood was going around talking to guests.  It was a great time.  When we checked in to get our game tickets, they even gave us Mercer t-shirts (Josh got one too, though he was NOT pulling for Mercer at the game).

We walked over to the Convocation Center and the crowd was larger than we’d EVER seen at the KSU/Mercer game in Kennesaw.  It’s slowly grown, as the two universities are trying to make it a big rivalry – and it’s working!  The crowd Friday night was the largest KSU’s Convocation Center had ever seen, with 4,991 people in attendance.  It was electric!  There were around 400 Mercer students and alumni combined there to cheer on the Bears.  KSU was handing out “BEAT MERCER” shirts again, and Josh was able to pick one up for himself – though they were suspicious since he was with a Mercer fan.

We made it to our seats and Josh put on his new, bright yellow t-shirt, which drew some funny looks from the other Mercer alumni in our section.  He even got a few jokes from some of the people around us.

Ready for the battle in 2012!

The game was close the entire evening, I was actually a little nervous – as I didn’t want to hear Josh’s smack talk should KSU win the game.  Thankfully, Mercer pulled out the win (61 to 57) and I was able to gloat for a few minutes about Mercer’s record versus Kennesaw since we’ve been together**.

That's how we roll.

Until next year…GO BEARS!

* The night of the first Mercer vs. KSU game we went to, Josh and I had the DTR talk (we defined the relationship) and decided that we wanted to be more than just dating, and we never looked back.

** Scores for the games since we’ve been together:

[#10 of #52]

Today was the earliest morning we’d had since we’d been in Australia.  We woke up at 6:15 am, this time on purpose!  We had a tee time to make!

We woke up, had breakfast, got dressed, and made our way towards the Anglesea Golf Club.  To be honest, I’m not a golfer, but Josh is, and this day was 90% for him (10% for me so I could get close to kangaroos again).  Anglesea Golf Club is known for their kangaroos.  We’re not talking a few kangaroos, we’re talking over 100 kangaroos that hop around the course.

Anglesea Golf Club

When we arrived, we believed that we’d be playing 18 holes, but when we made it into the Pro Shop, we learned that non-members can only play 9 holes on a Saturday.  We rented a golf cart, two sets of clubs, and we were on our way – starting on the 10th hole.  Our golf plan was for Josh to hit the ball down to the green, and I’d putt.  Except, we just put another ball down near where he was putting from, so he could accurately keep his score.  The man takes golf seriously.

Golf among kangaroos

There were LOTS of ‘roos on the course, and lots of ‘roo poo.  You really couldn’t take a step near the greens without seeing it (or stepping in it)!  As we were riding around, we were able to get close to some kangaroos, while some decided they didn’t like the cart.  Had we realized that we were only going to be on 9 holes, we probably would have walked the course instead of renting a cart, so that the kangaroos didn’t hop away as we approached.

No kangaroos were harmed in this moment - I'm simply posing for a photo!

Over the 9 holes, we saw so many ‘roos!  There were some that were fighting, some that were growling, some that were chilling.  Josh was really excited to be that close to kangaroos, and couldn’t believe that he was standing among them taking shots!  At one point, one of his drives landed in a crowd of about eight kangaroos laying on the fairway.  When we pulled up, they looked at us and went back to what they were doing.  It was a very cool experience! Unfortunately, during the time on the course, my DSLR died (I can’t believe I forgot to check the battery!), so I had to use our point and shoot for half of the time.

What are you looking at??

We finished up around 9:30 am and went back to the Pro Shop so Josh could buy some souvenirs.  He and the Pro Shop guy (not sure what his official title would be) talked golf for a few minutes, discussing different tournaments, etc.  The guy was really friendly, and it was a nice end to the morning.

Josh after an amazing golf experience!

[ Note: For those of you wondering, Josh shot a 42 – 6 over par. In his defense, he had to play in meters instead of yards, and he wasn’t using his own clubs. ]

We hopped into the van and we were off to Kilcunda!  Josh drove for the first part of the day, and I offered to switch off before we hit Melbourne, so I could drive through the city.  He was cool with driving, just not in highly populated areas.  Unfortunately, we ran out of places to stop before we hit the city, so he was stuck behind the wheel.  It was slightly humorous, but I could tell he was frustrated – especially when the GPS unit informed us that he was over the speed limit (minorly) 16 times during our drive. [Note: We also received a charge on my credit card last week for a toll issue that occurred in the same stretch of his driving. I’m not sure exactly what the issue was, only that it was related to a toll, I really should look into that…]

Once we made it through, Josh pulled off at a “rest and revive” stop so we could make a sandwich and switch off on the driving duty.  Not too long after making it through Melbourne, we arrived in Kilcunda.

We stayed at the Kilcunda Oceanview Holiday Retreat in a powered lot.  The view from our parking spot was beautiful – you could see right to the ocean!  We parked and left the doors open while we relaxed for a little while.  I fell asleep listening to the sounds of the ocean, with the warmth of the sun creeping in through the window.  I’m not one to take naps, but this one was perfect.

What a view!

When I woke up, I went back to the office to get our receipt for our stay.  The owner told me that all the shops in the area closed at 2 pm for the holiday, so we would need to drive to Wonthaggi before their stores closed at 5 pm.  The restaurant across the street would be open for the evening, which was an option for dinner.  We knew we needed to get a few more supplies since the next two days were holidays and places would be closed, so we quickly hit the road.  The first store we saw was an Aldi, so we pulled the van in and set off to get some food.  Steaks, ice cream, ham, and soda made their way into our cart.

As we made our way back to our parking spot for the night, Josh started looking up things to do in Sydney, we were both looking forward to arriving in the city!  An hour or two later, after a walk down on the beach, we walked over to Meikle’s Ocean View Bistro for dinner (Josh had Fish & Chips, I had a Porterhouse steak with mushroom gravy – delish!).

Pre-dinner beach walk photo

Loved Kilcunda!

We attempted to find some TV channels on the tube before heading down to the beach to take some sunset photos (again!).  There were some beautiful cloud formations in the sky, and it was by far my favorite evening on the beach – and I took one of my favorite shots of the trip.

An amazing sunset on the beach

The tide started coming, so we left the beach to head back to the van since it was getting darker.  In looking out the window, there were more interesting looking clouds, so I went back outside to try and take a few more photos and noticed that it was starting to sprinkle – the first rain of our trip.  I came back to the van, where we had no luck with finding channels on the TV, so Josh pulled out the iPad and we watched Anchorman (again).  I opted to get ready for bed and went to the communal bathroom to wash my face, when I noticed lightning in the distance.  I encouraged Josh to go brush his teeth, and I’m glad that I did!

Shortly after he returned, the lightning started getting closer and more frequent, and then the rain started pouring.  I’ll say that I was a bit nervous being parked in a van, that was plugged into an electrical outlet in the midst of a strong thunderstorm, but Josh assured me that we’d be fine.

The storm passed and I was finally able to fall asleep, that is until the next storm came in from the ocean.  Lightning lit up the sky like the 4th of July and the thunder was incredibly loud!  The storm was so powerful, it took out the power for the entire park.  It was pretty intense and it was pitch black outside, aside from the lightning.  I’m not entirely certain what time the second storm rolled through, but I know it was in the middle of the night and I was tired.  So tired, that I managed to fall asleep in the middle of the storm – and we didn’t wake up again until the power returned and the air conditioning started back up later the next morning.

[#9 of #52]

Australia: Day 7, The Great Ocean Road

I woke up VERY excited about our day on The Great Ocean Road!  Having seen pictures over the years, I knew it was going to be amazing – and with the weather we were having, it was going to be the perfect day!

We started moving around 8:30 am, showered, cleaned up the van, and then hit the road.  Today was the only day that the GPS unit annoyed me.  After plugging in the address for Anglesea, it wanted to take us a different route than we wanted to go (B100).  We ignored it for a good hour before it decided to catch up to our plan.

I asked Josh to drive, because I really wanted to experience the drive.  Every time I thought we were getting close, I started getting excited.  Of course, the curves on the road teased me and it took longer to actually get to the coast than I thought.  But once we were actually upon it, we couldn’t get to our first stop fast enough!

We stopped at the first place we could pull the van off, The Bay of Islands.  The view was so pretty, and I just knew the views would be more amazing along the way.

We also stopped at The Bay of Martyrs, The Grotto, London Bridge, The Arch, Loch and Gorge, all before making it to the Twelve Apostles.

All of the parking areas up until the Twelve Apostles were pretty small, in fact, there were pull-off parking areas that we couldn’t get the van into – but I wasn’t too bummed since we hit all of the other bigger ones.  Due to the number of people that visit the Twelve Apostles each day, there is a massive parking lot and a walkway under the highway to get to the main viewing spot.

We parked the van, walked over to the platforms, and I was in awe. It. was. spectacular.  I’m not sure how long we spent walking around, but I know I took a lot of photos.  I really could have stood there for hours on end – it would have been amazing to watch the sunset, but we weren’t able to stay that long!

The Twelve Apostles

While we were enjoying the view, we were also getting a lot of sun.  We hadn’t picked up any sunscreen up until this point, which was a major fail on my end.  I didn’t pack any, because I didn’t want to deal with it taking up space in the suitcase when we could buy it there…we just didn’t get it right away.

Since Josh drove the first part of the day, I volunteered to take the wheel after we ate lunch, and it wasn’t too long before I regretted it!  It seemed that up until this point, any time we had winding roads or steep drives, I was the one driving – and that held true today too!  Josh laughed because he knew he had gotten out of a somewhat stressful drive.  Had we been in a normal car, I would have been fine – but again, this thing was large!

After awhile we stopped in Apollo Bay, as Josh was as red as a tomato and was in some pain from the sunburn.  I didn’t notice how bad it was until we were out of the sun, and after awhile, my arms started to sting.  We found our way to a chemist to pick up a bottle of aloe and a bottle of sunscreen for the rest of our trip.  I could just hear my friend Mary Frances’ voice scolding us for not protecting our skin go begin with (she’s a doctor focusing on dermatology).

A little over an hour later, we made it to Anglesea, where we stayed at the Anglesea Beachfront Family Caravan Park.  The park had a lot of great amenities, and they had WiFi!  We had been without for a week, so we caved for 24 hours of access.  I checked email before handing the laptop over to Josh to play online while I cooked spaghetti for dinner.  I’ll be the first to admit it wasn’t all that great.  I used some hamburgers that we’d picked up and broke those apart, and the sauce we bought at the store wasn’t something that our taste buds liked.  Josh was a champ though, and ate as much as he could.

Josh washed dishes while I walked down to the beach to try and capture some shots as the sun was going down.  The caravan park was right on the beach – so it was a quick walk!  Luckily, dish duty didn’t take too long and he was able to join me out on the beach.  It was so peaceful, I saw maybe 5 other people out while we were.

After I felt satisfied with my photos, we walked back to the van and watched a little TV before calling it a night around 11 pm.  We knew we had an early start in the morning for a very exciting day – didn’t want to stay up too late!

[#8 of #52]

After getting to bed at a normal hour, the birds started chirping around 5 am.  Who needs an alarm clock??  We attempted to fall back asleep, but we weren’t able to sleep much longer.

Tossing and turning, we decided to wake up at 7:30 am and started getting ready.  We showered in the amenities block, as the shower on the campervan was tiny, and packed up.  Check-out was 10 am, so we wanted to make sure we were on the road by then.

I decided to dry my hair in the van, but when I turned it on, I managed to kill it.  Really?  That meant I’d be going around with damp hair until we hit Sydney.  So when you see pictures of my hair pulled back the entire time, now you know why!

We went back to the deli from the night before, and Lyle was in a much better mood.  We filled up the tank with petrol, took some money out of the ATM, and we were on our way to Warnambool.  Rosemary told us about the Naracoorte Caves being a spot to check out while we were in the area.  At first we weren’t going to  stop, but we had a spark of spontaneity and opted to visit.

Arriving at the Wonambi Fossil Centre, we purchased tickets for the “Wet Cave” at $8 per person, which allowed us to go into this one particular cave for as long as we wanted.  The other caves required a tour guide, which meant you could only go in at certain times.  We didn’t want to stick around too terribly long, so we opted to do the self guided cave.

Wonambi Fossil Centre

Inside the Wet Cave

It was pretty cool inside, they had motion sensor lights so as you walked around, the area would light up.  We explored, took some photos, and learned about caves.  Afterwards we stopped for lunch at the Caves Café before getting back on the road (Josh had fish and chips; I had the Caves Mega Burger – which was MEGA big!).

We hopped back into the van and were on our way again – that is until we hit the Coonwarra Wine Region.  After seeing all of the vineyards, I just had to stop.  Why not pick up wine whilst in Australia?  We stopped at Katnook Estate’s Cellar Door for some wine tasting.  Since Josh doesn’t drink wine, he was now given the designated driver role.   I got to try their various Cabernet Savignons, as well as their Chardonnays – it was fantastic!  I bought a half bottle of their Founder’s Block Cab Sav and a half bottle of their Founder’s Block Chardonnay.  I liked the Cab Sav way better, but I wanted options for our nightly dinners in the campervan parks!

In front of Katnook Estate's Cellar Door

Driving through the countryside of Australia really was beautiful.  The weather was amazing, the skies were so blue (I’m convinced the sky is more blue in Australia than it is in the US), and the roads were pretty empty.

On our drive we crossed over from South Australia to Victoria and found our way to the Discovery Holiday Parks site, checked in, and backed into our en suite lot.  I will say that backing into places in the campervan was my least favorite thing to do!  It always required Josh getting out and making sure I wouldn’t hit something, telling me to turn the wheels in another direction, etc.  Frustrating!

Once we checked in and knew where we were supposed to be, we ventured off to find a grocery store.  The GPS had us driving around clueless, but we eventually came across an IGA store where we were able to pick up dinner for the night, as well as groceries for the week (steaks/burgers/spaghetti/sandwich meat and bread).  In addition to items for lunch and dinner, I excitedly bought a box of Nutri Grain.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much of this stuff I ate when I was at Bond Uni.  I only wish it was sold in the States!  By the end of the trip, Josh admitted to enjoying it too!

One of the greatest cereals ever!

We came back to the campsite and setup the grill on the side of the campervan.  Josh grilled the two steaks we’d purchased, as well as some asparagus – it was delicious!

Our delicious dinner!

After we ate, we walked over to the camp kitchen and washed dishes before taking a walk over to the beach to watch the sunset.  I love sunsets on the beach, there’s just something so peaceful about watching the day end – especially when you’re with someone that you love.

Self-timer photos are great!

A lovely sunset

It was a bit chilly outside, so we decided to walk back to the van.  Josh decided he wanted to mess with the TV some, and was able to figure out how to find programs.  We ended the night watching Gordon Ramsey preparing holiday treats, followed by Field of Dreams.  We decided to call it a night around 11 pm – another exciting day was in front of us, we needed to rest up!

[#7 of #52]

I’m not going to lie, in planning our trip there were certain days that I *knew* would be way more exciting than others.  Today was one of those days.  I woke up at 5 am, partly due to excitement, and partly due to jet lag.  Oh, the jet lag.  Since Josh was having no problem at all sleeping, I laid in bed until 7:30 am before I gave up.  We had places to be and I couldn’t wait to get there!

After packing up our suitcases, we went downstairs to check out and grab a cab to drive us over to the Britz Campervan location.  It was time to take our chances on the open roads of Australia!  We booked the Elite 2 Berth Campervan but when we got there, they didn’t have our vehicle, so we got an upgrade to a Maui Ultima van.  It was so nice!

Seeing that we would be driving a vehicle much larger than we were used to, on the other side of the road, we opted to get full liability on the campervan.  We also rented a GPS unit, as well as a satellite phone – just in case we ended up somewhere without mobile service.  With the liability upgrade, they threw in a bonus pack with chairs and a table to use outside of the van.

Once all the paperwork was signed, I took the keys, we loaded the campervan, and Josh and I spent a good 5 minutes asking if we were really up for this part of the trip!  In the entire eight months that I spent in Australia studying abroad, I drove once, from campus to go pick up pizza in a friend’s car.  I did pay attention to the road rules, so I was confident I could do it – just nervous about attempting to do it in a campervan!  It was 7.2 meters (23.6 feet) long, and I’m used to driving a Mustang on a daily basis.  Since I had more experience, I took the driving duties for Day 1.

Over the course of the next week, we would be driving from Adelaide to Sydney, 2116 km (1,315 mi).  Lots of driving!

Our road trip mapped out

We plugged in the address to the Cleland Wildlife Park, I took a deep breath and started the van, and I pulled out onto the road.  We were off!

I nervously drove the streets of Adelaide making our way through city roads, then onto the motorway.  As I was starting to feel better about driving the campervan, it was time to get off our exit.  We came to a roundabout, which I’m a huge fan of!  As we got closer to the park, we started going up narrow roads, sharp curves, definitely not roads I wanted to drive in a campervan – on my first day driving, but alas, there we were.  To top it off, there was a stretch of road with bicyclists – talk about nerve-wracking!

We made it into the parking lot safely (thank goodness) and managed to find a place to park the van.  Walking in, we paid our admission fees ($18 per adult) and bought a bag of food to feed the animals ($3).  Knowing that the Koala close-up was about to end, we went straight to where we could take a picture with a koala.  We got to meet “Hank” and take pictures of and with him – he was adorable.  It was a nice warm up for Josh, knowing that we were going to come back at 2 pm so he could hold a koala.

A photo with "Hank"

After the close-up, we decided to walk around the park and find some kangaroos.  It was so much fun watching Josh interact with kangaroos for the first time.  These guys were open to people walking up to them (for the most part), feeding them, taking pictures of them.  It was a great way to spend the afternoon.  We also saw birds, lizards, ducks, but no dingos – they were hiding apparently.

Josh with a 'roo!

I just love kangaroos!

Around 1:30 pm we walked back to get in line for the Koala Cuddle, which started at 2 pm.  We were the first in line, and shortly after we arrived, more and more people lined up – definitely glad that we got there early.  We paid $30 for the hold and souvenir photo and waited for “Vincent” to come out and join us.  He was a big fella, heavier than Josh anticipated too! They took our photo on their camera, then took a few snaps on ours.

Cuddling with "Vincent"

We’d seen all we wanted to, after looking at lizards, birds, but no dingos (they were hiding), we went to get lunch at the café before hitting the road.  Josh had fish and chips and I had a sausage roll (oh, how I love sausage rolls).  After filling up on food, we made our way back to the campervan to hit the road to Padathaway Campervan Park.

300 km (186 mi) later, we arrived at the park at 6:45 pm.  It was tucked away behind a vineyard, which was nice scenery.  The owner (Rosemary) informed us that the stores nearby had closed at 6 pm, and the only remaining place left with food closed at 7 pm.  We hadn’t had a chance to stop for food yet, so we hurried over to the deli to get food before they closed.

When we walked in, the owner, Lyle, looked thrilled to see us.  The ATM inside had been turned off for the night, luckily I still had some cash from our time in Adelaide on me.  We ordered two ham sandwiches, two drinks, and while we were waiting for our sandwiches, Lyle told us about the Coonwarra Wine Region (Australia’s Red Wine Centre).  He gave us a map, showed us where we were, suggested a few places to stop, and then handed us our food.

We went back to the park for the evening to eat and relax – there really wasn’t too much more we could do because it’d started getting dark.

It took us a little while to figure out how to use the air con on the campervan, but we were glad to have it available.  I setup the bed using the cushions and inserts, laid the sheets out, and we attempted to watch the TV in the van.

Josh excited to show off our home for the week.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out how to get it to work.  Josh was a little stir crazy, so he started watching Anchorman on his iPad while I was catching up on notes for the day, as well as looking through photos and backing them up on the hard drive.

Around 10:30-11:00 pm, we opted to go to bed – it seemed as if we were getting past the jet lag, which was a nice feeling!

[#6 of #52]

Once Josh was up and moving, we got ourselves together and walked over to Rundle Mall for brekky (Aussie slang for breakfast).  We settled on Briccone, which looked like a cute place to start our day (I had a ham and cheese croissant, Josh had raisin toast and fruit).

We walked all around the mall and picked up postcards and a little notebook for me to keep notes about our trip in (which I’m so glad we did – it’s been helpful with the recaps so far!).  We had plans to take a walking tour of Adelaide through Urban Adventures, which we won through a giveaway on Y Travel Blog, so we went back to the hotel to relax and re-group.

Around 12:30 pm, we decided we should make our way to Victoria’s Square to meet our tour guide.  It was an overcast day, but luckily the forecast didn’t call for rain.  We waited around, but didn’t see a tour guide.  Ten minutes later, I decided to use Josh’s phone to make a call to Urban Adventures.  [Note: We only set one of our phones up for an international data plan – looking back, I wish we would have done one on my phone too!]  In talking with the representative, they’d tried calling me multiple times – but because my phone was off – they couldn’t reach us to let us know the tour guide was sick and they couldn’t find a replacement.  Needless to say, I was kind of bummed out.

Victoria Square Fountain

They provided us a list of places that they would have taken us, apologized for the cancellation, and offered to refund our money.  Because we’d won the tour, we were able to tell them there was no charge.  We hung up the phone and decided to go at it on our own.  We were a block away from the Adelaide Central Market, so we started our walking tour there.

Adelaide Central Market

For a Tuesday afternoon, the place was pretty busy! The entire time we were walking around, I wished we had a kitchen to go cook in – it would have been great to purchase and then enjoy.  The fresh foods looked delicious, and the baked goods were to die for!

So many sweets!

Next we decided we wanted to check out the South Australian Museum, which was a nice walk across town.  While we were making our way there, we stopped at the Opal Field Gems Mine & Museum, because I saw Australian opals, and because they were selling Aboriginal art.  One of the store workers took us down stairs to see the art, since we were curious as to what they had.  Downstairs they had an “opal mine” so visitors could see how opals appeared underground, which was kind of neat.  We saw some artwork that we liked, and the one I loved was listed at a little over $1000.  We opted not to buy, knowing that there would be other opportunities to do so throughout our trip.

We continued on to the South Australian Museum and spent a good hour or two inside, looking at the exhibits.  It’s always interesting to me to visit museums – especially ones that are focused on areas you don’t visit often!  They also had an Aboriginal Art gallery, so we went through and looked at the pieces.  The museum shop had some cute items, but we refrained from going crazy on picking up souvenirs for our families back home.

South Australian Museum

Next we decided to go back to Rundle Mall to make a stop at Haigh’s Chocolates – which would have been a stop on our Urban Adventures tour.  The shop smelled fantastic and they had a wide variety of chocolates to purchase – yum!

Haigh's Chocolates

All the walking, in combination of a little bit of jet lag, we were getting a little sleepy and started making our way back to the hotel around 4:30 pm.  We were doing better than we did the day before at this time!  We saw a restaurant next to our hotel and determined that we’d eat at 6 pm – hoping it would help us stay up longer.

While we were in the hotel, Josh came across the Ladbrokes World Darts Championship on TV (little did I know that we’d be watching it frequently on our trip).  He was hooked!

Dinner was at The Griffins Head and was quite delicious! Josh ordered the special for the evening – Rump steak, salad, and chips, paired with a Coopers Pale Ale.  I enjoyed battered Barramundi and chips, with a glass of house chardonnay.  Ordering was a bit different, in that we went up to the bar, ordered, paid, and then took a number back to our table for them to bring us our food.  There really was no service after that – unlike here in the States.  It worked out just fine, and would be a trend we’d see along the way at other restaurants.

We were back in the room by 7:30 pm after stopping at the convenience store for dessert.  Josh picked up a chocolate and vanilla cone, and I was very excited to see a Splice Bar – by far one of my favorite after dinner treats in the brasserie while at Bond Uni!

Excited for a Pine-Lime Splice Bar!

The cold treats hit the spot and we relaxed until we opted to go to bed at 10 pm – definite progress for our second night in Australia!  I’m still not quite sure how I managed to sleep knowing about what we’d be doing the next day!

[#5 of #52]