A Very Kiwi Summer Christmas!

Well, it's official - we celebrated our first Christmas in the Summertime. We could definitely get used to it too! We were hosted by our friend Mark's family. They were incredibly gracious to not only welcome us into their home for Christmas, but also Trey's friend Adnan who has been staying with us from St. Louis, MO. We had a beautiful, hot summer day to celebrate. We spent most of our time outside in their gorgeous backyard talking over salmon and cream cheese dip and 7 layer dip that we contributed to the gathering. Mmmmm. Those Kiwis loved that 7 layer dip! :)

Mark's dad bbq'd lamb and Mark's mom put out a great spread of ham, veggies, potatoes, crayfish with avocado and prawns. Everything was soooo delicious. For dessert of course we had the traditional pavlova with kiwi fruit and fresh fruit as well as some yummy raspberry ambrosia that obviously Jocelyn could not take part of, but Trey said it was very yummy.

People gathered around the tree and exchanged gifts. Mark and Lily had even gotten presents for Jocelyn, Trey and Adnan! Jocelyn got a stuffed animal Kiwi to add to the "family", Trey got a Kiwi words and phrases book and Adnan got traditional Kiwi candy (or lollies as they are called here!) It was incredibly thoughtful and felt good to be included.

There was much merriment and drinking and soon enough, the boys got up to playing some touch rugby. I think the game may have gone smoother if they weren't all so drunk! LOL It was fun for the girls to watch though.

A bit later a few of us took a walk to the Riccarton Bush which is a short walk out of Mark's family's backyard.

Riccarton House & Bush is a heritage site located in the Christchurch suburb of Riccarton just 3.5 km from the city centre. Covering almost 12 hectares our visitor attraction consists of two historic buildings set in parkland and gardens bordered by the River Avon and a native forest reserve featuring Kahikatea trees up to 600 years old

The site, known to local Maori as "Putaringamotu" ...the place of an echo, was home to Canterbury's pioneering Deans family, the first Europeans to settle on the Plains in 1843.

It was a nice little piece of history on an otherwise food-filled day!

The best part of making so many close friends so quickly is getting to see things like that which is not a typical "touristy" thing to see but we were so glad we learned even more about Kiwi culture and history.

Enjoy a few pics from Christmas and we will post a link to more soon.

More stories coming re: our trip to the West Coast shortly and more pics too!!

P.S. The last two pics above are from the day after Adnan arrived - we took him to the gorgeous Botanical Gardens here in Christchurch :)

A visit from a special friend

We officially had our very first visitors in New Zealand.....Saturday Jocelyn's favorite college professor, John Hochheimer (or Hoch as he is affectionately referred to by his former students) came to visit with his wife, Chris. He had been invited to speak at a conference in Melbourne, Australia and decided to see more of the Land Down Under and its surroundings by taking a cruise which conveniently had a stop in Christchurch!

We picked them up from the port in Lyttelton in the morning and drove them through the port hills. They certainly did not offer THAT as an excursion on the cruise! LOL It was a little cloudy which impaired the view of the mountains in the background but it was still a beautiful day to see the REAL New Zealand. Next, we took them to the top of Taylor's Mistake - one of our favorite spots. We just enjoyed the scenery and each other's company. Some reminiscing and some new advice.

We decided they had to try the famous New Zealand green-lipped mussels so once the sun came out we headed into Christchurch city and ate lunch at the Belgian Beer Cafe which is known for their 1kg pot of mussels with frites. Mmmmmm. Delicious. They were amazed by just how huge the mussels were as were we when we first got here.

Finally, as we were leaving the restaurant, we ran into Sonya and Vinnie - Sonya is a co-worker of Jocelyn's at the Lemon. She recommended we try the traditional vanilla ices (no relation to the defunct rapper!) from a street vendor. How could we refuse!! She then took our photo to capture the experience. :)

Finally, we were running out of time so we took them on the Christchurch Tram. It was fine, but let's just say if anyone else comes to visit, we will not be doing that. Just easier to walk around we think. Sorry Hoch and Chris. The only other time we were on the Tram was for the hairyLemon Christmas party and I think we all know that our opinions MAY have been impaired! ha! ha!

The one funny thing we got to show them while on the tram was the unfortunately named "$5 bus" whose owners did not consider inflation!



We dropped them back off at the port. Their next stop was Tauranga and then Auckland.

Sunday we went to the Botanical Gardens across the street from our flat. We were able to take some really nice photos and enjoy a relaxing Sunday.











Today, Trey's friend Adnan arrives. Jocelyn is done with work until January 5th and we are preparing for Christmas Day at our friend Mark's parent's house here in Christchurch. We are excited for our very first Summer Christmas and Christmas bbq complete with lamb, crayfish (lobster) and prawns (shrimp)!!

Christmas Time

Christmas is coming closer but we are still struggling to get in the mood since it is the beginning of summer here and family is so far away. It will be nice to see a few familiar faces with Hoch, one of Jocelyn's professors from Ithaca, and Adnan one of Trey's friends from Rockford, coming to visit. Also, Jocelyn got an early Christmas gift or late Hanukkah gift from hairyLemon in the form of them extending her contract another 8 weeks. A few weeks ago we also bought a small fake Christmas tree and decorated it. You will notice that we opted for a black tree instead of the traditional green tree. You will just have to trust us that the black trees looked much better than the green trees at the store. Also, as promised, here are some pics from the hairyLemon Christmas party.

Christmas party fun!

This weekend was the hairyLemon Christmas party (Jocelyn's work). Jocelyn planned the party and everyone seems to have a great time. We rented out the tram that loops the city and had food and alcohol provided by local caterers. Jocelyn also hired a local group called The Court Jesters who "crashed" the party and performed some comedy routines on board. Nobody else knew that they were coming which was an added bit of fun! :)

It was also fun to meet everyone's partners. After the tram we all went to a local bar and partied until the wee hours of the morning! It was heaps of fun! It is a really fun group and Jocelyn is really enjoying her time with all of them.

Saturday we went out to enjoy what turned out to be a beautiful day and enjoyed the local market with lots of vendors and artists selling some traditional Maori and Kiwi souvenirs. Later that night we went down the street to enjoy a yummy sushi dinner and then stopped across the street at the casino. No winnings this time :(

Next week we are planning an American Food Night at our place and then maybe bbq at a friend's house.

It is officially summertime here now which is still a little odd but we are adjusting :)

Thanksgiving in New Zealand

Christmas in the Park stage


Tree just after it was lit


Christmas in the Park stage


Santa in a canoe


Thanksgiving dinner minus the turkey (chicken, yummy yams, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, mushroom stuffing, cranberry sauce)

On Thursday, Thanksgiving came and went in New Zealand with the impact of a soft whisper. It was very hard to get into the spirit of Thanksgiving since it is not celebrated here and the fact that it is the start of summer. This made Jocelyn miss America a lot since Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday. A few people at Jocelyn’s work tried to cheer her up with the occasional “God Bless America” and “gobble gobble” as well as a few people that hummed the Star Spangled Banner although we had no clue what this has to do with Thanksgiving. To get into the spirit we decided to spend all day Saturday cooking and have a full Thanksgiving meal. We made a large assortment of side dishes, including mashed potatoes with chives, cranberry sauce, mushroom stuffing, green bean casserole (with homemade french fried onions since there were none to purchase), and Enid’s yummy yams. For the main course we had to improvise since it is impossible to find turkey this time of the year in New Zealand so Jocelyn had a roast chicken and I had cod. And of course pumpkin pie for dessert made with Libby’s canned pumpkin shipped all the way from the USA from the Fary's. We started cooking around 10:30 am and finished a little after 4pm. Cooking so many dishes takes a much longer time when you have a mini-oven that can only fit one large or two small dishes at a time. We both ate until we were full and sleepy. Now it feels like Thanksgiving! And of course as Thanksgiving dinner officially kicks off the Christmas season we went to Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park tonight. This is a big event in Christchurch with an assortment of bands playing, ending with a big fireworks display. There were about 100,000 people which is about a third of the population of Christchurch. Getting there was easy since the park is pretty much across the street from are place. It was a fun show but it was odd that Santa arrived in a canoe with rowers instead of reindeer. Ahhhh.....island cultures....... :)

Sydney, Australia: G'Day Sydney!

Sydney was incredible!

It was a great trip - though not without any snags. Fortunately we arrived at the airport early because we did not realize that we needed visas just to visit Australia! I think this probably happens to quite a few people and was easily remedied by logging into the computer they had near check in and applying for visas which came through in 20 minutes. We will definitely be more careful now when traveling to other countries.

Once we fixed that, we were on our way!

Once we arrived we ventured to our hotel via their subway system, which is actually pretty extensive. Our hotel was in Darling Harbour right on the water. Our room was really nice because it also had a refrigerator, dishes, utensils and a sink. It was nice to be able to have breakfast in the room so we could get an early start in Sydney each day. The first day we walked around Darling Harbour, picked up a few groceries for the room and stopped for some dinner at a restaurant called Nick's Seafood where we had a harbour view and tried some of the seafood of Australia. Jocelyn has red snapper and Trey tried what wound up being our favorite fish in Sydney - John Dory fillet. YUM! We ended the meal with some profiteroles.

The next day we woke up early to head over to Circular Quay (pronounced KEY) to see a show at the famous Sydney Opera House on Bennelong Point. We had purchased our tickets beforehand. Fortunately they were running a program called Tea and Symphony so after we got our tickets we made our way up to the concert hall and they were serving tea and biscuits in beautiful cups with matching saucers. Very civilized! :) Even Trey drank the tea and as we all know he does NOT drink hot liquids! LOL The show we saw was Prokofiev The Romantic: Piano Concerto No.3 in C, Op.26 and Symphony No. 6 in E flat minor, Op.111. It was not only breathtaking seeing the building up close from the outside but inside is even more magnificent. We really enjoyed the show and took photos even though we were pretty sure we weren't supposed to. We also toured the Opera House as well where we learned that in fact the design as we know it was tossed into the reject pile initially when designs were judged for the opera house!

After the tour we headed over to The Rocks for their Markets by Moonlight. They have live music, local restaurants selling food and local artisans selling their goods. Jocelyn bought a black and white feather headband which makes an appearance in quite a few photos from the trip! After exploring the markets we stumbled upon a restaurant/wine bar called Wine Odyssey. Initially we just figured we would try a few glasses of wine. It was a great concept actually. You could buy a card that looked like a credit card and go around to all the different wines that had buttons for a taste, a hlf glass or a full glass. Afterwards, they printed out a receipt of all the wines you had and you could buy them at their wine store next door! Clever. We wound up staying for dinner since the appetizer we got was so delicious - beet ravioli with goat cheese and a balsamic dressing. Trey tried another Australian fish for dinner called Barramundi and Jocelyn got her meat - beef fillet with an oxtail doughnut. Jocelyn has found from a few places now that she apparently loves oxtail. Strange but true.

The next day, Saturday, was the most adventurous day there! We woke up and headed out to the Sydney Bridge Climb. It was a perfect day - not too hot and not too cold. They suited us up in our suits and we out on our harnesses with the clip with would keep us connected to the bridge during the climb. The entire process of suiting up actually took an entire hour. They also gave us headphones to listen to our guide. We actually had a couple from NY and a couple from Boston on our climb! Small world. It was exhilarating but the safety measures they took were really impressive. It was very interesting to have our guide give us a tour of Sydney from way above it. Once we got to the summit it was magnificent and the guide gave us time to really take it in. It was great too because as you can see above, they took lots of photos of us on the climb since they obviously do not allow you to take your own camera. The climb took about 2 hours in total and it was one of the best things we have done.

Later that evening we went out for our splurge meal to a place that we had seen rated very highly on the Food and Wine Magazine website called Fouveaux. If you click on the link you will see the tasting menu that we had. They were happy to accommodate Trey's no meat policy and my no berry policy. It was a spectacular meal. We did decide to do it with wine pairings and both loved how they came out to explain each course and the wine to match. Jocelyn's favorite was the baked rainbow trout with victorian morel mushrooms, clams, mache, sugar snaps and sweet corn purée and Trey's favorite was the marinated ocean trout, smoked trout ice cream, cucumber, popped skin and neó gai. Apparently we are big trout people :)

Sunday we changed our plans a bit. Initially we were planning to do a harbour cruise. Some of these can be quite expensive and do not see the entire harbour. We had heard from a few people that the way to see the harbour best was to take a ferry to Manly Beach (just as wonderful as the famous Bondi Beach but a little less touristy. The ferry took about half an hour from Circular Quay to Manly and was about half the price of the harbour cruises. Sydney really utilizes their harbour to its potential and the people really take full advantage of the ferries and water taxis to get around. We brought our bathing suits and spent the day on the beach. It was perfect. There are some shops between the ferry stop and the beach. We thought about getting in the water but when we stuck our toes in it was too cold for that.

Before dinner that evening, we decided to go to see the Sydney Tower Observation deck. Since we had seen Sydney from way up atop the bridge during the day we figured it might be nice to see it at night too. It was great to see from above how complex the harbour really is but all in all it was a pretty big tourist trap. Afterwards we headed to another restaurant recommended by Jocelyn's co-worker called Longrain. It was an Asian fusion place where they actually gave us our fish dishes as whole fish with the eyes and teeth! We usually make it a habit not to eat food that can look back at us, but in this case it was well worth it. Jocelyn was also excited that they had some really yummy cocktails to order. She tried the Watermelon Rose martini which was so good she ordered two!

Monday was shopping day!! Jocelyn was very excited about this naturally. Though she loves Christchurch, it is not really known for shopping and after living in Boston, Sydney was a nice treat! She got the obligatory pair of Uggs (gray ones which she has never seen before!), a shirt from Sass & Bide, a swarovski cupcake necklace and a few other treats.

That evening we went for an Italian meal at a place called A Tavola which according to Food & Wine Magazine is the best Italian food in Australia! It was one long table where everyone sat. The pasta is prepared on site and was soooo yummy. We have not had Italian food since we left the US and were REALLY missing it.

On our final day we did not have a ton of time but planned well and figured we would explore Sydney Wildlife World for a few hours before heading to the airport since it was right near our hotel. We came at the right time because we were just in time for the Kangaroo feeding! We were able to pet the kangaroos while they were being fed! We also saw koalas and other indigenous Australian animals. It was pretty cool!

One more city conquered and boy are we tired! Enjoy the pictures and keep checking the blog to follow our adventures in this hemisphere.

CHEERS!

Pictures from Owaka and Sydney

We have up loaded all of the pictures from our trips to Owaka and Sydney. Check them out and read about our Owaka trip below. Our Sydney post will be up soon so check back.

Owaka and The Catlins

Wow! Have we been busy!! Our apologies for the lack of posts but we have just been on a whirlwind couple of trips.

2 weeks ago we traveled 6 hours south of Christchurch to the beautiful Catlins region in South Otago, NZ. Our friend Scott who we have met here is from there and his parents invited us to stay on their farm for the weekend. The 6 hour drive went so much more quickly because on the way there was just so much to look at! The scenery here just gets better and better. Owaka is past Queenstown on the South Island and is basically as far south as you can get.

We stayed in a room where the bathroom was actually the outside bathroom used for the farm. Initially they told us that Americans were not allowed to stay in the house with everyone else. The Kiwis just love winding us up!! Jocelyn decided though that having to leave the warm bedroom to use the toilet was about as close to camping as she would ever like to get!

Our friends all participated in a tri and duathlon and we cheered them on. Man were we good cheerleaders! For Scott and Debi doing these types of races seems to be their thing. It was great to experience this with them since it gives us better insight into who they are and what they enjoy doing. Scott finished 2nd place in the men's individual race and Debi took 1st place for the women! Quite impressive. It was cool to be going home with the winners :)

After the race we went back to the farm and were introduced to 9 day old puppies of one of the farm's sheep dogs. They were so tiny and didn't even have their eyes open yet. Incredible. We got to hold them and here them coo.

After folks changed and showered we headed out to the town's local pub. It was really awesome to experience a true "hometown" pub New Zealand style. It seemed to be literally in the middle of nowhere. On the way it was hills, mountains, sheep, and of look, our local pub! :) It was essentially the "Cheers" of Owaka. Everyone certainly knew everyone's name.

After the pub we went back to the farm for dinner - or as some people call it here -tea. Still not sure where that comes from. We had some delicious home cooked meals while we were there, compliments of Scott's mom and dad who welcomed us into their home with wide open arms. Of course much of the food we ate was direct from their farm so it could not have been fresher. The meat, the veggies, the potatoes were all perfect!

The following day was our adventure day where we explored the region with Scott as our tour guide since he grew up there. We saw some magnificent waterfalls, went to a place called Nugget Point and even found a quirky little place where a guy creates some really crazy gadgets and you can play with them all. For example, there was a bike that was hooked up to a tv. When you peddled, it turned the tv on! If we had this in our house Jocelyn would work out for sure just to avoid missing any shows!

On our way home we decided to veer off the drive and go see the Moeraki Boulders.

The Moeraki Boulders are a number of huge spherical stones, found strewn along a stretch of Koekohe Beach near Moeraki, a small settlement just south of Hampden on New Zealand's Otago coast. These boulders are grey-coloured septarian concretions which have been exposed through shoreline erosion from black mudstone coastal cliffs that back the beach. They originally formed in ancient sea floor sediments during the early Paleocene some 60 million years ago.

The boulders weigh several tonnes and are up to three metres in diametre.

Maori legend tells that the boulders are remains of calabashes, kumaras and eel baskets that washed ashore after the legendary canoe, the Araiteuru was wrecked at nearby Shag Point (Matakaea).


They were totally awesome to see in person and we just couldn't help running around on the beach climbing on them like little kids on a playground. It was hard to not feel completely free in that moment.

It was a fabulous weekend spent with some of our newest friends: Scott, Debi, Gordie and Babs.

Unfortunately we were also hoping to see the blue penguins of Oamaru on our way home but it is just another reason to make our way back down south for another excursion!

We will post more pics of this trip shortly so stay tuned!

Akaroa video as promised! Enjoy!

Enjoy our video from our cruise to Akaroa. As the lyrics in the song say, "we wish you were here!"

Cheers!

Jocelyn and Trey

New Zealand is more than adventure tourism

Check back in a few days to view our video from Akaroa!

In the meantime, wanted to share this article with those of you considering a trip to see us in "the land of the long white cloud"......New Zealand of course!! :)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33655140/ns/travel-destinations/

Halloween and Akaroa

The rocket scientist and the red crayon - Gordie was fascinated with Trey's laser pointer!


Emma, Babs and Jocelyn


The entire group in front of our bus

This weekend we drove about an hour and a half away to Akaroa Harbour. It is yet another one of New Zealand's gems.

Akaroa Harbour is actually the crater of an extinct volcano, approximately 50 miles away from Christchurch. When we first arrived although just as scenic as other areas of New Zealand we noticed this town was different because all of the street signs were in French - names like Rue Jolie. This is because Akaroa was where the French tried to colonize New Zealand. Although thwarted by the British, many French settlers stayed - passing down the French culture to the residents who still call Akaroa home today.

We took a Black Cat Cruise from Akaroa township which took us on a tour of Akaroa Harbour and the nearby Pacific Ocean. Before the cruise, we stopped for lunch at a local boutique hotel/restaurant called l'hotel. Jocelyn had what she described as "the best burger ever"! :) It was beef on ciabatta bread with tons of veggies and pea shoots. Sounds odd, but VERY delicious. Trey decided to go with the food of the city. Akaroa is probably most famous for its salmon - Akaroa salmon is on just about every menu in the Canterbury region. We have noticed that the Akaroa salmon seems to have a sweeter flavor than the salmon we are used to. Delicious.

As we boarded the boat, Jocelyn said her main goal was to see dolphins and not get seasick. We are happy to report that she accomplished both of those goals!

The first part of the tour hugged the east side of the harbour where we saw a variety of seabirds, sea caves and even a rock formation that looked like an elephant! The sea caves were formed when gas pockets inside the volcano reached too high of a pressure, blowing through the rock and letting in the sea water. Even today on the edge of the sea cave you can still tell that the rock has been explosively removed. The tallest one of these sea caves reached well over 100 meters in height.

In the beginning of the tour, the captain warned about not always seeing dolphins on the tour. We feared that this was foreshadowing, but as luck would have it, we had quite the opposite experience. Not even half an hour into our 2 hour cruise, we had our first look at the Hector's dolphins that are native to New Zealand. They came so close to the boat as you will see in our photos/videos. The Hector's dolphins are the smallest and rarest dolphins in the universe.



As we got closer to the Pacific Ocean, we got a glimpse of New Zealand's tropical paradise where we could see a grove of palm trees nestled around a waterfall flowing into the harbour. This view almost made us forget about the cold winds that we felt blowing off of the Pacific Ocean! We then got closer to the inlet of the harbour where the seas were much rougher. The boat started to rock to the point where it was difficult to stand (you will also feel this in the video!! Should make you feel like you were really there with us! LOL)

After briefly venturing out into the Pacific Ocean we started heading back towards Akaroa along the west side of the harbour. Here we encountered some more fur seals - just like the ones we saw in Kaikoura. They were soooo cute! We both thought it was funny watching the seals play along the rocks with the ever-present New Zealand sheep grazing on the hills directly above. We even have one shot where you can see a scene of this! There truly are more sheep than people.



After watching the seals for a while we were visited by another pair of Hector's dolphins. Unlike the dolphins we are used to which travel in large groups, Hector's dolphins tend to stick to pairs - sometimes a threesome. Luckily for us, they let their curiosity get the better of them and wanted to see us almost as much as we wanted to see them.

The last stop was the Akaroa salmon farm where we could see all of the salmon that we knew we'd be eating later on in the year! Mmmmm.

It was an amazing day and we are quickly checking many things off of our list of "to-do's." We hope to go back to Akaroa a few more times in the next 2 years.

We came home and prepared to go out for Halloween. Jocelyn was a red devil and Trey was a rocket scientist - not a far reach for either of them (we figured we'd beat you all to the punch on that one!) We went with Babs, Gordie and Emma (and a bunch of other people) on a bus trip which is apparently a New Zealand tradition of sorts. Let's just call this a "cultural experience." :)

Basically, a bunch of people who may or may not know each other pay a small amount of money to have a bus (we are talking like the school bus variety) drive you around and take you to small bars just outside of downtown. There are speakers/loud music on the bus and you can drink alcohol! By the end of the evening, there were a few random people on our bus who did not start out with us - including an old man who was handcuffed to a girl who was apparently on our bus to begin with.....interesting. People know to get back on the bus when the driver blows a bullhorn. We did not realize what a pastime this was until we got to the first bar and saw about 6 other buses! We did end up having a blast and the great thing about these bus events is that nobody is driving drunk and that even if you do not know the people on the bus, once you are out for the night if you see the rest of your "bus-mates" in the bar you all stick together, dance and drink.

This weekend we are off to Owaka, past Queenstown - a 6 hour drive - with Debi, Scott, Babs and Gordie. Scott is from there and his parents are letting us stay there. We are leaving Friday after work and coming back Monday (taking Monday off work). The following week we make our first trip outside of NZ since we have been here - Sydney here we come! Our plans so far are to see the symphony at the Opera House one afternoon where they also serve high tea (already have tickets), do the famous Sydney Bridge Climb, go to the Markets by Moonlight at the The Rocks, enjoy a gourmet meal at a hatted restaurant (In Australia the prestigious award for restaurants is "hats"). Hopefully Jocelyn will convince Trey to let her do a little shopping too :)

Labour Day Weekend and Taylor's Mistake Part 2

Jocelyn pushing her limits and climbing the ladder down to the ocean




Bumble Bee in the flowers/moss that seemed to be growing on all the hills and rocks


Mussels growing on the rocks








Trey exploring down by the ocean


Trey after climbing down to the ocean









Look for Trey in the bottom left


Rocks in the cave - one of the detours


Cave outline looking out to the ocean


Trey sitting on the bench that was inside one of the caves


Exploring the cave


Jocelyn inside the cave










Para sailor



This past weekend even though we were meant to go with friends to Lake Tekapo we decided to stay in Christchurch and enjoy what we have close by.

Friday we found a sushi place by our house. Strangely Kiwis eat sushi that consists of cooked chicken and tuna salad but the Japanese woman working at the restaurant spotted that we were Americans because we ordered the raw maki rolls. They were soooo good! We enjoyed the rolls with some beer on our balcony which was really relaxing.

Saturday we did some shopping and Sunday we drove out to Taylor's Mistake again to do the detours on the hike that we didn't have a chance to do last time. We brought snacks and just enjoyed the outdoors together. It is still crazy to think that we actually live here. It really puts things in perspective when you have scenery around all the time that is so incredible and peaceful.

Monday we slept in and Trey surprised Jocelyn with breakfast in bed with strawberry champagne!!! He even garnished it with a strawberry. Good man - he knows that if he wakes Jocelyn up before 10am on a "weekend" he better bring the bubbly!



It was truly a perfect weekend. In 3 weeks we are off to Sydney. We are going to be planning our itinerary over the next few weeks and are doing research on restaurants in Sydney so they can splurge one night on a gourmet meal :)