Out and About...pictures included.

I promised pictures of the Northern Beach hike - and thanks to my ridiculously slow Internet connection, here are a couple of the shots I could actually get to load! So here are some pictures we took on the way from Manly to Dee-Why, sorry there aren't more to check out. I have however uploaded the walk in its entirety on facebook.

The beach communities here are very fond of the beach side pool, or more commonly known as the bathing pool here in Australia. This specific pool is in North Curl Curl (if I am remembering correctly) it was the one I mentioned in the previous blog -- where there were kids darting around me at warp speed along the rocks racing out toward the pool. Once you make it out to the pool it is basically a dead end -- there are huge boulders and cliff formations around the bend from the pool that we walked out to, but in order to continue on the hike we took a daunting, rickety flight of steps back up the hill -

And here I am at the top of Curl Curl....shoes sopping wet, and slightly winded from the climb back up the hill. If you squint really hard you can see Manly in the background. It was close to 90 degrees that day (that's about 40 Celsius) so I didn't mind that my shoes were wet, it kept me cool for about 15 minutes, and then it was just flat out uncomfortable.

I finished up the Bryson book a week or so ago, but when I feel like you need tidbits of Australian trivia I will pull him back into the blog - if you hadn't picked up on it, I highly recommend grabbing yourself a copy.

And just in case you weren't getting enough inauguration coverage back home - I thought I would share a little bit from a daily paper, Mx, here in Sydney:

Australia and Indonesia think "yes he can" but China, Malaysia and Singapore aren't so sure, according to a new study. Media Monitors' investigation into press coverage across the Asia-Pacific found the Australian media was more enamored with the incoming US president than any other.

 -- I found it pretty interesting, they do really seem to love him in the coverage I have seen on the local news - but frankly I think people would have fallen in love with any one who was in line to replace G.W. And Mom, I know you were worried about me missing out on the history of the big day back in the states - and I just wanted you to know my channel 7 news here was just as dedicated to the historical moment as the networks back home, so I haven't missed out on a thing!

In addition to Obama taking over D.C. we have also had a very busy week of our own here in Sydney. Chris's coworker Kari and her family arrived in Sydney on Sunday, and will be living here for a year - and although they have only been here a few days its great to have a few more Americans around :)