Hi all and happy Spring to all Southern Hemisphere-ians!!  Happy Aussie Father’s Day also!!

The last two weeks have been fun.  I went to a five course degustation at a French restaurant with some girls from the Sydney Ladies Social group in Paddington.  They had a pairing Rose with every course and it was delicious.  I am usually not a big fan of Rose, but I liked most of these.  The owner lead us through the degustation and used a really cool glass bubble for measuring the wine.  It was a lovely evening.   Brandon and I went to an all you can eat dumplings and jazz night in Bondi with a bunch of people I met through  SLS.  The music was great, the cocktails delicious, and the dumplings amazing.  We sat for hours and they just kept bringing more dumplings of different meats and mixtures.  Really fun.

My Bel Canto ladies choir sang at mass for the first time since I joined last Sunday.  It was our parish feast day.  Brandon played drums with the youth band for their mass in the evening.  I had a brunch with my book club group in Barangaroo.  I had this delicious pesto eggs on toast and beet root hummus.  Tuesday I was off, so Brandon and I went to the Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour.  We had been around the museum for the wooden boat festival, but never saw the whole thing.  They have boats to tour and then exhibitions inside.  The James Craig is one of four 19th century cargo ships still sail-able.  They have a replica of the Endeavour, the ship Captain Cook used to explore Australia.  Which has a piece of wood in it that actually went up in the space shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station as a tribute to exploration of all kinds.  We also went in the Onslow, an Australian Submarine.  All of the boats were really cool to see and learn about.  The sub impressed me the most.  How small and cramped everything is and how many tubes and knobs there were.  Crazy to think about living and working in that situation for months at a time.  Inside the museum, they had exhibits on wildlife photography of the year, the Australian Navy, nautical explorers of Australia, and Indigenous art.  Our favorite exhibit was about James Cameron, Challenging the Deep.  It went over his passion for deep sea exploration and his ocean related movies.  He has spent so much time and money exploring the Titanic and the deep trenches of the ocean.  He has designed and built exploration subs and robots to help scientists and researchers.  He has been an amazing influence and aide on the whole community.  I will have to watch more of the documentaries about all that he has done.  I think boats are amazing and they have served their purpose, but I am really glad we have air travel now.  So much faster and better conditions.  I will take planes any day.

The weather here has still been flighty.  Warm and sunny some days, then cool and rainy the next.  I am excited to be heading to Wisconsin while spring figures itself out.  My kayak should also be getting delivered this month.  Very exciting things happening!!  We have a bunch planned for Wisconsin and are excited to catch up with everyone.  See you all soon!!