Visitor #1: James Legrand - Part 1

The first of many visitors?

Amy's brother James recently came to stay with us for about 3 weeks. We were overjoyed that he was able to come out. His plan was to sit on the beach with a beer and relax.

He did this for 1.5 days.


The rest of the time we had him fishing, diving, snorkeling, hiking, surfing, and seeing the sights around Manly and Sydney.

Stunning views met us around every bend in the trail

He has still not recovered from his vacation, returning to the brutal cold of a Massachusetts winter, surely did not help.

James in front of the largest waterfall we encountered

One of the larger adventures we took him on was an excursion to the Blue Mountains for a stunning hike through the aptly named Valley of the Waterfalls.


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James and I took this trip while poor Amy was stuck at work but we were sure to have enough fun for 3 people to make up for the deficit.

I almost perished scrabbling over the slick rocks for this picture

The views of the surrounding valley, as well as the waterfalls themselves were absolutely stunning. This trek, and the greater Blue Mountains National Park are about a 2 hour drive from where we live, but it seemed like another world.

Those convicts sure knew how to pick a country

Stay tuned, we have lots more pictures of other adventures we undertook while James was visiting including another hike, diving, and watersking.

They didn't stand a chance

Me with my first Kingfish. They fight like monsters.

With summer in full swing, the fish have been biting with frenzied tenacity and we have been catching ourselves dinner nearly every time we have gone out. Here is a gallery of some of the fish we have caught with friends and visitors. If you needed any further encouragement, see this as evidence of why you should come visit.

James L. with a Kingfish. It was large enough to eat 4 different ways, including as sashimi.

James P. with a Shovel-nose Shark. Caught off the ski boat in the Hawksbury River.

Ryan came fishing with us once while visiting and caught us a Jewfish for dinner. It would not marry him to extend his visa so....we ate it with some Moroccan spices.

James P. with one of the first Jewfish we caught

Colin with his first Kingfish. To be eaten tonight!

James P. with a Kingie of his own. We ate it with cajun seasoning.

Lesson to be learned: Come to Australia and we will catch and eat tasty fish!

A Wet and English Xmas

We celebrated the recent Xmas holiday in style with our friends from around the world. Xmas day festivities were hosted by and English couple, Kat and Webs so we got to experience their traditions as an exciting novelty.

But first off, we started the day with driving up to the marina and taking our boat out for some Xmas morning skiing. Amy was akin to a kid waiting to open a present she has been asking for her whole life on the drive up, repeating over and over, "I can't believe we are going to ski on Christmas!!!!!!"

We got to the boat and the first thing we noticed was that we were the only people on the water. Apparently, everyone else in Australia decided to waste their time with family on this perfect opportunity to hit the water. We wasted no time.



After the ski, Amy and I sped home and grabbed the surf boards, determined to catch a wave before the Xmas festivities began. The beach was packed and the waves were pumping but we managed to catch a few in before rushing back home to finish cooking and change.


We brought our home made biscotti and store bought beer to Kat and Webs' and immediately began enjoying their delicious food. The Xmas meal started off with an English tradition of "Christmas Crackers" These are small, hand held firecrackers that you pull apart to make a bang and to get at the toys and party hats inside. The party hats were soon donned by all those in attendance and toys played with. Mine was a terrible fake mustache. It hurt to wear it.

Dumping snow on Amy, to make her feel, "at home"

In between courses we all opened our Secret Santa presents. Santa apparently does know how to get to Australia. We followed up dinner with our whole party heading down to the beach for a swim and bodysurf, completing our trifecta of watersports for the day. Amy broke out a can of fake snow that was subsequently made into snowballs and throw at eachother.

It was a great day, filled with lots of fun in the sun and fantastic food. A warm and wet Xmas is the way to go.

Don't trust anyone over 30

The boys, hard at work

Amy and I recently started the great downward decline towards senility and retirement this month when we both turned 30 years old.

Picnic on the beach

It's all pretty much over.

We celebrated the occasion by hosting a barbecue on the beautiful Shelly Beach.


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We had a beautiful day for it and there was even a shark that made an appearance off shore. For some reason, one of the other beach-goers called the cops.

The cops showed but no arrests were made.

Preparing for the kill

We topped of the day with cake and a pinata. Most of our non-US friends knew what a pinata was from TV and movies but had never had one at a party. What terrible childhoods they must have had.



As a great sage once said:

Don't trust anyone over 30.

-H.S.

Sunset over Manly

So Much Santa

Santa and two beers

So it's been a bit odd getting ready for the holidays as the weather gets warmer. We have compensated by putting Christmas ornaments on the palm trees in our apartment and being extra good in case Australian Santa is as vigilant as the one we are used to.

There must be a lot of beer at the North Pole

This past weekend, we got into the Christmas mood by going out for the Manly Santa Pub Crawl and it was AWESOME.

Yes, SuperSanta made an appearance

Probably around a thousand people get dressed up in the holiday theme and go out to the bars in Manly. We drank amongst reindeer, xmas trees, angels, elves, and of course Santas.

All I want for Christmas is for this guy to not take that box off

It was disorienting walking into a bar, looking for your friends and all you can see are santa hats (or bellies, depending on relative heights).

It was a great way to drink our way around town as well as get into the holiday swing. Early to Merry Xmas to everyone!

Beer helps Santa get through the winter nights

Workin' for The Man

You may have guessed by the steady decline in the frequency of our updates that I (Chris) went against my better judgement and got a job.

Stupid, I know.

Years of video games have prepared me for this moment

I have been slaving away at a solar power startup named, Solar Connect Australia. I started working as a labourer, installing systems on peoples' roofs and have since done everything from recruitment to marketing, scheduling of jobs, running our wharehouse, supervising the installs and teams, managing client relationships and dealing with customer complaints.

Solar panels ready to rock

All this has taken it's toll on my pro surfing/fishing/spearing/martial arts career. Fortunately as we all know, all good things must come to an end and Solar Connect Australia went out of business in late December. On to the next adventure.....

Happy Thanksgiving

This weekend we decided to introduce our non-American friends to the tradition of Thanksgiving and for several it was their first Thanksgiving dinner.

Chair fort anyone?

After the first chicken was in the oven we went on a shopping spree amongst our friends collecting chairs, silverware, plates, drinking glasses, serving and baking platters - everything you'd need to have 14 people to dinner that we didn't already have.

Mmmm - manicotti...

Now the few Americans were prepared for the feasting to come, but everyone else clearly had no idea what to expect as the dug into the first course of manicotti. We schooled them in the proper usage of the term "gravy" with the pasta course and quietly laughed at the ones who went back for seconds.

Can't believe we all fit at the table!

At this point no one was possibly hungry but of course it's time now to move on to the full dinner. Everyone gamely tried to stuff in as much food as possible as they shook their heads in dismay because they were so full.

Too full to move.

At this point we all sacked out and wished for a nap one the couch while watching some football before we tackled dessert but unfortunately Aussie TV didn't cooperate with us. Everyone loosened their belts for a bit to relax and later in the evening most of us managed to sample some of Web's amazing cheese cake.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone that we weren't able to celebrate with.