Early this year we moved down to Wollongong, which is an hour or so south of Sydney.

It's a pretty great place, right by the sea, with lots of stuff to do and see in the area. For example, this blowhole (where pressure from the waves forces water through a small space):

Dan's sister Naomi and Bri

I'm getting training in clinical psychology here and Bri's just about to start a job doing needs assessments for people who may require support to be able to continue living in their own homes. She'll be great at that because she cares about people and people like her. She gets to set her own hours too so that will be fun.

Some other cool things here include:

• Free pools by the beach. We live just a couple of minutes' walk from the beach so we've used these a lot since we moved here. Bri wants to get a mermaid costume.
• The largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere - I think they have a grain of rice that has writing carved onto it.
• Some national parks that have nice hikes, lookouts and waterfalls:

We really like our ward. Bri's got a calling teaching the youth in Sunday school and Dan's still bludging around. 

In Febrary Bri went back to the States for her grandpa Simons' funeral. He's a top bloke - always makes people feel good about themselves, and he always makes family feel like he's proud of them. Even though I'm not technically one of his grandkids and I've only got to meet him a few times I would always leave a visit with him feeling like he was proud of me too. 

In conclusion, we have a spare bedroom and you're welcome to come and stay if we know who you are and you're not a random person who's stumbled across this blog because you were Googling "Wollongong" and got down to the 157th page of results. 

Time flies on wings of lightning...

This is Dan, guest-blogging for today. Usually Bri and I co-author this thing - I strike the keys on the left-hand side of the keyboard while she takes those on the right-hand side. 

Anyway, it's been a while since we last wrote anything on here, sorry. Here's an update regarding a few things that happened in the second half of 2015 and beginning of this new year.

"Go West, young man" - Horace Greeley



Around mid-2015 we moved to a town named Lithgow in Central-West NSW. It's one of the oldest towns in NSW, and has been known for coal mining for a long time. There's lots of interesting old architecture, it's surrounded by mountains, and the kangaroos here are on steroids (see photo above). In addition to the great people we've met, two things that stand out to me about Lithgow are the flies and the train journey from here to Sydney (which I do once a week).

The flies in Lithgow are rather large, and often come with markings that give observers the impression they are a bee. They also have some mannerisms more akin to those of small mammals than winged insects. One afternoon as I opened the front door, I saw one of these creatures, which looked to weigh about three pounds, sitting on the doorstep. I got the impression he wanted to come inside, but wasn't inclined to permit him to do so. If he did, he was sure to want to stay for a while and cause a racket the whole time with the incessant beating of his wings. More accustomed as I am to city flies, I assumed if I got near him with any part of my body he would perceive a threat, and quickly make a retreat. As my foot approached him, he didn't move. It felt a little like a wild west style showdown in which only one of the gunslingers (me) had a gun. "What's he playing at?", I asked myself. I inched closer, and though I was finally only millimeters away, he did not move. Eventually my foot made contact with his body, and still no reaction. As I slid the fly slowly off the doorstop onto the front porch, he was nonchalant throughout, reminiscent of a lazy dog not making any effort whatsoever to assist an owner attempting to relocate it, and paying no more attention than such a dog would pay to, well, a fly.

If you live in Lithgow and work in Sydney, you likely will be able to enjoy the finest NSW public transport has to offer - the three hour Blue Mountains Line train journey between Lithgow and Central. Not to be confused with the express train, which consists of two long disease incubators - I mean carriages - the BMT from Lithgow to Central is one step down from the Ghan. The seats are a soft bed of what feels like duck down covered in faux leather that feels almost like real leather. 


As you make your way up, over, and then down the mountains, passengers can experience unique views of tree-lined canyons with rocky outcrops, old stone arches, and beautiful old buildings. Before each of eleven tunnels not far out of Lithgow, the driver will honk his horn, alerting any tunnel-dwellers that they're about to be run over.  Another enjoyable aspect of the journey is the sense of cameraderie that seems to immediately exist between those who are sharing this time in their lives together. For example, one evening a bloke on the train asked if I would mind his bag of what appeared to be chicken, chips and a coke while he went to the toilet. Without hesitation I agreed. Later, he belched and apologized, but I pretended not to hear. Acts of service such as this abound on the train. In short, it is as though the universe (or NSW Transport) has conspired to compensate those with one of the longest commutes in the state with a journey many would pay more than $4.10 for. 

"My wife is a very kind and talented woman" - Dan

Everyone already knows this, but Brianna is a talented woman and also likes to do things for others. Last year she made...

...these cute little booties for my cousin's new baby...

...this fantastic apron for my sister-in-law-to-be...

...this cheerful snowman for me when it snowed in our area last winter...

...and lots of delicious cookies, brownies, pretzel salad, and pavlova for anyone who needed some.

She also showed me this sweet tie-skirt and tie-dyed ball gown she made (and wore to prom) in high school:

As if that wasn't enough, she (and her Dad) can also juggle:

She also had a busy second half of the year working three (!) jobs (tutoring, waitressing/reception at a hotel, and aged care nursing). 

So it was at the end of 2015 that we took a well-deserved (more well-deserved for Bri than me) break to go see some more of America and spend time with Brianna's family.

"The happy union of these states is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of liberty throughout the world." - James Madison

I love the United States of America for a number of reasons. These include Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, freedom, democratic government, world war II, southern hospitality, the NBA, national parks, and Chick-Fil-A (and Inn-n-out). Most of all, I love it because that's where Brianna's from. 

When we went there in December we first hired a campervan and drove from LA to San Francisco, then cruised to the United States of Mexico with Bri's family, then drove to Utah, then Idaho, then back to Utah again. Here's some stuff we observed or experienced along the way:

Approximately 28,000 butterflies trying to keep warm at Pismo Beach, CA



Hearst Castle, CA


Cannery Row, CA


Lombard St, San Francisco, CA

Best ice cream sundae, Ghirardelli Square, CA


Rode a tram (the guy running the tram tried to hit on Brianna), San Francisco, CA


Golden Gate Bridge, CA


Rode very far, CA


Disneyland!




Hollywood, CA


Cruise!

I won this piece of art by correctly guessing the price of another piece of art

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico




Zion's National Park, UT


Logan, UT (sorry didn't take too many here, but here are a couple of amusing products we saw at the grocery store (see the required ingredients))

Egin, ID (Grandma & Grandpa Bagley's house, Christmas Day)


The best thing about the trip was getting to catch up with Bri's immediate and extended family. They're good people and I can see how Bri's who she is in large part because of them. 

Now we're back in Lithgow, and using our revitalized sense of adventure we found a secret hiking track that leads to this waterfall (see below). Some guy spend 6 months building it as a private project. Cut stairs into the side of the gully and everything. Really cool.

This month has been rather eventful for us. We packed up all of our not-that-many-luckily-for-us things and moved out to a little town just outside the bigger-but-still-little town of Lithgow. We love the city and miss seeing our city-dwelling friends as much, but there are also really great things about living here. In Sydney we lived on a pretty busy road. On most nights we'd at least once hear screeching tires and cringe expectantly as we waited for the potential crunch of plastic and twisting of metal. Out here there aren't really any busy roads. We went for a walk down the road the other day and saw this:

Oh deer. Another great thing about living out here is it feels like there are a bajillion hikes and lookouts and outdoorsy things to do. This is part of the view from Hassan's Walls lookout, just outside Lithgow:

And below is the view of the Capertee Valley - the second largest canyon in the world - from Pearson's Lookout. The mesa-type formation in the middle-right of the picture is called Pantoney's Crown, and apparently you can climb it.

There's also a really nice bunch of garden beds that Bri's looking forward to working on, we've joined a gym where one of the staff who's sort of like our personal trainer was one of the lead roles in the Lithgow theatre company production of Evita that we went to on Fri night, and the ward that we're in now (Leura) has a bunch of really great members. So we're feeling pretty grateful for the opportunity to live here. Life's great. 

This week in Bri and Dan's life:

1. Sydney experienced one of the biggest storms in recent memory, leading to this scene of carnage.

2. Brianna presented at a relief society activity where she made an impressive display about home organisation. Dan was very proud. Shout out to Momma for the great hand-out - Dan thought it looked like it came out of an Ensign.

3. Dan's sister-in-law's mum shouted us at a yum cha restaurant, which is a style of dining where servings of food get brought round on trolleys and you get to choose what you want to eat. Brianna ate chicken feet and cow tendon.

So everything is cruising along fine - life is good.

Our Trip to the Middle of Australia

by Dan & Bri

The flight to Adelaide was pretty uneventful, just like Adelaide itself*.

Once arrived, we picked up a Toyota Kluger - a big 7-seater that we'd decided to rent because you can fold the seats down and sleep in it. After a quick stop at the shops to stock up on water and food we were off.

First stop was the Arid Lands nature park a few hours north, where we learned about desert flora and fauna and observed some excellent specimens, including an enthusiastic tree.

Next was Lake Hart, an eerily beautiful dried up lake. The layer of salt made a lovely crunching beneath our feet that reminded Brianna of snow. "It's like snow", she said.

Lake Hart, SA

As we continued our journey, we received a lesson in supply and demand. The low supply and high demand for fuel in the outback regions of Australia meant that those who had the fuel could demand that we supply lots of our money so we could get the fuel (see map below, NB prices are per litre, 1 litre is approximately 1/4 of a gallon).

  

About half-way between Adelaide and our target is a town named Coober Pedy, which means something like "white man's holes" in one of the indigenous languages. The ground is rich in opals, and over the years the residents have dug thousands of holes to look for them. Because it gets so hot here many of the residents have burrowed underground, like large moles. Little ventilation pipes can be seen poking up above the surface of many of the dirt hills around town, suggesting more civilization than is apparent at first glance.

Coober Pedy, SA

 After a few days of driving, we finally arrived at the red centre, the spiritual heart of this great land, where we walked on canyon rims, hiked through gorges and awe-inspiring rock formations, swam in a billabong, and circumnavigated what until moments ago was thought by us to be the largest rock in the world (it's actually the second largest). We spotted wild kangaroos, rock wallabies, a family of emus, lots of eagles, lizards, a snake, hundreds of tiny birds, and heard dingoes howling at night. We ate peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, canned baked beans, trail mix, one delicious buffet that featured cold emu meat, and tried kangaroo steak at an award-winning restaurant (not sure what award it won but it deserved it).

Uluru, NT

Then we drove down to Adelaide again and flew back to normal life.

*jk Adelaide is actually a very interesting place and we really like it

Windmill at Glendambo, SA

Vin Diesel's spaceship from the movie "Pitch Black"

Sign in Coober Pedy

The hat tree at the start of the Red Centre way

Extremely artistic photo of  a branch at King's Canyon (Watarrka), NT

View over the desert plains from the top of King's Canyon

Brianna cooking cans on an outback BBQ

View of Uluru from the Kata Tjuta (Olgas) viewing area

Fortunately we saw this sign before we jumped in

Macdonnell ranges, NT

Lizard

Glen Helen Gorge, NT

Glen Helen Gorge, NT

Radeka's underground backpackers in Coober Pedy, SA

State Library in Adelaide, SA