We recently went back the U.S. for a short visit and a friends wedding. On the way back, I had this crazy idea to document our 'long' journey home, by taking photos of us every hour. This project started off with the greatest of intentions however sleep prevailed during the 12 hour flight between SFO and AKL. Anyway, here are some photos of us during the trip. If you look close you can see the lines under our eyes get bigger and bigger as the trip moves along.
The destruction left by hurricane Ike, left Jess and I a little 'stuck' in Houston. Our scheduled flight to Denver was canceled and we were re-scheduled several days later to Denver via Salt Lake City (?!?). This didn't work for us as we had plans in Colorado (including a wedding)....long story short, we called Patrick once again to come rescue us from a Hurricane. Side note: Patrick rescued us once before just prior to hurricane Rita.
Anyway, Patrick picked us up in his airplane at West Houston Airport and we flew to Austin. This worked out well, as we got to see a little of Austin (Southside pizza....mmmm) and Jess was able to take a direct Southwest flight to Denver immediately.
While Jess was on her way, Patrick and I flew his airplane to Boulder with a overnight stop in Amarillo. We had a great time checking out new airports and non-airports all the same. All in all a great time.
This past weekend was perfect for me. We took it easy on Saturday morning (due to a stressful week) and then decided we need some "home" food. A trip to Bondi Junction later lead us to make Tex-Mex (namely Fajitas). We spent most of the afternoon preparing the tex-mex meal (something we are getting quite good at) and invited our neighbors (Will and Suzanna) to join us. I cooked the chicken fajitas on our new grill, which I am enjoying more and more every time I use it. The fajitas turned out very nice considering we just made up the marinade. Overall, it was great evening with good food and fun conversation. We ended the night we a viewing of Flight of the Conchords (our pick) and Fawlty Towers (neighbors pick).
On Sunday afternoon, Jess graciously put up with my ongoing want to see a RedBull Flugtag in person. As luck would have it, Sydney is the host for the first Australian Flugtag. The event took place directly across from the opera house, at Mrs. Maquaries Point (for those of you keeping score at home). I am not sure why I am drawn to this event...I guess it is because for some strange reason, I really think I (with the help of many others) can put something together that would fly (any takers?).
Anyway, the Sydney crowd of more than 60,000 exceeded RedBull's forecast by more than triple which cause a few issues getting around. We managed to squeeze our way to front gate (on happenstance no less) and were lucky enough to get into the viewing area (thanks to some folks who gave us their passes). Although we were on the back side of the launch ramp, we were at least able to hear and see most of the action (unlike most of the crowd). The world record distance is 60m and and the closest contest was a disappointed 20m. Regardless of the turnout, we had a good time watching the ridiculousness that is Flugtag...I have a feeling this won't be my last one.
Later that evening we celebrated my birthday (a little early I know) by going to see Air at the Opera House. I have been a fan of Air for awhile and this was a great opportunity to 1) See them live and 2) See a show at the iconic Opera House. We arrived a little early to get a drink in the bar and take in the views of the harbor from the decks of the venue. Surprisingly, the Opera House is quite small inside, with seating in the main concert hall for only ~2500 people. The architecture inside is almost as impressive as the outside with concrete and wood finishes throughout.
The show was excellent, although the lighting was a little "in your face". The set consisted mostly of "hits" rather than new material, which was fine with me. The pinnacle of the show was the last song....La Femme d'Argent (no doubt the most popular song of the night). I can't really describe the live performance, but I found a clip online that hopefully shows some of the song's intensity. Enjoy!
