Love Love Love

I love him more and more every day. I couldn't have dreamed up a better person to navigate this life and world with. Here we are in the countryside just north of Amsterdam in 2008.

Hiking in the Blue Mountains

Every day we were in the Blue Mountains we would get up, eat breakfast, and go out walking for 4-5 hours. There are so many trails and we could walk to a lot of them from the cottage we rented. The weather was mostly sunny and cool, the perfect weather for walking.

We were staying in the small town of Katoomba which is where the famous rock formation the Three Sisters is. The first thing we did was go to Echo Point where you can look out at them and over a huge vista of forest.

Three Sisters and us

Over the next few days we walked as much as our legs could handle! We would walk all day and then go home and soak in the tub to ease our aching muscles.

Walking on the path towards Leura, things would change, transforming the dry woods into lush rainforest. It was fascinating to see the transformation over just a few bends of the path.

on the path southwest of Leura

We saw all kinds of animals but mostly birds and butterflies. Australia has some beautiful birds!

Eastern Yellow Robin

sulfur-crested cockatoo

Bell Miner (Bellbird)

Swordgrass Brown (tisiphone abeona)

Crimson Rosella

Pied Currawong

People have yet to flock back to the mountains after the big fires up there earlier this season but Katoomba and the surrounding areas were not affected by the fires. They are now, though, effected by the lack of tourists. It was nice for us to have trails with fewer people and the ability to enjoy vista points and attractions on our own.

We hiked down to the Pool of Siloam, where we had the place to ourselves.

making rock stacks at the Pool of Siloam

One of my favorite places we visited (we actually went twice!) was the Bridal Veil Falls Lookout. It was so beautiful to see the waterfall from up so high and the cliffs and forest all around was just epic. I could have stayed there all day watching the water fall and the bright white cockatoos fly over the trees.

view from Bridal Veil Falls Lookout

When Australians talk about anywhere in nature, it's called "the bush" and hiking is called "bushwalking." I don't know about you, but when I think about "the bush," I think scrub land, desert, or basically something barren or without trees, at least. Oh, how different this was and I'm so glad for it!

We were so happy with our trip that we barely got off the train back in Sydney without booking another stay!

Leura Cascades

Things I Love, Blue Mountains Holiday House Edition

We finally escaped the big city for a long weekend in the Blue Mountains last weekend and it was divine. It was a pleasure to just sit in the woods and hear nothing but nature's sounds. The air was fresh, the sky was blue, and the cottage we rented was absolutely adorable. 

In the midst of all this vacationing, I wrote this list of things that I was really enjoying.

1. the mountains and walking around out in the woods

2. the colorful birds of Australia

3. sparking water

4. spring blooms

5. warm beds on crisp mornings

6. claw foot bathtubs

7. old school charm

in our cottage's kitchen

8. the quiet of the country

wild strawberries in the back garden

9. good chocolate

10. sun shining through stained glass windows 

Explore. Dream. Discover.

This is one of the first travel quotes that really resonated with me. I happened upon it while studying with Semester At Sea and so the sailing aspect was very relevant to my life. I still love it and thought it worked perfectly on this photo Spencer took during a three day sailing/camping adventure in Belize on our honeymoon. We camped on that little island!

Celebrate the Journey

Celebrate! <3 

Applying to the Peace Corps

The Peace Corps is something I've wanted to do for a long time but things always came up so I waited. Now, there is no more waiting. Spencer and I have applied for the Peace Corps!

The application process is long and currently it's a lot of paperwork and a lot of waiting.

We submitted our applications online and a few weeks later a recruiter contacted us to set up an interview. Our interview was over 3 hours long(!), we did well and received a nomination from our recruiter. Yay!

A nomination basically means we passed the interview and our recruiter (who is a returned Peace Corps volunteer, herself) thinks we would be good volunteers. We filled out more paperwork, got fingerprinted, and are now waiting to hear from a Placement Officer who will (hopefully!) place us in a program somewhere in the world.

It's a very exciting time!! But it's also filled with weeks of no news and lots of waiting time but it's okay because we get to spend the meantime exploring Australia, which is an adventure in itself!

Crafting

I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I'm a serious crafter. I love making things to a point where if feels like I need to make things. My mom is a serious crafter too, so I think it's in my blood (or at least in my upbringing).

In the past, I've refrained from posting about my craft projects on Destination Exploration because I wanted this space to be more about travel. However, I'm going to change that because half the time, I'm not traveling. I'm living. Yes, I'm living as an expatriate but I'm still living, not traveling. And when I live, I craft.

Here are some projects I've done since coming to Australia. The first is one of my favorites and it was so simple. I just plucked a long stick out of someone's garden, took it home, snapped it into four pieces, and tied it together. I originally wanted to tie a long string to the top and hang it but since we're renting, I decided against it. It's a fun way to show off instant camera photos. (BTW, instant cameras are super fun!)

I read this book from the library called The Secret Lives of the Impressionists and it inspired me to paint with oil paint. I experimented a little with oil paints in Korea but this was my first real go at it. Both pieces are painted from pictures I took while traveling in Burma/Myanmar. The red flower is from a fantastic tree that dotted the countryside. They were mesmerizing.

The second is of a dusty lane outside Mandalay where we stopped to visit a crumbling ancient temple. A place from back in time where people still use a horse and cart to get around.

I've recently been working on some digital crafting. I'm learning about graphic design and using InDesign and Illustrator by taking some free Skillshare classes and getting help from Spencer. It's fun to play with shapes and type. These are my very first two projects! Spencer helped me with the business card a lot. I did the robot on my own.