Guam International Film Festival

Guam is hosting its first ever international film festival this weekend and I'm volunteering.  I'm so excited that I get to help out with GIFF!  I'm one of the festival supervisor assistants & will be sporting the amazing hot pink "Staff" shirts.  If you're on Guam, you should definitely make it to one or more of the showings.  It goes Friday-Sunday & there are some amazing looking films.  I Heart GU, Forever, Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone & Project Happiness are some of the films that I'm the most excited to see.  But I know there will be many other great ones - especially in the short film & animation categories.  Here's the trailer for GIFF:

In other news, Drew has been off in Japan this week for work.  He is such a little jet-setter.  I've been keeping busy with him gone.  I mean, most of my shows are back on now so I've had lots of TV-watching to do.  I think I'm liking the new one, Revenge.  Anyone seen any other good new ones?  

And, as the dork that I am, I went to see The Lion King 3D tonight.  I was really hoping that in the new 3D version Elton John would pop out of the screen as his spectacular songs came to life.  But, alas, that didn't happen.  Still it was as amazing and inspirational as always.  It is important to face our past and learn from it, remember who we are & be comforted by the fact that those who have passed away are always looking down on us.  Thanks for the lessons, Simba.

I've been meaning to give this shout-out for awhile, but am a slack-attack when it comes to blogging.  I want to give a big congratulations to my great friend, Kristen, who is expecting her first little bundle of joy in February.  They're having a little girl & couldn't be happier.  Congrats!

And in case you're blind, but still managing to read this...I've changed the blog layout.  Since our lives are in a bit of flux at the moment, I decided to go with the theme "Life is a Highway."  And I do wanna ride it all night long.  

Sydney

I've really been slacking on the Australia posts, but I finally made it to the last one - Sydney!  Drew & I absolutely loved Sydney and both felt like we could live there so easily.  It is in some ways similar to San Francisco because the whole city is built up around the bay.  It is very picturesque.   There are so many interesting & varied neighborhoods.  You could definitely spend years exploring it all.

While in Sydney we stayed in Chinatown for four nights.  We were right by the monorail, which I didn't know they had & was so cool.  It was like we entered the future!  On our first day, we went to the National Maritime Museum, had a guided tour of the city, got to see a lot of great sights, and had a delicious lunch at a little teahouse.

Beautiful Bondi Beach

On our second day, we narrowed in on the areas that we wanted to explore the most & took a walking tour of The Rocks.  The Rocks is the oldest part of Sydney & was where all of England's convicts were let off the ship and settled.  It is aptly named The Rocks because the whole neighborhood is built on limestone.  It was a great tour!  Drew & I decided that we would definitely live in The Rocks if we ever moved to Sydney.  It has a very British feel to it & there are endless nooks and crannies to discover.  After the walking tour, we walked across the Harbour bridge & walked around the Opera House.  The three girls took a detour on the way back to our hotel to peruse the opal jewelry.  We each ended up with our own beautiful necklace!

Up close at the Opera House

On our last day in Sydney we were lucky enough to have a wine tasting tour of Hunter Valley.  It is about a two hour drive from Sydney, but it was well worth it.  We stopped at a little dam overlook to have tea & cake on our way out to the valley.  We tried Australia's national cake - Lamington cake - and it was SO tasty.  It is squares of plain cake, dipped in melted chocolate and sugar and coated with desiccated coconut.  Delicious!  I could have just stayed there & ate Lamington cakes all day.  But, there was wine to be tasted!  We went to four different wineries & had a delicious lunch with wine pairings.  The weather was absolutely fabulous for our day in the valley & we had such a great time.  On our way back to Sydney, we even got to see kangaroos & wallabies grazing by the side of the road.

Overall, it was a magnificent trip in the magical land down under.  I would highly recommend going to Australia.  Now, do it!  And stop by Guam on your way!!!

Port Douglas

 After leaving Silky Oaks Lodge, we went to nearby Port Douglas and stayed for five nights at the Sea Temple Resort.  Once there, we relaxed, went on a snorkeling day trip to the Great Barrier Reef, laid by the pool, barbecued at the hotel & went for a day trip to the rainforest village of Kuranda.  Port Douglas is a very cute little resort town with lots of restaurants & shopping.  Drew & I splurged in Port Douglas and bought an amazing painting of Sydney.  We hadn't even been yet, but had a feeling that we would love it.  And we did!

Our hotel was right on Four Mile Beach - Maggie & I went
exploring at low tide

Our rooftop oasis - complete with jacuzzi, BBQ & outdoor kitchen

I tried my tastiest local brew in Australia at the Tin Shed in Port Douglas - Fat Yak.  The label was also everything I hoped it would be.  We made some pretty tasty meals at our hotel (which thankfully had a full kitchen & our own BBQ), including shrimp on the barbie, Indian food, fish & pizza.  Some tasty meals!

First order of business in Port Douglas  - checking out
the town & swinging

Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef was quite an adventure.  The reef is so expansive in Australia and so well preserved because it is a hike from the shore.  We had to take about a 2 hour boat ride just to get out to the reef.  And it was a bit more windy than any of us Coffins would have liked.  We were pretty much all feeling seasick by the time we actually got out to the reef, but thankfully none in our party lost our breakfast.  Others on the boat weren't as fortunate.  It was significantly calmer once we were sheltered by the reef, but still a bit more choppy than the ideal snorkeling conditions we're used to on Guam.  But we saw such amazing stuff!!  The fish are a lot like the ones in Guam, but they are SO much bigger.  It was astounding how huge they were.  I swear some of them were bigger than me.  And there were huge clams & such amazing coral.  I also got to see a sea turtle, which was phenomenal!!

Kuranda is a cute little rainforest village.  It is predominantly a tourist attraction and the journey up & back is fantastic.  We took a train up the mountain to get there & took a gondola ride over the rainforest on the way down.  It was one of the coolest things of the whole trip!  And while we were up there, we had a tasty lunch of meat pies (mainly meatless in our case) and saw some amazing animals at Koala World & Bird World.  It was a wonderful excursion. 

Taking the train up

Kangaroo with a little joey sticking his head out of her pouch

The prehistoric-looking, flightless Cassowary

Taking the gondola down

We had a wonderful time in Port Douglas & the best part was just being together!  We had two days where we just relaxed, played lots of games, shopped & just enjoyed being around the family.  I give Port Douglas two thumbs up!  If I ever went again, though, I might try to stay in the actual town because the resorts are all a little outside the town & you have to pay to take the shuttle into town.  And you have to wait for the shuttle at times, but the waiting does allow for some good photo ops...

The Daintree Rainforest/Silky Oaks Lodge

After our first night in Australia we had a delightful breakfast & a quick walk around Cairns.  Then we headed north for Silky Oaks Lodge.  This little resort was truly amazing.  It is situated right on the Mossman River & all of the rooms are "treehouses" complete with hammocks on the balcony.  It was so relaxing and the perfect start to our trip with two wonderful nights.

Bush turkey - they ran wild at Silky Oaks

The resort is secluded in the rainforest so thankfully they have an excellent restaurant.  Our first meal there was some of the best food I ate on the trip.  I had a delicious duck risotto the first night, but the best things I ate were what Drew & Rick ordered (thankfully they let me taste theirs!).  Here are the descriptions straight from the restaurant itself for all you foodies out there:

• Pesto crusted Reef Barramundi on Dupuy lentil, artichoke, exotic mushroom & fresh herb warm salad finished with a vincotto vinaigrette & lime
• Pan fried lamb rump on a ratatouille tart, mushroom arrancini, parsnip cream and blueberry jus

The best part is that the restaurant is open air and set right on the river in the midst of the trees.  It is a great dining experience & that's where we enjoyed our tropical buffet breakfast each morning. 

 

We went out on a full day tour of the Daintree Rainforest & River from Silky Oaks Lodge.  Our tour guide was so knowledgeable and had so many  interesting things to tell us.  She took us on a hike through the rainforest & to Cape Tribulation (where we saw a crocodile sunbathing).  We then went on a crocodile tour down the Daintree River & capped the day off with afternoon tea back at Silky Oaks Lodge.  It was a fabulous day!  And we had such a great time at Silky Oaks Lodge.  I would definitely recommend it if you ever find yourself in northeastern Australia. 

Our rainforest tour guide

Crocodile sunbathing 

Cape Tribulation

Little itty bitty baby croc 

Hope everyone had a wonderful long Labor Day weekend!

Our Journey to the Land of Oz

I'm back!  Sorry that I've been absent from the blog for so long, but I've journeyed down under and back.  Drew and I were lucky enough to have his parents visit us in Guam for a few days and then we all flew to Australia for 2 wonderful weeks of vacationing.

So, I've been trying to decide how to recount my trip for all of my millions of followers (ha!) and I think I've devised a plan.  Today will be an overview and some pictures from our time in Guam with Drew's parents.  And then I'll do a post for each of the main spots we went to in Australia - the Daintree Rainforest/Silky Oaks Lodge, Port Douglas, and Sydney.  So stay tuned!

We had such an amazing time in Australia.  It is such a vast and beautiful country with such welcoming and hospitable people.  I saw things that I had never dreamed of seeing in real life - crocodiles, kangaroos & wallabies in the wild!  And it was so fun to travel with Drew's family.  We had a wonderful time together & were able to share some very exciting experiences.  We landed in Cairns and spent our first night in a hotel in the middle of town.  Drew's sister, Maggie, had gotten there a little before us because she flew straight from SFO.  From Cairns we went north to Silky Oaks Lodge, which is nestled on the Mossman River in Far North Queensland, for two nights.  From there we explored the Daintree Rainforest & River.  Our next stop was Port Douglas where we stayed for five nights and went on sightseeing expeditions to The Great Barrier Reef and Kuranda.  Our final stop was Sydney where we stayed for four nights and had an exceptional time exploring the expansive, beautiful & extremely interesting city.  It was a wonderful trip.

But before all that, we had a wonderful time showing Rick and Sue our island home.  We showed them around base, went to the War in the Pacific museum, visited Ritidian beach & played lots of bridge!  It was great to have them stay with us & we miss them already.

And for those of you who can understand my unhealthy and strange addiction to Bachelor Pad, I managed to catch up on all the episodes and I cannot stand Casey or Vienna.  They drive me absolutely insane and I hope they leave very soon or I am going to stop watching (honestly, who am I kidding?).

Lastly, Happy September everyone!  I'm looking forward to fall and the return of all our shows.