A happy, sad, short trip

This week, T and I took a quick four day trip to California to attend Uncle Phil's memorial. This was a very different feeling trip from our usual ones. Usually heading out to the airport means that we have exciting adventures or at least lots of fun times waiting on us at the end of our flight. It felt odd to go through all of those same motions of getting ready for travel, but without the happy anticipation that usually comes along with it. Of course, even though the occasion was very sad and there were lots of tears, we still did get to see lots of family. And that can't help but make things better.

And we were also in beautiful Southern California! It wasn't overly hot, so the days were really pleasant for walking around. We managed to squeeze in a walk on the beach and a hike at Torrey Pines around the scheduled events for the week. We were lucky enough to get to hike Torrey Pines with amazing Cousin Megan, who arranged it for all of us out of towners.

We also encountered a taste of second home while walking around the shops in town.

And of course, no trip to the States is complete without a stop at Whole Foods! We have nothing like it in Sydney, so I always try to squeeze in a visit. This time, we were strolling with Dad, so we made a stop at the cookie bar. Pretty hard to beat that!

This trip, while short and sad, made me appreciate how lucky we are to have the wonderful family that we do. And how lucky we are for every mintute we get to spend together.

 

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Maquarie University

On Sunday, it was a lovely day - the best kind of winter day here. The sky was really blue and the weather was warm, up in the 70s. So we decided to get out and adventure a little bit. We took the train up north for a while to the Macquarie University station. We had no real reasons to go there, except that train rides are capped at $2.50 on Sundays and the university is the only interesting-sounding stop on the train route!

The university, it turns out, is just a five minute walk from the station. It was pretty quiet for a Sunday, so lots of cool birds were out.

The school seems to be basically a commuter school, as we saw pretty much nobody while we were walking around. Of course, maybe we are just getting old and our 11 AM visit was far too early for college kids after a Saturday night. 

We both really liked the campus; there was lots of green spaces and lots of artwork scattered around. It was more like a park than a school in some ways. 

The lake on campus 

There was also an actual nature walk on the campus near the biology buildings. It was small and short, but we really felt miles away from the city when were there!

On the nature walk!

Eucalyptus trees shedding their bark

Even though it wasn't high adventure, it felt great to be out of the house in the sunshine!

Bruno & me

There is a new dog in the office. His name is Bruno.

He's still a puppy, so he has spurts of energy when he really, really wants to play.

(Video by my lovely co-worker Ashley)

Bruno has so much fun being at the office that he's usually pooped by the end of the day.

I <3 having such a good office buddy!

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A final post about Vivid and family

I had been putting off writing more posts about Vivid and our visit from Aunt Kaye and Uncle Phil. We were so busy having fun while they were here, I was putting off capturing all our good times until they had left.

Sadly, unexpectedly, and unfathomably, Uncle Phil passed away a few days after they returned to the U.S. We are so heartbroken, and the sadness we feel for Aunt Kaye and their family is hard to describe.

Needless to say, the memories we have of experiencing Vivid and Sydney with Aunt Kaye and Uncle Phil are now bittersweet. So I won't try to share any more pictures or thoughts about it, but will just say that we are so very lucky to have spent that time with them.

There will be places and things about Sydney that will always make me think of Uncle Phil from now on. I hope that, someday, the thoughts will be happier ones than they are today.