Thoughts from working and travelling outside the USA
I started a six-month assignment in Melbourne in June 2023. Nearly two years later I left Perth having seen a lot of the country on weekends - but it is a big place and I look forward to returning to see more. Classic blog below → Click Here for Upgraded Magazine Layout Melbourne & Victoria... Continue Reading →
Our big trip was to Albany and I flew to the Ningaloo Reef on my own (which were separate posts) – but we did have a couple of short over night and day trips which were focused on finding good places to snorkel. Snorkeling this far from the equator with colder water has much less... Continue Reading →
We tried to get to the beach at least once a week – either during the week for sunset or on the weekend. The “city” beaches stretch from North Beach 15 miles south to Leighton Beach – think of it as a nicer version of north San Diego. For me on a bike – about... Continue Reading →
We only spent 3 months in Perth but it is very underrated as a city. While eeryone on the east coast of Australia looks at Perth as backwards – Perth is pretty much the opposite. Because of the mining wealth, Perth has much more to offer than a typical city of 2 million people as... Continue Reading →
In Australia, most people consider the Ningaloo Reef comparable to the Great Barrier Reef - I’d never heard of it. It is in the northwest corner of Australia- a 13 hour drive north of Perth. We heard about Ningaloo when we visited Perth last November- essentially snorkeling/diving OK in Perth but it is great at... Continue Reading →
We made two trips - one on holiday and one while we were living in Perth Classic blog below → Click Here for Upgraded Magazine Layout November 2024 Every guide, says to go to Rottness Island, and the guides are right. It is a park with little development and the primary transport is bike or... Continue Reading →
We were lucky to be able to attend both years we were in Australia - First in 2024 when we lived across the street in St. Kilda and in 2025 we returned from Perth for Sharon's birthday and a final goodbye to Melbourne friends. Classic blog below → Click Here for Upgraded Magazine Layout 2024... Continue Reading →
In our short time in Perth, we will only have one holiday weekend with both Sharon and I in town and we wanted to visit some of the coast on the Great Southern Ocean – the “best” beaches on the Great Southern Ocean at about 7 hours from Perth at Esperance, so we plotted out... Continue Reading →
I had made a few trips to Sydney but never stayed more than a couple of days and I had spent most of the time in a conference room, but for this trip we went over the prior Friday night so we could see more of the city. We have friends from work (over 30... Continue Reading →
After a long layover in Melbourne for the Australia Open, we finally arrived in Perth in late January. Perth is booming as it is the center of mining in Australia and the growth in lithium and other rare earth minerals and has a housing shortage. We struggled to find temporary accommodation with very few AirBNBs... Continue Reading →
In our last couple of weeks we visited some interesting places in Melbourne Went to the coolest street in the world (according to TimeOut magazine) – it was far from it. Not even top 5 coolest in Melbourne. Need to investigate criteria. Halloween in Port Melbourne – really just starting to be a tradition in... Continue Reading →
This is my last blog from Melbourne, at least on this assignment. My 6 month assignment ended by lasting about a year and a half – but luckily Sharon was able to come with me and it been a great experience for both of us. Melbourne is truly one of the great cities of the... Continue Reading →
The Margaret River region is pretty large – we only visited the top half which included the furthersmost western point in Australia, the wine region, and Busselton (summer beach town). When we were on the west coast, it is the furthest I have ever been from Washington DC (or Oklahoma) and literally almost halfway around... Continue Reading →
After moving to Perth, we had many more day trips which are covered in Week 587 posts. In Melbourne, there are holidays for sporting events and on the first Tuesday in November it is Cup Day. It is like if the Kentucky Derby was on a Tuesday, and everyone in America had a public holiday,... Continue Reading →
AFL Finals Returned to Melbourne at the start of spring – mostly gray days with spectacular sunny days mixed in. The main activity in Melbourne in September is the AFL finals – start with 8 teams and then a weekly playoffs until the Grand Final and with 8 teams in metro Melbourne, usually a lot... Continue Reading →
One thing that we like about Melbourne is that there is always an event happening, similar to larger cities like LA and London, every week there is some event – many unexpected. I think it is because Melbourne is so remote, people don’t have the opportunity to go other places and focus on making Melbourne... Continue Reading →
I had a business trip to Brisbane, so we flew tp “Brissy” the prior Friday and drove a couple of hours south to Byron Bay for the weekend. Byron Bay is past the Gold Coast and is across the Queensland border in the state of New South Wales (and worth the extra hour drive). Byron... Continue Reading →
The Blue Mountains are about a 1.5 hour drive from Sydney – we took a Friday afternoon flight over from Melbourne and rented a car for the drive up. A train from Sydney to the tourist towns of Leura and Katoomba is also a good way to get to the Blue Mountains as they are... Continue Reading →
Spent the last 3 weeks focused on work and doing activities on weekends that Sharon wouldn’t be as interested in doing and keeping up with Euro 2024. Weather has been OK – highs in the 40s-low 50s, sunny and little wind – much better than a December in DC. My first visit was to the... Continue Reading →
Sharon headed back to the US for a bit as my end date keeps moving around and she had places to be and people to see in the US and will be back in early July. When I told a couple of co-workers that Sharon was having to leave summer and spending time out with... Continue Reading →
Settling back into Melbourne – it is late fall/early winter here now. Our new rental is in Port Melbourne and about a 3 minute bike ride to the beach – but it is really not beach weather and it is dark at 5pm. I have gone down a couple of times late at night when... Continue Reading →
So when we planned to go to Tasmania, we focused on four different aspects, Port Arthur, the Muesum of Old and New Art (MONA), a hike along the eastern coast, and hopefully the Aurora Australis (southern lights). As you saw in our other post the Aurora Australis was a once in a lifetime event and... Continue Reading →
After our trip to Tasmania in February, we had planned on returning in late fall/early winter to Hobart to visit the Muesum of Old and New Art (MONA), Port Arthur, and hopefully get a glimpse of Aurora Australia (Southern Lights). So after returning to Australia, we randomly selected the weekend of 11May as the weekend... Continue Reading →
When I told people that I was moving to, or later that I lived in, St. Kilda, I always got a reaction: Cool, edgy, dangerous, overrun by homeless and drugs, near beach, used to be nice, is nice, lots of hookers, good restaurants and entertainment, crappy food, cute for an Expat, and many other adverbs.... Continue Reading →
Adelaide wasn’t originally on our list to visit, but when we found out that the best wineries were in South Australia (the state) not southern Australia (the direction) and we got a positive recommendation from the mother of our future son-in-law who lived here a couple of years, we decided to make a weekend trip... Continue Reading →
We have made it to the Mornington Peninsula 3 times, once coming back from the Great Ocean Road via ferry, a day trip, and a long weekend. The Mornington Peninsula almost encloses the bay on which Melbourne is located with Port Phillip Bay on one side and the Bass Strait (part of the Great Southern... Continue Reading →
Tasmania Part 2 - We headed up from Hobart to a town called Mole Creek. We choose this location as it was the closest AirBNB to Cradle Mountain national park – still 1.5 hrs from the assumed start point of our hike. We took the longer scenic route through the lake country – wasn’t what... Continue Reading →
Taylor Swift coming to town provided us the “opportunity” to leave Melbourne as pricing for accommodation went up about 500% so we went to Tasmania which was a short flight. We did a loop starting in Hobart over three days – this blog focused on the south of Hobart and the East Coast the next... Continue Reading →
We had a short weekend trip to western Victoria which was something that I needed to do for work anyway. We visited the Grampians National Park and Ballarat. The Grampians is a mountain range that literally pops up in an otherwise flat area and has a lot of natural beauty with lakes and waterfalls and... Continue Reading →
Australia Day Getaway to Noosa Australia Day gave us a 3-day window so we headed to Noosa, just north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast. The trip had some challenges - we have Cyclone Kirrilly remnants coming through which was creating a forecast of 100% rain ay the hottest time of the year. We were... Continue Reading →
Week 521 - 10 years and one week after I moved to Korea and started my blog…2014 was such simpler times . I finally got my visa sorted a couple of weeks later than planned - at the end of the day Australia basically takes off the period from mid-December to end of January and... Continue Reading →
Stunning Beaches, Unique Wildlife, and Local InsightsWe did limited research for Wilsons Prom - mostly in the car driving. It seemed that most the hikes at Wilsons Prom were 10 miles plus – it is a destination for multi-day hiking trips. So we thought we would settle for beaches where you could park and have... Continue Reading →
After we swapped Annelise for Mary, the pace quickened. Mary and Sharon went to Sydney and we were supposed to do the Great Ocean Road tour on the next Saturday. But it rained – so we changed the plan to go to Philip Island and Wilsons Promontory. Classic blog below → Click Here for Upgraded... Continue Reading →
The visits from the USA continued – As Steph and Anish left, Annelise arrived on their plane and then 10 days later, Annelise left and Mary arrived on her plane. The United Visa Explorer mileage promotion working out well for people coming to Australia. Annelise prefer hanging out around Melbourne than travelling within Australia -... Continue Reading →
The next day we took a trip to the rainforest town of Karanda with the primary objective of holding a Koala. Karanda is an old logging town that has been converted to essentially a large gift shop with some wildlife venues. Part of the highlight of going to Karanda is the transport – one way... Continue Reading →
We had some friends from our neighborhood bike group, Stephanie and Anish, visit for a couple of weeks, we spent some time in Melbourne and the Great Barrier Reef and they added a Sydney side-trip. Now that we are “locals”, we have our favorite places that we can go in Melbourne and St. Kilda. We... Continue Reading →
We got lucky in that Paul McCartney decided for another tour down under and we were able to get tickets. The concert was at Marvel Stadium - the second biggest stadium in Melbourne after the Melbourne Cricket Grounds but it was similar in that it was a round field much bigger than a U.S. stadium.... Continue Reading →
After some quality time in the US, we returned to Melbourne and moved into our AirBNB in St. Kilda. St. Kilda is about 3 miles from the CBD but is considered a suburb (pretty much everything outside the CBD is a suburb) and our AirBNB is between the beach town and Albert Park. I had... Continue Reading →
Since it was winter and coldish in Melbourne, so we had decided back in July that would need to visit a warm place in August – so we headed north to Brisbane and the Gold Coast – I can't figure out if Queensland is the the “Florida” or "Texas" of Australia....very independent and a similar... Continue Reading →
The Great Ocean Road is one of the iconic sites in Australia. The road starts about an hour from Melbourne to the start of the road and it goes along the southern coast of Australia for about 150 miles and is similar to the Pacific Coast Highway in California. Its about 3 hours to get... Continue Reading →
Sharon has arrived so less time to write blogs (which is a good thing). We have been spending time walking around town and getting her acclimated with the Women’s World Cup. Even without the WWC Cup, this is a very busy time of the year in Australia in Sport. The night of the first Australian... Continue Reading →
After a full week back in the USA visiting my parents in Branson and having our going away/Sharon retirement outing in the neighborhood, I flew back to Melbourne. A common theme was “isn’t this your 3rd or 4th going away - you keep coming back”. And I will again. Sharon comes over next week –... Continue Reading →
The biggest difference between Melbourne and Sydney is that I know a lot more people in Sydney. There was a convergence of people in Sydney from my company in Asia-Pacific and I was over for some meetings and was able to see a lot of people that I haven’t seen in a while – even... Continue Reading →
On my first Saturday night, we decided to go we a Australian Rules Football game – “footie”. All I remember from when it was on ESPN in the 1980s is the signal for a goal by a guy in a white outfit. It seems many people have the same, and only, recollection. We picked Richmond... Continue Reading →
Started a six month assignment in Melbourne, Australia – the assignment materialized pretty quickly and I’ll return back to my old position by the end of the year. Sharon will be joining me for a good portion for the time so it will be a good opportunity for both of us to see a part... Continue Reading →