Australia

Almost every year my mother, sister and I fly to Brisbane, Australia to see our family and friends. We arrived on Christmas morning and had a fabulous trip. However in un-Australia style there was very little sun, but we still had a great time!

My family's home is nestled into a rainforest mountain with views of the ocean.

Waterfall with little water...strange because there was heaps of rain while we were there.

Woodford Folk Festival

Pretty much one of the best places on earth. We brought in 2008 with an excellent time.
The grande stage packed, we often sat behind on the hill.

Cousiness at our campsite which was conveniently/not conviently located right next to/on a stream. We wondered why no one else had grabbed this flat campsite.....

Silly people but notice the stream in the right hand side of the picture.


New friends, lots of smiles and laughes.
The mud pit that was Woodford.



Family Time.

Pretty much the only family picture from our entire trip.

Five cousins in a photo booth, sorry Jake eyes closed.

Andy Warhol exhibit, his favorite color was silver.

Cairns, Daintree National Park
I spent a few days exploring a country I call home but rarely get to explore.

The Daintree National Park is the oldest rainforest in the world.

Cape Tribulation, the first point where Captain Cook landed in Australia. It was only the begining of his trouble, hence the name.

An old hotel in downtown Cairns, so typical of old school bush towns in Australia.

Cairns is on a highly tidal river, here it is a low tide.


New friend Lisi from Austria.

New travel friends.

Pretty Australia

Birthdayness

My 23rd birthday was this week. My friends and I went bowling. We had a blast! Our bowling scores were dismal but our mood was great!

mmmmmm big cookie!
My lovely friends Regina and Ann Marie

Lots of Colors

Team bowling

I told you we were pretty awful, notice the difference between the scores on the screens. They were all friends of mine but the level of talent varied completely.

Summer 2007

This is where I spent my summer looking for very small Piping Plovers (the one right below) and talking to people about birds, nature, The Nature Conservancy, etc. It has been an absolute pleasure working in this beautiful place and I have learned so much!

I went out one day with Damon from my office, banding osprey chicks for research purposes. It was a pretty cool experience, we rode around in a launch (tinnie for the Aussies) through the bayshores of the Delaware Bay. When we would come to a nest we would hop out and take a ladder to the nest which is sitting on a platform about 15 feet in the air. The parents would often be aggressive swoopign down at us which Damon climbed on a ladder to secure the tinyaluminum bands on their legs. After he was finished I got a chance to climb up and check it all out.