G'day y'all!
It was a busy June and July.
Craig and Doug
I recently had my first visitors in Melbourne. Craig Melhuse, a close friend and co-founder of MABAS (formerly known as the Madison Area Beer Appreciation Society, now known as the Melbourne Area Beverage Appreciation Society), decided to quit his job recently and do a bit of traveling. He was accompanied by Doug Bright, a old friend of Craig's (and a new friend of mine) who had also quit his job and wanted to see the world. They showed up and crashed at my place, which they very much enjoyed as they had been bouncing between hostels throughout southeast Asia for the couple of months prior.
I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself, but a couple of weeks after I was with Craig and Doug I was back in Wisconsin at the family cabin (which we affectionately call 'The Doubletall') with family and friends. Every time I started a story with "when I was with Craig and Doug," my mom couldn't help but laugh. Every time. A week later, my partner (which is what Australians say instead of 'girlfriend' or 'boyfriend') Linnea saw something on social media that said something like this: "Are any babies born named Craig or do they just become Craig when they turn 30?" OK, good find Linnea. I now (kind of) understand why my mom couldn't stop laughing.
Great Ocean Road and Melbourne
The morning after the fellas arrived, we hopped in a rental car (driving on the left side - eek!) and headed west. We were on our way to the Great Ocean Road. The GOR is a winding coastal road that was built by returned soldiers after World War I. The road is full of things to see, including beautiful coastal lookouts, hikes in the rain forest and quaint fishing villages. We spent the morning of the first day doing the inland drive so we could get that part out of the way. Since Doug and I had never met each other before, we played a game to speed up the process and kill time on the drive: each person has 3 minutes to tell their life story and then there are 3 minutes for questions. I was surprised how much you can learn about somebody in that amount of time.
We made it to the 12 Apostles, which is an enchanting rock formation off the coast that we used as the starting point for our journey along the road back to Melbourne. Along the way we befriended a Scandinavian couple (a detail worth remembering), saw kangaroos and koalas (which we would begin calling 'tree lumps' because they are very sloth-like, which is to say that they don't do anything) and had birds land on our heads.
After a terrific weekend of meandering along the Great Ocean Road, which included one night in lovely Apollo Bay, it was back to business as usual for me. I worked that week while Craig and Doug explored Melbourne. However, it wasn't quite business as usual because Chef Doug and Sous Chef Craig cooked me dinner several nights that week, setting an example for any future house guests: I'm happy to host if you're happy to cook me a meal or two (especially if that meal contains kangaroo meatballs!). One of the evenings in Melbourne we explored the Winter Night Market, enjoying a dinner of street food a mulled wine. That night we were treated to one of those moments after which all you can say is "wow, it's a small world." Among the throngs of people deciding between food vendors at the market and several days after we had shared wine at our hostel with them, we just happened to run into the only people we met on the Great Ocean Road: the Scandinavian couple! After acknowledging the coincidence of our encounter, we parted ways. Our last hurrah in Melbourne was catching the footy (Australian Rules Football) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Fun fact: the MCG is the 10th-largest stadium in the world and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere (Australians love saying "It's the <insert impressive statement here> in the Southern Hemisphere!").
Sydney
We arrived in Sydney with just a weekend left together. We stayed at an Airbnb in Rushcutters Bay, a suburb (remember, suburb means neighbourhood here) east of the CBD in Sydney. Side note: Airbnb is great. We got to see a part of town that we certainly wouldn't have seen if staying in a hotel or hostel and it was wonderful to have a space that allowed us to feel like locals instead of visitors. Anyway, our first order of business was to orient ourselves. We took a walking tour around the city that did a great job of that and from there we were ready to explore on our own. The next couple of days were filled with activities, including taking the ferry to Manly Beach, a hike from Coogee to Bondi, the surprisingly interesting Australian currency museum (which we only went to because it was raining), Finding Dory, more dumplings than I can count and gambling on crab races. I enjoyed visiting Sydney, but I have much more of the city to see. I'll be back.
USA
For much of July, I was in the US for work. Just because I was around didn't mean I couldn't have some fun while at home.
When I landed in Minneapolis after 25 hours of traveling, my brother Mac picked me up from the airport. We headed straight to The Doubletall for a long weekend with family and friends (if I had been in the US a few weeks later, I would've met the latest addition to the family - welcome to the world and hello from Australia, Eli!). It was a weekend that may go down in family history as it was the first ever Foley Family Food Fight™. This is a weekend-long event that pairs people up (no couples allowed!) to see who can make the best brunch or dinner for the whole group. In the end, we were all declared winners because were treated to everything from deluxe nachos to baked brie at brunch. Outside of cooking, we filled our time with board games and outdoor activities, especially river-based ones. The favourite of these river-based activities was our self-organised float trip down the Apple River on the Fourth of July, which was a rousing success that I also hope becomes a tradition.
After leaving The Doubletall, I had a couple of days working in Madison before heading back to Minneapolis with Linnea to go the wedding of a friend who I grew up with (congrats Justin and Jenny!). It was great to be back in Minneapolis and see friends from high school and college. I love weddings. I'll take any excuse to prove to the world that I'm a bad dancer.
Linnea and I headed back to Madison after the wedding, relieved to not have to spend any more time driving on I-94 in the near future. I had 9 days left in the US, which, when I wasn't working, I spent doing some of my favourite things in Madison: Concerts on the Square, the terrace, November Project, run around the lake, a biking brewery tour and spending time with the friends who are still in Madison.
Now that I'm back in Melbourne without a trip to the US in sight, it feels like this is really home. Lately I've been working on making that a reality by sprucing up my place and getting out to meet more people. Updates on how that's going next time. Cheers!