I don’t live in Australia anymore. In fact, I left nearly 3 months ago. Leaving was bittersweet, and so is writing this. I loved Melbourne. I love Melbourne. I realize I may be too young to say this, but it’s the best city I will ever live in. Cultural vibrance, efficient public transit, and a great sporting scene all won me over. I’m tempted to begin a barrage of clichés about my time there, such as “time flies” and “life goes on,” but I’ll spare you.
After leaving Melbourne on July 13th, I took a month off from work. Taking this much time off was a bit of Australian culture rubbing off on me. In America, a month off is nearly unheard of, while in Australia a month off is a proper holiday. However, having this much time can pose a problem, albeit a good one, for someone like me who doesn’t like to sit still for very long. I needed to make sure I had things to do and people to see, especially since I would be on my own as Linnea was in Madison and had just started back at Epic. The first couple of weeks were a Midwestern delight. I spent a long weekend at the cabin with Mom and Dad kayaking, golfing, and surprising them with my cooking skills. Next was a road trip to Madison and Indianapolis. My college roommate Kyle and I played pickup basketball at the YMCA in Indy and I want everyone to know that we’ve still got it. He probably can’t dunk my off-the-backboard passes anymore, but we schooled some youngsters and even my many days of soreness can’t take that away. From Indy I drove to Chicago to hang out with my sister Bridget, where she ate, drank, and pretended to be a tourist with me for a long weekend. I stopped for a night in Madison on my way back to Minneapolis, where I spent a couple of days catching up with old friends before Linnea and the rest of the Foley crew flew in for my cousin Katie’s wedding. She got married on Nicollet Island (on the Mississippi River in the middle of Minneapolis), a nearly perfect mid-summer venue.
I did well keeping myself busy for two weeks, but two more would’ve been difficult alone. Enter: Craig and Kelvin, Madison friends who both visited me in Melbourne. Before I met up with them, I flew to Seattle to visit my friend Joe and his fiancée, Leah. It feels like I’ve known Joe for as long as I can remember, but we only met our freshman year in high school. We haven’t seen each other more than a couple times a year since, but we always pick up right where we left off. After a couple days of exploring Seattle, I tracked down Craig and Kelvin and we took a train to Vancouver, Canada. We were initially unimpressed by Vancouver, but spending the long weekend enjoying easy access to whale watching, biking, hiking, and brewery tours changed our minds. From Vancouver, we flew to Calgary and drove to Canmore, which is in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. This is one of the most beautiful parts of the world I’ve seen. Everywhere we looked was a picturesque mountain framing a turquoise glacial lake. However, these views were not always available during our stay. Banff National Park is surrounded by other national parks, and this group of national parks straddles the border between British Columbia and Alberta. Every year, there are wildfires in British Columbia, and while we were there those wildfires were particularly bad. On one otherwise cloudless afternoon, we could barely see the sun and slowly were coated with ash while we sat outside enjoying a post-hike beer. And while I’m on the topic of interesting but somewhat negative things about the Canadian Rockies, I’d like to mention something that I’m still grappling with: is improving accessibility good or bad for national parks? Of course it’s great to make natural beauty easily accessible for everyone, but we visited many beautiful locations that were so crowded that they weren’t enjoyable. I experienced the same thing in Yellowstone in peak season years ago, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Part of what I like about nature is the solitude, and there is no solitude to be had surrounded by strangers jostling for position to take a photo. Anyway, I’m lucky to be physically fit enough to go on long hikes to get away from these crowds, which is what Craig, Kelvin, and I did. We did a full day hike while staying in Canmore and another while staying in a wilderness hostel in Yoho National Park, both of which were spectacular. I wanted to continue exploring the Canadian Rockies, but my time off was ending and I had to fly to Madison to reenter the real world.
I worked for a week before Bridget and I visited our brother Mac in Dallas. We had a ball getting to know Mac’s new city and hanging out with his dog Brumby. After that quick weekend, I settled into Madison life, where Linnea and I have been staying in an Airbnb. It’s been fun to be with old friends and to visit old haunts. We’ve used our weekends wisely, spending them at the cabin, the Notre Dame-Stanford football weekend in South Bend, and hosting visitors. As you may know, however, those weekends are numbered. In fact, that number is one. We move to Bristol, England on Monday. We’ve known about this move for over a year now so we’re ready for it to happen. Bring on the new adventure!