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Catching Up

Holy cow, how is it almost March already! We’ve been much busier then you’d think, considering we’re retired now and have “nothing” to do.

In December, while house sitting in some lovely homes with adorable pets, we spent Christmas and New Years in Sydney, Australia. George and I haven’t been here together since we left after our expat assignment in 1994. We were thrilled to be able to catch up with so many friends. We had Xmas dinner with Tom and Ya, spent time with Sally and Bryan (who we haven’t seen in about 25 years) and New Years Tom and Ya’s place in Potts Point with Jade (2 years in a row, now).

In mid-January we flew up to the Gold Coast for two more housesits. We started out in Ray and Tania’s newly remodeled manse. This is where we started our retirement and housesitting career in December of 2018. It was great to be back!

Our second sit in sanctuary Cove was with friends we met last Dec while sitting for Ray and Tania.
We moved the their place in early February and had a thoroughly enjoyable two weeks hanging out with Dougal and Ralphie, and spending time with Tania, Ray and Eddie.

 

With our Ozzie “vacay” over we headed off for our next housesit in Costa Rica. Let me tell you, it’s a long way from here to there! We left the Gold Coast on Feb 20 and out flights went like this:

Gold Coast > Sydney > Honolulu > Los Angeles > Minneapolis > Liberia (the city in Costa Rica, not the country in Africa). Along the way we lost a day and all track of time.

We decided to take a day out and recover from the 30 hour journey at a mountain spa. It was a lovely place, but honestly, we hardly even had a chance to explore it – we slept for 13 of the 20 hours we spent there ??‍♀️. We’re now settling in with Emma and Mae (pronounced My) in a beautiful home in a very small town in north western Costa Rica. The coffee is great and innovative views are amazing!!

Australia

Springbrook National Park

As our time in Australia draws to a close, we decided to take advantage of one of the many opportunities here in Queensland to do so hiking. We choose a relatively short (about 2 hours) hike that was not too difficult, rated as a Grade 3 (moderate fitness required) in Springbrook National Park.

The park is about an hour south of Brisbane and is listed as a World Heritage site. It was a spectacular hike. We chose the Twin Falls Circuit which is about 4km or 2.5 miles. As the name suggests along the way we passed two waterfalls, walked through the rainforest and got some phenomenal scenic views.

I couldn’t decide which photos to include in this post, so I just uploaded them all…

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Australia

A Cocktail For Queensland

The idealic setting of the Gold Coast in Australia inspired a new cocktail called “Santuary Cove”.

Ingredients:

  • 1 oz (30 ml) white rum
  • 1/2 oz light agave syrup
  • 1/2 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
  • 1 oz Champagne or Prosecco

Add ice, lime, agave syrup,and rum to a Boston shaker. Shake, break and strain into a martini glass. 

Top with champagne, garnish with a lime wheel, enjoy with friends!