Fremantle/Perth, Australia

Jeff's paternal grandmother was born in Fremantle (southern section of Perth on the water) before moving to the US in the early 20th century. Locals call it "Freo".

Jeff's sister found their grandmother's birth certificate and this is the street (King William) on which Jeff's great-grandparents lived.

Creatures in the Outback

From the zoo straight to your table...

Virtual Special Guest Shout out to Lynette

Thanks to Lynette (who we first met in Shanghai) for all her great suggestions on Melbourne. We went to this great pizza place our first night in town.

Some other foodie pics...

Melbourne Special Guest Liam Cahill

The Lion Tamer... The Little General... by any name, he's one of Australia's finest. It was great to see Liam and share a few pots of Crownies (heaps, really) in his native Melbourne.

Liam lived with Jeff, Woody and Eric Myers in Chicago for a spell in the 90's.

Despite the fact that he's a tennis professional, he lists tennis as his 5th favorite sport. Aus. Rules Football (huge in Melbourne) and cricket are 1-2.

Stuff Jeff Likes... Part 2

More stuff Jeff likes:
4. Drinking from public water fountains
5. Extremely hard to find boutique sparkling water from Campania, Italy (Jeff note: Farrarelle is truly the greatest water on earth - I couldn't believe we found it in Melbourne. You can't really get it in the U.S. Yet another reason to move to AUS)
6. His initials posted anywhere
7. Anything having to do with Butter

Stuff Jeff Likes... Part 1

Jeff likes:
1. Any sort of cake for brekky... in this case, corncakes and pikelets (Aussie pancakes)
2. Totally Dog Free Zones
3. Multiple over the top desserts BEFORE and AFTER any meal

Sydney Harbour

Sydney harbour is a big, extensive inlet with roughly 150 miles of coastland that surrounds the city, parkland, and suburbs. The city sits about 4 miles inland and is sort of set up like a larger San Francisco. The main differences are that the beaches around Sydney (Bondi, etc) are not 54 degrees all of the time and that the water is a perfect shade of blue.

We got up close and personal with the Opera House and actually took in a show (Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca). It's pretty cool on the inside too. The guy who designed it (in the late 50's) never actually saw the finished product after getting into a spat with contractors.

Shirtless in Sydney

Shirtless has gone international in fashion forward Sydney.

Going Down Under

Today, we're going to the land down under- AU and NZ. In case you're wondering, here are all the places we plan to go- to be revealed in more detail this month on our blog.

If you're interested, you can check out the graphical recap of our Asia tour in the post dated 1/9/09.