Wineries, Easter Break, Rugby and a New Diet

6.5.15
Kristen says...

Happiest of Easter/Passover to those who celebrate those holidays!

And warm greetings from Australia, where the days are getting shorter and the weather cooler, but so far not any less busy! :)

We have had a particularly large amount to do the past few weeks, what with weekend events, the Easter holiday, our HHE (STUFF!) being delivered, and of course, multiple trips to the chiropractor...le sigh.

So let's start with our winery trip a couple weekends ago...a friend of a friend is leaving soon, and so wanted to buy some wine to take home with her...and since I am a firm non-drinker, I became the much appreciated designated driver. :)

There are many wineries in the Canberra District, in large part due to the cool climate. We visited four, and Chris and our friends sampled (and purchased) a wide variety...

Chris contemplating a red

Most of the wineries use netting to try to keep the birds off the grapes before they are picked

Christmassy wine barrel art

Wine bottle art

A llama

It was a beautiful day and we had a really nice time!

 The following weekend we went out for breakfast across the street from an apple orchard--it's fall here, and we're enjoying being in the middle of the local apple season!

More netting!

Visiting the apple orchard was particularly good, since our chiropractor has put us on an inflammatory diet, which has outlawed: sugar, wheat, bread, potatoes, milk...basically everything I eat. On the approved list? Fruit, vegetables, beans, eggs, cheese (thankfully, or I'd have starved to death!), yogurt, and things I can't eat like nuts (allergies)...

So we've had fun experimenting with recipes this week. So far I've made flourless brownies (made from dates) and pudding (made from oats), as well as quiche and grilled cheese with a cauliflower crust/bread and a delicious veggie frittata...

So, clearly we're not starving...I do REALLY miss bread, though, and I'm not going to lie, we totally cheated on this diet on Easter Sunday when we went to the Pancake Parlor after attending the 6 am Sunrise Service...

Also on the schedule for Easter Sunday? A trip up Red Hill for an amazing view of the city:

Beautiful!!

What else did we do over the Easter weekend? Well, our stuff was delivered at the end of last week, so we have been spending a lot of our time unpacking and putting things away...I finished the library (much smaller than it was in Vlad, unfortunately) last night:

And we gave ourselves a reward for all our hard work by attending our second-ever rugby game!

And were met by singers!

Fun fact...there are two types of professional rugby in Australia, Union and League. The Raiders, the first team we watched, are rugby league, while the Brumbies (an Australian horse), the team we watched this weekend, are union.

They both play at the same stadium, but the style of play is quite different.

For one, the Brumbies got to do this:

 FUN!

A Knock On is like a Fumble in American football (called Gridiron here)

Go Brumbies!!

 Of course, a weekend in Australia isn't complete without a kangaroo sighting:

And that brings you back up to speed with what's going on here...

 It's good times!

 KF

More Photos from Sakhalin

10.12.14
Kristen says...

I'm taking a 10-minute break from packing (ugh! PACKING!) to upload some more photos from our trip to Sakhalin.

We left Vlad in snow (and came back to even more snow...but Sakhalin was snow-free)

We only had three days on the Island but really managed to do a lot!

We stayed in the town of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, which has a nice little ski hill almost in the center of the city

It also has some interesting building art

We did a fair amount of walking around the city:

"City Cultural Park and Recreation named for Yuri Gagaran," famous Soviet Cosmonaut

"Welcome!"

Chris with a statue of Yuri in the park

The recreation part of the park turned out to be a little carnival, closed down for the winter

Look! Kangaroos in Russia!!

A Russian version of the teacup ride

A giant snow-covered slide

Another winterized Russian teacups ride

Similarly to Vlad, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk has some lovely statuary art:

 It gets very snowy on the island (we were there just before the first major snow of the winter) and the markets were full of these sleigh strollers:

Later in the day a colleague drove us outside of the city to view one of the island's LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) plants. The economy of Sakhalin is based heavily on oil and natural gas.

Here we are pointing at the plant. The large tanks behind Chris are for LNG

A huge ship for transporting LNG. Notice the size of the SUVs on the road to give you some perspective on how massive that thing was

A Day at the Beach

It was a very odd thing to be at the beach with boots on!

It's not every day you see ice on the beach!

On our way to the plant we stopped and bought some local produce from the side of the road:

 And enjoyed a late-afternoon picnic as we watched the sun go down.

I ate my first-ever pickles on this trip--they were pretty ok

 We also explored some ruins left over from when the Japanese ruled the island (it was given over to the Russians after WWII)

On our way back to town we made a few more stops:

A recently-refurbished statue where local lovers tie fabric and lock love locks

Former home of the Japanese Imperial Governor, now a museum

The dacha of our friend and host. Dachas are a really interesting and Russian thing--most often they began as land given by the Soviet government to ordinary people as a way to let the people grow their own food during times of food shortages.

Our last day was spent back in the city, wandering in the rain to see some of the monuments.

The city is building a new monument which is combining the secular Soviet army with the Orthodox church by incorporating a new cathedral into a war monument:

It was really cool to be able to get so close to one of the famous Onion Domes of Russia!

The city was decorating for the holidays:

Even in the rain, it was a beautiful place!

I do want to point out the caterpillar on Chris' upper lip--he and a few other members of the Consulate grew mustaches this year in honor of Movember and to raise awareness for men's heath concerns like prostate cancer. Self checks can help catch cancer early, and regular visits to a doctor could save your life!

 It was a great trip, and our last little jaunt in Russia. It's been a great two years, but now I need to get back to packing for our next big adventure...!