Hello for the last time from Sydney,

The trip started Sunday, and ends tomorrow. When I first arrived, the view of the harbor was breathtaking. It's the most naturally beautiful land I've ever seen in my life. The amazing fact about the Sydney Harbor is that it is 100% natural, things have been added, but the harbor structures are as they were when Captain Cook first discovered it in the 15th century. The picture of the opera house on the left was taken from a water taxi in the harbor... beautiful! My mom and I took the picture below in front of the opera house when we first arrived here.


After eating a very nice lunch at an incredible seafood restaurant, Mom and I took a ferry over to Manley Harbor and walked along the shore. It was raining, but we still managed to get some good pictures off like this one here.


Bruce

|

Hi Everyone,

So Sunday was my last day in Melbourne, today I write to you from Sydney on the 30th floor of the Marriott, to my left is a panoramic view of the Sydney Harbor and harbor bridge, and to my right is a panoramic view of the other side of the harbor where the opera house is. It's absolutely beautiful here though I seem to have brought the rain with me. Surprisingly, Australia is in the worst drought in its history, yet when I show up it's pouring rain in Sydney! Here's a funny picture of a car that illustrates the drought... that I'm not experiencing at ALL!

Before I post about Sydney, I wanted to write about my last day in Melbourne with the Pilleys (Bruce's family) and with the cousins at night. We went to Nana's and had dinner, but since she always overworks herself and gets really tired we brought lunch or "tea" as the Aussies call it, we brought lunch from a chicken shop... an entirely new experience for me. Here's a picture of "charcoal chicken," where we ate, it was really good actually!

So we went to Nana and Pa's, and Angela (my step-sister) joined us. She was really tired from Ben's (my step brother) wedding the day before. Even still, Angela is very photogenic and I was really happy she came to say goodbye. Here's the picture of us.

After dinner, we decided to take this picture with myself, Bruce, mom, Nana and Pa. I love them very much, we really enjoyed ourselves.


Shortly after we took this, Pa was showing off his "flexophone" skills, what a cool instrument. The easiest way to describe this instrument is that it's like a vibrating saw that you control the tension with your hand to raise or lower the pitch. I tried it, I absolutely could not do it, but Pa played Amazing Grace and it was quite beautiful! The picture was so funny I had to post it, but Pa is a very talented musician (piano, trombone, sings, and flexophone).

After "tea," Sarah and Paul came to pick me up from Nana and Pa's and took me to a really nice Baptist church called Mitcham Baptist. I really enjoyed it, it was necessarily a church I would attend regularly, but it was nice to worship alongside some Australians and I got to see Andy one last time and chit chat. I've extended open invitations to them all to come and stay with me, so hopefully some of them take me up on it.

After church, Sarah, Michael, Vicky, Paul, and I went out to a place with really good cake called "Lazy Mo's." Don't ask me why it's called that, but here are the yummy cheescakes we bought and all shared... mmm. I basically couldn't refrain from eating them with my face!! Afterwards, we cruised the city taking random fun shots like this one below and being silly. I feel like we spent half the time simply finding the lookout, but look at this skyline picture, the wait was worth the reward.

The view...

Afterwards, Sarah, Paul, and Kelly (Sarah's friend) drove me back home. We were going to hit the town... but I'm not exactly a night owl anymore. Work has made me a normal person who gets tired at night, I pretty much hate it! Here's a couple random shots we took driving around.

Silly Sarah, pizza is for ME!

All right, I have to run back into the city now to go out with Bruce's nephew Stephen, his new wife Marridy (isn't that a pretty name?) and Jess (Bruce's niece). Jess has been showing me around Sydney... very nice of her! You will see pictures of Sydney hopefully soon! I have lots of good ones... but I have to run!

Love,

Kyle

|

G'day From Melbourne!

Well everyone, I'm finally posting some information about the fairy penguins. After going to Sorrento with Sarah and Craig, we took off for Phillip Island, home to the "Little Penguin." The little penguins used to be known as "Fairy Penguins" and frankly most people prefer the fairy penguin name... as do I... so that's what I am going to call them!

Unfortunately, these little cuties are deathly afraid of flash photography, and over the years there have been so many disobedient tourists that they don't allow any pictures at all except in these specially recreated burrows. The photo quality isn't fantastic because there is glass in the way, but you can get the idea here. The only stand about 4-7 inches tall, and they are incredibly social and interactive with one another.

In fact, the experts explained to us that the fairy penguins actually practice monogamy! They stay with their "spouse" 87% of the time until one of them dies. I think us humans could learn a lesson or two about marriage from these cute little creatures. Here you can sort of make out this pair in their cute little recreated burrow. They clean each other, cuddle, and make cute little noises.

Here's a picture of a chick, they are actually really fat because all they have are their down feathers so they're really puffy-looking. The image is tough to make out because of the light, but he's gray and lying on his belly here.


The penguins arrive on the beach here, and wait until a big enough group arrives that they feel safe crossing over together. It's really cute.


As I said, we weren't allowed to take pictures outside, so these are the only ones I have, but here's a really cute one of Sarah, Craig and I with a really creepy-looking giant stuffed koala.


OK, that sums up the Penguins! Talk soon!

Love,

Kyle

|

Dear Everyone,

Yesterday's journey began around 11AM, Sarah and her friend Craig picked me up at Mom and Bruce's apartment and we set off to the beautiful coastal city of Sorrento. As you can see, the water in Sorrento was crystal clear, and the scenery was phenomenal. The three of us stopped there for lunch and Craig purchased his first painting... as the Aussie's would say "good'on him!" For you Americans, that (loosely translated) means "good job." Below is a picture I took from the end of the pier... it was gorgeous.


Sarah and I took a minute to walk to the end of the pier while Craig was purchasing his painting and we enjoyed the moment. Here's a picture we took.

Craig and I

So after Craig bought his painting, we all went out for lunch at a really nice restaurant and chatted about life, God, politics, theology, pretty much the deepest issues in life! Then, Craig and Sarah made me break my good diet habits I've been maintaining to enjoy an Australian delicacy called the "vanilla slice." I think a better word for this desert is... vanilla "piece of heaven." Here's me preparing for the blessing from above...

Ahh... this is amazing...

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed Sorrento, but I was really excited to get out and see the penguins, but right before I left, Sarah and I snapped this shot!


Next is the penguins... it's gonna be cute!

Kyle

|

Following the Yara riverboat cruise with Mike and Vicky, Mom, Bruce, and I went off to the Whittakers (close family friends) for dinner. Ken and Irene Whittaker came out to the states this summer and I showed them around the Crystal Cathedral and some other sights, but now I was on their turf! They have a lovely home filled with LOTS of little kids! There are three families currently living in their household, totaling 13 people. The most recent is this little cutie on the right, she's gorgeous and has TONS of hair!

Here's another few pics of the cute kiddies! She was showing me how it was hard to open her purse... so cute!


After dinner there, Andy took me to see Simeon's show. Simeon is deeply committed to what he does and it's really awesome. He plays at bars, clubs, or wherever they will have him as an outreach. He played a really nice mixture of cover songs, originals, and Aussie tunes. He's coming out to LA pretty soon and we're going to try and play a couple shows together... keep posted and come meet him, his wife, and his beautiful baby Asher!

OK, I'm going to post another update about the penguins soon... they are cute little guys... keep in touch friends!

Love,

Kyle

|

Hi Friends,

The last few days I've been quite busy, getting home very late and I've not been able to blog before I go to bed... my apologies. I realize many of you are enjoying this (as I am), so here it is. Friday I went out to the city of Melbourne to Lygon Street with Michael Pilley (if you guys remember Mike visited us with Aaron in the states back in September). We started off at Starbucks (a really nice two-story Starbucks) and we caught up on each others' lives the past few months. It was really nice.

Afterwards, Michael's girlfriend Vicky caught up with us for lunch at a nice Italian restaurant on Lygon street (located close to Melbourne University). Here's Mike and Vicky on the left... ahh the things I will post on the internet ;)

So after a $100 parking fine (sorry Vicky!), and a great lunch (which proceeded to wind up on my lap--see here), we went off to the Yara river that runs through the city of Melbourne for a cruise through the city. I got some great shots of the city, including some funny ones. like this one about "foul ground below." I'm not exactly sure how it is foul, or what constitutes "foul ground," but it makes for a funny sign. Another funny sign that I enjoyed was made by some homeless guy, or maybe a random tagger and it says "I hate boats." My suggestion for whoever wrote that... don't live in the dock lands! Here are a few more pictures from the city river cruise that I thought were very beautiful and you all might enjoy seeing.


Here's a picture of Mike, Vicky, and I in the Yara river boat cruise.


Here's another picture of me in the boat being stupid and silly.


This is picture of a really cool pedestrian bridge that was recently built as an art project to go along with the commonwealth games (basically it's 2nd biggest sporting event to the olympics).


Melbourne is a fancy city like every fancy city... and they've all got nice yachts... there are some gorgeous ones here.


I took this picture... and I don't know why... I just like it, so I'm posting it.


All right, I've got a few other posts to catch up on, but this pretty much concludes the day I spent with Mike and Vicky, I really appreciated the time they took to spend with me, thanks guys!

Love,

Kyle

|

Hi Friends!

Well, tonight I'm going to keep my post pretty short as I am a bit tired. I've been going... going... going and it's taking its toll a bit so I'm going to be a bit more conscious to relax! Today was low-key, Bruce and I started off the day with a nice Australian breakfast (they're really good). Bruce always reiterates that there are no bad restaurants in Australia, because the Aussies wouldn't tolerate it. At least up to this point, his confirmation is true with me! I have had nothing but GREAT food here.

Mom was out with her friend Chris Bradley to celebrate Chris' birthday, Chris is a wonderful woman. She used to be Bruce's personal assistant (still on a part-time basis), and she's been a good friend to my mom while she's out here. Here's a picture of the two of them at the beach.


While they were out, Bruce took me on a journey through some more parts of Melbourne. The amazing thing about this city are the vast amounts of small, quaint streets that you simply can't find without the help of a well-versed local like Bruce.

Probably the highlight among all the fun streets that are synonymous with Melbourne was the race track on the right. Melbourne is hosting the Grand Prix in March, and the track is currently being prepared. While it's being prepared they allow the public to drive the track so Bruce and I made the trip, our top speed was... not very high :)

So you get an idea, here's a couple more pictures of the racetrack.


The last thing I did was to go down to the beach and relax in the evening. I feel really feminine announcing this, but I went and had a massage for the first time in my life and it was really incredible! I really don't think I could justify doing it financially on a consistent basis since it's reasonably expensive, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. Apparently, almost half the clients of this place were men, so I guess my masculinity is still intact!

Afterwards, I went and walked around the quaint areas of downtown, and enjoyed a nice dinner, and a piece of cake from one of Melbourne's famous cake shops. My mom took this picture of me down by the beach... isn't the harbor beautiful?

Well my friends, there are some exciting blogs coming up in the next few days, namely my day with Michael Pilley tomorrow, dinner at the Whitakers, Simeon's show, my trip Saturday with Sarah to see the SUPER cute fairy penguins, and finally, Sydney! Those pictures are going to be great.

A major thanks to all who have been so kind in sending emails, and posting little notes on the blog, I really appreciate it and I can't wait to catch up with all of you in person when I come home.

Much Love,

Kyle

|