Still Alive

Well it looks like the blog is mine now. Sorry to all of you who were adamant followers of Julia. She obviously is a fantastic blogger. Me - not so much. I am moving to a new apartment this weekend. It is out on the other side of the island, but close to some friend so it should be nice. There are also kids that the boys can play with and there is a pool in the apartment complex so the boys should love it out there. Unfortunately they would not let me take the dog (Ila) with me. Fortunately I was able to get someone to watch him until I get the chance to send him off-island. Hopefully the parents or someone will be able to take him once he gets back state-side.

I am going to New Zealand for a week next month and then on to Chicago for a legal conference. it will be the first time that I have been to the continental U.S. since I moved to American Samoa. It should be a nice break, but it will definitely be very cold for me since I have gotten too used to the weather in Samoa. Also I have absolutely no cold weather clothing. I was cold when I went to Hawaii a few months ago so Chicago in October is making me very nervous. The conference is business casual so I am wondering if Aloha shirts, sandals, and lava lava's will be tolerated. lol.

break it up, people... nothing to see here

As most of you know, there will be no more Harty partying. My future blogging home will be over here so be sure to stop by! ...not right this minute though. Give me some time to post something!

pity the fool!

ok, so we're seriously lacking in gold jewelry, but at least we have the hair right!

tropo kid

One of our little island boys caught a fish in half of a coconut shell. He just scooped it up out of the water. He was so proud of himself.

The coconut shell kept leaking so he transferred it to a bowl we found on the beach.

Easter 2009

What? You guys had Easter months ago? Overachievers.

so... yeah.

When you come home and your kid is covered in charcoal and you ask him why his face, chest, arms, and legs are black, you don't really expect to hear, "I was doing it for camouflage because it was dark out, and I went into a dark room and I could hardly see myself."

But I suppose it's as good a reason as any.

Australia

Clif had a conference in Brisbane for the humane society so I tagged along. We spent a few days in Sydney before the conference. It was so nice to be in a real city again! It was the first time that either of us had been out of the Samoan islands since we moved to American Samoa. I know, life on a tropical island can't be that bad, it's just that the lack of amenities and variety and shopping and fresh fruits (other than bananas and pineapples) and clean sidewalks and... yeah, it gets to you sometimes.

We stayed in a cool old building in the Rocks, with lots of quirks and a fun rooftop garden; we went to see an opera at the Opera House; and mostly, we wandered around the city taking it all in.

We had a couple days to kill and decided that it would be fun to see a bit of Australia outside of the major cities. Instead of flying to Brisbane, we canceled our tickets and drove up the coast. It was beautiful.

Our first stop was Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park where we saw a kangaroo and 2 wallabies! The wallabies are crouched together to the left of the kangaroo.

We went to a Koala Hospital in Port MacQuarie.
At Dorrigo National Park, I was chased by a hungry bird. It really wanted the sandwich I was eating. Dorrigo is a beautiful rainforest with a canopy walkway and lots of birds. I even saw a pademelon.
We stopped in Coff's Harbor hoping to see the thousands of muttonbirds at Muttonbird Island. Unfortunately we had just missed them (damn those migration patterns), but we did see trees full of these colorful parrots.

Then we hit the Gold Coast. It was beautiful! Miles and miles of white sandy beaches.

Most of our time in Brisbane was spent at the conference so we don't have many pictures, but I really enjoyed what I was able to see of the city.