All posts by Jon

Catching up with the Handels

Adventures, Random Musings, Travel

Long time, no blogs.  I’m sure you’ve all been wondering what we’ve been up to since we got back from Colombia last February.  It’s your lucky day, because after months of “thinking about it” – I’m finally writing this post!

So, in late March of 2022, we packed up the mighty Hyundai and drove to the Austin, TX area to stay with my dad, step mom Mary and younger brother Nick (and dogs Lucy and Luke!) for 5 months.

Dad with guard dogs Luke and Lucy

While we were in Texas we had many adventures. When we weren’t adventuring, it was good to just be able to spend time with the family.

At the Texas Stars minor league hockey with Nick

The whole crew hiked Enchanted Rock  –  (Relive Hiking App view)

From the top of Enchanted Rock in Texas

We all (including Jeff and Natasha) took a trip to Iowa for another one of my Uncle’s epic farm parties – this one coinciding with my dad’s 77th birthday and the “Arlington Days” parade. Sara and I stayed at the farm my dad grew up on.

The whole Handel clan in Iowa – Jeff, Mary, Dad, Nick, Natasha, me and Sara
Selfie while Mayor Don Handel drives by in the background

Back in Texas, we got a chance to hang out with my sister Natasha in Austin as well.

Hanging with Natasha

We briefly headed back to Maryland for Sara’s mom’s 75th birthday.  We saw the musical “Six” while in DC.

Sara and her mom after seeing SIX

Sara also went back to the east coast alone for a long weekend to catch up with some friends.

Sara, Holly and Becky

After our time in Texas was up, we headed off to stay with my older brother Jeff in Tahoe for a month just like we did the prior summer.  On the drive there, we stopped for two nights in both Santa Fe, NM and Las Vegas.

Obligatory cactus photo from Santa Fe

Santa Fe was a nice stop and we did a few hikes and explored the old town.

mmmmm.. beer

We hadn’t been to Vegas in years, and it’s changed a lot.  There’s professional hockey and football on the strip now!  No real luck at the craps tables – but lots of “free” beers were consumed.

Tahoe!

This year Tahoe started off with glorious weather for the first two and a half weeks before we got a sniff of smoky air.  The last week and a half were on again, off again smoky from nearby fires.  We managed to get in quite a few epic hikes. It was great to be able to spend extended time with Jeff again.

Enjoying a break while making our own trail up the backside of Alpine Meadows ski area.
Sara scrambling to the summit of Twin Peaks
One of many alpine lakes we hiked by. This is probably Azure Lake?

Click the link for a map and extra photos of our hike to Azure lake.

Jeff at the summit of Round Top

Click the link for a map and extra photos of our hike to Round Top.

Mt Tallac summit selfie

Click the link for a map and extra photos of our hike to Mt. Tallac.

Earth Porn from the top of Mt Tallac
Don’t worry, I managed to sneak in some golf

In mid-September it was time to leave Tahoe, and we started our trek back across the country to Maryland.  We stopped for two nights in Park City, Utah for a few more days in the mountains and got in a few more hikes. Here’s a link to the longer one we did – Deer Valley.

Park City, post epic hike

After park city, it was a lot of driving with stops in Sidney NE, Iowa City IA and Columbus OH. The mighty Hyundai performed admirably.

We went to see Hamilton with friends in DC!

Our nephew Adam turned 15!

Happy 15th!

Then it was another trip down to Greenville, SC – to hang out with friends and look for a place to live.  We found a nice little apartment in a small town about 10 miles away – Travelers Rest.  We packed up all of our stuff in a POD and moved to South Carolina!

Sara, Terra, Mike and I before a delightful meal

Right after moving in, I went back to Texas to play some golf with my dad and Jeff

Golf Selfie

Well, that gets us to November at least.  I thought I was going to be able to catch all the way up to the present time, but we’ve even done a lot between November and now, so that’ll have to wait for another blog – hopefully sooner than a year from now!

Work-cation?

Adventures, Travel

Since we got back from our road trip, we haven’t gone anywhere (with good reason!). That being said, we’ve been getting a bit antsy here in our apartment for the last 6 months. Given the low number of COVID-19 cases in Queensland and specifically in non-Brisbane Queensland, we decided to get out of the house for a week (well 8 days).

To catch everyone up, Sara got a 6 month contract job at the end of June and is going into the office 2 days every other week (otherwise working from home). I’ve been doing a little side work remotely for my old employer in Melbourne for a few years now – and thankfully that has increased to a bit more than 1/2 time currently.

So, since we both can work remotely, why not get a bit of a sea-change and work remotely from somewhere other than our apartment? Somehow we settled on the town of Sarina Beach – about an 11 hour drive north of us.  I figured it was about the furthest we could get away from Brisbane in a day’s drive. We found a nice little ocean front hotel there with an onsite restaurant.

Our “office” for the week. Our room was on the top right.

We left Brisbane early on a Saturday morning for the long slog north. Luckily we had some recent experience with long drives – this one would be right up there with our longest days from our Aussie road trip. We arrived in Sarina Beach early in the evening and checked into our room (and checked out the view!)- then quickly made our way to the onsite restaurant for a delicious dinner.

View from the room’s balcony

On Sunday we found the “Big Cane Toad” in Sarina after having some delicious pies for breakfast from the Sarina Pie Shop. It was nice to mark off another “big” item 6 months after seeing the “Big Winch” in Coober Pedy.

The Big Cane Toad!

Then we ventured a bit further north to the big city of the area – Mackay.  We had lunch and explored the river walk that runs along the Pioneer River.

The Pioneer River in Mackay

Most of the week was for working, but I snuck out for some golf on Tuesday and Friday afternoons at the local course.

Work with a view
Nice day for a round

We also had time to go for long walks on the beach while looking out for crocs, since we were in “croc country“.

Endless beach

On Thursday we took a long lunch at a hotel recommended by Sara’s friend – the Eimeo Pacific Hotel. We both got the Wagyu burger and a beer.

Lunch with a view
Lunch with a view

On Saturday, we explored the Eungella National Park, which was about an hour and a half from our hotel. We did the hike up the Finch Hatton Gorge, which led us to two waterfalls and some swimming holes.

Nice waterfall
No need for a bridge, find your own way across
Waterfall

Next we refueled with some more tasty pies from the local hotel – this time topped with peas and gravy. Yum. Then we did some brief exploring in the other main area of the national park, up a steep windy road to the town of Eungella.

View from the top

There were promises of a platypus sighting in the creek – and we actually managed to see one! We are typically unlucky when it comes to shy Australian wildlife. They are much smaller than I had imagined.

A platypus!

On Sunday it was time to pack up and head back to Brissy. Thankfully the drive was uneventful minus a few idiot drivers (clearly not us!). Now we are trying to figure out when and where we should do this work-cation next.