It’s been hard to motivate myself to post anything recently — a lot of bad stuff going on in the world makes me feel, well, badly, about posting much of anything that isn’t a rant here, and we all know how much fun those are to read.

But I’m going to put the rant(s) on hold for now, and share some photos of our recent trip to Australia. It was the last of our big trips for the year, and also marked the last wedding (out of 7!) we attended in 2014.

We had a great time with friends in Sydney and got out several times on sailboats into the harbor (hence the photo above). Our social time didn’t leave much room for touristing, but I still think we got a good feel for the city (Dina had been there before, also). If you go, be sure to check out New Shanghai in Ashfield for excellent soup dumplings.

We also explored Australia’s East Coast — we visited the Blue Mountains, Brisbane, and Port Douglas/Cairns for some snorkeling on the reef. All lovely spots, though I suspect we wouldn’t have enjoyed Brisbane as much on our own (we visited with a friend who showed us around).

The reef really was something special, and well worth a visit (in case you’re at all on the fence). We had great snorkeling trips from Port Douglas with both Sailaway and Calypso. Unfortunately, the waterproof camera stopped working after the first day, leaving lots of amazing stuff unphotographed.

More photos are up here.