What better way to celebrate your vow renewal than a trip to the romance capital of the world: Paris. Officially this is our 14th honeymoon since we originally got married as youngsters back in November 2005 but who's counting?

Paris is quite the place and it does have a certain romantic aura about it. I think it is the old, ancient facade of the buildings. They stand there with so much history on the walls. They stand beside, in front of or behind lots of statues that depict lovers. They stand a top of hills and river banks with lovers walking around. They also include churches with beautiful stained glass mosaics and steeples looking over the historic pews that must have seen thousands of couples getting married.


One of our favourite spots must have been Montmarte with a massive church standing on top of a hill with gorgeous paved streets leading up to and away from the center. It is a mecca for tourists and a very crowded place but one with a lot happening. The area surrounding the Montmarte church is quite artsy and there's several streets selling boutique style arts and crafts. There's one courtyard devoted to artists doing self portraits. One favourite that I had never seen before was a guy who would cut out your silhouette on black paper and then paste you on a Paris background that he had also cut out. The cuts were very detailed too, not like my bad kindergarten cutting skills. My personal highlight was a football freestyler who was standing on top of a small pillar and he would juggle the football for minutes and do some crazy things. Now he was worth giving a few Euros to.

The biggest highlight for us both was our Segway tour of Paris. The segway was sooooo fun to learn how to ride and then to cruise around the city was awesome. Our tour guide was from Texas but knew all about the history of the various areas we went to. We actually appreciated local knowledge that you get on tours (as opposed to guide books) because they tell you things that you probably wouldn't have noticed if you weren't on the tour. On this one bridge there were hundreds of locks. Couples go there and lock a padlock onto the other padlocks hanging from the bridge / sculpture. Then they would throw the key into the river which symbolizes there undying love for eternity. The only thing is that so many couples do it that the city municipality must come and cut all the locks down every couple of months because they start to flow onto the pavement. We cruised on our segways throughout the late afternoon and watch the sun fall out of the sky over Paris and eventually wound our way back to the Effiel Tower to see it light up at night. Very romantic.


There were many observations that we made of Paris that I might include here. Paris smells like urine. I have no idea what it is and before you say it, no it wasn't me. I've heard that you shouldn't walk too close to trees or the wall because there's a strong chance that a dog will have just sprayed it's territory. But all streets, subway stations and museums seem to have this lingering smell of piss. Personally, it was disgusting. French people are indeed not the most gracious hosts but we didn't have too many stories of arrogant and devious Frenchies. One thing we did learn was to try and use as much French as possible, if only a greeting, and to smile and show gratitude, in French. We found that a few French people in the hospitality industry to use English to move the conversation forward. They don't want you to stumble along for too long. The other certainty to help you is a smile. Our smiles worked wonders.

When we were in the US, we told my parents that we were going to take them on a much needed and deserved vacation for a week in August. Joe too. We found a great resort in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico called the Sunset Princess and booked our first all inclusive holiday for the Scully's. Nick and I area used to backpacking it in hostels, staying on couches, so this was a big change and something that we were definitely looking forward to!

What my parents and brother didn't know that while we were down there we would suprise them with a vow renewal ceremony...a 2nd wedding for them as they weren't there when we got married in Sydney almost 5 years ago. We wanted to do it exactly 5 years, but timing doesn't always work out that way.


On November 24th, 2005 ,we got married at the Births, Deaths, and Marriages Office in Sydney with Nick's immediate family, but mine weren't there and while we promised we would have a wedding eventually back in the states 1 year turned into 2....3...4..and now were headed almost on the 5th, so to be honest we didn't know what would ever happen to that traditional 'wedding' that we were going to have one day.

So instead it was the Scully's chance to see one in Mexico. Before we left, Nick and I picked out a nice beach dress and outfit to wear, printed invitations, got a few little bits and pieces, wrote vows, printed a renewal certificate, but really didn't know how things would pan out. We had tried to get a photographer, but they wouldn't coordinate with the resort and we didn't want to go all out as just the price to have it at the wedding gazeebo there pretty high and not worth it. So we just went with the flow and now knowing the area decided we'd just have our own little set up on the beach at the hotel in the middle of the week.


The night we arrived, we surprised Mom and Dad with the invitations and pretty sure they didn't know what we had planned. We told Joe that he was going to be the 'officiant' and 2 days later we would have a little ceremony on the beach with just us 5. The night before the renewal, we were supposed to have our own 'rehearsal dinner' which where we chose the Japanese steakhouse to eat at, but we ended up being the Scully's minus Nick. Nick had a bit too much to drink during the day and honestly could not be woken up in time for dinner. After trying everything, he wouldn't move, until 2:30 am when he finally woke up and wondered when was dinner and why no one had woke him up. I told him it was impossible and all of us tried to! Since I'm already married to him and considering that doesn't happen very often, the 'renewal' was still on :)



On August 4th we went downtown Playa in the morning and picked got a little bouquet made up, flowers were a piece of cake. After that we headed back to the hotel and arranged with the hotel photographer to take some photos of us together that evening, again pretty simple. We had a chance to hang out by the pool, have a few drinks and then we all got ready for the ceremony. Pre-ceremony was pretty relaxed and super easy, stress free :) We headed down to the beach and got some photos taken and then started the ceremony. Joe as the officiant was given some cards to read, which he did great. Nick and I actually read vows that we wrote to each other for the first time as Mom and Dad stood by, maybe with even a few little tears in their eyes! We took a few more photos, filled a jar with some sand to remember the day and it was then on to the 'reception'. Thankfully the all inclusive allowed us to get whatever drinks wherever we wanted to the property, so we headed back to the main dining area, got drinks, the boys shared some celebratory cigars and then headed to our dinner at a French restaurant on the property.




We ate dinner, signed a renewal certificate and while there was no dancing wit the dj, it had most of the elements of a 'real wedding' just without all the stress and made for a great day!

Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois. What do they have in common? Corn crops and miles of flat plains.


We set out from Detroit one cloudy day and first stayed in Grand Haven on Lake Michigan. This was my first Lake Michigan experience and boy, it is a monstrous lake. Absolutely amazing. The howling winds whipped up wind swell and the lake's edge looked like a flat day at any Australian beach.
We drove into the North of Michigan to Leeland and the area of the Petosky rock. This area has some beautiful summer "cottages" on the thousands of lakes around the area. I feel Americans use the term cottage very loosely. When I picture a cottage, I think of an old Grandpa in his 5 metre squared farm trying to piece together a couple of veggies for a salad later on. I picture the little Grandma walking with a cup of tea in hand from her small kitchen to her one living room passing the main bedroom on the left. Cottages in northern michigan are NOT like this. They are mansions. Some of them with more than 8 bedrooms and as many bathrooms.



We visited Leeland to witness the marriage of Bess and Marcel Garraud, friends for years from the old Taylors College days in Sydney. After 8 (or more) years of dating, they finally tied the knot in a beautiful location. All the Aussies stayed in the Aussie house and Bess' family and friends stayed in her family's "cottage". The wedding was in a beautiful garden and the reception was in an old barn done up for the occasion. A classic wedding! Highlights of our time in Leeland include the wedding, Glynn rocking out in the stretch hummer, Jen and I SUP'ing from the Aussie house to the nearest point 12kms (8miles) round trip and passing the 45th parallel half way point between the Equator and the North Pole. Seriously, we passed it.


Following an awesome week with Aussies, we took a leisurely drive to the other side of Michigan and onwards to Alpena on Lake Ontario. Steph, Jeremy and co. were awesome and great hosts on the 4th of July weekend.



From there it went south. I mean, we went south all the way through Ohio to Cinncinatiiannttiiianti (Cincinnati for short).


We first lived it up in the burbs for a couple of nights with Brent and Jacki. Coincidentally, we were there when history was being made. Yep, it was the night when television networks aired a 2 hour preview of Lebron James' move to Miami. We got to hang out with them for a few days and they introduced me to Corn Hole. It kinda got addictive! We also got a chance to eat some awesome ribs at Montgomery Inn...Brent they truly were the best.


We then kicked onto downtown Cincinnati where we stayed with Nancy, Jake and their adorable little girl Isla (named after the Aussie actress Isla Fischer). We were greeted with hugs and the warning that we should go out of their building and to the left, not the right. Right i said and we left. Nah, we stayed there for a while and chilled with the three of them for a while, after almost 5 years apart it was like we didn't skip a beat..except now they have a little one! Highlights include our trip to Jungle Jims, the warehouse chock full of international food and drinks, the trip to the park, watching the World Cup Football finals and seeing Isla tuck into a mint oreo cookie. I taught her well. Looking forward to seeing them more often now and super excited for the grand opening of Isla's Cupcakery :)

From there we went to the Windy City and what was the first thing we did when we arrived? Ate deep dish pizza. We had been to Chicago previously in the dead of winter but we loved it in the summer. Awesome! We SUP'd three times and we just had an amazing view of the Chicago skyline. We also had the chance to catch up with Lina and her new little one, Isabella as well as Kathrine who we saw in a great play. It was either the play or the Cubs game but at $40 for limited view seats, there was no choice really even if they were good seat, the play was equally as entertaining.