Phil Keeping Busy While I'm in the States

As you will see below, Phil has not just sat and twiddled his thumbs while I'm here in the States. (Although I'm sure he has spent many hours pondering on how much his life is so much emptier when I'm not there to fill his days with joy.) Before I left, he signed up for a trip to the Great Barrier Reef to go scuba diving. I know...what?!!! He wisely figured that I would not be one of the first to sign up for a helicopter ride from Cairns to a boat anchored off of the reef to scuba dive.

Now, at some point I wouldn't mind seeing the reef but I have no desire to ride in a helicopter. And after hearing about the boat ride back to the mainland, I'm not so sure I want to do that either. Rob and Faith, remember our boat ride down to Chesapeake City a couple of years ago? I'll just say that Faith and I were tossing our cookies and when we finally go to the dock, Faith layed down prostrate on the the dock and vowed never to get back in that boat again. Enough said.

But Phil really enjoyed this trip. He met some interesting people. (We now have an open invitation to visit a couple who live in Munich, Germany.) Saw some really cool fish and coral. (See pictures below.) And really liked scuba diving. (After he got used to the breathing from a small tube.) So, add scuba diving to his list of things he likes to do...riding the motorcycle, driving the boat, flying the plane, etc. Really...it's like being married to MacGyver. But Sox and I still can't wait for him to come home on Sunday night!

A few edits from Scuba Phil himself...

For those of you who have never been diving- I think you need to put it on your list of things to do before you get old (ergo- the bucket list!!). Once you get over the extreme awkwardness of being under water yet still being able to breath, it's amazing. So yes, add one more to the "Phil's expensive hobby" list. Hmmm- maybe we should keep that boat after all ;)

Oh, and when you try it- go big, go Great Barrier Reef!! Actually the conditions were really bad (raining and "poor visibility" which in GBR terms means about 30 feet- sometimes you can see 150 feet!!). Sandra and I have done snorkeling a few times in the Carribean, etc but this is a whole different experience.

Just be ready for some open water boating and rough seas. Yes Faith- the trip home was much like our little adventure in the lower Delaware River (who knew the Delaware could get 10 foot swells with breaking heads??) except that you're in a much bigger boat that's not actually leaving the water... You move around a lot, but it doesn't feel unsafe.

For Sandra's benefit, I've been assured that the Australian Winter/Early Spring (August/September) is "guaranteed" to be calm and good conditions.

So all you pasty white East Coasters- get on a plane and get down here. I need a diving partner :) Although I had a very good diving partner on this trip, I'd love to actually go out with someone I know from the start. I met a lot of great people on this little adventure, as Sandra mentioned above a great couple from Munich, Germany- Marcus and Xenia (yes Cedarvillians, just like the city in Ohio- it's Greek for "hospitable" in case you were ever wondering). If you guys are reading this, thanks again for the good company and I hope that you're enjoying the rest of your Australian adventure! Hopefully some of our friends in Philadelphia will get to meet these folks at some point, as we are both trying to get the other couple over to our respective sides of the Atlantic.

I also met and got to spend some time with a few young folks (holy cow I'm sounding old now...) who were spending a year or so "backpacking" through Australia. I'm fascinated by this whole culture of people who spend an extended period of time in a foreign place with no plans or schedule. You see them a lot in Australia (there are a lot of youth hostels in Sydney), but to actually get to know a few of them it was really neat. And now that I've made my parents and Sandra's parents really anxious talking about it, I can assure you that I'm not going backpacking any time soon- I fairly sure that we missed that time in our life!!