Melbourne + Whitsundays ft. Gramsy

Melbourne

Grams Dar walking Hozier Lane in the heart of Melbs, looking super hip and trendy as per usual. Is it possible for your grandma to be cooler than you? I think after you scroll this post you'll decide the answer is definitely yes. 

CHIN CHIN. Eat your heart out, fellow foodies.

I talked this popular eating establishment up and up until Grandma Dar agreed to eat here. In Grams' top 3 choices of eats is probably Maccas (Aussie nick-name for McDonalds) so you can imagine her dismay when the menu only included things like, "Seared yellow fin tuna w. Thai basil, pink grapefruit & ginger salad, chilli jam & coconut" and, "Isaan-style crazy hot BBQ chicken w. smoked chilli & roasted shallot nam prik". Slightly different than a Big Mac, I suppose. Bad news? She was not plesased + it may have been $25 a plate. Good news? I got two plates of pure deliciousness. mmmm.

Pardon the language.

Melbs is spilling over with artistic spark and creativity. Not sure what the story is behind this piece, but I believe that to be a beautiful aboriginal boy and I love it. 

Because it's always time for...

St. Paul's Cathedral in the CBD. The last time I hopped off the train and walked out to see this sight I was so proud to be a wannabe Aussie. Jeeze I love this place. This street is full of thousands of people going to work, grabbing a bite to eat, playing instruments in the street and giving me something Ben Franklins can't buy, that city buzz. You may have also noticed that sign hanging on the front of the cathedral. It reads, "Let's fully welcome refugees." Good on you Oz.

Flinders Street Station in all its old-school glory. If buildings could talk...

Just have a moment for yourself to take this all in. IT'S A DONUT ON TOP OF MY SHAKE. WHAT IS THIS WIZARDRY?! 

Melbourne, Victoria's parliament building. It's a looker.

Cairns/The Great Barrier Reef

Saw the whole thing, dude. First you were all like "whoa", and we were like "whoa", and you were like "whoa..." Finding Nemo in real life folks.

lolololol. When did my grandma get so cool?! We had to wear these Gucci wet suits because it was stinger season and no one wants to get peed on. For those of you who aren't in the know, apparently pee and vinegar help jelly fish stings. Glad I didn't ever need to test it out.

These scenes brought to you by the Great Barrier Reef.

I had to...

Millaa Millaa Falls

OKAY. This has got to be the cutest grandma you've ever seen. Oh my heck. 

"Want a thing-a-ma-bob? I got twenty!" Little treasures brought to you by Hideaway Bay. Had the whole beach to ourselves. 

We got stumbled upon this shack on an almost completely vacant beach and a random dude said we could borrow it. I didn't ask questions. Pretty sure we only saw maybe 5 other people the entire time we were on this beach. One of them had a dog that he claimed was the most expensive dog in all of Australia because it could sniff out termites. hahaha gotta love the human race.

While I don't have an "insta-husband", I do have an insta-gramma and I think that might be better.

Airlie Beach/The Whitsunday Islands

If you're seeing this and your over the age of 60, don't get ahead of yourself. She's taken..

I think besides getting adopted into a sea turtle family and swimming just inches over the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsunday Islands were my favorite. There are 74 small islands that were once believed to have been mountain tops until the end of the ice-age when the sea levels rose and turned the tips into islands. Our tour guide taught me that. Not sure how valid that explanation is, so do your research people. Despite how these little peanuts came to be, they are sure to bring out your inner adventurer. 

I know you're not going to believe this, but #nofilter, no editing . Pinky promise. View from our hotel in Airlie Beach.

Hill Inlet lookout ft. Whitehaven Beach: Ranked in the top 5 beaches in the world.

Crazy hair, don't care.

Whitehaven Beach ft. a yoga pose and a super model insta gramma.

Grams Dar and I took a boat from where we were staying in Airlie Beach to Hamilton Island. The island is so small it was probably made for ants and can be crossed by golf cart in about 10 minutes. Love this pic of grandma Dar. She's looking so glamorous. I think she's got this whole blogger thing down.

Typical tourist photo.

Excuse me while I purposefully bury myself in all Oz feelings. Honestly, been putting this post off for a bit now. For starters, I don't like to do much unless I can put my whole heart in it and it's tiring giving your heart away. Secondly, this will be my last post of Oz photos for the next while and I know I'm a bit dramatic, but the thought of that sends my heart into panic mode. When I think of my little beans (Lu, Finn and Jeebs) getting bigger without me and all the birthdays/ weddings/gatherings and squeezes I'm sure to miss out on, I can't help but feel all sorts happy-sadness. You know, the kind that makes you cry and smile at the same time. Cry because you miss it, but smile because you had it and you know somehow you always will. Missing mi amigos Australian & that includes you, Chartres clan. 

And I'd be super ungrateful if I didn't thank my Gramsy here. Who else's grandma volunteers to fly across the globe and get forced into the activities of a 23 year old for two weeks? No one else's grandma. That's who. I googled it. Thank you for the laughs, the snorkeling, helping distract me from reality (leaving half my heart on that massive island) and being such an example and future #grandmagoals. Love you.

Also, you know how sometimes in Relief Society they do a "good news minute"? hahaha. This is like that. So I'd like to raise my hand and announce that I have taken a job offer and will be teaching 5th grade next year for Granite School District! Sometimes I wonder what the devil I've gotten myself into, but even during those times a hushed peace can be felt. Here comes my next life adventure, exploring the human minds of 10-11 year olds and making about 30 new best friends (assuming they all like me). Bring it. 

W/ love from Wilsons Prom

Okkkkaaaayyy people! After being home for just over three weeks, things have finally settled down enough for some Bloggo time. I've been tickled realizing how many people checked in to my blog to see Aussie happenings and I hope I don't disappoint being back in the red, white and blue. Not exactly sure what's going to unfold for me in the coming months, but who is? However, for many years my family has referred to me as "Gypsy", and I plan on living up to that name or at least the traveling, free spirited part of it. We'll see... 

For now, I'll just re-live my Aussie life here because I have so much more goodness to share that I never got around to. Ya ready?

My last week in Oz was full of enough love to carry me for quite some time. I pretty much cried tears of happiness every night I got into bed with the small understanding of how much my mates and this massive island mean to me. Jeeze, I'm emotional. I squeezed in a little camping trip with my Bree Beb and Madison in Wilsons Prom, short for Wilsons Promontory. Australians will literally take any chance they can get to shorten words. Wilson's Prom is a National Park about 2.5 hours from Melbourne and it's supposed to have some amazing views. We climbed a small mountain to get a view of...the clouds. haha. And no, there was no way of telling our view would look like this until we got to the top. I think I'll include a picture of the scene the internet suggested we'd see for comical purposes. 

Expectations ^^^    vs.    Reality vvv

As you can see, the rain and fog can't steal our party. Good times were still had for us all.

I died my hair red and it faded pretty much after the first wash, but I thought I'd showcase it here in all it's fiery glory.

Meet Madison. She's studying at Uni (shortened Aussie word for College) part-time and being a professional cute human the rest of the time.

 I used to wonder what all the hype was about the beach, but now I get stoked with the best of em' every time I step foot on the sand. I think a lesson can be found here. Our passions are part innate and part choice. After many hours spent on beaches along the Oz coast, I've fallen head over heels. 

Uluru is my boyfriend

Welcome to Uluru (pronounced ooo-loo-roo). For my American folk, Uluru is a world heritage listed sight and literally in the middle of nowhere. It's basically flat red desert, 2 or 3 trees and a couple massive rock formations (Uluru & Kata Tjuta). Whatever you pictured in your mind about the great outback, that's Uluru. In its simplicity, it's also one of the most achingly beautiful scenes I've set eyes on. Even with all the wildlife, spiders the size of my face and world's most dangerous snakes, Uluru has a hushed peace about it. I really do owe the earth an attitude of gratitude. To the great outback...

Thank you for making me feel small. Thanks for reminding me that amongst all the trillions of stars, I am but a speck; my problems small, but my hopes expansive. Thanks for allowing conversation to flow easily and for giving me room to think. Thanks for letting my imagination run wild with all your stories. And although my knowledge on the history behind the rock and those who have guarded it for so long is limited, thank you to the Anangu people for allowing me to glimpse the love you must have for the place. This rock and the way you've cared for it is beautiful.  

Kata Tjuta National Park (The Olgas)

I spy with my little eye Anangu paintings. I completely lost it with all the Indigenous artwork and bought 10 trillion souvenirs. I don't think I've ever looked more like a tourist.My clique. It's strange when you move to a new place and you're just like...who wants to be my friend? These are a few of the beautiful humans I've added to my list of rad people in Australia. It's so refreshing to get lost with good company. Thanks for all the educational conversations, being patient with my bladder (made for ants) and not allowing me to wear my Tevas in the wilderness. Yeah, that probably sounds strange, but they laughed at my plans of wearing trendy hipster hiking sandals so I took them off and changed to my runners. Later that night we heard some screams and a few cuss words coming from outside the bathrooms and we went out to make sense of the commotion. We found a girl who was just walking on a dirt road (in her flip flops) and had been bitten by a spider. We also found said spider (all 5 hairy inches) just a few feet away, lurking in the shadows. Don't wear your Tevas in the Australian wilderness people.

Uluru is so ugly.

Meet Diesel the camel. He's a camel racing champ (yeah, that's a thing) and may have tried to buck us off once or twice, but I think he came around eventually.

We found this big dirt road that seemed to roll out just for us. It was soft, virtually untouched and most importantly, free of bull ants.

Gypsy vibes.

Yup, you can bet we found orange sand in some pretty unique places after our dirt road dance sesh.

XO, Cass

Green Remedy

I know you're all surprised. I am too. I mean, the only cleanse that ever crossed my mind involved a bakers dozen of the finest donuts I could get my paws on. But what I want and what is good for me aren't always the same thing. However, in this case the stars aligned and I actually got to practice my favorite hobby, eating, and feel great about what I was putting into my body at the same time. 
Here's the dirty clean deets...

Diary of a first time juice cleanser: 
Initially I thought man, all the most exciting parts of my days involve consuming calories, I'm going to need to dead-bolt the fridge and a long list of other dramatic thoughts leaning towards starvation. However, my experience was the opposite. Not eating heavier meals and snacks actually helped me to pay attention to all of those things I normally would have eaten and reevaluate my normal routine. I also felt the process to be a cleanse of the mind, feeling more inclined to eat healthier and an increased ability to say no to foods that won't do me any favors. Above all, I believe my body is housing my spirit and if that's the case I need to give it the best (delicious, nutritious cold pressed juice on the daily).

Why Green Remedy?
Green Remedy's juices are cold pressed (as opposed to juices made with a centrifugal juicer, aka old school juicing). This means they are made by crushing and pressing fruit and veggies without getting all the yucky frothy textures and pulp that comes from old school juicing.  Also, as the term "cold pressed" implies, Green Remedy's juices are created with no heat involved, keeping more of the fresh ingredients' nutrients where you want em'...in your belly.  
I also couldn't get over how great Green Remedy's juices tasted. For me, I expect eating/drinking foods that are ultra healthy to be the type you try to slip right past your tongue and into your throat. With this cleanse, I seriously looked forward to the juices (Mean Green and Spliced in particular). And the icing on this healthy...cake? I didn't starve. I didn't even come close. Green Remedy's juices kept me feeling full, especially with the delicious smoothies included in the cleanse. My fave smoothie? "Antioxidantly". 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, treating our bodies right is not always easy, but if you're looking to make some lifestyle changes, cleansing may be a good start for you. If you head over now, Green Remedy will help you get your groove on with 10% off ALL juices and smoothies for the rest of February. 

Photography: Carly Chartres (my beautiful, dope as Aussie friend/mom/homeslice)