Home Email Jake Photo Albums (by year): 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Current Features 2005 Baseball Plans My Brother's Radio Show Will Vizuete's Radio Show My Uncle's Bali Resort Archives Ray Sendejas's Dad's Diary My Marathon

¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

Hunter Valley (wine country!) and Nelson Bay   above: This is a shot of our favorite of the wineries we toured in Hunter Valley. A nod to the Lonely Planet for suggesting we do so. There are probably 3-4 dozen wineries in this region within 20 minutes drive of one another. This is the Audrey Wilkinson Winery.   above: The grounds outside Audrey Wilkinson.   above: More of the grounds outside Audrey Wilkinson.   above: A last shot of Ali and I outside the Audrey Wilkinson grounds.   above: We stayed at "Olive Grove Cottages" in Hunter Valley. This is said olive grove.   above: After a day of wineries, we set off for Nelson Bay along the east coast to see the resident dolphins. On the drive we encountered this random memorial.   above: Detail on the memorial   above: Ali riots.   above: Jake riots.   above: When we got to Nelson Bay we went for a hike to some scenic overlooks. It was a bit overcast. On the left we overlook an empty beach that we later walked along. On the right you see an island loosely connected by a land bridge that only exists during low tide.   above: More from our hike.   above: And more from our hike.   above: The ocean from Zenith Beach near Nelson Bay. We we there around 10am, and shortly before I took this picture we saw dolphins playing in the surf.   above: Also Zenith Beach.   above: Looking onto the Sand Dunes behind Zenith Beach.   above: More of the Sand Dunes. We did not have much time to explore here, but this is an area Sand Dunes several miles deep with no vegetation.   above: Ali in the dunes.   above: Looking out from our boat before we went on our cruise of Nelson Bay. That big ship to the back and right has underwater cameras on their cruise. It also holds a lot of tourists. We opted for a smaller boat (we figure we could watch camera footage on PBS any day).   above: From the cruise - see dolphin fins at the center of the picture.   above: Dolphins not as visible - but look in the upper left.   above: Dolphins to the right of the picture.   above: Look to the right for dolphins.   above: And again in the middle for dolphins. We did not see them jump out of the water, but got some fuller and closer views than the above. I spent the first twenty minutes or so of the cruise just watching and not taking pictures.   above: Also a picture from the cruise. The second small peak on the left is where we hiked and took pictures further up this web page. This second peak is also the southern half of the entrance to the bay from the Pacific.   above: Also from the cruise - the winds were too strong to drop anchor here, but this is the usual snorkeling location for the cruise we were on. We snorkeled in the bay instead.   above: Sunset over Nelson Bay from Soldier's Point, which is a little bit further inland (west) from the ocean.