This ain’t no disco...

Guess what? WE DID IT. Who would have thought that after the whole world tour, we would end up docking in SoCal via cruise ship, then taking the 'Surf Liner' train all the way up to Santa barbara- our final destination...for now.

But its true, we are now officially for HIRE, so just take this link right back to our portfolio (www.adverbarbie.com) and look at the awesomeness (hehe).

At the moment we are checked in at Hope Ranch. No...its not a rehab center...it’s Alicia’s parents new place in Santa Barbara! It’s a mind-blowing view of mountains, oceans, and a plethora of organic vegetarian fare. How are we ever gonna leave? Life has been ridiculously good to us. Thank you EVERYONE who has made this possible. We love y’all forever :)

Our first week or so was spent driving to-and fro to LA, hittin’ up some ad agencies, letting our presence be known. Everyone we’ve met with has been more than welcoming, and I gotta feeling, that we are going to land our first gig very shortly. LA is definitely the place we want to be, and I cannot express how badly we want to start the job and get that first apartment!!!!! Signing that 1 year lease is going to be the golden moment we’ve been waiting for!

Hawaiian Bliss

At first, the best part of Hawaii was getting to Hawaii. It wasn’t until I was on top of a volcano, looking down into a crater, that I fully realized how amazing this island was. Not only did it look picture perfect, but we couldn’t get over how awesome the volcano steam smelled. It smelled like 20 different herbs were cooking below the earth’s crust. We jokingly called it “earth curry.”

In total we visited 4 islands; Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai. Each having their own characteristics and vibe, it was like each represented a different element; earth, wind, water, and fire. Waterfalls, cliff jumping, beach strolling, all in a days hard work. Also, those Hawaiian macadamia nuts are like crack...couldn’t get me enough of those little morsels. We are so happy we moved to California, because now Hawaii is just a 4 hour plane ride away!

As we left the islands, the ship got shockingly close to a place where the lava was pouring into the water. It was one of the coolest things we have ever seen in our lives! Live flowing lava is sooooo beguiling and graceful, we were in a trance-like state while staring at this natural spectacle. Everyone needs to see something like that at least once in their life.

Living at Sea

Our home for 1/2 a month was the MS Zaandam, a vessel belonging to the Holland America Cruise Line. (How ironic that we started and ended with a big Holland experience?) We were generously given this voyage as a gift from Alicia’s mom for graduating MAS. Literally 2 weeks after finishing up school, we were off on another adventure that took us 1/2 way back to Australia!
Imagine your only view for 10 days being 360 degrees of oceanic horizon, and the occasional flying fish. While hitting up the gym one morning (true AdverBarbie style) we saw from a distance, a pod of 300+ dolphins heading straight for the ship. They swam right up next to us, and it was like out of a dream to see so many blue-gray dolphins leaping from the water. Needless to say, we now have a small idea of what it was like for Mr. Magellan back in the day.

After all that time, we obviously made good friends with all the staff... shoutouts to Ashari aka ‘I’m Sorry’, Nico, and Iman and all of the other Indonesian crew members. lol.

THE BIG CANUCK POST.

Coming in close contact with AdverBarbie may make you susceptible to a contagious virus, aka the “travel bug.”

Michelle’s brother is only 19 and he had to begin a little world tour of his own, enrolling at Simon Frasier University in Vancouver, Canada. Could you imagine going to college not only out-of-state, but out-of-country? He wants to be a naturopathic doctor, so that he can cure people without the use of side-effect laden pharmaceutical drugs. How good is that?!

Check out some of the things we did, and pics we took while visiting our northern neighboring nation.