A Boy And Girl

It’s so nice to finally enjoy some flowers on the morning glory vines I planted. They curled their way up the fence, even after several nibbles from local wildlife, but seemed to take forever to bloom. In my limited experience with gardening, August always seems to be the month where I finally say “Forget it!” to my garden, and it rewards me with unlimited harvest and blooms.

I froze some marinara sauce using a recipe from the Roseto Cookbook and own my plum tomatoes and I’ve been enjoying the rich taste of the “Brandywine” Amish heirloom tomatoes I planted, but didn’t have a super ambitious or successful gardening season (celery=bitter, swiss chard=super tough, eggplants=too small). That being said, this summer has been full of other wonderful things, and I think I’m ready for the fast-approaching cooler weather and changing leaves.

Last night I went to see The Great Unknown play at Musikfest. They played a great show and it was fun to hear some of their new songs, but their set was cut a little short due to some van trouble. Since the guys were a ways from home, I offered to let them stay at our place. They were so upbeat despite their rough circumstances (this was the last night of their tour, and they were planning on heading home after the show!), and such fun houseguests. I’m excited to see them gain (inevitable) popularity and I’ll always be grateful to them for their amazing contribution to our wedding!

Photo by Alison Conklin.

This morning, I went outside and found a gift from our neighbor, Dave, on Josh’s car.

He must know we’re not early risers, so when he brings us spare veggies like this, he usually just leaves them without a word. It’s not the first time he’s done this so I decided to take him something in return.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chips.

I was out of eggs, so I used this recipe (but adapted it quite heavily).

Turns out, they make a pretty great breakfast too!

I’ve found a really great way to make iced coffee- I brew strong coffee in my percolator and pour it over a glass full of ice, and add cream and sugar. Turns out perfect every time!

Lately Josh and I have been bringing Jackson outside to enjoy these last few weeks of summer. He used to be pretty scared of all that open space, but he’s starting to like all the good traction he gets on the grass (compared to our slick floors) and now hops around happily. Sometimes I feel pretty crazy for keeping a rabbit in our house- he’s messy, nervous, destructive (to power cords and wires!), and not always faithful to his litterbox.
But for some reason when we’re outside in what would be his natural habitat, I’m reminded of how cool it is to have a little wild animal of our own. He balances out all of the negatives by being easy to care for, odor-free, quiet, and good company. It’s always nice to have his small presence in the room with us.

I’m doing my best to keep our house cool by breaking in our new ice-cream machine (thanks April Martin!). For a seasoned ice-cream scooper, it’s pretty incredible I’ve lived this long without owning my own machine. According to the internet and my sister-in-law, the ice-cream-making bible is David Lebowitz’s The Perfect Scoop. I put it on my birthday wishlist, but in the meantime I hunted down a few recipes to try.
Watermelon Sorbet, adapted from use real butter

3 cups pureed watermelon
1/2 cup sugar (taste as you add, I will definitely add less next time!)
pinch of salt
1 tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice (I used lemon)

Mix sugar and watermelon till dissolved and add lemon or lime. Chill thoroughly, then freeze the mixture in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt via 101Cookbooks

For the topping, I whipped up a simple cherry syrup with just a few handfuls of cherries. I can’t stand when recipes call for insane amounts of cherries, and I didn’t want to make a gallon of this stuff- this recipe is enough for 2-3 modest servings.
Smashed Cherry Syrup
1/2 cup pitted, chopped cherries
1 tablespoon sugar (to taste)
1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice.
Mash with a potato masher and bring to a boil. Stir and mash as the mixture thickens, remove from heat, and enjoy!

At one point on our way to Qamea, it felt like we wouldn’t make it. We flew from Brisbane to Nadi Island, Fiji, missed our flight, hopped on the next one, hopped off when it was cancelled due to lightning, and a few hours later, got back on our tiny twin propellor plan with only 6 other passengers. The flight was loud, drafty and all I could see out any window was clouds. Once we landed, a van drove us to a boat which drove us to our island. I had gotten only 3 hours of sleep, but it only took a couple of minutes at Qamea and I felt pretty great.

This is the outside of our bure:

Rustic, right? Nope. This is the inside:

We had so many adventures snorkeling, kayaking, hiking to waterfalls then jumping into them(!), and visiting with the local villagers.



I think we’d both agree the best day was the day we went deep sea fishing with our Captain Leslie, his shipmate John, and our friends Phil and Jamie. We were 70 miles out from Qamea, and Leslie looked for groups of birds to find the best places to fish. We took turns reeling in the fish we caught, and were thrilled to catch mackeral, skipjack tuna, and yellowfin tuna- which was absolutely beautiful. We caught a total of 10 fish.
The captain gave us 2 to take back to the resort, and they later prepared our tuna as sashimi. It was amazing, and probably the freshest sashimi we’ll ever eat!




Later in the day, Josh surprised me with a spa treatment at the resort’s Jungle Spa (!). It was amazing, and I still feel incredibly lucky and spoiled. Best surprise ever, husband!

Qamea was truly unforgettable because the people (the staff and locals) were the kindest, most good-natured, and happiest people I’ve ever met. They were overwhelmingly hospitable and made being in Fiji even more of a dream.

And that was our honeymoon! Thanks for letting us share it with you.

After some time in the city, we headed north to Cairns. We noticed right off the bat that people were much friendlier, which is probably true in any part of the world, when you compare country people and city people. To me, lots of things about this part of Australia were different, yet the same. For example, on the way to the resort, our driver pointed out a field of wallabies, coming out to graze just like a herd of deer would at home. The lush, tropical rainforests felt just like the beautiful forests I grew up around, if slightly more exotic.
Even though some things felt familiar, we had many adventures in Cairns.
These 5 were my favorite parts:

Kewarra Beach Resort. This resort is in a rainforest, on the beach. Enough said.

Mossman Gorge. One day, we rented a car (and Josh quickly adjusted to driving our cute little rental car on the left side of the road, a task I could never be trusted with!) and drove up the coast to Port Douglas, then west to Mossman Gorge.

Here is little excerpt from my journal describing the gorge.

“Everywhere, all the time, the sound of water and birds. Massive trees fan out like folders at their base, and thick roots lay huge and heavy as far into the landscape as you can see. It’s hard to make out what is vine, tree, plant, or animal. Everything just grows together in a wild tangle.”

Koala Gardens (by way of the Skyrail to Kuranda).
This is where things get unbearably cute. The Koalas at the Targonga zoo were sleeping in trees so far away, they were kind of hard to see. The koalas at Koala Gardens however, were so close you could touch them. And although they were very, very sleepy,

…they would occasionally wake up to check out their visitors

and then yawn, or scratch their behinds, and go back to sleep.
The ambitious Koala would even oblige to be held for a few moments by adoring fans.

Koala gardens had more than Koalas, and we also enjoyed hanging out with the roos and wallabies.

Low tide. On the way back from our road trip, we pulled off to explore a huge expanse of rippled sand.


We found soldier crabs, hermit crabs and thousands of starfish.

If you look closely, you can see the star imprints in the sand. They were all over, under our feet.

It was pretty amazing.

Sitting on the beach. After Sydney’s chilling weather, it was great to be somewhere with warmer temperatures. Although we stayed quite busy, it was great to spend some time relaxing on the beach.

We had a long honeymoon and took over 2000 photos, so I’m finding it hard to know where to start! At one point, I bought a small, square journal and starting writing every few days and though Josh teased me about it, now I’m so happy I did!
Our honeymoon began in Sydney, after a 16 hour flight from LAX. We were terribly jetlagged, and would wake up at 3:30 and just hang out and wait for places to open for breakfast… (of course this also meant we went to bed super early!). I knew it was wintertime in Australia, but I had no idea how cold Sydney could be! Everyone was walking around in winter coats, and I had packed my suitcase full of sundresses. But we still had a great time in this clean, diverse city. Here are my top 5 favorite parts of Sydney:

The View. We joked that our hotel room must be where photographers go to take pictures for postcards. We loved seeing the sun rise and set over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House.

The Zoo. Australia has the best animals! Plus, the Taronga zoo was beautiful, spread across a steep slope that required a cable car to get to the top. We felt like we didn’t even see the whole place, even after being there for hours.



The Street Performers. It’s slightly surreal to hear the sounds of a didgeridoo while you’re walking around a city, but we always got a kick out of it (and Josh does an excellent impression of one!). We really enjoyed a performance by Bendy Em, an incredibly entertaining contortionist.

The Food. Even though there is no Yelp for Australia, we managed to find some really great places to eat. Breakfast at the Four Seasons was a real treat, they had an amazing selection (the fruit was only my first plate!) and everything was top notch.

We had an awesome lunch at Sushi Rio in Chinatown, I was super excited to eat at the counter, right in front of the sushi train!

Our most memorable dinner was at Amo Roma, just a couple blocks from our hotel. Josh was so pleased with his beef carpaccio he wanted me to try some, and it was meltingly tender and delicious.

The Ferries. We used the Ferry to get to the Zoo and the Aquarium, and there are tons of other destinations we could have gone to with one, if we’d had more time. I love the colors of the ferry boats, and I wish this was a daily mode of transportation for me.

And that was Sydney! Being in a foreign city where everyone speaks English made it feel only slightly different than being in the states, but some funny things I noted were:
-Every latte is sprinkled with cocoa powder, everywhere you go. This was completely acceptable to me.
-Eggs often come with halved, roasted tomatoes and sauteed button mushrooms. This was not only acceptable, but now seems almost necessary.
-Burger King is called “Hungry Jack’s”
-On the flight there, the safety video instructed passengers to “do your seatbelt up,” which to me sounded so much more casual and sweet than “fasten your seatbelt.”

We loved being tourists in Sydney, but we were ready for warmer climates…

After taking a total of 12 flights, we are back from our honeymoon to Australia and Fiji. Josh planned the entire trip and managed to keep me surprised about Fiji until just a few days before we arrived. I plan to do a couple posts about the places we’ve been, but here’s a sneak peak:

Josh claims the koala was drugged, but I think she was just sleepy.

I loved everything about our trip and had a fantastic time traveling, but I’m also elated to be back in PA, making the place I’ve been calling “Josh’s House” for over a year now my house too.

We’re still on our honeymoon but we have a little down time today till we hop on a plane to our final destination: FIJI!
I’ll have lots to say about our honeymoon when we get back, but first I have to gush about our wedding a little.
The day went by just as fast as everyone said it would- I would say the whole week went by in a flash- luckily, we had an excellent photographer (and sweet friend!) to help us remember all the best moments. Alison Conklin and her husband Geoff did such an incredible job, we feel so blessed and lucky to have had them with us. See all of their photos here, and view more of Alison’s work here.
We also had our talented friend Evan shoot our wedding video. I have to admit- I kind of had to be talked into it, I just didn’t think I’d want to be staring into a video camera the whole time, but I’m so happy I listened to the smart people who convinced me it’d be a good thing! Evan did a beautiful job and was completely inconspicuous. He definitely made me a wedding video believer. Thanks Evan!

Abby and Josh Nittle from evan scott on Vimeo.

One last detail I wanted to share that is not as easily shared through pictures is the awesome music we enjoyed during our ceremony and reception from an amazing band, The Great Unknown. Early on, Josh and I agreed we wanted live music, and I spent hours online searching for what I wanted. These guys exceeded my expectations and made every guest a fan. Visit their site, give them a listen and if you’re local, go see them at Musikfest this summer!
Back to honeymooning for now, but we’ll be back in the States and back to regular blogging soon!