dear mr president

July 29: Here are pics from our day in Sydney. As mentioned here, the United States changed their travel visa requirements in January and, because we have a connecting flight in LA and then plan to spend more than 90 days somewhere in North America, we've had to go through the process of applying for a 5 year B1/B2 visa. It has been a long, costly and frustrating process. We both feel that the whole thing is unnecessary - why can't we be eligible for the Visa Waiver Program?? We will be in LA for all of 5 hours!!

Our day in Sydney sucked. The Consulate was total bs. Zanne has written a very long blog about our day, however we won't be posting it until after we receive our passports back (just in case). We don't know whether our visa has been approved - we weren't allowed to ask questions of the Consulate peeps - however I don't see why we'd be rejected. In any case, we won't know for sure until we receive our returned passports, hopefully with visas inside.

We were both full of rants on this day. In particular, I was all worked up about writing a stern letter to President Obama. However, a few days after the event, I think we've both realised that we'll just have to get over it, try to forget our attitude and frustration over this whole thing, and just be grateful when the visas come through...

July 28: We stayed overnight at Zanne's family's home in order to catch our Sydney flight from the Gold Coast (Zanne's Mum very kindly delivered us to the airport at 5.30am the next morning).

3 of Zanne's nephews were home as well - aren't they the cutest? Little Jimmy's hair is super curly now, just like his brother Koen.

July 27: Zanne's Mum took this photo of Zanne's super pregnant sister, Sally.

Sally and Brandt's first baby, a little girl, is due Saturday 8 August. She will be the first grand-daughter for the family. We can't wait to meet her!

Shan