Australia

I recently had the opportunity to visit the family who moved to Australia in the spring. This trip was made possible by Brandon and my Mom stepping in help out with the little chiefs in my absence! I was gone from a Tuesday to a Tuesday which was a full week for my family, but for me it was more like 5 days with all of the time traveling!

I was a little apprehensive about the flight and doing it by myself, but I really miss my friend and I knew I had the ability I just needed to put my girl panties on! My itinerary had me flying out of Chicago to LA, then LA to Sydney, Sydney to Brisbane. In the time leading up to my trip some nights I would lay awake and be nervous that no one would talk to me and then other times I would worry that someone wouldn't stop talking to me on the plane. As luck would have it I had a good mix of all! The flight from LA to Sydney is the long one...14-15 hours...go ahead and make it 16 because we sat on the plane for an hour before we took off, but who is counting?! For a brief moment I thought I lucked out and was going to have an open seat next to me, but he came back and I failed to get the armrest back down - rookie mistake. I know it sounds ridiculous to say that 15 hour flight went fast, but really it was fine. I watched a lot of movies, ate two meals and a snack, slept and only got up twice. I did wake up once and saw the flight map and it was only blue water and had a brief moment of panic, but what was I going to do...so I went back to sleep! I got through customs in Sydney and transferred over to the domestic terminal for my last flight and all was good - I even felt pretty good. And then I was reunited with my friend and I knew it was all worth it just for that moment.


I had told her I was fine sitting on the couch all day just chatting but she was determined to give me the full Brisbane experience and we still had all the time we needed to chat! We had lunch on Oxford street at a perfect little cafe. I got to pick the boys up from school and see where they spend their days. They took me to their favorite restaurant that night for dinner and by 8pm I was ready for bed!

The next day we took the City Cat (boat) into the city. We started with a walk in the Botanical Gardens. We stopped at a cafe to grab a drink and then we noticed comfy chairs calling our name and when we walked up to them and sat down we had an awesome view of the city. We sat there for a long time trying to solve a few of the world's problems! It was perfect and perfectly surreal...I was in Australia...with Jessica...it was a pinch me moment. We toured more of the city, shopped (Queen Street), had lunch (lemon lime bitters), went to South Bank, had a coffee and decided we probably had to go home to the boys! That evening we went to Eat Street which is like a food carnival but they use old shipping cartons/boxes as the food stand. It was a really fun experience. In case you are wondering what Sweden named their candy of the year, it was a raspberry salted licorice and none of us liked it!

Eat Street

Saturday morning we went to one of the boy's baseball games and then headed to the beach, Mooloolaba to be exact - try saying that 5 times fast! It wasn't the greatest beach day but it was still a lot of fun and great people watching. We finished the drive home with a trip to Costco (yep, even in Australia!) and a quiet dinner at home. I did manage to stay awake past 8pm that night.

Sunday was golf lessons for the boys and koala and kangaroo day. We think a lot of tour buses had been thought that morning because the kangaroos were not hungry! In fact they just seemed lazy! We had to work hard to get a picture of one standing up! I did manage to feed a few, but mainly just petted them because they were in relaxation mode! I did get a video of one hopping across so I can prove that they did move! I could have watched the koalas all day. Yes they do sleep the majority of the time (on average 22 hours a day) but they are so cute! We even saw some baby koalas! When it was my turn to hold one they gave me a little one but she wouldn't turn it's head for the camera and they only allow them so much time in the "koala experience" area before they swap them out so they took the little one away from me and brought in a big daddy! This guy was big compared to the previous little one! His face was so close to mine, I was a little intimidated, but he just sat there on my hands! That night was adult night out and we went to steakhouse that featured cows that have been fed lollies (or Mars bars, yes like the candy)!

The big daddy!

The little one!

On my last day we went to Ikea (yes even in Australia Ikea is still my happy place!) and found a few treasures that I just had to bring back! We then met Matt and a co-worker for lunch so I could experience a famous Yatala pie. She took me to the shopping center near their house and although Australia may have Targets, I can vouch that they are not the same! The boys had swim lessons that night and we had dinner at home and just like that my time down under was coming to a close. For someone who was content to sit on the couch, we did anything but that! They showed me an amazing time and made my trip very special. I can't thank them enough for all of their hospitality!
 
My travels home were not as easy as I had hoped. I missed my connection in Sydney and ended up flying into San Fransisco instead of LA. There were weather delays and pilots and crews that didn't come to work and I was exhausted. I finally made it to Chicago and called home to say I was getting ready to board when the flight home got delayed. I kind of wanted to cry. I was so close and I was so tired and I was ready to see my family. Given all of the travel mishaps of the day I was extremely lucky to actually only get home 5 hours later than scheduled and my luggage made it. As an added bonus the man sitting next to me on the San Fran, Chicago flight was really interesting. He was a pediatrician who had been in San Francisco for a conference. He was from Northern Maine. His family has a few islands of sheep (one just for the rams) and he is a lobster fisherman. He had a lot of good stories to share and after traveling alone for over 20 hours it was nice to have a stranger get you a ginger ale and pretzels and provide some entertainment!

Good bye Sydney - your airport was a nightmare!