Australi-yah!

We had a super fun time! We mostly were winging the whole trip but here are a few highlights!

We were flying standby so we drove to LAX to catch our flight. We could've flown from Vegas but we were a little nervous about not getting on in Vegas and thus, missing the flight to Sydney.

We didn't know we needed visas to visit Australia so we didn't get on the flight the first night we tried. Since we drove, we just picked up our truck and stayed in a dive motel. The next day, we purchased our visas online and went to the Santa Monica Pier. The weather was cool, about 75 so it was a nice break from 110.

Then we went to the Griffith Observatory up by the Hollywood sign.

The observatory has been in movies like Transformers, Charlie's Angels 2, Yes Man, The Rocketeer, etc. The inside is a museum about planets and space! Very cool and very free! I would recommend it to anyone with kids!

So that night we got on the flight to Sydney. Merril and I were still standby but were able to get seats next to each other. There were personal tv screens for each passenger and there was a ton of movies, tv episodes, music videos and games that you could pick from. Merril and I watched about 4 movies each. If I decided I didn't like the movie, I could stop it and pick a different one. Super great!

We got into Sydney early in the morning, picked up a rental car, and went to see the famous Opera House.

This is Sydney's Harbour Bridge. (I didn't spell harbor wrong, that's how the Aussies spell it.) Tourists can climb to the top of it. We would've but didn't have time. We drove to Brisbane.

This is me driving on the right side of the car, on the left hand side of the road. I had the hardest time making right-hand turns.

We met up with our friends, Nate and Sarah, and fell asleep.

I made Nate find me some kangaroos. These were out at Turnboll or Turnbull or some little coastal town like that.

The next day we went out to Bribie Island for fish and chips and to see the most beautiful beach ever! Miles of white, clean, soft sand. It was most excellent.

Another night we took the ferry to around the Brisbane river and saw the Brisbane Temple. (My picture didn't turn out, we were going fast and it was dark.)

Mostly we just goofed off and hung out with friends. We had dinner at friend's houses, saw all their American muscle cars they were rebuilding and had a great time together without the kids.

On the way home, I got bumped to business class and Merril didn't. He told me to take the seat so I did. I felt out of place the whole time. I really tried to mind my manners for 14 hours. I belong in coach with my peeps. But the food was great, I ate on real plates with real silverware, and the bathroom is huge in business class. Some of the passengers were pretty snooty. Here's the menu.

I also got socks, lotion, a chapstick, a pen, an eye cover for sleeping, mints, a real pillow and a nice comforter to sleep with. The seat laid totally flat. I don't think it's worth it.

Just a few things I want to remember about Australia:

-Burger King is called Hungry Jacks

-A burger Aussie style comes with a fried egg and beets on it

-Ketchup is called tomato sauce

-Breakfast is called Brekky

-Eggs have smiley faces

-Tim Tams are a type of cookie and so delicious!! (You can buy them in the states, Pepperidge Farm makes them. I bought a package at Wal-Mart yesterday.)

-The toilet is called a dunney

-Sticky date pudding should always be ordered for dessert

-Woolworth's is huge over there but they left the states long ago

-Everything is so expensive! A candy bar is $3! So is a can of soda!

-Meat pies are very popular

-Australia is very clean, looks like Hawaii and sounds like Britain

-It was awesome!