Opera house

James and the girls in front of the Sydney Opera House. I wonder whether the kids will remember this? Thank goodness for photos! :) Connie

James' office away from home...

Here's a photo of James' office away from home... about 4 feet from the door of our camper. One woman saw him out there and walked up and started asking him computer questions... I guess she figured that anyone with a laptop in the middle of a campground must be a bit of a geek. ;) - Connie

We're in Sydney!

We crossed through Kangaroo Valley (no kangaroos) and up the Hume Highway into Sydney yesterday! They have electronic tolls here (no cash booths) that you have to register online for.

We took the Rivercat ferry from our campground in north Syndey (Blacktown suburb) into town last night (takes about 35 minutes).

We didn't have time to do much, but did get a chance to go into the Opera House and explore the Circular Quay area. We ate dinner at one of the original baker's houses before catching the last ferry back to the campground for the night.

Parrots

We frequently see wild parrots in a variety of colors. Sometimes they are in pairs and sometimes they are in large (noisy) flocks. This one was hanging out right near the camper. :) - Connie

The journey to Syndey

Jamie is warm natured and always wants to take her jacket off. The girls really enjoy all the beaches (almost every camp site is within walking distance of a beach)!

Our first kangaroo sighting!

The girls chillin in the back of the camper in driving (and dining) configuration.

It's fall here! Craziness!

THE BOSSERT MOBILE

You want one! Seriously, this thing rocks :) Oh, and if you see this thing coming at you on the wrong side of the road, shout or something!

Lakes Entrance to Eden

Our next overnight was in the coastal town of Lakes Entrance. From there, we traveled up to Buchan to see the Buchan Caves... we did a guided tour of the Royal Cave, which was about 550 meters from entrance to exit. The tour guide gave each of the girls a small piece of a stalactite to take home (Anna has already lost hers... oops!).

Then we headed south to Cape Conran, which is famous for its beautiful beaches.
Then we left the territory of Victoria, heading northeast into New South Wales, where we stayed at our next campsite in a town called Eden. :) Connie

Kangaroos!

Just before leaving our campsite at Inverloch, a local woman gave us a tip that we might see some kangaroos if we walked into some bush land behind the campsite. So, we ventured out on a path with the girls... cameras ready! James spotted the first kangaroo and then we saw four more. We were all so excited to see these beautiful animals in the wild! Check out the video. :) Connie

Chillin in Inverloch

Ah, what a nice rest day yesterday! The girls are over at the camp kitchen eating breky with the locals whilst I finish up some work stuff for the folks at NC State back home. It's taking forever to update code from here! Today we're off to Water's Edge Holiday Park which Google says is about a 4 hour drive. No worries mate! :)

Inverloch

We decided to stay an extra day here at the campground in Inverloch so we could get some rest. It's pretty tiring to break down and set up camp every day as well as driving for several hours (plus doing laundry and showers in the camp facilities). We've been cooking all our food in the camper or in the camp kitchen to save on money, but it can be quite a challenge to cook a meal for a family of four in such a tiny space! So today we hung out at the campground and took a nap in the afternoon so we'll be recharged tomorrow. The campground is walking distance from the beach, so we spent some time walking along the shore with the girls. :) - Connie

Wye River to Inverloch

Yesterday we drove from our campground in Wye River along the rest of the Great Ocean Road, then up through Melbourne and to the southeast to a small town called Inverloch. It was a longer drive, so we didn't stop as much. However, we saw a farm that was open to the public and decided to stop to let the girls watch hundreds of cows being milked. It was quite a system... the cows were corralled into a building that contained a large circular revolving platform. Something was sprayed on the wall that made the cows move forward and lick the surface. Meanwhile, a man hooked up pumps to the udders. There were about 30 cows being milked simultaneously. We could see into the clear pipeways that lots of milk was being produced!. This territory (Victoria) produces 75% of all the milk in Australia.





The kids had fun watching the milking at the farm and got to pet some animals too! :) Connie

Helicopter ride and a rainforest

Here are a couple shots from our helicopter ride and one from the rainforest we got to see later that afternoon!

Helicopter Video!

James surprised us girls with tickets to a helicopter tour over the Twelve Apostles rock formations. Check out a brief video of our adventure:



:) Connie

Great Ocean Road

Yesterday we traveled from Warrnambool to Wye River along the Great Ocean Road. This drive is famous for its beautiful beaches, cliffs, and rock formations and is the second most popular tourist destination in Australia. Sure enough, we had one breathtaking vista after another and stopped frequently to admire the scenery.


:) Connie

Melbourne to Warrnambool

Yesterday we drove from Melbourne to Warnambool. It was about a 4 hour drive that took us all day. :) We stopped for lunch near Werribee Park, which was some kind of horse ranch and polo complex (there was also a historic mansion and zoo, but we didn't stop to check it out). After eating a picnic near the camper, we let the girls run around on a huge polo field.



The countryside was so beautiful on the drive. I was on the lookout for kangaroos, but we haven't seen one yet. However, we saw thousands and thousands of cows, lots of sheep, and occasionally horses or llamas. It was about 90% rolling hills with fields and farmlands, and about 10% scraggly trees and scrub brush. We went through a koala bear zone, and I strained my eyes at the trees but didn't see one.

:) Connie

The Great Ocean Road

Here's our drive for today - the first of two days along the Great Ocean Road!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Discovery+Holiday+Parks+%40-38.39356,142.47605&daddr=BIG4+Wye+River+Tourist+Park+%40-38.635063,143.890218&hl=en&geocode=FSgptv0dEgN-CA%3BFcl5sv0dKpeTCA&mra=ls&doflg=ptk&sll=-37.714245,144.129639&sspn=4.071494,5.597534&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=9

And then the rest of the trip for Sunday:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=BIG4+Wye+River+Tourist+Park+%40-38.635063,143.890218&daddr=BIG4+Inverloch+Holiday+Park+%40-38.633993,145.740813&geocode=Fcl5sv0dKpeTCA%3B&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=-38.687654,146.179962&sspn=1.004414,1.399384&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=9

Pictures this evening or tomorrow morning! :)

Smell the flowers!

I was taking a photo of James with Jamie near these flowers, and Jamie decided she wanted to lean WAY over to have a sniff... :) - Connie

Fun at Queen Victoria Market

I took this picture of James trying on an Australian cowboy hat, and he liked it so much that he bought it! :) So I walked around with a cowboy for the rest of the day. :)


Yes, I was really able to make this didgeridoo make some noise! It takes a LOT of air (and some intense concentration and effort, as you can see from my facial expression!), and is nothing like the French Horn I played in high school. :) No, we didn't buy it... too big to fit in a suitcase! :) Connie

Melbourne

We took the public bus and tram into Melbourne and spent the day exploring the city. I have one resounding impression of Melbourne: Modern Architecture! The city has hundreds of unique buildings in a variety of colors, shapes, styles, sizes, and dimensions. There are huge works of urban art on display throughout the city.


We took the free tourist trolley car around the city to get a good look. We also did a LOT of walking. Since there is very little internet connectivity or wireless down under, we purchased a device that will allow us to use Internet off of the 3G network as we travel through the country. We also bought some maps and found the Queen Victoria Market, where we got some souvenirs and some local fresh foods for dinner (pepperoni, local cheeses, fresh bread, olives, and fresh fruit). :) Connie

Campervan!

This will be our home and primary transportation for much of the summer! :) - Connie

Recognize these?

We've noticed that a lot of common US products and businesses go by a different name here in Australia! Plus, the locals use a lot of different words for things here... rubbish instead of trash, toilets instead of bathrooms, post instead of mail, etc, etc. Here's a conversation James had yesterday:

James: "I'd like a regular coffee with cream."
Attendant: "Pardon?"
James: "I'd like a regular coffee with cream."
Attendant: "A flat-white?"
James: "A regular coffee with cream."
Attendant: "Ok, a flat-white."
James: "Sure."

:) Connie

Hah!

The toilets DO flush in the wrong direction!! I won't post a video ;)

Jet lag is crazy, we've got our afternoon naps and night sleeps reversed. We were doing fine until we all had a nap yesterday afternoon only to wake up 8 hours later ;) Hopefully we'll get that figured out. Today we're off to pick up the campervan and then do our first stretch of driving on the wrong side of the road to our first campsite in Melbourne.

G'day! ;)

We made it! :)

Yay! We're in Melbourne, Australia! Wow, that plane ride was exhausting. Overall, the girls did great, but Mommy and Daddy had to work very hard to prevent the potential boredom, whining, and toddler meltdowns! Thank goodness for all the little toys, snacks, and videos we brought! They were just fine. I was also really delighted to see the girls hiking through the huge airports wearing their backpacks without complaint. We had one incident where there was a security breech in the airport checkpoint in LAX and everyone had to stand motionless for 1/2 hour while the homeland security people came and investigated. We weren't allowed to talk or sit or touch our luggage (I had to wear my very heavy backback on my back the whole time!). Hah, try to get two kids under age 4 to stand still! The poor girls weren't allowed to touch their belonings that were right on the table in front of them! "Mommy, why can't I have my teddy bear back? He's right there looking out of my backpack!"

Sleep is our priority right now... it's going to be hard to sync ourselves with local time. I only got 2.5 hrs sleep on the 16 hour flight. Then we got here at 8:20 am local time... after customs, hotel check-in, and a quick trip to the indoor pool with the girls, we had lunch. Then the whole family fell asleep and slept until 8:30 pm! I feel like it's morning, but it's actually 9:20 pm right now!

Tomorrow we'll go pick up our campervan! It definitely looks "foreign" here... different landscape, fall colors on the trees, and the air smells different too. Can't wait to get out and explore! :)

Well, I only have 1/2 hour of internet time at the business center, so I've gotta go... we'll post photos and another update soon!

Love to all,
Connie

Jamie loves the beach

A quick walk out onto the beach after lunch... Jamie was delighted by the unlimited supply of sand...

The effects of jet lag on a 3-year-old

Poor Anna was so tired from our traveling and the time difference in California that she fell asleep at lunchtime. We had yummy pizza, pasta, and crab cakes in an Italian restaurant near Manhattan Beach.

Bon Voyage!

We're off on our 3-month adventure to Australia! The rough itinerary:

- May 15 fly to LA
- May 16 fly to Melbourne Australia! :)
- May 18 to June 3 travel by campervan from Melbourne to Sydney to Brisbane
- June 4-July 22 stay in Butterfly Cottage in Brisbane
- July 22 to July 30 - travel by campervan from Brisbane to Cairns
- July 31 fly to Ayer's Rock and see Mt. Uluru
- Aug 2 fly to Sydney
- Aug 3 fly to LA
- Aug 4 fly to RDU home! :)

Our first trip photo was taken by Mom C in our driveway...

:) Connie