Down Under

This was a different kind of trip for me.  

Usually I have a list a mile long of things I want to see and do 

and it's go, go, go... all the time.

Australia, however was different.

Although always intriguing, it has never been on my to do list.  

But, of course, when the opportunity presented itself, I couldn't say no!

Too busy with back to school and summer activities and not sure of Jotham's work commitments, I decided to just play it by ear and figure things out once we got there. 

We were gone almost ten days, going from door to door it took almost 26 hours travel time to get there and 22 to get back. It's early spring on the other side of the globe in August.

The was weather perfect for walking and sightseeing with just a light sweater.

Most days, involved either work for Jotham or airport sitting.  But all of our hotels had ocean views so after Jotham finished up with work, we'd head down to the beach and enjoyed the beautiful spring air, punctuated with crashing of ocean waves and sand.  Australia doesn't feel foreign, we could have been in Florida for all I knew, except for the accents, and those dang cars driving on the wrong side of the road. 

 That tall white building behind me was our first hotel in Sydney, just off Coogee Beach.

On afternoon after Jotham headed to work I took to the boardwalk path that lead all the way around the coast to Bondi Beach. Over 12k round trip, I was tired when I got back but it was a beautiful, walking around beach coves that looked like they needed pirates and then heading out to the rocking points along the coast line.

About half way there the trail meandered through Waverley Cemetery. It was huge old cemetery with most of the markers from the early 1900's -1940, just as picturquest and sublimely gothic as it gets.

I was planning on heading into the old part of Sydney in the afternoon to explore by myself, but after spending a couple hours online chatting with phone companies and trying to get my cell phone to work, to no avail, I'll admit I was feeling less than adventuresome in a strange new city by myself and decided to grab lunch and just read on the beach instead. And wouldn't you know it?  I had a missionary opportunity to share my testimony and correct some misconceptions about the church with a gentleman who'd come to the beach to paint.

Tuesday morning, again, thanks to Jet lag (that I never recovered from), we were up bright and early and caught a quick game of tennis before we meet up with Jotham's work associate, Allain Modde and his wife Tania.  They'd taken the day off to show us around Sydney.

 The Opera House was fun!  The exterior is made of small, white ceramic tiles, not at all what I'd expected.  Another surprise was that there are actually two large sails and several theaters located within and a very fancy, shmancy restaurant located in the small shell on the right.

 Its easier to see the different sails better in this aerial view.

 There is a replica of the city hidden beneath a glass floor in the Commerce Building.

It was pretty cool! We ate lunch on the top floor and enjoyed a gorgeous view of the harbor and Harbor Bridge.

After messing around and enjoying a little shopping in the Rocks 

(the old penal colony), we caught a plane to the Gold Coast.

The Gold Coast is Australia's version of Florida.  Our hotel was just a block away from Surfer's Paradise Beach, so after Jotham spent a full day of presenting to the Kiwi's from New Zealand, we headed down to the beach.  A little cool and overcast, we weren't too sure about trying out the water, especially after the Moddes told us about the very real danger of shark attacks.  So we rolled up our pants and walked along the water's edge.  The waves were big and beautiful.  And no worries, Mate, we noticed they have shark nets installed along this beach!

I'd stayed with Jotham all that morning, during his presentation, watching him work and do his thing.  I may be a little biased, but dang... He is good!  Honest to goodness, really good at what he does!  I'm not even the little bit interested in carpet cleaning and he had me enthralled the entire time.  From pH balances to pet urine removal, he had the class in the palm of his hand.  It was fun to get a glimpse of what puts food on the our table and clothes on our backs! 

Here's a pictures of the convention attendees.

That evening we walked about enjoying the street vendors that lined up along the beach front, running into business associates and reveling in the ocean air.

The next afternoon, after class finished up, we decided to try out the water.  

Again, the waves here are so big and beautiful but they

 knocked me over...off my feet... head over heals -- total wipe out more than once.  

It kept Jotham entertained. I soon discovered if I would just hold Jotham's hand, it gave me the anchor I needed to stay on my feet.  All kinds of metaphors running through my head here, but I tell you he is my anchor in more than one ocean.

That night we dressed up for dinner and enjoyed the awards banquet and then, Hurrah!

He was done with work!

Thursday, with a full day off to enjoy ourselves we choose to take the bus to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, this was by far my favorite thing we did. We saw all kind of unique/native to Australia wildlife, like:

 Wallabee's:

 

Parakeets;

Tasmanian Devils: 

 And Kangaroo's:

They just let the Kangaroos run wild.  They were tame having been raised in captivity more as pets than anything, but it felt odd just seeing out in the open, where we could watch them hop around or even walk right up to them and pet them! They kind of reminded us of rabbits.

we even  got to see one little guy poking his head out

But the Koala Bears,

I really loved the Koala's

I even let myself be suckered into buying a photo with a koala, just so I could hold all that cuteness!

So soft. but honestly it felt mostly like holding 6 month old twenty pound baby. 

  

We got into a bit of trouble with some of the animals, but no worries...nothing we couldn't handle.

That evening we attended an Aboriginal performance of music and dance with a live didgeridoo

  very cool!

.

The next day our flight left mid afternoon, so after packing up and checking out of our hotel we headed back to the beach to enjoy some sand between our toes, lying on the beach reading a book together. 

All the while Grandma's and Grandpa's kept our hooligans in line at home. 

I hope they were glad to see us when we got back.

After Grandma Jo went home, we asked the kids about the best part of having Grandma tend, Hollie whispered "the best part was we didn't have to make our beds!"