AUSTRALIA!

WOW!! What a trip...I don't even know where to begin. You will have to excuse the massive number of pictures! I thought I would do the whole trip in one post so that made for a lot to share! I have to tell you that I'm seriously in love with Australia. The land is beautiful...the people are friendly...and there is so much to do! I tried to put these pictures in order, so I'm just going to give quick explanations as we go. I put a large title with the location for each set of pictures. I want to actually start with the picture above of that cute little baby kangaroo. I was actually lucky enough to see a wallaby in the wild soon after we arrived, but this little guy was at the Sydney Zoo. You could walk around and pet them...they are super friendly. I was surprised to find out that Australians view kangaroos much like we view deer. It's just not that big of a deal to them, and many hunt them. You can eat kangaroo, you can buy kangaroo bags, hats, hides, and even some other kangaroo parts I would rather not mention! HA! Hmmmm....I would rather just love them and cuddle them. Enjoy the rest of the pics....

GREAT BARRIER REEF

PORT DOUGLAS

It took about an hour to travel from the resort we were at out to the Great Barrier Reef. This was the boat we traveled on. It was great because we just layed out in the sun (90 degree weather) on the deck while we cruised the ocean! I have to admit, this particular part of the trip was a big dream come true to me. I love to snorkel, as does Matt, and snorkeling one of the Seven Wonders of the World was unreal.

Just a glimpse of the reef. The best views were underwater!!! We saw amazing fish (some were enormous), eels, giant clams (I wouldn't have been able to wrap my arms around it), barracudas, and that just scratches the surface. Again, I was humbled and awed by the experience.

The change in time (15 hours ahead of us) made for some early mornings for us. I soon got use to the change of time, but while my body was adjusting I just tried to savor every moment I was awake. This is the sunrise over the reef. The view is from our resort.

The beach was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Completely untouched and uncommercialized....and surrounded by a tropical rain forest.

Ahhhh....this happy housewife is in pure bliss.

This is the resort we stayed at...like everything else in Port Douglas, it too was beautiful. Matt and I enjoyed the pool...it was enormous!!!

I took this picture on our trip back to Cairns to fly to Sydney. We had to travel by bus for about an hour. The view was breathtaking, but we were often literally between a mountain and a large cliff that dropped down to the ocean. I think I might have left permanent fingernail imprints on the chair in front of me as I clutched it for dear life thinking we were headed down that cliff at any moment! Ha! Matt just laughed.

SYDNEY
The opera house and the harbor bridge were amazing to see in person...I had seen them on TV so often, so to actually walk right up to it was crazy! We spent a lot of time at the opera house and explored around it. I was so curious to see the roof of it. For those of you that may not know, it's actually made of tile!

As many of you know, I am a big supporter any charity regarding the support of breast cancer research...so you can imagine my excitement when the opera house was illuminated pink one evening to show support for the cause!!! By the way, this is the amazing view we had from our room.

The Taronga Zoo in Sydney was the best zoos I have ever been to. So many cool animals. Here are two of my favorites, along with the kangaroos and wallabies. We actually did a koala encounter where you could go in with the koalas and get super close to them. We weren't allowed to hold them (it was against the law) but I'll be the first to admit I was real close to becoming a hard core criminal...I mean would they REALLY notice if just ONE was gone?!!! They were so cuddly and I knew they would fit in great with our family and our pet dog! I wanted to take them home with me!!! I would also like to mention that I love how mommy gorillas hold their babies and kiss them like I hold my babies and kiss them.

Our last night in Sydney was one of my favorites. We had dinner with one of Matt's dealers and his wife. This couple has become friends of ours and we always enjoy our time with them. The evening started out at a bar called Minus 5 Degrees. It's actually an entire bar made out of ice!! EVERYTHING in it is ice. TOOOOO cool (literally)!!!

After that we headed to a restaurant that was amazing. It is actually in the same building that Russell Crowe lives in. It cracks me up because everyone there seems to know "Russell" as if they are all personal friends of his! Anyway, the food was unreal...the view of the harbor and Sydney was unreal...and the friends we were with were so much fun. I think it is safe to safe we were all having an amazing night.

After dinner we decided to take a water taxi back to the hotel. This was one of my all time favorite experiences of the whole trip (I know...I keep saying that)! A water taxi is just a speedboat that zips you around the harbor, but our driver must have been a little slow that night because he took us under the bridge, around the opera house, and around the city. The following picture is Matt on the boat with the bridge in the background and the picture after that is of all of us snuggled together on the watertaxi.

MELBOURNE
Our first night in Melbourne was a "Meet the Aussie's Dinner", as the company my husband works for also has a sister company in Australia. What wonderful hosts they were! Our dinner was great, and the entertainment was by a country band that has actually won some country music awards. We were later entertained by a comedian that had all of us rolling! The picture is of our table. I loved the centerpiece!

I was fortunate to spend some quality time with my sister in Melbourne (for those of you that don't know, she was also on this trip with her husband). We had a fun day shopping and having lunch together. We just kept commenting, "Can you believe we are hanging out in AUSTRALIA together??!!" We were a little giddy about the whole thing! Melbourne has all of these "arcades" (which are like alleys that are lined with boutiques and unique shops). Our favorite arcade was on DeGraves street...it was all lined with this really cool graffiti and had more of a punk rocker feel...but was filled with people in business suits!

Lunch with my sis.

OK, you Disney fans out there. Do you know who this is?!! He was the voice for Aladdin! I had heard that this particular person worked in our hotel, and you can be sure I checked this rumor out! It was true!

Last picture....this was taken at our Farewell Dinner.

I was sad to see such an amazing experience come to an end, but I was also ready to get home to my little ones. Matt and I feel so blessed to have had the chance to experience what we did in the land down under!

"Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and I remember more than I have seen."

--Benjamin Desraeli