We made it...finally!

After all the waiting and anticipation, we are in Brisbane Australia!

The flight was great for the first 13 hours. I slept about ten hours of the flight, it was fantastic! Pitch black on the plane, I had Big Boi's latest bouncing through my Skull Candy's to block out the screaming babies two rows in front of us, I was out like a light! Britt and Jake slept too, just not as much.

We flew Qantas, a 747-400...very smooth. The Qantas staff was wonderful, they took care of every detail, everything from warming up baby formula for people, to keeping us fed and warm, big ups to Qantas! In addition to great service, Qantas is a member of "One World" so we each get 14K miles for our American Airlines account!

The trouble started with about fifty minutes to go in the flight. The captain announced Brisbane was fogged in and we would have to stop and refuel on an island called New Caledonia, the city of Noumea as we did not have enough fuel to circle Brisbane.

In reality it was not that bad, we were only on the ground in Noumea fifty minutes, then back on course to Brisbane. However once we reached Brisbane the captain informed us we were 13th in line, that would require us to circle for ninety minutes! Ughh. At this point we were ready to get off the plane and get on with getting on!

The captain kept us informed about every fifteen minutes, and eventually told us planes had to divert as they were running out of fuel as well. Good news for us as that cut our wait time to about an hour. When we did land it was all good!

Customs and Border Security was a simple process, we then caught a taxi to the hotel, where again we had to hurry up and wait as our room was not cleaned from the night before. We made the best of it by grabbing some lunch and touring a beautiful church just down the street from our hotel.

Some observations about Brisbane:

It is very American! If you have walked down the street in St. Louis or Sacramento, you have an idea of what Brisbane feels like!

Public transportation seems to be pretty strong. There are bus routes that criss-cross the city making it easy to get from here to there.

Everyone smokes! All the hot chicks, the ugly guys, the young and the old...everyone smokes, and it is expensive, $12AU per pack...everything here is expensive; $9AU for a bowl of soup! Gas is sold by the liter at a cost of $1.20AU per liter, that is $4.80AU a gallon!!!!

There is a huge, old, beautiful church on every corner. Just gorgeous (Britt will post some pics later), breath taking stained glass windows that all tell a story, wood carving that makes you feel the emotions of the carver, and wonderus marble dating back to the 1800's...and all are open to the public with friendly volunteers more than willing to tell you about every inch of the joint!

The people are great! Super chill, relaxed, not judgmental at all! We went to lunch at a "club", in reality it was a bar with slot machines and pool tables. I liked the rule that says men have to take off their caps when they enter. It was difficult not to put the cap back on out of habit, however the grizzly veteran bartender who was busting my onions about the Chicago Bears t-shirt I was wearing, even going as far as to tell me Mike Ditka was a great man, deserves our respect because he was easy to deal with and even explained that we do not need to tip waiters and waitresses in Australia as they are well paid already...for that I tipped him $2AU, he was thrilled!

There are so many American things here: McDonald's, 7-11, Coca~Cola, Ford and Mazda...America is clearly a big influence here...As is Europe, the people here seem to be very Euro, they all smoke, there is a TON of coffee shops. More coffee shops or churches? Not sure!

There is also a substantial Gay & Lesbian presence on the streets here, and I appreciate the freedom they have. There is no head turning or awkwardness about it.

At the lunch club, what show do you think was on TV? Would it shock you that Ellen was on the TV? No joke, the table next to me stopped eating to watch her interview Russell Crowe!

We rented an apartment for the first two nights...MONEY! Even has a washer and dryer...super small toilet!

Australian cash has windows in it...feels like wax paper, looks like play money!

There is a commercial on TV right now asking "do you have Cankles?" (not kidding). After the long plane flight I did have swollen ankles! Ugly!

We are having a great time! We will post more soon!

TM

So Close!

Wow, it's almost here! As I write this we have 48.5 hours til take off!

We are ready for our Australian adventure! We have spent a considerable amount of time researching activities, and sharing our thoughts on what we want to accomplish while we are there, listening to all the people who have ever traveled down the block, tell us about travel and what we should expect!

We have in our minds that Australia is much more relaxed than "we" are. That the Aussie culture is not honking and saluting during rush hour...something that is merely a fantasy for a veteran freeway gladiator like myself.

I think Britt is looking most forward to the culture of Australia. She picked out, and I booked, a fantastic whale watching adventure. We chose Blue Dolphin because they are well thought of and the reviews were great. We should get some great stills and video that will be posted right here at the end of each day.

We have a tentative schedule plotted out in pencil:

Friday we arrive at 6AM local time, after we get our legs under us, we will head for the Koala sanctuary it is very Australian, and it fits into a very light opening day in Brisbane.

Saturday is Australian Rules Football with the Brisbane Lions and probably some shopping and culture during the day...gotta drink some beer too!

Sunday is a big day; more football with the Brisbane Broncos and then we head 3 hours north of Brisbane to see the inspiration for our trip, Karen and Royce, who own a Sugar Cane farm. We met them in Dallas back in May, such a lovely couple! We feel very lucky that God ran us into each other! We will spend Sunday and Monday on the farm, I hope to help harvest with Jake while Britt whips up Kangaroo Lasagna, no joke, she chose that for the meal she will make for our hosts!

Tuesday is whale watching followed by a nights stay in a gorgeous hotel.

Wednesday is early up for our 3 hour return drive to Brisbane for two nights in the retro Royal on the Park! Wow are we looking forward to this place, while it is not the Ritz, it has a real niche cut out on the Brisbane scene, and we have heard nothing but fantastic things about it!

Then, we turn around and come home on Friday morning to relax and recover for the weekend!

The big question of this trip remains: What does one do for well over 13 hours on a 747? We are hoping to sleep, but are not counting on it. We will be up early on Wednesday morning, JT and I will work out hard to start the day, I'll head to work until around 7, get home to head for dinner and LAX...then we board our flight at 11:30P that night. Up early, work out hard, work hard, eat well, then lets hope we all sleep for a good portion of the flight. Books, games, movies...people watching...I have no idea! Lots of cards I would guess!

So yeah, that's it. We have toiletries, camera's, phones...rip off international calling plans from AT&T...we are set!

Keep your eye on this blog for pictures and updates during the trip...should be a great time!

TM

Six and a wake up!

Brisbane, Australia: 28 July 2010!

We have waited so long for this trip to come together! We have put so much effort into making sure we do all the things we want to do, making sure we treat this trip as once in a lifetime!

The first order of business was to actually plan the trip. That started in Texas,(I know we live in Los Angeles!) after we took a trip in May to see the Cubs play the Rangers in Arlington. Funny how things work; while we were in Texas, we spent time with Gene and Millie, cousins on Britt's side of the family. As it turned out Gene had his Cousin Royce in from Bauple, AU. We spent time visiting with them on two occasions, talking about Australia, their Sugar Cane farm, Hervey Bay Whale watching...all kinds of things...it was this conversation that started our minds turning.

Once we got back to So Cal we began thinking and talking about going to Australia. Romancing the idea of getting stamps on our passports, getting JT a passport. We could never afford a trip like that...right?

Wrong! We priced it out through Qantas, it was super affordable. Qantas had a sale to all the major spots in Australia, with family in Brisbane, Rugby in Brisbane, Whales to watch in Hervey Bay...it made sense. So we did it.

We booked our tickets on Qantas, we waited a couple weeks and booked hotels and a rental car to drive us to Bauple (It's about 3 hours). I bought tickets to Rugby on Sunday afternoon, Britt found the Koala sanctuary, then the Whale watching. Yes, we are actually doing this thing.

There is a big part of this trip that is about going to Australia, how cool that is, how fun that will be. But the other part is about sharing this experience as a family. Being able to take Jake with us is pretty special, we work so hard in life to provide for our family! In our house it is baseball and video games, vitamins and gym memberships. Sure, we could spend our summer in front of the TV, at the beach, in the weight room...or we could adventure out and see all that God has created.

Part of us is chasing a dream with this trip. It would be easy to contemplate the cost, over think fiscal responsibility, worry about financial margins...but we can do this thing without going into the poor house! We have the chance to do something, and go somewhere we will likely never forget.

The concept of traveling the globe seems large and expensive, it's not. It seems like something that only certain kinds of people do, it's not! Australia, Italy, wherever it is that you have always wanted to go...it's sitting right there, it's up to you to figure the rest out. That seems easy to say, tough to execute...there is truth in that, but if you really want it, you can do it.

All you have to do is be strong enough, courageous enough, but also adventurous enough to make that dream a reality! Our reality begins in six days and a wake up!

TM