It has taken me a long time to sit down and compile these pictures, put them in order, and write a little about our amazing trip to Australia. It's now the end of September, school has started, Antonia started day care, Guillaume has lost his Australian accent, and our adventure seems like a distant memory. It's funny because a lot of people have asked us about our trip and it's hard to summarize.
Why did we go?
I feel strongly that having a child is not in any way a handicap and that you should not write off the fun you used to have B.K (before kids) We had one heck of a summer, traveling to Europe, having visitors at home in Pittsburgh, and doing mini vacations to Connecticut and Montreal. So we didn't NEED to go to Australia. I mean, it wasn't like we hadn't had enough traveling. But since we've lived in the U.S. a lot of our vacation (Guillaume's actually--I have like 6 months vacation a year as a grad student :) is spent traveling to see family, to go to places we've already been. Not to say that's not fun, but sometimes it's nice to see something new, as a family especially.
This trip was amazing for many reasons. Australia is a country of extreme beauty, amazing wildlife, a friendly culture, and surprisingly good food. But this trip was special because we got to see two of my best friends from college who I hadn't seen for 6 (six!!) years: Anna and Catherine. We were so spoiled, I can't even tell you. I was so happy to be able to meet their hubbies and see where they live. I have been lucky to live in many different places and make friends from all over the globe. The only problem is that they all live so far away. So going to Australia was a treat in more ways than one! (And I was able to snuggle little Scarlett just before she was born!)
Everyone has asked me: yes the flights were hard! We had a 6 hour flight to L.A. and then an hour layover before our 15 hour flight to Sydney. I packed new toys for Antonia to discover every couple of hours. We also brought the ipad with 5 Yo Gabba Gabba episodes on it (we know them all by heart!) and honestly Antonia slept most of the way attached to my boob. So for her it wasn't a difficult trip. For ME, it was. But after all, it's only a day in your life, and man was it worth it!
We arrived in Sydney at 6 am and were greeted by Anna, Andy and bun and whisked off to Anna's beach house North of the city. It was freezing and misty but cozy by the fire.
Our first brekkie! Bush honey yoghurt! So. delicious.
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| Anna with her tiny Scarlett sized beer. We drank Cooper's (delicious) and I have since named my beer belly Cooper. |
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| Our first walk. We saw dolphins swimming right up to the beach and a myriad of birds pointed out by our fearless and eloquent guide, Andy. |
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| Can you tell we haven't slept in 2 days? |
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| The happy couple. God I love this picture. |
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| The jetlagged couple |
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| That evening Catherine and Stefano came to join us at the beach and make us a delicious meal. |
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| Reunited!! |
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| Ok so winter in Sydney isn't bad after all, we just arrived on the coldest day of the year. |
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| Some yerga ladies and Catherine doing hand yerga. |
Anna and Andy had to go to Melbourne so Catherine and Stefano took over showing us around. We walked from Bondi to Bronte beach and then had fish and cheeps with a local dog.
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| pre-wave |
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| post wave |
A lot of our friends' plans for us were botched because of jet lag and carting around a toddler so some nights we stayed in and made them cook for us instead of going out to eat. It was a good decision!
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| Babis LOBED Stef |
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| Our local café (we went there every morning--so good!) |
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| I'm sorry America: why can't we have egg yolks that are orange and tasty like this? Why? WHY?! |
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| Taking the ferry to see the Opera House! |
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| She's saying: "Mama bisoued me on the nose!" |
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| One of many delicious lunches! Babis woke up just in time to make it hard for me to eat! |
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| Sleeping in the stroller so we can go out to eat sushi! |
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| Arriving in Cairns |
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| Driving up to Port Douglas: such a beautiful coastline! |
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| These lego dog and cat got us through a lot of car/plane/train rides! |
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| We had a little apartment for four days in Cairns which was good for Antonia. We made our own food and got to relax after all the touristing around. |
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| Guess who loves the beach? |
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| Arrival at the Great Barrier Reef and first shark sighting through the bottom of the boat... |
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| Oh well, I'll just jump in anyway! |
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| Antonia loved watching Papa snorkel |
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| I was terrified to go snorkeling, but here's proof that I went and loved it! |
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| I even touched a giant fish named Wally! |
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| Papa, Papa, where are you? |
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| First helicopter ride! |
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| That giant black spot you see with a shadow is a sea turtle! |
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| Different kind of mile high club |
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| This is a good reason to travel while your kids are young: they are lighter to carry when they fall asleep |
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| Skyrail to Kuranda, a tourist village in the rainforest where Antonia fell and split open her chin... |
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| But everything is better when we get to touch a koala! |
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| Ride back to Cairns on the train |
BRISBANE
We only had two weeks in Australia so we decided to stick to the East coast for this trip. We flew to Brisbane and rented a car so that we could drive to Stradbroke Island and up to Noosa Heights. People ask me what the highlight of our trip was and I would have to say besides my friends "Straddie" because we were almost the only people on the island and we were surrounded by wildlife. Amazing.
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| Whale watching. We must have seen twenty whales! |
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| Guillaume tried to go swimming but if there's no one else in the water in Australia, DO NOT GO IN. (as they say) |
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| I freaked out a bit while taking 10,000 pictures of these three. I love sea turtles. |
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| Well HALLO! |
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| More beach "ooie" time |
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| Driving on the ferry. |
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| Guillaume swimming at Brown lake. There was no one there! He swam! When no one else was in the water! Crocodiles! (there weren't any) |
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| Sunset waiting for the ferry. |
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| Old friend from Paris Honest Dave. Showed us a good time in Brissy |
BACK TO SYDNEY
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| Brekkie at Anna's mom's house where we stayed for a night. Did I say we were spoiled? |
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| Off to the island bar where Stefano and Catherine work. |
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| Call it hormones but Anna started crying when Catherine brought her this GORGEOUS mocktail. |
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| Reminiscing with sparkling Merlot. Hey McGill people! We looked at pictures of you and told fun stories! xoxo |
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| The last supper. |
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| Saying goodbye. |
A special public blog thanks to Catherine and Anna, Andy and Stefano, for making our trip so memorable, especially at such a complicated time.
Even if Antonia doesn't remember this trip, here is the proof she'll need to say she's been a world traveler from birth.
If you thought that was a lot of pictures you have no idea how many I've left out. Now that I'm back to my routine it's fun to think back to this adventure. It's now September 28th and I have to present the first chapter of my dissertation to my entire department in one month. So enough blogging and back to work!
xoxo
