Monday August 23rd, aka, the flight: We got to JFK with plenty of time to spare, because I like getting to airports with lots of time to spare. We got through security and everything, then within 10 minutes had taken in all the delights that JFK terminal 7 had to offer. It was a boring terminal. The only cool thing that happened was that a little girl knocked over a bottle of duty free perfume and tried to run away before her mother grabbed her by the shoulder. Because it was rainy incoming flights had been delayed, and I believe our plane was late arriving, so they delayed boarding by half an hour. That wasn't that bad, but remember, it's a boring terminal. Eventually they let us on the plane, only to sit there for 2 hours waiting for a backlog of take-offs. Once in the air though they told us the flight time would be about an hour shorter than normal - things were looking up. Then, they brought us an unexpected meal. Before we left, Liz called the airline and told them we couldn't eat gluten or dairy. The only thing they could do that would insure none of those things was fruit platters. So, we ate a fruit platter. I had a window seat, and Liz had the aisle seat. I got up at one stage and went for a walk. When I came back Liz pointed outside. There, the biggest I have ever seen it, was the Big Dipper. It looked awesome. About 30 minutes later, with the Dipper still visible above the cloud line, we saw an electrical storm in the distance. Again, awesome. We watched She's out of my league (was OK) and waited to arrive in LA, getting really tired by this stage because it was past midnight.
When we arrived in LA, we were told that because our flight was so late that people had to get on shuttles and get to the next gate for the second flight. Rushing through the airport we were probably on the ground/out of planes for around 15 - 30 minutes. Liz' brother, Josh, later pointed out that you probably don't need to be in LA longer than that anyway. We took off and watched another movie, Date Night. It was of the level of quality of an airplane movie. We were fed another fruit platter, and then I indulged in about 7 hours sleep, before being woken for another fruit platter. By then I was sick of fruit platters, and couldn't wait to get off the plane to eat something other than fruit and miscellaneous snacks that we had brought on board. The snacks included jerky and snack bars. We had 2 packs of jerky, one was turkey, the other pepperoni. We knew we really liked the pepperoni, so decided to leave it for the return flight. Salvation seemed close, but then about 3 hours out from Sydney jet stream winds started rocking the plane. The rocking didn't really let up until we landed.
Tuesday August 24th: After landing we got off the plane, letting the rush of people run off ahead of us. We put on some cleaner clothes, and Liz tidied herself up. We went through immigration and got to Customs. The guy standing there asked "Do you have any food with you? Fruit, vegetables, beef jerky?" My heart sank when I told him we had jerky. I didn't want to risk lying, those dogs can smell it a mile away. Walking past a sign saying that we may be filmed for a TV show, I made a note to tell them not to include us having our jerky confiscated. Customs looked through our bags and a dog identified the bag with the jerky. Then, they put the jerky back in our bag - to let a dog in training find it. In the process it climbed all over Liz' suitcase, leaving paw prints all over it. When it found the jerky it sat on the bag and waited for a treat. They then took our jerky away for good.
We went out and met my parents, unable to find them at first. Eventually they spotted us and we left the airport, heading to an area of Sydney called Darling Harbour to have some breakfast. After loading up on bacon, eggs and tomato (with Dad also loading up on Liz and my bread) we walked around the harbour for half an hour.
Liz, myself and a random kid in a fountain in Darling Harbour
Dad, Mum, myself and a hobo in Darling Harbour
We then hit the road and headed towards Newcastle, stopping in where my brother, Kel, works on the way to see him. At pretty mych every intersection I was mentally turning onto the wrong side of the road. I resolved to wait at least a day until driving. After hanging out there we went home and showered and everything, then went and got some groceries to get us through the day and next morning. For the rest of the evening we were pretty tired, Liz passed out on the couch before dinner, and I hung out with Jeb.
Wednesday August 25th: We woke up early and headed downstairs in time to not only feed ourselves but to also help feed Jeb. One of the elements of his breakfast is Vegemite on toast. He loves the stuff.
If you tell Jeb "Gently" as you are feeding him, he'll take food from your hand more slowly.
Once we were all fed and dressed Liz, Mum, Dad and I went to Caves Beach, which is our favorite beach, I think, in Newcastle. I drove Dad's car, named Bill, which is a 2010 Subaru Forester with manual (standard) transmission. I didn't go onto the wrong side of the road once. But I did use the wipers a lot instead of indicators. We walked a long length of beach, took some photos and explored some rocks, caves and rock pools.
Liz and I on the beach by some rocks
2 experiments with some new camera filters
An Australian Seagull - they are smaller and less dirty (more bright white) looking than American seagulls
Dad and Mum on rocks
The ocean through one of the smaller caves
After the beach we ate some lunch and got our hair cut. I called some friends that evening and Matt (aka Bibz) and I went out that night and took some night photos. We went to a section of Lake Macquarie called Warners Bay, and took photos on a new bridge that they have built as part of a walking path. We named the section of walkway "Bridge World".
The water at Bridge World kept lapping up against the rocks on the shore, which made me need to hit the bathroom really badly. I ended up getting home at around midnight, running straight for the downstairs bathroom...
I'll take a break there. You're probably already sick of reading all this and looking at the photos... don't worry, only about 16 more days in Australia to read about!
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