A Day with the Wildlife

Because I didn't get to write a post this morning, I've written two. This one and another one below with our trip to the Blue Mountains yesterday. I also added some pictures to my older posts as I finally figured out how to add more than one picture to each entry.

Spent a large part of today at the Sydney Wildlife Park. This was a great little park that focuses strictly on animals found in Australia. The boys really seemed to enjoy seeing all of the animals. We saw all the snakes and lizards which prompted lots of me shouting out "Crikey!" (Think Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin), or "There's a real Ripper!". We were able to get pretty closeup to some Koalas, Kangaroos and Wallaby's too. We also saw what is considered to be the world's most dangerous bird, the cassowary. It looked like "Buckbeak" from the Harry Potter movie. It was actually a really neat looking bird. About the size of an emu (with similar feathers) with a beautiful blue color on its head and this large horn type of thing on its head.


At the park there was an Aboriginal man playing the digeridoo, so had to see that again, of course. His name was Leon. Sounds native, doesn't it? The boys had their picture taken with him. He would play people's names through the digeridoo when he played. He played Susie. He played Carmen. He played John. I wanted to tell him my name was Christopher James Aloysius McGuillicutty, Constantius Hoban III and see what he would do.

Judy really wanted the boys to have a close encounter with a Koala. You could get pretty close to them but weren't allowed to get close enough to touch them. The park offered the opportunity to stand in front of one and have your picture taken for $20. For Zach and Andrew, that would be $40 just to stand in front of a koala and take a picture. They couldn't hold them or even touch them. I said it wasn't worth it, and Judy was a little upset with me for being cheap. I told her that I could accomplish the same thing by having the boys pose as if they were near a Koala and then I would Photoshop the koala into the picture. I posted my picture below... why would you pay $20 for a picture when you can get these kinds of real-life results by doing it yourself?

We're off to a new city tomorrow. Going to a town called UllaDulla for a couple of days and then down to Melbourne.

Blue Mountains

Friday we spent a good part of the day in the Blue Mountains. This is an area about 2 hours NW of Sydney. We jumped on a train in Sydney and made the trip out. It was worth the travel as the area was really spectacular. In some ways, the trees resemble what you might see in West Virginia or western Carolina, but what added to it was huge cliffs of sedimentary rock that surrounded the basin. I've attached a couple of photos.

One of the highlights was that we were able to travel on a skyway cable car across the valley of the mountains. When we approached the area to get on the cable car, we were kind of nervous. It was really windy and as we saw the cable car approach, it was really swaying back and forth and you could hear some of the people in it scream out a little as the car made its approach into the station. We went for it anyway. It was an impressive ride as we were easily several hundred feet in the air, travelling across the valley.

Once on the other side, we got on the world's steepest railway. It was a short, but extremely steep ride part way down the mountain. At one point, I know the incline was at 52 degrees. The rail cars were similar to the type that are used in coal mines as this used to be a heavy coal mining area in Australia. After completing the railway, we took another cable car back up the mountain. Again, with great views in all directions.

We continued exploring the mountain area as there are a lot of great lookout spots that have been developed over the past 100 years. We could catch a bus that would go from stop to stop and take you to the various points of interest. We took in the major lookout points, did some short "bush walks" throughout the day. At one point, Andrew and I went down a bad trail. It wasn't really much of a trail and after going down it some I decided to turn around. We then found the right trail and made our way back to Judy, Zach and Pat.




We took the train back to Sydney which was an experience in itself. We first had 4 kids sitting across from us who were really loud and immature. I think the youngest girl had eyes for Zach and was trying her hardest to get his attention. She was probably 9 or 10 and the other 3 with her were 15-18 years old. Zach didn't pay her much attention though. After they got off, another girl got on and proceeded to make a very loud cellphone call to one of her friends explaining how another friend just found out she was pregnant but the apparent father denied it was him. She exited and another teenage girl got on who was a total depressive. She curled up in a ball and stared out the window with this blank expression. I think I must be getting old, but its really sad to see how many kids in western society are so lost in their lives.

Anyway, we made it back safely and had a late dinner. Andrew crashed before they served the food and we carried him to the taxi and back to our hotel room for the night. Really long day, but felt like we really saw a different part of Australia. Definately worth the effort!

Sydney Harbor and The Digeridoo

Had a great morning in Sydney. This is really a beautiful and vibrant city. It's the type of place you could easily live. Although it is really expensive.

This morning we went on a boat tour of Sydney harbor. It was a beautiful morning with clear skies and temperatures in the high 70's. On the tour we went under Syndey Harbor Bridge, passed by the Sydney Opera house (which is close to our hotel and we'll tour tomorrow). We also passed by some beautiful homes on the harbor and some of the beach areas.

Afterward we went to the Darling Harbor area which is really nice. It's a tourist type of place, but lots going on ... shops, places to eat, outdoor parks, etc. We let the boys play at an outside park there for a little while and then headed in for a exhibit on the digeridoo. At the park the boys also wanted to try a small bungee jumping thing, so we let them do that.

The digeridoo exhibition was really good. It was interesting to learn that the sounds made through the instrument are actually mimicking Aboriginal words. Some of the sounds also mimick sounds of animals and the instrument is combined with singing and dancing to help tell stories ... sort of like oral tradition type of storytelling. We also learned how to make the noise of the instrument and all tried it afterward. To make the sound, you have to keep your lips together and then blow through them, making your lips vibrate (like making a car sound when you were a kid). Since Judy doesn't have much of a top lip, this was a little bit of a challenge for her (she's going to hate me for writing that). For her, it was more of a Digeri- Don't. The rest of us quickly became digeridoo experts and were annoying everyone around by our continuous playing. As you can see from my photo, I was the most intense one of the bunch (Big surprise, right?) It looks like I was about to blow out an eyeball. It was a lot of fun!

This afternoon we let the boys jump in the pool for a little bit and then headed back down to Darling Harbor for the evening. We had dinner together this evening in a little restaurant overlooking the harbor area. Judy, Pat and Zach had a traditional Australian lamb dinner. I decided to try something different .... kangaroo! Yep, that's right. They eat the cute little thing down here. Apparently it's pretty good for you ... no cholesterol, little to no fat. It was pretty tasty I have to admit, although I probably won't make it my regular meal. I was a little "jumpy" about ordering it. And I hope it agrees with my system ... don't want it "bouncing" around in my stomach all night long.

Tomorrow we're heading over to tour the Sydney Opera House and then are thinking about heading out of town to see the Blue Mountains. Till tomorrow ...

We Made It

Arrived in Sydney today safely. Everything went well on our flights and all in all it really wasn't too bad. Despite shoving down "jet lag pills" two at a time during the flight, everyone is still pretty worn out.

Judy and Zach crashed for a couple of hours this afternoon so Andrew and I did a little exploring around our hotel. Our hotel is in a great location, just down the street is the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the famous Sydney Opera House which we'll tour tomorrow. We'll get some pictures tomorrow and post them on the blog.

Not too much to write today since we were on planes, trains and automobiles all day. More tomorrow, but just wanted everyone to know we all arrived safely.

Judy Barely Survives the Mountain

Went to church on Sunday morning. Was a really nice service. Celestine Olive and the choir led worship. Really like seeing Mr. Pelley up there in his choir robe swaying back and forth. There was a potluck meal after services so had the chance to see a lot of old friends there.

After church, we decided to take a short hike up into the mountains. It was a great day for it ... just cool enough to feel like autumn. Zach, Andrew, Kelvin and I did some "off-roading" during the hike which the boys just loved. They thought they had conquered the mountain (see photo) by getting off the trail. Was a great view too as it was a clear day.

On the way back down the mountain a lizard darted into the path just in front of Karen, Mom and Judy. By Judy's reaction, you would have thought it was a Komodo Dragon. Shrieks of horror echoed across the valley. The men-folk came shooting out of the woods apparently just in time to keep Judy from being carted off by the terrible beast.

Had dinner at Northwoods Inn steakhouse (an old tradition). Gotta love the cheese bread and salads there.

Finished the day with some billiards. An epic competition ensued between Zach, Andrew, Kelvin and Pop-Pop. Several games ended with the 8-ball being sunk when it wasn't supposed to ... at least that kept the games a little shorter.

We're off to Australia tonight. The adults are dreading the long flight. The boys think it will be the best part with their own video screens on the plane.

My Failure as a Dad ...

I can't believe what happened today ... maybe someone out there can help me with my fathering skills.

Left over from a birthday party at the Pelley's house were a few helium filled balloons. Kelvin and I decided that we had to suck out the helium in the balloons so that we could talk like Donald Duck.

So, I did the first one (see photo on left), and then we would have Zach and Andrew do one each. Zach went first. I handed him the balloon and gave him careful instructions on how to suck in the helium. He proceeded to take it and then all of the helium came squirting out, hitting him right smack in the face. I actually don't think one drop of helium even went into his mouth.

We were down to our last balloon and all of our hope was placed in Andrew now. That's a scary thought in itself. I cut the knot off the balloon, and gave even more careful instruction, drawing from the lessons of Zachary's experience. I handed the balloon to Andrew, and before I could blink, the end of the balloon was flapping against his lips and helium was being sprayed all over his face.

0 for 2. I couldn't believe my failure ... how could I have two sons that don't know how to suck helium out of a balloon? What had I done wrong? This was a serious blemish on my parenting skills. There wasn't much I could do but lick my wounds.

That afternoon I took them out in the backyard and drilled them with footballs. We ran down-and-outs. We ran slants. We ran Andrew's favorite, the center sneak. They ran them to perfection. I felt much better after that ... I had redeemed some of my fatherly pride.

First day in SoCal ... (Part 1)

We arrived in southern California Friday night for the first leg of our trip. Our friends, the Pelly's, were generous (as usual) to let us stay with them for the weekend. It rained here really hard on Friday night, so the mountains are beautiful right now. There aren't too many things more spectacular than the mountains here after a rain. I'm hoping we can take a little hike up into them on Sunday afternoon.

We enjoyed the day visiting with Mom and Dad on Saturday. Zach and Andrew wanted to hit the swimming pool right away despite the fact that the temperature was in the 60's. They made up their minds months ago they were swimming in that pool and nothing as minor as the temperature was going to keep them out of it.

Saturday night we had a barbecue at the Pelly's with Karen and Kelvin Langford, Mom and Dad, Rich and Lisa Huber, the Halford's, and us. Kelvin was determined to get me educated about the game of Rugby. I can't blame him ... we made him watch some good ole' American college football on Saturday, so I thought I'd humor him. Plus, He insisted that New Zealand was the world juggernaut of Rugby. We watched one of the world cup matches, and I have to admit, I did actually enjoy the game.

It's almost time ...

Thought we would try this new technology to tell about our upcoming trip to Australia. We used to travel a good bit internationally before kids, but this will be our most aggressive venture since the boys were very small. Australia is a place we've always wanted to go, and we're planning to squeeze as much in as we can in 2 and a half weeks. Our trip will include visting Sydney, Ulla Dulla, Melbourne, and finally Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. We might need a vacation when we're done!

We'll start by flying to southern California and visting family for the weekend, and then head "down under". We'll do our best to post photos and information on our daily experiences for our family and friends to enjoy.