All The Best For Christmas

Have you ever wondered what a funeral home company gives its employees for Christmas?  A 12 pound leg of ham!!!  

All my company gave me was this lousy hat!

So, in lieu of our annual Christmas card - which we have never sent out- print these pictures, put them on your fridge and know we are thinking of you this season.  All the best for Christmas!!!  Love, The Brittons

Are you Irish?

Many of you know that I have a talent--some don't think it is a talent-for impersonating the accents of other countrymen.  I thought that after a year of living in Australia I would have been able to perfect my Aussie accent, which really sounds more Indian and sometimes British on a good day.  Well, Damon and I just got back from the grocery store and I stepped up to the deli counter and had this conversation with the women next to me:

Me:  Can I have one slice of Watsonian cheddar? (Yes, I seriously ordered one slice of cheese)

The woman beside me:  Are you Irish?

Me:  Excuse me?

The woman beside me:  Are you Irish?  You sounded Irish when you just asked for the cheese.

Me:  Ummmm...no, just plain American but I wish I was Irish.

In my head I was thinking:  Sweet, I have now added an Irish accent to my repertoire.  

Final Family Visit Post-I promise

The last four days we toured the sights in and around Sydney.  We had incredible weather and took advantage of it with a coastal walk from Tamarama Beach to Bondi Beach.

My brother found this perfect La-Z-Boy spot carved out of the rock.  

Another family photo.

We took a trip to Featherdale Wildlife Park and found this very chilled out koala there.  

We didn't seem to disturb this koala at all.  It just slept right through the photo shoot.  

This was as close as I got to the kangaroos that day and I stayed this close long enough for the photo.  Most of you know I am not a huge animal fan and minutes before a kangaroo had leapt into the air and kicked a sweet Chinese woman in the shoulder.  These are cute animals but not when their feet are flying towards your face.  

This one seemed more interested in his cone than us.  

My dad and brother climbed all 1400 steps of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

They had an incredible view from the top.  

In the meantime, Mom, Damon and I took a ferry to my favorite bay, Mosman Bay.  

While we were on the other side of the harbour we took a few more pics from this new vantage point.  

We also spent a lot of time down at Circular Quay where Dad made a new friend.  

We took a stroll through the Royal Botanical Gardens.  

We stayed at the Quay from morning.....

until night

but we had a wonderful time!

Thanks for coming to visit us guys!  10 days and 2500 pictures later we feel like we experienced more of this great country and were blessed to have shared the memories with you.  

Family Visit-Part 4 - Salties and Freshies

Having completely struck out on our first croc adventure, (if you are in the Daintree Rainforest don't go on the river cruise, its a crock) we happened on Hartley's Crocodile Farm.  And we arrived at feeding time!!!  Here is a Freshwater Crocodile or Freshy as they are called.  He is an intimidating little fellow, if you call a 5 foot crocodile little.  They typically live in freshwater rivers or lakes so have a second thought before taking that refreshing dip in the cool mountain river.

Apparently, there haven't been any reported human fatalities from the Freshy.  However, Zoo Guy did say they have been known to chomp a limb or two off.  To prove his point Zoo Guy climbed in the cage with the little devils.  There were about twenty crocs in the enclosure with him but none of them made a move for him.  I wonder though, if all twenty crocs took just one limb how long would it take you to run out of limbs?
And then the real action happened!!!  Here are the Saltwater Crocs or Salties.  These monsters alone are worth the price of admission.  Notice Zoo Guy safely behind the steel fence.  When he threw the fish out the croc was about five feet away but when the croc caught it it was about a foot from Zoo Guy's hand.  The croc lunged four feet in the same amount of time the fish flew one.  I'm sure you math guys out there could figure the speed at which the croc was moving but let me save you some time and just say its fast!!!  Obviously, these guys live in saltwater so if you want to swim in the ocean or rivers near the ocean you better be fast or at least faster than someone in your group.
Did I mention they can jump?  It's really just better not to be in, under, near, around, over or next to water in Queensland.
As we were about to leave we thought about having a closer look.  Somehow I angered this croc and she had a go at me.  She already jumped up hit the fence, landed on the ground and is ready to have another go when this picture was taken.  You can tell that I am just about to jump back and Amy's expression is just about to change.  Now that's fast.  She hit the fence so hard she bloodied her snout so we figured it was time to move on, for her sake, and I had to change my pants.
If you are ever in the area don't miss Hartley's at feeding time.  Thanks Bill and Charlotte for the great day.

Family Visit-Part 3 - The Rainforest

The next day we crossed the croc infested waters on a ferry and entered into the Daintree Rainforest and went "Jungle Surfing."  The Jungle Surfing staff were an interesting crew which actually made us a little nervous to put our lives in their hands.  In an effort to not remember our real names, they gave us helmets with names they thought fit us.  I was spiderman.  On a side note, it was almost 90 degrees and 92% humidity in the rainforest.  To say it felt like a sauna would be an understatement.  

Damon was Paris Hilton.  As she says, "That's hot."

We were "given the opportunity" to experience the jungle upside down which Damon was more than happy to undertake.  

Here is a shot of both of us about 90 feet up.  I was trying to act like it was no big deal but I was really nervous every time the guy said, "Now, just push off."  like it's normal to just leap into the air at 90 feet.  

Finally, the whole crew together.  You can barely see the ocean in the background.  This is the area of Australia that they boast "Where the rainforest meets the reef."  It was beautiful!

Believe it or not this was only the 3rd day of their visit so we have many more pictures and adventures to come.  

Family Visit-Part 2

In order to meet everyone's needs we booked a Great Barrier Reef tour with Haba.  They offered snorkeling, diving and glass bottom boat options.  If you are ever in Port Douglas we highly recommend Haba.  Here is our boat. 

We went to two dive sites so David and I went scuba diving in the morning session.  It was both of our first times so we had a crash how to course on the ride out to the reef.  I have to say that the first two feet under the water are a little freaky.  Breathing underwater goes against everything you learn growing up but once you get the hang of it scuba diving is an amazing experience.

In order to get the whole experience I joined the others for snorkeling in the afternoon.  Here Amy and I are about the jump in.  Check out the sweet suits.  Apparently these suits will protect you from the sting of the deadly Box Jellyfish.  We never saw one so we didn't have a chance to test the suits out, but maybe that was for the best. 

Everyone is climbing in.  Here comes Amy on her trusty noodle.

Bill and Charlotte saw how much fun everyone was having and decided to give it a go.  After a few minutes they were regular fish.  

As you can see in some places the reef was only about two or three feet deep.  You had to be careful not to step on the coral.

We rented an underwater digital camera and here are a few of our favorite pics we took.

Family Visit

Amy's parents (Bill and Charlotte) and brother (David) came to visit.  Amy and I took off about 10 days from work and we all toured Australia.  It was so good for all of us.  Amy and I haven't been out of Sydney hardly at all so it was great to see some new parts of Australia.  There is way too much to put in one post so expect several in the next few days so check back often.

Here they are arriving after a 30 hour journey.  Amy and I didn't let them rest up too long because we were on a 6:00 am flight up to northern Queensland.  We flew into Cairns and rented a car to drive up to Port Douglas where we were staying.  

But before we left Cairns we hired a seaplane to take us up over the Great Barrier Reef.  Bill and Charlotte weren't too sure that they wanted to go out on the reef so Amy, David and I thought that a flight over the reef would be the next best thing so we surprised them with the flight.  Here we are about to get on the plane.

Here is our plane ready for take off.  We only flew about 500 feet over the reef so the colors were incredible.

Here is a picture of the outer reef.  You can see the line on the top where the reef ends.  The change in color from green to blue is pretty cool.
Here is Green Island.  This is a popular snorkel and dive destination.   You can see the boats bringing people to the island.

Amy and I in the plane.

Even though the flight was amazing, before we left I discovered that I didn't have the keys to the rental car so I was a little nervous about what we were going to do after the flight was over.  After much searching and panic, Bill found the keys in the rubbish bin next to the car.  How they got in there we will never know but who cares, we were off to Port Douglas.  More about that later.