Sure he hates the attention - that's what makes it fun! |
Just another day in paradise... |
Most everyone looks happy to see Maria go for a month - I guess Luke is going to miss her... |
Dad had to have some kind of picture for the 4th of July since we missed it crossing the International Date Line. |
Can you guess where we started our trip? There are a couple of clever clues hidden in the background. |
Maria thought we were going to climb the bridge, not just walk up the arch... |
Ooh! Our first narcissistie! |
We got to stick our toes in the South Pacific at Manly Beach. |
This is from the 7 minute Badu Gili light show on the Sydney Opera House. |
These are the three sisters (Meehni, Wimlah, and Gunnedoo) in the Blue Mountains. |
And this is one of a gazillion pictures of the adorable creatures at Featherdale Park (but Maria didn't get to touch this one.) |
She did get to drink a fair amount of Pacific Ocean at the Great Barrier Reef though! |
And here's Dad helping her out with her social media in the Kuranda rain forest... |
Next we had to make our way to Alice Springs - we were going to drive, but Dad said we had to take plane instead... |
In Alice Springs we got to try on some new hats... and we learned that crocodiles have no interest in eating you... they just want to kill you! |
Here we are on the way to Uluru, but that is really "Fooluru" in the background (Mount Connor). |
This is one of Dad's "Sounds of Silence" pictures - can you find the Southern Cross? |
The big concern on the sunrise camel ride isn't camel spit... it is that your toes will freeze! |
Clearly warmer by the afternoon, however! |
Narcissistie number two! |
This is Dad's attempt to illustrate sunset over Kata Tjuta... |
This is our attempt to look excited about another flight (Yulara to Alice Springs to Darwin...) |
The sign said something about crocodiles and I remember Rex saying something about them... but the water felt great! |
Oh yeah... crocodiles want to kill you! |
This was our private beach in Darwin... that is the Timor Sea, not the Pacific Ocean. |
Apparently everyone goes to Mindil Beach for the sunsets... |
But we really went to hold the giant snake! Doesn't Maria looked thrilled? |
I didn't get up for it, but this is apparently sunrise over Lee Point... |
And this is Dad's clever idea of a narcissistie at sunset at Lee Point... |
Who knew you could get Krispy Kreme in Australia? |
This is the famous Christchurch cathedral that was destroyed by the 2011 earthquake... |
And this is some of the scenery that Maria and I slept through while driving to Tekapo... |
This is Lake Ohau (think Oh wow!) - the amazing thing is Dad didn't do anything with Photoshop! |
We got to drive through Lindis pass between Twizel and Queenstown! |
And Maria got to experience bungy jumping at the original bungy bridge! (Don't tell her Mom!) |
Our hotel in Queenstown overlooked the lake (but our room wasn't quite this close...) |
We got to touch a baby goat! Oh yeah, we also went zip-lining... |
And we got to watch 58 little blue penguins come out of the sea and run to their nests! |
In Dunedin we got to see Royal Albatrosses... |
And we went up (and came back down) the steepest street in the world... |
This is just Dad playing with the panoramic function on his camera at Signal Hill... |
Then we went to Tunnel Beach which was awesome! |
Can you tell that Dad Photoshopped himself into this one? Another narcissistie accomplished! |
Maria never did get to touch a sheep... they always ran away from her! |
And this is just Dad showing that we made it back to the U.S. |
And to end the month, Maria and I went to the barn... |
July went by in a hurry...
That's what happens when you try to visit Chicago, Sydney, Cairns, Alice Springs, Yulara, Darwin, Christchurch, Tekapo, Twizel, Queenstown, and Dunedin in a month... And yes, I did say 3400+ pictures, but you only have to see 46 (I started with 31 - one for each day of the month, but I couldn't keep it down to that without cutting out too much.) I'll have to go through them all now and produce a complete trip slide show and/or book, but for now here is a taste of the trip.
And because I'm already late and have to get Maria home and Lucie to see Bebe and TC, no long winded blog this month. Just look at the pictures and stop whining... you're almost as bad as Maria!