mmm...tropical...

if you can't find tourist info in cairns, then you probably can't find porn on the internet

so says our guidebook.

we arrived in cairns yesterday evening. 17 degrees S latitude. it's warm. it's nice. it's also a smidge touristy. there's tons to do here, but somewhat surprisingly, the town itself is lacking in the way of beaches. as will become clear when we get some pictures up. so if you want to lounge on the sand in the sun, you have several choices -
1. take a boat to an island
2. take a bus an hour up the shore
3. take advantage of the 'lagoon' they built in the boardwalk

we have opted for choice 4 - don't go to the beach. tomorrow is snorkeling and diving on the great barrier reef (can't wait!) and the day after that will be an all day rainforest adventure. as yesterday was flying all day, and today is walking around and shopping, that's about all i have to say...

Australia: It gives a whole new meaning to 'stuffed olives'

Today was a study in scattering. Our various subgroups dispersed across the fair city of Adelaide, recombining and re-splitting by whim, circumstance, or malicious intent. The Adelaide veterans (Sean, Laura, and their parents) wandered the shopping district of the city, spending money fro and to (yes, i know), getting sore feet, meeting random aunts/siblings in cafes, and generally bumping into a lot of people because we instinctively try to pass on the right. The majority of the rest of the group (perhaps all, i didn't keep score) descended upon the aboriginal art museum, possibly other museums, and had a grand old time. At some point Andy wandered off, and Jenny got lost but found Andy, so they went to Glenelg instead. They completely failed to find the house where the veterans stayed last time (a condo is not a house), found a rather baffling mosaic instead, and some other palyndromic-city stuff as well.

A good time was had by all.

Tomorrow the under-30s depart for Cairns, and the majority of the remainders go on a wine 'tasting' tour of Barossa, a prolific wine producing region of Australia. Now, you may ask, do they produce prolific wine, or produce wine prolifically? We may never know. A simple hyphen would have solved everything, but that was too easy.

All attempt to post some or all of my 178 pictures have failed, because computers are vile, evil creatures that plot and conspire to interfere with our efforts. However, Jenny has posted some new pictures, so you can look at those instead.

redefining 'nothing' and 'nowhere'

you think you've been in the middle of nowhere. but you're wrong.

there's this plain in the middle of australia, which takes a day to cross by train, called the nullarbor (pronounced null-a-bore) plain. it means exactly what it says - no trees. oh, and nothing else either. don't believe me? look at this. this goes on for so long that there is a four-hundred-seventy something kilometer section of track that is absolutely flat and straight. (there is a town somewhere in there, named 'forest', that boasts a good hundred trees or so.)

i'm not trying to make it sounds like it wasn't fun. the plain was very pretty, spectacular sunsets and sunrises, and a lot of wildlife. we saw bunches of eagles and wild kangaroos. and we got to eat and sleep a lot, which is the best part of any vacation :)

and it's not entirely featureless. there's this gigantic hole in the middle of this plain in a place called kalgoorlie. they get a lot of gold out of this hole, which is why they've gone to all the trouble to dig it. the powers that be have decided that it is worth stopping for. so there's a bus tour of the town when the train stops there. at 11 pm. i don't know if anyone stayed awake for it, but all of our bunch paid our money and proceeded to doze through it. yet somehow everyone was awake for the story of the bartender who was losing business, and picked things up by making the standard uniform for his barmaids high heels - and nothing else. when told to fix this or lose his liquor license, he dressed them....in saran wrap.

so laura covered the excitement of today. in an effort to not be redundant, i'll shut up now.

australians are cool. they've got a few weirdnesses, like 1.5 hour time changes, my coffee with milk is a 'flat white', and 'entree' really means 'appetizer'. but they're all laid back and friendly, speak english, and their sense of humor is pretty much on par with ours. it makes getting around, and being here, very relaxing. and of course entertaining :)

and here's what you've all been waiting for...pictures! so far we've got a small selection from our assembly, perth, and train trip, but nothing more recent than yesterday. so quantity pictures, and shots of us cuddling with koalas and feeding kangaroos, will have to wait a day or two. enjoy!

"birds don't have hands." "yeah, but monkeys don't have wings!"

The blog finds us in a hotel in Adelaide. Most everyone has crashed yet again (this whole changing to the local timezone just isn't working out for us). I'm clinging to consciousness in order to post.

We completed our transit across the Nullarbor plain this morning, exiting the train in Adelaide at the cheery hour of 7:20 am. Fortunately, we'd all been awake since at least 4am, so it wasn't like we had to wake up and pack quickly to disembark. Today involved a visit to Cleland Wildlife Park, where Jenny and i got dive-bombed by some sadistic birds (with unfortunately good aim, my pants may never forgive me).

I assume my afore-mentioned sister will post a much more dramatic blog entry accounting for the train ride and our first day in Adelaide, but right now she's not asleep, she swears. She's encouraging me to get my pictures posted somewhere where she can post links, which i'm attempting to do at this very moment...

i think it's today everywhere now

so... the last two days seems to have been an exercise in getting 12 people to move in the same direction at the same time. not terribly easy, but we're figuring it out.

the flight from san francisco is long. very long. i knew this, but i didn't really understand it, until they announced the titles of the SIX movies they would be showing on the way. it works out pretty well tho, prety much everyone sleeps (or tries) for the first 8-10 hours, and then you're more than halfway there.

after we get to sydney, through passport control and customs, we got on another flight to perth - this one a piddly 5 hour trip, so no biggie. they thoughtfully split us all up on both flights, so we didn't bother the other passengers too much, and we're not sick of each other yet. the rather large woman who was supposed to sit between my and my uncle andy went to the steward and asked for an aisle seat, claiming claustrophobia. i switched with her without making a fuss, and got another offer of whatever i'd like from the beer cart. i thanked him, but didn't take him up on it - i had no idea what time it was really, but i didn't really think a beer would go with the breakfast they served.

we're getting the time change, very slowly. from california it's -9 hours, but tomorrow. like here it's 8 am sunday morning, which means for most of you it's 5 pm saturday. i think we all passed out at some point yesterday. most of us did it in our hotel rooms, i was the only one silly enough to succumb on a bench at the natural history museum :)

woke up in time for dinner, and to have a beer in the bar and watch australian rules football. would take far too long to explain, so ask us later.

perth looks amazingly like the bay area...kind of dry, lots of eucalyptus trees, same weather (if you pretend it's march) but the sun is in the north!

i've been trying to use my GPS but with no luck...laura claims i need to hold it upside down...