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Australia is a fabulous place to visit with plenty of beautiful beaches, mountains, deserts, and cities to explore. We found that in addition to the landscape, the people are a big part of the country’s allure. They are friendly, outgoing, and embrace life with an enthusiasm that is refreshing for overworked, stressed out Americans to behold. They can teach us a thing or two about enjoying life and living it to its fullest…and they can kick the snot out of us on the rugby field. Here are the top 6 things we learned during our month down under:

1. Real men are not afraid to put a -y on the end of their words, e.g. barbeque=barby, breakfast=breaky, football=footy, biker=bikey, tough guy=baddy, surfer=surfy, sunglasses=sunnies, or to call chickens chooks.

2. Everything closes early…even earlier than in New Zealand and even earlier on Saturdays.

3. Be sure to book ahead if you’re visiting during school holidays.

4. Sleeping in the car isn’t a cakewalk, but there are worse things you could do.

5. Crocs rule! (We’ll miss you, Steve)

6. What constitutes cussing is relative. Just because a few dicey expletives are commonplace here, don’t expect to get to use them at home kids!

Technorati Tags: Australia, Family travel, Round the world, Round-the-world, RTW

We LOVED our time in Australia and can’t wait to get back sometime soon. We covered only a tiny region of the vast continent and still could have done much more in this one area. Here are our favorite activities.

1. Asher — Go on a bushwalk at Richard’s house
2. Kieran — Play laser tag in Kawana Waters
3. McKane — Run with ferrel children in halls and elevators and go to the stream at Richard’s house
4. Dax — Surf the many beaches of Caloundra
5. Anne — Drive through the Warrumbungles
6. Tom — Bodyboard at the same beaches where Dax surfs

Technorati Tags: Australia, Bodyboarding, Family travel, Caloundra, Round the world, Round-the-world, RTW, Sunshine Coast, Surfing, Warrumbungles

Australian food was familiar and for the most part yummy. You can tell we suffer from chronic sweet tooth, as three of us chose candy for our favorites. But this is probably fair, since the candy aisles in Australian supermarkets are like nothing you’ve ever seen–long, luscious, and addictive. You used to be able to get Aussie licorice (yum!) at Trader Joe’s in the States but we’re not sure if they still have it. It’s well worth the effort to track some down. I think we’ll start ordering ours via the internet once we get home.

1. Asher –Teriyaki chicken shish kabobs on the barbie
2. Kieran — Violet Crumble candy bars
3. McKane — Meatasourus pizza at Dominoes with regular sauce (”Unleash the bloke within”)
4. Dax — Red Rooster chicken sandwich
5. Anne — Soft raspberry licorice
6. Tom — Soft black licorice

Technorati Tags: Australia, Family travel, food, Licorice, Dominoes, Round the world, Round-the-world, RTW

I love the sun. Warmth and light are good. When I got to LA after 27 years of living in places that lacked consistent, year-round sunshine I was in heaven. Given this proclivity for all things solar, I was naturally drawn to Queensland, Australia’s own sunshine state. With an average of 300 sunny days per year, people come here, soak up the sunshine, get happy, and never leave. But Queensland’s greatest asset is also its greatest danger. Australia has the world’s highest incidence of skin cancer, with 1 out of every 2 residents suffering from the malady at some point in their lives. Queensland takes home the prize among the Aussie states with 2500 cases of deadly melanoma each year. Queenslanders are no slouches however; they take their sun seriously and probably lead the world in sun awareness as well.

We began to suspect this when we drove into Caloundra and discovered an abundance of skin cancer screening clinics. They are literally everywhere and for Queenslanders visiting them may be as routine as picking up the dry cleaning or getting the oil changed. Pharmacies here sell sunscreen not by the ounce but by the liter. Even Richard, our friend who fears no venomous creature, is meticulous about slathering his kids in sunblock. After years of sleeping on the beach and surfing unprotected, he makes annual visits to the dermatologist to get “cut up,” or have cancerous and precancerous spots removed.

We were impressed by the Queenslanders devotion to sun protection, so I decided to take the camera our last day on the beach to see what I could find in the way of sun gear. Here’s what I came up with:

Then there were these people who chose not to wear hats, but for the most part did an admirable job of keeping the sunscreen applied.

Next stop, Korea.

Technorati Tags: Australia, Caloundra, Family travel, Round the world, Round-the-world, RTW, Sunshine Coast

Last Thursday we made our long awaited visit to Steve and Terri Irwin’s Australia Zoo…the inside of the zoo that is. You may remember that we spent some quality time in the parking lot in September. We had promised Kieran he would see koalas and after many fruitless attempts to find them in the wild, including a visit to Gunnedah, “the koala capital of Australia,” we knew the zoo would finally deliver. In truth, we hoped for much more. Prior to the Croc Hunter’s death on September 5th, the Irwins had declared that their goal was to make their Australia Zoo “the world’s premier zoological destination.” We weren’t sure what that meant, but since we have been to many zoos including the famed San Diego Zoo, we knew it would take a lot to impress us. What we found was very different than what we had expected.

The park is relatively small and intimate as far as zoos go. The focus is Australian animals but has expanded in recent years to include Asian elephants and tigers. We had no interest in these extra-contnental critters so after the snake, bird, and croc shows we headed right for the native displays. We fawned over the wombats, pet the kangaroos, and at long last cuddled the koalas. (It turns out kangaroos are softer!) We were fascinated by the story of Harriet, the Galapagos tortoise who passed away just a few months ago. She was originally captured by Charles Darwin…yes, the Charles Darwin…in 1835 and had been in residence at the zoo since 1987. She died at the ripe old age of 176. Our other favorites were the cassowaries, freakishly dangerous birds that build huge mounds of debris as their nests, and the Komodo dragons. Tom and I have seen both of these in the wild, but it was the kids’ first time experiencing both.

The vibe of the zoo was pleasant but weird. Everywhere we looked there were images of Steve–Toyota ads, billboards, cardboard cutouts, programs, tickets. Film clips of his antics were interspersed throughout the shows. One of his old trucks sat out as a prop for kids to play on. The gifts shop was selling a line of surfwear tragically branded “Steve Lives” as well as action figures bearing his countenance. Despite these constant reminders, there was no official allusion to his passing. The impromptu memorials that sat outside the zoo in the weeks after his death had been tucked away in a secluded hallway under the Crocoseum. It was almost as if the staff hadn’t figured out how to respond to his absence and as such were just going on as if nothing had happened.

After our day at the Australia Zoo, it was evident that the Irwins are what bring it to life. It is not just a place that houses exotic animals; it is the realization of a lifelong dream to instill in people a love of wildlife and a desire to fight for its conservation. I suspect that in the coming years Terri and little Bindi will find a way to continue Steve’s work and ensure his spirit pervades the zoo. It may still become the world’s premier zoological destination, but as I ambled through the old croc pools that still form the heart of the park, I couldn’t help but wish I had visited ten years earlier when the zoo was just an isolated reptile park and Steve was a zany young bloke hosting the daily croc shows. Every now and then you are charmed to find such an undiscovered treasure. We’ll let you know the next time we do.

Technorati Tags: Australia, Australia Zoo, Family travel, Crocodile Hunter, Round the world, Round-the-world, RTW, Steve Irwin

After much anticipation on the part of everyone involved, the designated hour for our date to build castles with our new friend Richard, his kids Kylie, Daniel, Mitchell, and Robert, and Kylie’s friend Ebony arrived. Tom and McKane met them at the main entrance to King’s Beach. McKane and the girls made the short walk to the apartment to fetch the rest of us. It probably took us 15 minutes to get everybody in their beach gear and collect the appropriate gear–sunscreen, keys, towels, and of course, camera. In that time, Tom and Richard had already accomplished this:

Construction proceeded quickly with Richard applying impressive design principles to his creation. He mused on the pyramids and asked whether we were going to Read the rest of this entry »

The first vacation Tom and I took together was during Dead Week at Yale, one of the two weeks between the end of finals and graduation. On this particular week nothing happens around campus, hence the colorful moniker. The second week, more tamely called Senior Week, is filled with picnics, dances, parties, and other bizarre rites of passage. (This is a place after all where we get clay pipes at graduation.) During Dead Week, most seniors head south from Connecticut to warmer, beachier locales. Most of our friends went to South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach. Tom and I headed down by way of Pennsylvania (don’t ask…let’s just say I’ve learned not fall asleep when Tom is navigating through parts unknown to him) and Durham, North Carolina where we stopped to join my original college roommate from Duke, Jennifer Stimpson nee Massalon, for her graduation. We had a great time during our week at the beach, especially since there was a Harley Davidson rally going on at the same time. One of the highlights for Tom, however, was getting to see Pedro’s South of the Border, the roadside tourist mecca at the North Carolina/South Carolina border that lures motorists with hundreds of enticing neon billboards. One of our favorite photos of all time is that of our good friend Michael “Otis” Roberts, our traveling companion for the drive home, standing with a giant Pedro. (If I were home, I’d scan it in and post it—check back next August.)

So as it turns out, Australians also have a fascination bordering on an obsession with giant roadside objects d’art. The subject of many of an Aussie road trip, these structures have figured prominently on our rather limited drives through Queensland and New South Wales. As huge fans of Arrested Development, which boasted its own giant Banana Stand, we were excited to see The Big Banana in Coff’s Harbor. (Hint: if you love us, you can send us the third season DVDs, which came out in the US two days after we left.) It is reputedly the first and certainly one of the finest of Australia’s Big Things.

Just hours after leaving the banana behind, we found The Big Prawn in Read the rest of this entry »

Four days ago we picked up stakes and made the big move from the more elegant, understated Moffat Beach to the busier, flashier King’s Beach. From our new third floor apartment we have spectacular views to the wave-stacked ocean just 100 feet from our doorstep. The water is so close that with no view of the ground below I start to think I am on a cruise ship. The most fascinating feature of our new locale is that we have a bird’s eye view into the busy Brisbane shipping channel. Every hour or so a fabulously gigantic Asian freighter loaded with ginger or pineapples or possibly electronics plies the waters outside our windows. These are not just big boats; they are vessels of the imagination and provide a welcome interruption to the endless ocean horizon. I can’t speak for the kids (they get mad when I do), but when a ship slides into view from the south, I immediately jump on board in my mind and follow it to some distant exotic destination. Then I remind myself that in just a few days I’ll once again be headed to just such places.

Caloundra has been wonderful for us. Though we get stressed out at the smallest glitch (a definite hazard of an undertaking of this magnitude), we have slowed down our pace long enough to get to know some wonderful people. As promised, Naz came over and taught our family Read the rest of this entry »