Today is the one year anniversary of when we hopped in the car and said goodbye to Las Vegas on our way to the Grand Canyon and beyond.  While this year has seen it’s ups and down, the experience of traveling has been tremendous and I am still often in disbelief at all of the places we have visited.  So many of my dreams have been realized in the past year and for that I am grateful.

While the idea of leaving everything behind and traveling around the world may seem crazy to some, my thought is, “If not now, then when?”  I have seen too many of my friends taken away before their time to put off living life to it’s fullest.  I realize just how blessed we have been to not only have the idea to live this dream, but to be able to actually do it.

With that said, traveling for a year has taken a toll on us.  At this point fatigue sets in much quicker than a year ago and from time to time we need to concentrate in order to get excited about things.  We have learned that many places offer similar experiences and that it is alright if we don’t experience everything.  This in particular has been challenging for me, since I am the type of person who does want to do everything!

At the beginning of the trip we weren’t sure how everything was going to work out with Shawn Reece’s schooling.  While we have had our struggles with getting him to concentrate on doing school work, his skill level seems to be where it needs to for his grade level and the experiences he has gained from this trip are absolutely priceless.

Currently we are in Cambodia visiting the world famous ancient temples of Angkor Wat.  From the first time I laid eyes on pictures of this special place it has been a dream of mine to visit.  We are planning to travel around Southeast Asia for another 45 days or so before visiting Hong Kong and then moving westward, probably to India.

The plans as of now see us returning to the United States around September or October of this year.  Originally we planned a two year trip, but we have always said we would be open to whatever amount of time it takes.  A year and a half is about what seems right to us at this point and believe me, I appreciate what a tremendous opportunity it has been to take a break from normal day to day life for this long.

While the updates haven’t come as often lately, I assure you that I have continued to account for our lives daily.  The hold up has not been in me writing, but in finding the time to edit and publish the posts.  Be patient, because by the end I will have accounted for every day of our trip.  I hope this not only helps other families in their trip planning, but also serves as a detailed way for us to jog our memory as the trip fades into the past.

Most of all I want to say thank you to everyone who has commented and emailed us during the past year.  I hope you enjoy the blog and reading about our adventures.  Please continue to keep in touch as the communication really helps me keep the motivation to continue writing.  Hearing from our friends and family and meeting the new people who have found us through this blog has been such a tremendous experience.  We just want to thank everyone for being there and being a part of our lives.  Hakuna Matata!

The Coomer Family

Days 273-274 Friday-Saturday January 18-19, 2008
Sydney, Australia

Sadly the story coming from Friday and Saturday was the poor weather in Sydney.  Heavy rain and clouds engulfed the city and it was all we could do to get out during breaks from the downpours to see the city.  Luckily our hotel was very close to a weekend indoor market and we started our day on Friday there.

The Paddy’s Market is an indoor market located adjacent to Chinatown in Sydney.  All it really amounts to is a flea market or swap meet housing clothing stalls and cheap souvenir shops.   Since it really was only a stone’s throw from the hotel, we added this as a destination on our list for the day since we were obviously not going to get very far from the hotel.  We were a bit disappointed with the seemingly overpriced fare and didn’t stay for very long.

From the market we walked to our favorite food court in Chinatown and then spent a couple of hours in our hotel room before venturing back out.  We decided to visit the Powerhouse Museum which was located fifteen minutes by foot from our hotel.  Luckily most of the walk was covered as we fought through light rain to get there.

Unfortunately, we didn’t realize the museum closed at 5pm and arrived shortly before 4pm.  Since we knew that it was today or never, Jasmine and I decided to go ahead and purchase tickets to the hodgepodge of a museum.  The museum itself focuses itself on the topic of Human Ingenuity which brings it in so many directions.  Inside we found displays on inventions, furniture design, transportation and of course technology and the internet.  Although we didn’t have much time inside, we were quite upset when the staff told us we had to leave shortly before 4:45pm.  When you say you close at 5pm and you charge a hefty price for admission, then you close at 5pm.

For the rest of Friday night we didn’t do anything else but head back to Chinatown for dinner.  The food court we found provided plenty of variety of food at what seems to be the best prices in Sydney.  We averaged spending only around $15 AUD total for the three of us, which in this overpriced big city is quite a bargain.

We awoke on Saturday morning with hope that the weather had improved, but found it not to be the case.  Since I had figured that it wouldn’t, I had a backup plan.  The Sydney Monorail ran adjacent to our hotel and the station was a two minute walk away.  Jasmine and I agreed to all day tickets to the monorail and use them to get around the inner city to see some sights.  The rain was once again troubling.

As we walked past the Sydney Entertainment Center to the monorail station, a sign outside was advertising the Sydney Kings basketball game for that night.  Since I love basketball so much and had been dying to see some live sports action, Jasmine agreed that we could see the game since tickets weren’t very expensive.  The game was at 7:30pm and with tickets in my hand we headed to the monorail to start our day.

Once aboard the monorail I was rather happy.  As you may know by now I have a thing for trains and monorails hold a special place in my heart.  Maybe it is the Disney lover inside of me, but flying through the city, looking down from above is a cool experience.  We exited the monorail near the Queen Victoria Building.

The Queen Victoria Building was constructed in 1897 to house an indoor market.  Over the years the building has been converted to an upscale shopping mall.  While the shopping was of little interest to us, the small architectural details along with the beautiful tile murals provided an interesting sight.  We spent twenty minutes walking around before heading to another mall to eat lunch at the food court.

After lunch we hopped back on the monorail another stop so that we could visit Hyde Park again.  This time we wanted to see the Anzac Memorial which was built in memory of all the soldiers who fought and died in war.  The memorial is beautiful from the outside and the inside of the building impresses as well.  I find it important to honor these types of places as I am quite aware of all of the blessings and freedoms I have in my life because of sacrifices others have made.  The fact that we are on this trip is proof enough for that.

When we finished at the Anzac Memorial, the three of us walked back to the monorail station and proceeded to the Darling Harbour stop adjacent to the National Maritime Museum.  This particular museum is free as long as you don’t want to tour one of the three ships docked outside.  Given that the fees to visit the ships were rather prohibitive and that the weather wasn’t very nice, we chose just to visit the free portion of the museum indoors.

The National Maritime Museum is housed in a beautiful building right on Darling Harbour.  Once inside we weaved our way through scattered exhibits on different historical feats in Australian Maritime history.  Perhaps the most interesting artifact on display was the Spirit of Australia which is the fastest boat in the world.  Other exhibits we liked were small scale replicas of old wooden ships and a jellyfish exhibit.  The museum was quite interesting and we ended up spending over an hour inside including taking in a children’s film that nothing to do with ships or water.

We were pretty tired by this point in the day and took the monorail back to our hotel where we got some rest before heading across the street to catch the basketball game at 7:30pm.  The Sydney Kings were playing the team from West Sydney and while I don’t know what the score was, the level of play was surprisingly good, perhaps what you might see in a college game.  We all thoroughly enjoyed it and agreed it was a good use of our night.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to improve according to the weather forecasters.  If this is the case we will get out on the water by taking a harbor cruise.  We have been saving this for good weather and hope we at least get one day of sunshine during our time in Sydney.  Cross your fingers!

The Coomer Family

Day 272 Thursday January 17, 2008
Sydney, Australia

After looking out the window on Thursday morning, we weren’t sure how much sightseeing we would be able to accomplish because of the weather.  The one thing we needed to do before anything else was return the rental car.  Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do after the drama on Wednesday evening was drive again in the city, but what choice did I have?  Before leaving the hotel, I located the rental car office on a map, but was sure that dropping the car off wouldn’t be as simple as it appeared.

Once we were out on Sydney’s busy streets my suspicions proved correct as the rental car agency was tricky to get to.  The office, while addressed on a major street, had to be approached from a small one way street behind it.  Once I figured this out, I had already passed this street, so as soon as possible I turned left so that I could turn around and make my way back.  Unfortunately, I soon found myself on the entrance to one of tunnels that run under the city.  By the time I was able to exit from the tunnel a few kilometers down the road, we were quite far from the Hertz location.  Luckily we emerged in a spot I had driven through on Wednesday and I was able to navigate my way back to Hertz.  The second time I didn’t miss the small turn off and we finally got the car back safely.

At this point our day hadn’t yet even started and I wanted to put my head between my legs in a ball and cry. (Perhaps a small exaggeration!)  The only thing that put a smile on my face at this point was the realization that I wasn’t going to have to drive in Sydney anymore!  Ok, I embellished a little again.  I was really smiling because we were in Sydney.  Sydney is one of many places that I have always wanted to visit.    Since Hyde Park was adjacent to the Hertz, we began our Sydney adventure there, taking a picture in front of a fountain and then making our way to the New South Wales Art Gallery.

In approaching the art gallery we had high hopes.  In fact, the gallery itself contains plenty of wonderful art, but nothing truly unique and we only spent around a half an hour in its corridors.  I think our disinterest stemmed from a combination of us visiting so many art galleries in the past ten months and the fact that we were so close to our first view of the Sydney Opera House.  Before we could reach said opera house, we walked past the Hyde Park Barracks museum and took a tour of the New South Wales Parliament House.

The NSW Parliament House turned out to be much the same as the Parliament House in Canberra.  After being allowed to wander around the common areas for a few minutes, when enough people had gathered, we were given a tour of both the upper and lower houses which were dressed in the traditional red and green.  While we didn’t see anything truly spectacular, it was a nice diversion.

After leaving the NSW Parliament House we didn’t have anything in between us and the opera house except for the Botanical Gardens.  To be honest, we didn’t really stop to smell the roses and proceeded past a children’s play and directly to the shore.  Just before reaching said shore, through the trees in the distance we finally saw the marvelous Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Before we could make our way to the Opera House, we wandered out to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair which sits sticking out on a point in the harbor.  The spot is named after one of the former governor’s wives who used to sit there and stare out at the harbor.  From Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, we took several more pictures of the harbor and skyline and then made our way along the waterfront, through the almost endless number of runners to the Opera House.  The walk from Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair to the Opera House took around 10 minutes and was wonderful even given the weather.

Since we have six days to explore Sydney, we opted not to tour the Opera House today.  Instead, after marveling at the building, we took a few pictures on the steps and then proceeded to walk through the main ferry terminal, Circular Quay on our way to the Rocks District.

The Rocks District is the oldest part of Sydney and home of the spot where the first British settlers landed in Australia.  As expected, The Rocks is rich with history and has several interesting buildings and a charm not found anywhere else in the city.  This area is also dominated by the Harbour Bridge as it towers overhead on its way into the city.  While walking around the area, we passed under the bridge several times.

During most of the day we fought the weather as it rained off and on.  As we finished walking around the Rocks District, the rain started coming down in droves.  This, combined with the fact that it was almost 2:30pm and that we still hadn’t eaten lunch, led to us all being a little cranky.  Since all of the restaurants in the Rocks District were touristy and out of our price range, we began the thirty minute walk back to our hotel with the hopes that we would find a suitable place to eat along the way.

The one thing that Australia certainly has a surplus of is food courts and luckily we found a decent one on our way back to the hotel.  The food court was located in the basement of an office building and was only open for lunch to cater to the workers.  Since it was just minutes before their closing, several of the shops had food at good discounts and we were able to score three salads for a very good price.  Before long, the leafy meals were in our bellies and we were back on our way.

By the time we finished lunch, the rain had slowed down a bit and the walk back to the hotel was bearable. From the food court we walked through the Darling Harbour area.  Even though it was still wet, Shawn Reece found a brief distraction in a playground, before we were forced to move on because of the rain.  Darling Harbour was home to a lot of the activities during the Olympics and seemed like a nice place, but the rain worsened once again and we were forced to leave it for another day.

We finally returned to our hotel around 3:30pm and the weather forced us to stay inside for the rest of the night.  We have so many places planned to visit during our six days in Sydney, but the weather may dictate otherwise, since the forecast doesn’t look very good for the rest of our time here.  At this point, all we can do is pray that sunny days will return.  On a good note, we found a wonderful Food Court next to our hotel in Chinatown.  While the day was a mixed bag, just seeing the Opera House was enough for me to call it a success.

The Coomer Family

Days 270-271 Tuesday-Wednesday January 15-16, 2008
Canberra to Sydney, Australia

Did I mention before how much we like Canberra?  The capital of Australia turned out to be an incredible city.  Tuesday we set out to see a few more of the sites around town.  After leaving the hotel, we started our day at the Old Parliament House.  This undersized building housed Australia’s government until the new much larger Parliament House opened in the 1970’s.

After finding a place to park, we headed inside and were immediately greeted with a smile.  At the front entrance, Shawn Reece was given a paper with a puzzle on it.  He was told to solve the puzzle by using the information he learned as we made our way through the different areas of the building.  The lady told him that if he used his investigative skills and found the correct answer that she would give him a prize.  The prize proved to be motivation enough for Shawn Reece and worked to keep him interested throughout the tour.

Unlike the day before in the new building, at the Old Parliament House we were allowed to wander around on a self-guided tour.  Most of the major rooms we visited were similar to their counterparts in the New Parliament House, only smaller.  For example, we saw the House of Representatives colored in the traditional green as well as the Senate Chambers which were decorated in the traditional red.  Both rooms were quite a bit more “cozy” and old fashioned than their more modern counterparts.

Since this building is no longer used to house Australia’s government, it has been turned into a sort of museum.   The benefit of this is that many of the areas that are off limits in the new Parliament House are accessible here.  Perhaps the most interesting part of visiting the Old Parliament House though is the vintage 1970’s décor.  From the prime minister’s office to the opposition wing, the building is full of old wooden desks and typewriters.  It is decorated the same way it was when they ceased using it for day to day governmental affairs.

On our self-guided tour we spent very little time in many of the rooms.  Of course, we found the Prime Minister’s office rather interesting and our favorite part of the tour was sitting in the Senate President’s chair in the hallway.  After an hour we had “investigated” most of the areas pretty thoroughly and Shawn Reece had solved his puzzle, so he claimed his prize and we left.

From the Old Parliament House we headed to the National Art Gallery which is located nearby.  The National Art Gallery is housed in a modern concrete building.  As is fairly standard in these types of museums, this gallery houses both traditional and modern art.  We found that most of the exhibits feature Australian artists.  For us, the most interesting section concentrated on the many different styles of Aboriginal art.

By the time we left the art gallery and got some lunch at a nearby mall, it was well into the afternoon.  At this point we decided to visit the National Library where I took advantage of their free Wi-Fi access.  This worked out well since I needed to work on the website and Shawn Reece had school work to complete. After leaving the library, we headed back to our hotel and settled in for the night.

When Wednesday morning came around, only one thought was on our mind.  We were excited that this was to be the day that we would finally get to Sydney.  After loading up the car, we decided to squeeze one more activity in before leaving Canberra.  On the way out of town, we visited the National Museum of Australia.  The National Museum of Australia is another of the numerous free attractions in Canberra.  The outside of the museum is quite modern and very attractive to look at.

Once inside the museum, we made our way to an interactive exhibit where each of us was asked to build a vehicle of the future.  Before doing this, everyone’s picture was taken and then imprinted on their car.  It was a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, this was probably the most fun we had at the museum.  A couple of the major exhibits were closed for updating, so other than our futuristic vehicle fun, we only had a couple of areas on Australian history to look at which didn’t really hold our attention.  Before long we were back in the car and on the highway to Sydney

After looking at hotel prices in Sydney, we pinned down just how many days we wanted to stay in the city and decided to bid for a hotel on Priceline.  This enabled us to get a good deal and to stay in a decent hotel.  Our bid “won” us a room for six nights in a Holiday Inn near Darling Harbor in Sydney’s Central Business District.  The hotel ended up having a great location once we actually made it there in our car.  You see, getting to the Holiday Inn in the rental car did not prove to be as simple as it seemed.

The drive from Canberra went pretty smooth until we hit Sydney’s city limits.  Once Sydney was within sight, it took us an hour to get into the CBD because of heavy traffic.  I had done research prior to leaving Canberra and knew how to get to the hotel, but the online map didn’t tell me that the Holiday Inn is located on a one way street which can only be accessed by making a left hand turn. (Equivalent to a right turn in America) It literally took us around thirty minutes once we located the street to get going in the right direction to make the left turn.  To say I was frustrated is a MASSIVE understatement.

Originally we were going to drop our bags at the hotel and return the car on Wednesday evening so that we could be free to sightsee on Thursday.   However, after the driving fiasco, my nerves were shot and the last thing I wanted to do was get back on Sydney’s horrifically crazy streets.  I quickly decided that we would return the rental on Thursday morning, since it wasn’t due back until noon anyway.  Our hotel was located adjacent to Chinatown, so after settling into our room we headed to a nearby food court for some Chinese food before packing it in for the night.  We are EXTREMELY excited to be in Sydney and can’t wait to get a glimpse of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

The Coomer Family

Day 269 Monday January 14, 2008
Canberra, Australia

We had a lot to do today so it was an early start for us.  The Australia War Memorial is an enormous museum dedicated to all of the soldiers who have served Australia since the countries’ inception.  Upon arriving, we immediately drew comparisons to Washington DC as the memorial is built across a long open stretch from the Parliament Building.  While walking from the carpark to the museum’s entrance, we noticed hundreds of plaques embedded in the concrete, each memorializing a different regiment or unit.

Just inside from the entrance, the first two areas we came across were focused on World Wars I and II respectively.  These areas held hundreds of historical artifacts from the wars.  Also, in what was perhaps the most interesting part, dozens of dioramas recreated some of the more famous battles.  We took our time working through these two areas as there was a lot of information to take in.

After leaving the World War I & II areas, we entered a section of the building that houses old military vehicles.  Once inside, we walked past everything from jeeps to World War I era airplanes.  Most interesting for us though was the World War II Japanese Mini sub that was recently discovered and brought to the surface in Sydney Harbor.  It was sunk during an attack on Sydney during WWII.  Every ten minutes the lights went down and the museum recreated the events of the Japanese attack on Sydney through a specialized light and sound show.  It was very interesting.

While the submarine was cool, Shawn Reece was chomping at the bit to go to the Discovery Zone.  The Discover Zone is an area that enables kids to experience what it was like to be a soldier in an interactive way.  For example, in the World War I portion, Shawn Reece dressed up as a soldier and communicated via Morse code from a bunker, while in the Vietnam section, he dressed up as a helicopter pilot and flew over the Southeast Asian jungles.

By this point we had been at the museum for two hours and still had sections on the Vietnam War and the modern era wars to visit.  We decided to quickly walk through these sections, opting to only take in their major displays.  Finally, after two and a half hours at this brilliant museum, we headed back outside to sit on a tank. I had seen it on the way in and couldn’t wait to get on top!  Jasmine finally got me down after a few minutes so we could head over to the Parliament House.

Tours of the Australia Parliament Building are given once an hour and when we called a couple of days earlier, the information service said that we didn’t need a booking.  After getting some lunch, we drove over to the Parliament House and went through metal detectors before being given a tour time.  Once inside, we explored the large marble filled lobby for a few minutes before heading upstairs to start our tour.

The tour itself lasted about an hour.  During this time our guide took us through the corridors and hallways of the Parliament Building as he explained how the Australian government works.  He also did a great job of explaining how it differs from similar governments around the world, most notably the British government from which it stems.

About thirty minutes into the tour, we were ushered into the lower house (House of Representatives) which is decorated in a traditional green color. (The traditions of using green and red come from England)  From here the prime minister is elected and laws are introduced.  After a fifteen minute talk about the rooms different details, we were led back across the building to the Senate or upper house.

In much the same way, the upper house is dressed in a traditional red color.  The Senate oversees the lower house and reviews all bills before they become law.  Instead of using a system like is in place in England where members are appointed to the Senate, the Australians adopted the American system where each state gets equal representation and Senators are elected.  In Australia, each of the states gets six senators with the two major territories each getting two.  In this way, the Australian government is a mish mash of systems from other countries

Our tour concluded in the Senate chambers where we were the set free to explore the grounds on our own.  Since the Parliament Building is built into the side of a hill, it is possible to stand on the roof.  Our guide told us that the building was designed this way so common people could always be above the politicians.  After looking through the dozens of portraits of past prime ministers in the corridor, we boarded an elevator up to the roof, where brilliant views of Canberra awaited us.  We also got a close up of view of the massive Australian flag flying overhead.  Before long, we headed back down stairs and eventually to our car.

The final thing we wanted to do on Monday was visit the Telstra Tower.  The Telstra Tower is built into the side of a hill overlooking Canberra.  It was mainly built as an antenna tower, but an observation deck and restaurant were also constructed when it opened.  We had seen the tower from the Botanical Gardens the day before and couldn’t resist a trip up there.  After paying admission, we boarded the elevator and thirty seconds later emerged at the top.

From the observation deck we could see the range of scapes that are in and around Canberra. On our left, we saw the central business district with smaller residential neighborhoods in the distance.  Straight ahead of us laid the government buildings surrounded by massive lakes.  Finally, to the right. we saw undisturbed rolling hills and mountains with a few small lakes thrown in.  Being able to see it from high above enabled us to gain a new appreciate for the city.  The scenery was quite stunning.

After Monday’s varied activities, we still had a lot to do in Canberra and Tuesday would prove to be another busy day.  We only had the car for a few more days and the realization that we would be in Sydney very soon started to set in.  So far Canberra has turned out to be a huge surprise.  In my head, I keep drawing comparisons between Canberra and Washington DC.  All I can say is that is quite a compliment!

We want to thank everyone for the comments and emails. Your support is truly appreciated and keeps us going.

The Coomer Family

Day 268 Sunday January 13, 2008
Canberra, Australia

As I mentioned last time, Sunday was the “big game” and I rented a hotel room with satellite television to see it.  I had done my research and found out that the game was going to be on Fox Sports 2 here in Australia.  Naturally, I booked the hotel based on them advertising having Fox Sports.  Unfortunately, when I arrived and checked into the hotel, it became evident that the rooms had ESPN and not Fox Sports.  A little note mentioned that Fox Sports was available in the sports bar downstairs.  The bar was open every morning from 11am the note said.  This didn’t work for me since the game started at 8:30am.  At this point I was starting to feel a little anxiety.

Luckily my years of living have taught me to calm down and ask for help when needed.  As we headed out of the hotel for dinner, I chatted with the nice lady at the hotel’s front desk and asked her if it was possible for me to go to the bar before it opened.  She told me, “No problem” and that she would leave a note for the morning staff.  I was excited, but a little weery as these things don’t always go as smooth as possible.  The next morning, I woke up extra early to head down to the bar.  I figured if there were any problems we would have ample time to resolve them before kickoff.  When I enquired at the front desk, they were already expecting me and I thought to myself, “Great service!”

After offering some coffee, a nice lady escorted me into the bar area where she proceeded to turn on a couple of televisions.  Unfortunately, she had never operated the complicated equipment and had no idea which remote or box controlled which tv.  After spending almost twenty minutes fooling around with it, she finally got the idea to call an off duty bartender who explained it all to her.  Fortunately, about five minutes before the game started, I was in business!

It is ancient history by the time you read this, but the Packers defeated the Seattle Seahawks 42-20.  By the time the game ended and I headed back upstairs to take a shower it was around 1:30pm.  Jasmine wasn’t going to let me keep us inside for the rest of the day, so we decided to visit the National Botanical Gardens, since it seemed like a fun thing to do.

The botanical gardens in Canberra are located a couple of kilometers outside of the CBD.  In fact, most everything is pretty spread out in Australia’s purpose built capital city.  Upon arrival, we opted to follow a marked circular path on a one hour tour of the gardens.  The path took us through typical Australian landscapes including a mocked up northern rainforest, dried out outback landscape and of course native bushland.  The circular path helped us cover everything in the garden without confusion.  This was very nice, since the layouts of gardens in other cities have not been so easy to navigate.

After finishing at the gardens we went to the main shopping mall in Canberra to walk around for a while.  Our agenda for Monday was filled to the brim with exciting activities.  We would start at the Australia War Memorial before taking a tour of the Parliament House and admiring the wonderful views of Canberra from the Telstra Tower.  After a few days of not doing much of anything, we were excited to have a full plate once again!

We want to thank everyone for the comments and emails. Your support is truly appreciated and keeps us going.

The Coomer Family

Days 266-267 Friday-Saturday January 11-12, 2008
Mildura to Canberra, Australia

I hate to sound like a broken record, but the weather on Friday made the Australian Outback feel like hell.  Before leaving Mildura for browner pastures, we stopped on the edge of town at Orange World, an orchard that provides tours along with housing the proverbial gift shop.  While we didn’t stay for a tour, a fresh bag of oranges was just what the doctor ordered for us.  We also managed to take a couple of silly photos outside.  It was just too hot a day to spend more than a couple of minutes outside, so we left before very long.

Unfortunately, Orange World was probably the highlgiht of our day on Friday as we didn’t do much else.  Since to drive from Mildura to Canberra was too long a distance to cover in one day, we decided to stop for the night in the small town of Hay.  Hay has a population of a couple of thousand who for the most part live adjacent to the main street.  Honestly, we thought the drive from Mildura would take a bit longer and found ourselves in Hay much earlier than we expected.

Hay looked like a ghost town when we arrived at 2 o’clock in the afternoon.  The holiday park was happy to have us check in because there wasn’t anyone else around.  After hopping inside the cabin and turning on the A/C so it would cool off the room, we headed to town for a walk.  In lieu of walking the four blocks to town center, we opted to drive and quickly found parking on the main street.  Once outside, it was evident that everyone else was doing the smart thing and staying inside in the 42 degree weather.

It was getting a little late by this time and we were hungry, so we chose to eat some fish ‘n chips at a local takeaway before walking around for twenty minutes and heading back to the car.  The prospect of sitting around the cabin still wasn’t appealing, but being outside in the heat was even less so.  Before driving back to the cabin we did make a sidetrack to a local reserve, but it didn’t contain us for long.

By the time Saturday morning came, we were excited.  You see, we were finally going to drive out of the desert.  During our three days in the outback we didn’t see any kangaroos (except for the odd dead one on the side of the road).  In fact, we didn’t see much of anything else either.  Of course the heat filled days kept all of the animals hiding away and I guess for now we are going to have to rely on seeing kangaroos and other Aussie animals in zoos and animal parks.

We arrived in Canberra in the early afternoon.  After much discussion, we decided to book a somewhat nice hotel for the first two nights in Australia’s capital so that we would have satellite television.  I wanted to catch the Green Bay Packers playing the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL playoffs and the only channel broadcasting the game was Fox Sports.  While I did manage to see the game, it was almost a disaster.  More on that next time!

We want to thank everyone for the comments and emails. Your support is truly appreciated and keeps us going.

The Coomer Family

Days 264-265 Wednesday-Thursday January 9-10, 2008
Adelaide to Mildura, Australia

Wednesday was the first day that we ventured into the Australian Outback.  While the drive through seemingly endless desert was highly anticipated by all of us, we still had a few places to see in Adelaide before getting on our way.  In order to partake in the two things in Adelaide on our agenda and make it to our destination by nightfall, we were forced to stick to a pretty tight schedule.  This meant another early start.

Upon arriving in Adelaide we found out that Haighs, a local chocolate maker gives free tours of their factory on a regular basis.  When we called, they booked us into a spot at 1:30pm, which meant that we had the morning free.  This plan worked out perfectly because the other place we wanted to see before leaving was the Adelaide Zoo and three hours seemed to be just the right amount of time to do it.

We arrived at the Adelaide Zoo around 10am.  The zoo has an ideal location, as it sits adjacent to the botanical gardens in the middle of the city.  During our near three hours of touring it, we saw a variety of animals including pelicans, monkeys, zebras, meerkats, tigers and more.  Of course a zoo in Australia isn’t complete without kangaroos, emus, koalas, cassuarys, crocs, wallabies and various other species found only in Australia.  In fact, it is seeing these animals that made the experience worthwhile.

Shortly before leaving the zoo, we headed to the petting zoo area where kangaroos were roaming free.  We suddenly became excited at the possibility of an encounter, only to see that every one of the kangaroos was sleeping behind their “safe” rope.  The safe rope marks off an area where guests aren’t allowed to go.  This allows the kangaroos to escape the clutches of us horrible humans if they are tired.  While I definitely understand why this area is needed for the animals, it didn’t stop me from being a bit disappointed that we weren’t able to pet and feed them.

We left the zoo at 1pm and ventured over to the Haighs Chocolate Factory.  Haighs is a premium chocolate manufacturer who only sell their chocolate in 10 company stores spread around Australia.  We arrived at 1:15pm and spent the extra time before the tour browsing around the gift shop and eying the many different kinds of chocolate.  We figured given that the tour was free, we would have to buy something.  Right?

Once the tour began our group of twenty was shuttled into a small room where we sat on chairs arranged along the wall.  Our guide spent ten minutes talking about the difference between normal chocolate and premium chocolate and the history of the company.  After our history lecture was over, we spent the next twenty minutes walking along a corridor where windows provided a glimpse onto the factory floor.  During the entire twenty five minute tour, our guide continuously handed out delicious samples of chocolate.  While this didn’t compare to the Cadbury Factory tour in scale or size, it cost a whole lot less money! (Free)

After the tour was over we bought some chocolate (we were obligated) and went to get some lunch before getting on the road towards Mildura.  Mildura is located about four hours away from Adelaide and is considered to be on the southern edge of the Outback.  The scenery between Adelaide and Mildura reminded me of home.  Basically, it amounted to endless vistas of brown desert!  When we finally arrived in the mid sized town around 6pm, the temperature outside was 42 degrees Celsius. (107.6 Fahrenheit)

When planning our route, we decided to get the cabin for two nights in Mildura so that we could explore the surrounding region on Thursday.  The heat in Mildura was horrible.  We are from Las Vegas and know a thing or two about brutal heat, but the sun was as harsh in Mildura as I have seen it anywhere else in my life.  Luckily, our cabin had a great air conditioner and we spent most of Wednesday night locked away under its protection.

Thursday morning the weather forecasters were calling for temperatures in excess of 40 degrees once again and by the time noon rolled around the weather was brutal.  In fact, it was one of those days where people honestly should not be outside.  We did manage to take a quick drive out of town to see portions of the Murray River, but other than that we spent most of the day in the cabin with Mr. A/C.  I know it sounds weird, but standing in the sun while in Mildura made me feel like skin cancer was growing on my skin. (Maybe all of the graphically disturbing Australian Public Service Announcements about skin cancer are getting to me!)

While Thursday turned out to be a bust, our spirits were still high, because we were making our way through the outback and would eventually emerge at the nation’s capital before pushing on to its premiere city.  While driving through the outback we had also hoped to see a kangaroo or two running in the wild.  On these days this didn’t happen, but who could blame any animal for hiding out in such heat!

We want to thank everyone for the comments and emails. Your support is truly appreciated and keeps us going.

The Coomer Family

Days 262-263 Monday-Tuesday January 7-8, 2008
Adelaide, Australia

Our holiday park in Adelaide was located just two kilometers outside of the central business district.  This worked out great for us since the city was within walking distance.  Situated directly between our cabin and the city was the botanical gardens, so we figured it was the obvious place to start for the day.  As I mentioned before, the parks in Adelaide are struggling to stay green with the drought.  This is not the case with the botanical gardens though.  In fact, the Adelaide Botanical Gardens are among the biggest and nicest we have seen on our trip.

The walk from our cabin to the botanical gardens took ten minutes or so.  Immediately after entering we noticed a giant building to the right.  It turned out to be a conservatory.  After investigating a bit, we found out that admission to the conservatory wasn’t free so we opted to visit elsewhere in the gardens.  I won’t go into many details, but the Adelaide Botanical Gardens contained displays of plants from all over the world.  It was a good mix of detailed displays along with wide open spaces for people to relax.  We even saw a couple doing adult things under a tree. (Shame on them!)

After an hour of walking around, we emerged from the other end of the gardens in the CBD.  A map we obtained from the holiday park showed a 3km walk that passed most of the cities main sites and landmarks.  The walk seemed reasonable to us, so we set out on a journey, modifying the map’s route a bit because of our starting location.

While some of the 21 historical buildings along the route were old houses, apartment buildings and churches we also found a few major landmarks including the South Australia Parliament House, The Art Gallery of South Australia, South Australia Museum and the State Library.  After passing several of the smaller buildings mentioned above, we came to our first major destination, The Art Gallery of South Australia.

This art gallery turned out to be pretty standard and thus we only did a quick walk through.  So far we have been to dozens of art galleries on this trip and it has become harder and harder to spend great amounts of time in them with Shawn Reece.  This is especially true when each gallery is about the same as the one before it.  Kids simply don’t see art in the same way as adults.  All he sees are the same boring paintings over and over.

After leaving the gallery we went to the South Australia museum next door.  Once again it didn’t contain us long, but we did spend quite a few minutes in the section with artifacts covering many of the Pacific Islander cultures.  After leaving the museum, we headed next door to the state library where I spent an hour working on the website via their FREE internet access.

Following the library, we jetted over to an adjacent mall where we ate the food court before heading to our next stop,  the South Australia Parliament House.  We opted not to tour the building and just admired it from the sidewalk before moving on.  The rest of the tour took us past more small historical buildings before leading us to the Rundle Mall which is the main shopping district in the city.

By the time we got back to our cabin it was around 5pm and we were tired from a full day of walking in the heat.  On Tuesday morning, we woke up early because we still had a few things to accomplish in the city and limited time to do it.  Our first stop of the day was at the Adelaide Gaol, a prison built in the 1800s.  The gaol was a short drive from our cabin.

The Adelaide Gaol was used as a prison for 147 years and saw 45 prisoners executed during that time.  On the weekends staff give guided tours, but during the week the tours are self guided.  We don’t usually mind this though since it gives us the opportunity to go at our own pace.  After paying the admission fee, we walked through a small museum before being set loose on the prison grounds.

We were given a sheet of paper with numbers detailing what order to see things and a route to get around the building.  Since the first building was built in the early 1800′s and several were added throughout the years many of the cell blocks differed in style.  During the tour we walked through cell blocks that furnished as they would have been in the prison’s early days.  We also took the time to visit some of the other typical facilities you would expect to find in a prison.  Shawn Reece seemed to enjoy the experience since it was the first time he had ever been in a prison building

As we progressed through the tour, signs explained the stories of the many prisoners executed within the prison’s walls. While in the back section of the prison we could see initials and dates written on the walls.  We later found out that the laws of the day stated that every prisoner executed had to be buried on prison grounds.  In order to keep track, the prisoner’s intials and date of exection were written on the wall to act as some kind of a grave marker.  We did enjoy the tour, but one can only stay so long in such a depressing place before needing to get out!

After getting some lunch and with the afternoon free we opted to drive into the hills that surround the city.  We didn’t really plan on doing anything in particular, but simply drove to the Mount Lofty Summit where an observation deck overlooks the city.  As we turned onto the road to the summit, we saw a few warning signs for koalas and got excited.  We had been hoping to see koalas in the wild and these signs provided much excitement for us.  Unfortunately, we wouldn’t see any on this day.

Once at the Mount Lofty Summit we walked out to the lookout.  Adelaide’s CBD is very small and really gave us a false impression of how big the city is.  From high above, we really saw the depth and size of the capital of South Australia.  While we didn’t see any koalas up there, I am sure we will run across them at some point in Australia.

It was once again late in the afternoon when we headed back to the cabin.  We had more to do in the city on Wednesday, but we would have to do it in the morning, because our time constraints with the rental car forced us to keep moving.  We have really enjoyed Adelaide even though the landscape isn’t as pretty as the other places we have seen thus far.

We want to thank everyone for the comments and emails. Your support is truly appreciated and keeps us going.

The Coomer Family

Days 260-261 Saturday-Sunday January 5-6, 2008
Portland & Robe Victoria to Adelaide, South Australia

Portland turned out to be a tourist driven coastal town without much to contain us other than a couple of natural wonders along the water.  Since we didn’t have much to see in town,  on Saturday morning we headed straight out to see Cape Bridgewater.  Cape Bridgewater sits around 25km outside the city and before reaching it we made a quick stop at the Cape Nelson Lighthouse.  While tours are given at certain times, we weren’t in luck this day, so we admired the building from below before moving on.

Once we arrived at the carpark on Cape Bridgewater the sun was brutal.  This meant that the flies were out in full force.  The two things we came to see at the cape were blowholes and the petrified forest.  From the carpark we chose to head towards the petrified forest first.  While the “forest” isn’t actually what its name would suggest, the rock formations found there were formed in cavities when trees rotted away thousands of years ago.  The site of these formations was interesting but the flies really starting to get to us.

From the petrified forest, it was a five minute walk along the cliff side to the blowholes.  When we arrived, a viewing platform overlooked the sea shore where waves crashed brutally into the rocks.  These were very powerful and naturally beautiful blowholes and I was intrigued by them.  While I wanted to stay and watch, once again the flies were completely unbearable.  You might be thinking to yourself, “Didn’t you take a shower?  Why are these flies bothering you?”  Well I am proud to say that we weren’t the only people falling victim to the insects.  Everyone was being attacked by massive amounts of flies.  We did see one couple who had the right idea though!

Satisfied with what we had seen, the three of us made our way back to town.  Since we had some extra time, we decided to visit a couple of small attractions before heading towards Robe.  The first place we visited in town was the local botanical gardens.  The gardens were very small and the highlight seemed to be a historic tram running around town that we encountered outside of them.  Unfortunately the price was expensive and we passed on the experience.  We had higher hopes for our next stop, the local armory. Unfortunately this wasn’t much more than a couple of old cannons.  Of course, Shawn Reece always enjoys cannons so this wasn’t exactly a wash.  Finally, before leaving town we went to the information center for a map and saw a small fair adjacent to the building.   The fair had a roller coaster, but it was rather tame and for $8AUD I decided to pass. (Or Jasmine forbid me from spending the money!)

Once we finally left Portland in the early afternoon, it was a straight shot along the coast to Robe where we settled for the night.  In lieu of staying in a holiday park, we opted to book into the YHA which is one of the nicer hostels we have seen on this trip.  The YHA in Robe is built in a 19th century mansion that has loads of charm.  Inside the massive building, a long corridor connects the dozen or so rooms.  This place was really cool!

When we checked into the YHA, the receptionist recommended that we head over to the water at around 8:30pm to view the sunset.  After dinner and without anything else to do we did just that.  We have seen our share of beautiful sunsets on this trip and this one was among the best.  You couldn’t have asked for a more scenic location.

On Sunday morning we had a bit of driving to do, so we found ourselves on the road pretty early.  Before leaving Robe we drove 3km outside of town to the Beacon Hill lookout platform.  This raised platform built in the middle of the bush provided us with 360 degree views of Robe and the surroundind area, including the ocean and a couple of lakes.  The sight was quite beautiful.

The drive from Robe to Adelaide took over four hours.  During the drive we stopped from time to time to take in the sights including the World Famous Larry The Lobster and an elevated viewing platform in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.  Larry is suffering a bit and the town of Kingston is taking collections to fund his restoration. Apparently he lost one of his claws during a recent storm.  It tugged on my heart strings.

We finally pulled into Adelaide at 4pm and headed to the holiday park.  The Central Business District in Adelaide is completely surrounded by parkland, but the city looks as if it struggles to stay green with the ongoing drought.  With our schedule wound pretty tight, we only had two days to explore Adelaide.  Sunday night we spent some time planning our attack on the city before heading to bed.  Once again we were out of nature and back in a city.

We want to thank everyone for the comments and emails. Your support is truly appreciated and keeps us going.

The Coomer Family