For my Grandma – The Long Overdue Trip Finale :)

Look Out in Port Douglas

After numerous (probably hundreds) of requests from my Grandma and her friends, I am finishing the blog!  I may even get crazy and blog about my recent move to SF 🙂

We’ll see how detailed I can make this. After all, it has been 3 months and I have the memory of a goldfish.  We absolutely loved Sydney and wished we had more time there but it was off to Cairns and Port Douglas next!

Australia Driving aka Opposite Driving

We flew from Sydney to Cairns than rented a car to drive to Port Douglas (about a one-hour drive North).  Driving in Australia is an interesting thing – driver is on the right side of the car, car is on the left side of the road.  Basically, completely opposite to how we drive.  Oh boy.  I was in for a treat.  Mike did the driving, obviously, and I sat in the passenger seat on the verge of a heart-attack, obviously 🙂  The drive was quite beautiful actually.  The exits on the highways are round-abouts, like a traffic circle going clock-wise.  Talk about confusing.

Our Hotel/Aparment

In Port Douglas we stayed at a hotel called Peppers Beach Club.  We were on the 4th floor and there are no elevators.  Needless to say, getting our luggage up to our room was a feat.  It was worth every drop of sweat though – we had the Penthouse Suite!  It was seriously like our own apartment, and we didn’t want to leave.  The patio overlooked the pool (complete with sandy beach and all) and even had a personal outdoor grill.

Over the course of our trip we had some amazing food, but all we wanted at this point was Mexican Food!!  After seeing our grand kitchen and grill we immediately went off to the grocery store in search of some salsa, tortillas chicken and guacamole.  We savored every bite of that meal 🙂

Man and his grill 🙂

Much anticipated Mexican Dinner!

Looking out at the Look Out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the morning we took the car up to the Port Douglas “Look Out”.  There are more pictures at the bottom of how beautiful it was.  We snapped a few then returned the car and headed to the beach!  The day could not have been better.  Clear ocean, soft, sandy beach, books and bathing suits 🙂

Que the thunderstorm.  Yep.  Mike was taking a lovely siesta on the beach when the sky turned a grim shade of charcoal.  We were cracking up as we ran around Port Douglas in our flip flops in the pouring rain looking for our hotel!!

Swimmin

Unfortunately, the weather only gave us one day do get out there and do something adventurous!  Although we were looking forward to going Skydiving over the Great Barrier Reef, we could not come all the way here and not going snorkeling!

Proof!

We left super early in the morning and headed out to the boat.  It was a small group of us – probably 25 people and 3 instructors.  We all got fitted for wet suits and got on the boat.  Anyone who knows me probably knows that I was about to have an anxiety attack at this point.  I do not like oceans and I certainly do not like sea creatures.  Mike is all giddy like a little boy and helps me relax.

We are heading out to 3 different spots on the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel and after about a 5 second class we get fitted for our fins.  I find one that fits perfect and they cannot find the matching one.  No big deal, I’ll go a size smaller – I force my feet into too small heels everyday.  Although my un-pedicured toes are popping out of the top I assure myself it’s fine, I can handle it.  Then they ask us to start getting into our wet suits.  Well, mine is gone; GONE!  Mike put them both in a cubby hole in the lower part of the boat and only his is there.  My anxiety quickly goes from about a 7 to a 10+.  Of course I’m trying to not make a big deal out of it because I’m already embarrassed enough that everyone else is dressed and I’m looking around like a fool who’s lost her mind.  One of the instructors offers me the extra suit (a size 2) – I was fitted in a size 4.  I’m literally holding my breath as she tugs the zipper inch by inch until it’s finally fully zipped.  As I sit down I look around and all the children are in size 4!!  I had the smallest suit on.  Mind you, I’m 5’9″ – that was anything but comfortable.

Fin fit for a 5 year old.

Can't breathe in this wet suit

So we jump in at the first stop and Mike starts swimming off, underwater camera in hand and I start hyperventilating and drowning.  Once I got used to the breathing out of my mouth thing, we were alright.  I can actually say I genuinely enjoyed myself.  Three stops, 642 pictures, and 8 hours later, we were headed back to land!  What a day.

Nemo's Cousin

Professional Show-Off

Rugby Championship

 

We finished up the day by going to dinner, doing a little shopping and watching the Rugby Championship game.  There were masses of people packed into this large outdoor bar, drunk, face-painted and screaming.  It was quite a sight and a great way to end our Port Douglas experience.

Our 8 Passenger Fun Mobile

The next morning we rented a car (an 8 passenger mini-van was all they had!!) and headed back to Cairns for our LAST DAY 😦  We stayed at a hotel called Pullman Reef Resort and Casino.  They had a wildlife museum so of course we had check it out!  We were actually just discussing what a bummer it was that we didn’t see a Koala or Kangaroo.  Not only did we get to see (and pet) a Koala, but we met our friend Goliath the Crocodile.

Then it was off to the Casino for us!!  We spent hours in here and had so much fun!  I won on the Sex in the City game 🙂

"Samantha" Spin

Goliath the Croc

The next day(s) involved 30 hours of traveling before landing in San Francisco!  I stayed in SF for a week and we continued our trip.  The conclusion of our trip will be the next entry, which will NOT take me 3 months 🙂

I know you didn’t get enough so here are MORE photos –

Our first white-knuckled Australian Drive

Our Mini-Car

Look Out

Our beach day enemy

Cabana in the rain 🙂

Shy Star Fish

Sting Ray!

This SHARK swam right under us!!!!

The boat ride back

Pit stop for lunch during our drive back to Cairns

🙂

Mike's friend the Wallaby

Goliath

Final Airport 😦

Being a brat.

 

Best. Day. Ever. Thanks, Syd.

The title to this blog says it all. Today was our last day in Sydney, but today was deemed, by mutual decision, the winner of The Most Awesome Day Award for Excellence in Awesomeness. Here’s what made it so great:

The architectural masterpiece

We started out the day with a self-guided tour of the Sydney Opera House, which is one of Sydney’s most recognizable historic landmarks. Definitely one of the coolest buildings ever constructed, and its even cooler up close. It located next to the Royal Botanical Gardens and across the harbor from the Sydney Harbour Bridge – right in the middle of the action, and close walking distance from our hotel. The photos below don’t do it justice… It is truly a work of exceptional art and beautiful modern architecture.

You love this, huh Dad?

Side note from Samantha – (Mike completely forgot to talk about a very important part of our day… The Sydney Police and Justice Museum)… After many hours of pleading Mike agreed to go to the Museum with me.  I completely understand that most human beings wouldn’t be interested in such a thing.  I, on the other hand, think it’s brilliant and the most fascinating subject on earth.  We walked through the old courts and read about crime and punishment in the 1800’s in Australia and ASIO, which is Australia’s National Security Service.  Mike even cracked a smile once or twice in the Weapon Room!

Anyway, it was a blast. Now, here’s Mike’s version of the remainder of our day…

Yep.

Next we walked down to the IMAX Theater on Cockle Bay (*insert Beevis laugh here*), to see Born to be Wild in 3D. “But Mike, why would take time out of your trip around the world to see a 3D IMAX movie about orphaned elephants and orangoutangs?” Well, I’m glad you asked… only because this particular IMAX theater is the biggest in the entire WORLD!  So yes, this was an IMAX experience that we simply could not pass up. And it still holds the title of “Biggest IMAX  In The World” (at least for now, until Dubai builds one in a football stadium or something).

After watching a movie about animals, we suddenly had an urge to see some REAL animals. Lucky for us, the Sydney Aquarium is located 5 minutes from the theater.

Shark Attack

With only an hour before it closed, we had to tour quickly. We saw Little Penguins, weird-looking sea horses, massive sea crabs, gigantic sea turtles, sting rays, and big, fat dugongs (also known as the Sea Cow). But my favorite was the shark tank. We watched sharks from inside a big glass viewing tube. They swam all around us and right up to the glass. Some of the sharks were HUGE, and since we were inside their tank, they looked close enough to reach out and touch.

That’s it for our Best. Day. Ever. Tomorrow morning we leave for Port Douglas, Australia, where we’ll swim the Great Barrier Reef have a chance to see some of the wildlife from the aquarium up close and personal (no viewing tubes this time). And yep, you guessed it: I’m going to try to ride a giant sea turtle (Samantha just rolled her eyes)… Good night!

Loving the Architecture

Learning about architect Jørn Utzon

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Oh boy.

Busted.

Double Busted.

3D "Born to be Wild" in IMAX!

Sushi?

This one's for you Cousin Scott

A replica of the Largest shark spotted - 7.4 meters.

The Dugong (or Sea Cow, or Dolphin's Ugly Cousin as Mike calls it). Google it.

After Dinner Goodnight Kiss. Bye Sydney!

 

Planes are Like Bicycles…

Flight #1: Dubrovnik to Rome.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s a breeze; kind of…

So in order to get from Dubrovnik to Sydney, it took three planes, sixteen hours of layovers, and two tired travelers.  We woke up at dawn and had our last meal in Dubrovnik ;( and then took a cab to the airport where we hopped on our first plane to Rome.

The flight was a quick one, only a little over an hour, but here’s the rough part – our layover in Rome was TEN hours!  Our initial reaction was a positive one; we’re lucky to get one more tasty meal in Rome!  Well, that quickly backfired after we stored our luggage at the airport (costing us 40 Euro). After walking around for 30 minutes looking for the Metro we discovered there wasn’t one! Nope, Rome does not have a Metro leading to the airport, only taxis and trains. A quick look at the train schedule confirmed it wasn’t an option if we wanted to make our flight (and hang out in the Luxury Lounge for a while).  Not wanting to spend the extra cash on a Taxi we concluded we’ll just check in for our flight early and eat in the airport.  Not so much… Check-ins are only allowed 4 hours prior- we had eight to go.

Thrilled with our meal selection:Mickey D's

I think it was our destiny to eat McDonald’s right out side the airport check-in, as that was our only option left.  We made the best of it though, eating and then finding a spot to sit and read until we were allowed to check-in.

The Private Luxury Lounge (admittance included in our tickets) inside the airport was more like it – plush reclining chairs, a complimentary buffet of hor d’oeruves, and a complimentary full bar.  Now this is the way to travel 😉  On to Flight #2 – Rome to Dubai.

So sleepy after 2 flights in 20 hours!

Once we arrived in Dubai we were exhausted.  The flight was about 5 hours overnight and we were both quite restless.  We arrived in Dubai about 5:00AM where we checked-in for yet another flight and proceeded to the Lounge awaiting our 10:00AM flight.  We both ate some food then I slept while Mike got some work done.  If I could have kept my eyes open and my body moving for one more second, I would have because this Lounge was incredible.  There was a SPA and SHOE SHINER!  And no, I am not kidding!  We definitely could have spent our last 10 hour layover here, with no complaints 😉

Our seats! Notice, the mini screen in the back? It's a touch screen REMOTE for the seat recline, movies, and more!

Our flight from Dubai to Sydney was enjoyable, relaxing, and down-right fun.  It was long, about 13.5 hours, but we could’ve been on it for days.  It was like a flying movie theatre/bar/restaurant/bedroom. We watched about 3 movies each, ate everything that came our way, slept a bit, and lounged in the private bar stationed in the back of the craft.  With the time change and travel, we arrived in Sydney around 7:30AM.

Completely exhausted we caught a cab to our hotel, Quay West Suites, located in The Rocks.  This city already looks beautiful, at least the part I can see through my heavy eyelids. We were obviously WAY early for check-in so we threw on our suits and lounged around the pool until about noon.  Ready to get out and see Sydney, we headed up to our room to change, but then we both fell asleep… for 6 hours!  Oops.

Dinner in Sydney at The Cut

Upon recommendation by the hotel’s Concierge, we dined at The Cut, a magnificently decorated steakhouse (brick walls, open piped ceiling, and butcher knives thrown into the wood as door handles). It was amazing, and we were able to check off “Get Mike an Aussie Steak” from our Sydney check-list.  It was quite a late dinner though, so we headed back to the hotel.  We aren’t quite caught up with the sleeping schedule yet (dinner felt like breakfast), but we’ll get there.

Our only Full day in Sydney tomorrow will be a busy one; lots of ground to cover.

Goodnight Mates!

Bye Bye Old Town Dubrovnik. You'll be missed!

First Flight. Hoping we make it through the day alive.

Flight #3: Dubai to Sydney. Life of Luxury.

Dual Movies. One for him, one for me.

Books, Movies, Beverages.

Opera House and Harbor Bridge. View from our balcony.

Our HUGE living room!

Kitchen and Washer and Dryer

Ready to head to The Cut for some grub

Practicing the 'self-timer' on our camera 😉

Ending the night with Cheesecake. Goodnight all!