epic australia.

so....  the trip.

first, i spent a few days with bro and SIL down south, working from "home" (their home, anyway) and getting things at work all wrapped up and ready for vacation. oh, PS: may i just say, i LOVED spending time with my SIL.  she is somebody i would want to be friends with even without being my SIL.  we went shopping together, she took me to a freaking cheap (it's how i do) nail salon for mani/pedi.

the night before i left for AU, i decided we should celebrate bro's birthday, since i guess technically for me it'd never happen (taking off on 11/16, losing 11/17, landing on 11/18) so i treated him to dinner.  we visited the redondo beach pier and met a friendly little guy:

yeah, that would be a legit taxidermied great white shark.  probably not the best pre-great barrier reef sight....

then i met up with my travel companion cousin in LAX and we caught our flight together to brisbane/cairns.  i figured with the int'l date line and time change, i'd be best off staying awake for a few hours, then getting a legit 8 hours' sleep and just pretending that day never happened.  it was super cold on the plane and not the comfiest in economy, but luckily nobody sat in between us and with curling up in fetal position and taking over that middle seat for my feet, i got a legit 8-9 hours and wasn't very jetlagged at all.

we landed around 7am, took the next flight to cairns, and luckily since my cousin did not have any pork loin with her (what the?! seriously, this is the question they've deemed of utmost importance? not meat in general, but pork loin specifically?)

we got to palm cove a little after 1 or so.

after a couple of little initial snafus, our time in cairns was just what the doctor ordered.

we visited a few touristy sights (rainforest canopy hike, tropical zoo, an epic/nauseating drive along the coast),

enjoyed the hotels

and esplanade,

and went on a FANTASTIC scuba/snorkeling adventure in the great barrier reef (we went with quicksilver and it was an all day deal with over 3 hours in the water)  SO GREAT.  i will update this post to include the underwater pictures once i bust out the CD we caved and bought from the underwater photographer Wing Ding (no, no, i am not kidding. that's his name.)

but anyway, yes, we saw nemo.  and the big ol' clams like unto the little mermaid.  and big huge ugly maori something or other fish with nasty teeth and a penchant for loudly chomping down on coral mere centimeters from my face.....  it was, by far, my best sightseeing adventure to date.

then we headed down to sydney for the remainder of the trip.

but oh, it raiiiined.

and rained.

and rained.

soooo, we went to lots of museums and indoor things.  my souvenir ended up being an umbrella instead of a shoe-venir, i wore the same jeans and sweater (aka, the only "warm" clothes i'd packed) for most of those days, and my favorite travel shoes became a soggy stinky mess and if i can't get the musty smell out of them, i'm sadly going to toss the ol' workhorses and send 'em to the glue factory.

oh, but i totally recommend the convict sydney exhibit.  it was probably my favorite tourist thing we did there.

so was the aquarium.

by day 3 of feeling like i'd traveled all the way around the world just to visit...well, seattle, i was so ready to throw in the towel.  i was cold and soggy, my flat iron didn't work with the voltage adapter so my hair was epically frizzy and yuck, i was tired.... anyway, we checked into the marriott (thank you, platinum points!) for saturday night.  that morning in the executive lounge over pastries and reading material, i looked out the window, snapped this shot:

and then set down the camera, looked over at my cousin and told her i just wasn't sure i could stand another day schlepping around in the soggy city.  she told me she would will the sunshine back.  and lo and behold!  she did!  i kid you not, within 30 minutes the sun had returned.

you look good in blue, sydney.

we booked it back downstairs, changed clothes, and took a ferry over to manly, where the beach was closed to swimmers and beginning surfers due to pollution from all the inclement weather or sumsing.  that's ok.

it was nice to warm up, dry out, people-watch and partake of some delicious food.

aussie pie.  mmm.

at around 6pm we decided to book it over to bondi to squeeze out every last remaining drop of sunshine enjoyment we could.  unfortunately i stupidly got off the bus and followed who i thought were asian tourist beachgoers.  not so, unless they were lost, too.  sooooo, we started walking in the general direction of the water........ through a park... through a... neighborhood.... stopped a man out on a walk (yes,yes he did laugh at us when i asked "so, um, where's the beach?!" not unlike mr. bean) and finally (precious daylight waning) just hailed a cab driven by a shaky-handed old man and arrived at bondi an hour after we'd left the hotel.  gah.

once we got there.... it didn't disappoint.**

**ok, maybe the slightly chilly breeze disappointed a little.  maybe.

sunday after sleeping in a tiny bit and a delicious breakfast, we took the opera house tour in the morning.

then we rented a car and drove out through the blue mountains. again, did not disappoint, especially since for this leg of the trip my cousin did the driving (who as it turns out LOVES to drive, whereas I most definitely do not).

hey, so did you know there's  a three sisters in the blue mountains in oregon, and another three sisters in australia?  yep.

we wanted to take one of the cableways along the cliff, but it was closed waiting for parts, so we took the world's steepest railway instead.  apparently the world's steepest railway is just a caged-in car that drives right  up and down along the cliff.  um, it was basically awesome.  and a wee bit terrifying.  they didn't strap you in or anything, so i kind of got a decent little leg workout in for the whopping 60 second "ride".

we drove back to a sydney suburb for our last night. since we were leaving at the crack of dawn, we opted to stay at a courtyard marriott for only 15k points.  that was a nice plan and all, but attempting to find an open restaurant in suburbia on a sunday night?  nooooot fun.  we finally did, though, and when we got back to the hotel, wing ding's cousin was randomly dancing in a parking space.  sans music.  for.... over 20 minutes.  by himself.  did i mention sans music?  seriously. yes, i'm a creeper who takes video of some random stranger dancing alone in the dark in a chain hotel parking lot. yes.  i'm the creeper who uploads it for your viewing pleasure.

the flight back was much more painful then the flight out.  of the 17 hour flight, i think i eked out about 3 hours of restless rest.  we were on a behemoth of an airbus jet, it was huuuge.  the in seat entertainment had a cool feature called "skycam" that showed streaming video from the tail of the plane.

again, we landed around 6-7am.  here's where my cousin and i parted ways - her to continue home to dallas and me to kick around LA for awhile longer.  i went to breakfast with brother, again, went out and about shopping with SIL.  i bought a really pretty pair of blinged out earrings kinda like my kid sister's from her trip to LA in august. anyway, we were on our way to the beach when she turned to me at a stoplight and said, "um, rachel, your eyes look like you've been crying.  and you're really quiet...."  so yeah, i caved and told her i was just too tired for hermosa.  instead of the beach, we went back to their apt, where i took a shower, stood under the water in a sleep-deprived stupor for a very long time, repacked my suitcase to include my work laptop and the good stuff I bought in LA, and then caught my final flight to seattle.

and now here i am... exactly one week later in 32 degree northwest arkansas weather, still (sadly) fairly uncertain what time zone i'm living in, brain-dead and trying to dig myself out from underneath the work email and home chaos.

but honestly, i wouldn't have it any other way.

shout out to my cousin for helping me experience epic australia!