LONG awaited arrival

I have found myself stalling when posting my Australian adventure on here. AND, I have held out on posting to facebook till I could take the time to share with my bloggy blog blog!  A sweet blogger said it best when it came to putting her trip to Ireland into words for her blog ... "It's not that I don't have stories to tell, things to say, pictures to share, details to divulge; no, that's not it at all.  I know there is no possible way I could put into words how much this trip meant to me."  I couldn't agree more with Lauren as it's almost impossible to really capture the two weeks hubby and I had in Australia.  Being able to visit the country, soak up their culture, and experience their way of life ... it has given me the traveling bug!  

With that being said, I want to blog about Australia so I will always remember the bits and pieces that made it as special for Gabe and myself.

****************************************

I planned our entire trip without any hiccups until the dreaded evening before leaving town.  Yes, at exactly 8pm (we were catching a 8am flight the following morning).  I stopped by the library to return my stack of books and thought it would be wise to glance over them one more time to jot down any last minute restaurants that caught my eye and/or check for important details before visiting another country.  

These were lifesavers considering they're $30 a pop at Barnes & Noble,

(hence why I <3 THE LIBRARY)

After having them over a month and reading them multiple times, AT that very moment, I finally decided to read over the section "What to bring."  Genius, right?!  Anyways, I'm skimming along, nodding my head until I read: Australia Visa????  Come again ... I didn't recall reading about that before now, no one spoke about it, and I knew they weren't just referring to a form of plastic payment.  I realized this might be an essential detail to entering another country and went straight home to research it.  After checking a few sites, I realized it was a required item to enter the country and panicked.  What to do ... call my momma in Texas who is a world traveler.  It was probably 11pm her time, and she was dead asleep.  All I said to her was, "Do I need a Visa for Australia?"  I didn't have time for "Hello" or "Sorry to wake you!"  She paused, and then said, "I don't know," but in actuality I could hear in her voice that we were in trouble.  I call Gabe as he was at the office wrapping things up, and said, "Come home now!  We don't have our Visa's."  At that moment, Mom, Dad, Gabe, and I are all on the computers googling how to get a Visa.  Some sites said a few weeks, some said a few days, and then I found the instant approval within 90 seconds.  YES PLEASE!!!!  I am sure I paid an arm and a leg for it, but after having every arrangement paid for the next two weeks .... I would have paid whatever it took to ensure we could get there.  With that being said, we got our Visa as it linked it electronically to our passports.  God was beyond good to us to hold us tightly in the palm of his hands, guiding us every step of the way.  Thank you, thank you!

Now the real fun began:  This Quantas plane AKA Mother Ship!!!!!

and it made traveling 14+ hours fun :)

(this shot was once we arrived to Sydney)

We asked about upgrading to First Class since there were still seats available .... Pulled the card of, "It's my wife's big 25th birthday celebration to Australia."  Oh, only $22k PER PERSON.  Wow, that's funny and obviously not even an option .... Do rich people really pay that ON TOP of the original cost of the flight?!?!?!  With that being said, we happily took our seat in Economy and were pleased to find out that the middle seat between us was open.  So, we had an entire row to ourselves and got to spread out.   

Individual flatscreens with every TV/Movies/News you could imagine, 

and a personal remote control to navigate!

My Kindle was a dream come true on this trip, seriously best friend, 

aside from Gabe!

Gabe encouraged me to stay up as long as possible to get close to Sydney sleep schedule, so we could begin getting acclimated. Finally, I went to sleep at 2:30am LA time and slept an entire 7hrs without flinching. Woke up to the breakfast cart 90 minutes before landing - tasty egg frittata for breakfast.

I cannot believe I am posting this, but it is too good to leave out!  

I was SOOOO groggy when I woke up :)

I was really impressed with out quickly the trip went by, and this has given me hope that I can survive long flights when I get to travel the world in the near future (praying I get to!!!).  The other joy during the flight was tracking our progress ...

To be continued ....  

Next up:  Sydney