Our long travel back home

We finished packing up, cleaned the house, donated things we didn't need, and picked up our rental car.

Donations - the suitcases are too full

Goodbye beautiful ocean

Starting to get chilly as we enter winter in July

We left Tuesday around noon for Melbourne Mantra hotel, went to the Crown Casino to meet up with friends for bowling and dinner, and then got back to the hotel and sold the last car at 10:30pm.

The next morning we got to the Melbourne airport about 7:30am via shuttle from our hotel. We had 21 items to keep track of (9 checked bags, 5 carry-on suitcases, 5 backpacks, stroller and car seat/bag). It was definitely hard to get that much luggage rolled into airport with three kids to keep track of too - we did it!

The airline put us on an earlier flight to Sydney, so we could have a bit longer before our long haul flight back to the U.S.A. We ate a quick meal, stretched our legs as long as possible, and boarded the long flight back to Dallas (15 hours). Kiernan and Lydia got quite a bit of sleep, even with Lydia having a cold. Hannah slept about an hour, and Barry and I didn't sleep more than probably 30 minutes. Overall though, Quantas flights really are the best! They were so good to us.

We arrived into Dallas about 1:35pm on Wednesday (longest Wednesday ever for us - HA!)

We went through Border Security, grabbed all our huge luggage (3 carts full!). Thankfully Kiernan has muscles to push a cart while Hannah pushed Lydia in the stroller and Barry and I also each had a cart full of luggage. It was nuts.

Then the waiting began. Lines for everything and, per usual, not the friendliest staff working at those places.

We were sent through the Agricultural Customs line because we had to declare that Barry had been on farms. This part was a nightmare...staff were confused about where we should go, so after standing in line for 30 minutes we were told to go somewhere else. Then they sent all our bags through another security check and they left the conveyor belt running as our 50 pound bags were falling all over the floor. It was feeling like such a warm welcome to the U.S., let me tell ya! Kiernan's backpack got wrapped up in the conveyor belt and only then did they shut the dumb belt off. The man couldn't get one of the backpack straps out of the belt, so I finally told him to just cut it. UGH! It was a disaster!

Then we had to take all our bags back to re-check, temporarily lost our passports, got them back 5 minutes later, then looked up at departure screen and saw that our flight to Omaha was cancelled. This was after 2 1/2 hours of processing through like cattle. We were just exhausted. We stood in line again for probably 45 minutes, because what the heck, why not?! We were told flights to Omaha were cancelled due to stormy weather and so were all flights to Manhattan. Ugh! There really was no way home unless we connected through another city (and that was a huge maybe). We gave up! We decided to get a hotel room and fly out on the 7:10am flight the next morning.

The next morning we flew into Omaha without any issues. My parents were out of town, so they left their truck at the airport for us to haul all our stuff back to their house. My uncle (who lives in Omaha) met us at the airport with my parent's keys and we drove home to Crete. Our vehicles were both stored at my parents. Once we arrived there, we packed up our cars and headed home to Manhattan.

WE MADE IT!

Sarah

Things we will miss/Things we look forward to

As we ate lunch on Tuesday at The Dunes in Ocean Grove, we decided to put together a list as a family of the things we would miss about Australia and the things we were looking forward to the most about the U.S.A. So, without further ado, here's the lists in no particular order (it also doesn't include much...because our memory isn't that good):

THINGS WE WILL MISS ABOUT AUSTRALIA:

1. The ocean (including sound, smell, view)
2. Our new friends
3. The weather
4. The carrots (for real, they are way better than U.S. carrots)
5. School


THINGS WE LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE U.S.A.

1. Family and friends
2. Cheaper beer and dining out
3. Good washer and dryer
4. Our church and church family

We also celebrated July 4th in our backyard.

Farewells with Friends

During our last few weeks we enjoyed spending time with our new friends and saying farewell.

Dinner with our amazing neighbor, Sally

Topping the pavlova

Dinner with the Buckner family

Afternoon tea with the Doran family

Lunch with CSIRO crew

Day Four in Queensland-Breakfast with the Birds, Mossman Gorge, Four Mile Beach, and Night on the Town

One Saturday, June 20, we started out the morning at Wildlife Habitat in Port Douglas around 8am. They have a buffet breakfast at an outdoor covered space and there are many tropical birds on display while you eat. This place was super good at educating visitors. There were several guides giving informational talks as we walked through. We learned a lot!

Look at all that spider web! Ewww! And we HAD to walk under it!

Spider guarding her egg sacks. 

One of the more interesting stories a guide told us was that scrub pythons get in the enclosures through the netting. They have to monitor the situation all the time as the pythons will eat birds and other wildlife. Scrub pythons are one of the giant snakes of the world. Nicknamed a "scrubbie," they can be 5 meters long. Many homes in Queensland have one or two resident scrubbies. They are non-venomous but can bite.

Tree kangaroo

Green weaver ant

In the afternoon we traveled to Mossman Gorge. The Mossman Gorge Center was celebrating their 3rd birthday, so they were serving cheesecake with coffee and live music (playing Mumford and Sons, etc). We enjoyed that and then took a shuttle to the gorge walk.

Mossman Gorge - June 20, 2015

amazing views

dipping their toes

Late afternoon, we went to Four Mile Beach for a bit. Had to say we swam in that part of the ocean. I can't say this was very enjoyable for me because as a mother it's hard to watch your whole family swimming in the ocean with warning signs posted all over (warning about marine stingers, sharks and crocodiles - all of which are deadly)!

After swimming, we showered and went to RattleNHum for dinner. This was a fun one for the kids!

We got up the next morning and drove to the airport. We stopped in Geelong to catch Mass on our way home.

What an adventure that was! I hope we make it back to Queensland again someday, as that was one of the best trips.

Sarah

Day Three in Queensland-Great Barrier Reef

On Friday, June 19, Barry got up early and took sunrise pictures along the Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas. Gorgeous!

Sunrise, June 19, 2015 - Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas, Queensland

There are many options for snorkeling and experiencing the Great Barrier Reef. With kids, we had read a lot of reviews about choosing the Low Isles, so on Friday we sailed on the Wavedancer to the Low Isles to see the reef. The Low Isles is situated 15km northeast of Port Douglas and is a 4 acre coral cay surrounded by 55 acres of reef. Coral cays are formed by accumulated fragments of plant and animal skeletons that collect on the reef. The two small islands are separate islands on one common reef. The larger of the two is covered by mangroves and is uninhabited except for a large bird population The smaller island is a coral cay and was once home for keepers of its historic lighthouse built in 1878.

Weather date has been gathered from the island since 1887 and in 1928 it was the base for the first scientific study of a coral reef anywhere in the world, examining the structure and ecology of the surrounding reef.

The Quiksilver Wavedancer left at 10am. While on the boat a marine biologist talked about the reef, what we might see, etc. They also warned us about a million times not to touch the reef. It is sad that they feel they have to repeat this so frequently, but unfortunately the reef is damaged more each year.

When we were about to arrive at the Low Isles, we listened to a short demo of how to use the snorkeling equipment.

Approaching Low Isles

View of Cape Tribulation/Port Douglas in the distance

Once we arrived we got all of our equipment and took a shuttle boat to the island. We got ready to snorkel.

Let's Snorkel

The kids in their special lycra suits, which offer protection from sun and stingers!

It was much too complicated for Lydia, so Barry took Hannah and Kiernan out, while I hung along the shore with Lydia. Barry and Kiernan had the most success, and Hannah was a little panicky but saw some things as well. Barry said he saw some fish that were bigger than the kids!

When it was lunchtime back on the Wavedancer, Barry took the kids and I stayed on the island and tried to snorkel the edges of the reef. With the help of the marine biologist, I was able to see sea cucumbers, lots of fish, a giant clam, and she let me touch a mushroom coral.

The kids played on the beach some and then we ended with a glass bottom boat ride where we saw a black-tipped reef shark, a stingray, a sea turtle, and of course fish and lots of coral.

Then we sailed back and relaxed for a bit at our hotel.

We did purchase an underwater camera, but after developing them it should be noted that they do not do The Great Barrier Reef any justice. They are nice to have as memories, but the colors and views will mostly be memories. We did not take our good camera along this day (for obvious reasons).

We ate an Italian dinner at Osteria Padella-Laboratory of Rustic Cuisine (potato gnocchi for me, rainbow trout for Barry).

What a great day filled with memories.

Sarah