We're Back!

Last Wednesday we boarded the plane for another 12+ hour flight back to San Francisco and then back home to Los Angeles. Sawyer was such a champ and slept 11 out of the 12 hours and that was without us even giving him a single dose of Benadryl. Amazing. He must have been wore out from vacation. 

I still have a bunch of our days spent down under to blog about, but there's not a chance I will remember them in the order they happened so pretty much be prepared to read about our vacation adventures in no particular order as I try to catch up. 

This one is about our day at the:

The second weekend we were there my parents rented a car and we went away for the weekend to The Sunshine Coast to celebrate all of our birthdays. My dad drove us all the way there on the left side of the road. Good job Pops on getting us there alive! I was so disoriented with even being a passenger in the car on wrong side on of the road let alone being the person driving!

We drove straight to the Australia zoo and headed to the Crocoseum to see a show on crocodiles and other wild animals. Sawyer was really into the birds that were trained to circle over the bleachers and land in the seats.

Here the trainer was feeding a Crocodile and we all gasped when the Croc lunged for his hand and he dropped the meat. But who knows, that could have all been part of the show! 

I thought is was interesting that the majority of Australians didn't really like or appreciate the work Steve Irwin did until after he died. When Matt and I told the hotel worker in Sydney that we had visited the zoo he replied that's right you Americans love the Crocodile Hunter. Apparently they all thought he was kind of over the top and get annoyed that Americans now expect Aussies to say "Crikey" all the time. Come to think of it, I never heard one of them use that phrase! Must have been a Steve Irwin original. 

My mom and I had both read her book called My Steve that was written by his wife Terri. He was an incredible human being with a huge heart who did a lot of amazing things for wildlife conservation. We kept teasing my mom that she had a crush on him because she paid to get this photo taken: 

But she swears she just likes him because he reminds her of my dad. Sure mom ;) Just kidding it's true Dad is all about adventure too, only not the wrestling alligators kind thank goodness. 

We bought a bag of "farm animal food" to feed the sheep, goats and pigs that were in the kiddie area. Turns out all that meant was a bag full of straw! They sure liked it though! At one point one of the sheep ripped the whole bag right out of my bag and they all had a "hay"day scarfing it down. 

We managed to get to feed a few of them before the sheep thieved it all away. 

 

They let one of the Crocs out unbeknownst to us. I simply bent over to tie my shoe and almost really became "glute"nfree. 

Sawyer got the best ride through the park and pointed out all the next exhibits to go to. 

He insisted we go feed one of the elephants a banana. Which we did. 

Then he wanted to see the coolest bird ever, the Kookaburra that is native to Australia. If you've never heard them sing, google it. It sounds like they are laughing. You might remember this song as a kid that talks about them and their crazy laugh:

Kookaburra Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra
Gay your life must be

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Eating all the gumdrops he can see
Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra
Leave some gums for me

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Counting all the monkeys he can see
Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra
That's no monkey, that's ME!!!

We also visited the tigers, snakes and many other strange animals. 

One of the best parts was getting to feed the kangaroos. We got another bag of food, only it was some sort of pellets this time that they nibbled right out of your hand. You could pet them or in Sawyer's case grab a hold of their ears.

 Gentle, Sawyer, gentle. 

You could really get up close and personal with them as you can see. 

My other favorite part of the day was getting to pet the Koalas. You could walk right up to all the trees they were sleeping in and take as many photos as you wanted. And did we ever!  I think we have at least 100 photos of purely Koalas. 

This momma koala and I sympathized with each other over how being a mom really means you never get a moment alone. We completely understood each other.

By the end of the day we were famished and hit the road to find a place to eat on the way back. The GPS was of no help on finding somewhere so my dad suggested we go back to the motel and eat at their restaurant. The place we were staying at would be comparable to a Best Western which made me assume the restaurant would be comparable to a Denny's. No thanks! I wanted to some real food for dinner not a greasy denny dish. Finally after driving around for awhile, out of desperation and hunger we agreed to give a try. 

Note to self: Trust my dad.

That dinner was by far the BEST I have ever had! Flemings or Ruth Chris had nothing it. Out of the whole place only 3 tables were taken one of which was taken by us. My dad and Matt had rack of lamb with mashed potatoes that they said was delicious. I had a stuffed chicken breast that was described on the menu as being filled with "sinful avocado and Camembert cheese" Sinful was very accurate. It was melt in your mouth good. We sat there enjoying our dinner for an hour or so and then while my mom took Sawyer back to the room to put him to bed the three of us indulged in sharing some dessert. I had a passion fruit custard that was insanely good and my dad had berry filled crepes. My mouth is watering just remembering how scrumdillyumptious that whole meal was. 

We had a great day at the zoo topped off with the best dinner of my life and then a whole next day of beach fun to look forward! 

To be continued.....