Australia Report #1

Greetings from Down Under!

After a 28 hour journey, we landed in Melbourne on time Friday morning. Due to heavy fog we sat on the tarmac for about 15 minutes before being able to deplane, but that was the worst of our journey. The kids managed the flights just fine, although Aidan was a bit freaked out during our first take-off from Austin. He sat so low in his seat and the expression on his face was a combination of excitement and pure terror! Still, he did just fine. Sophie acted like a seasoned veteran!

Haven't done too much in the last day and half. We took the kids for a hike around a nearby bush park that has a lake and some lovely birds (pelicans, parrots etc.) We've really just used the time to catch up with folks.

Skies have been cloudy since my arrival, so no stargazing just yet. BUT my parents gave me an early birthday present - a 22mm TeleVue Panoptic! Unreal! I was quite stunned and can't wait to try it out.

The city of Melbourne had a series of fun runs this morning for one of the local charities. Laurie had known about them for the last few weeks and managed to talk me into the 5K. Actually it wasn't that bad considering we were still a bit jetlagged and had pigged out on fish and chips last night. Anyway, it was a good 5K run through the city of the Melbourne, down alongside the main river ("The Yarra"). I did it in about 37 minutes, my wife cleared the line at about the 42 minute mark. Good sense of achievement though!

We're off to Sydney in two days, and tomorrow may drive down to a larger wildlife area that is full of Roos.

Another report after Sydney!