Planes Planes and More Planes

We left early in the morning and went to the airport. We checked in and went through security. Then we went shopping in duty-free.13 hours and 30 minutes of boringness. When we arrived in LA we went to the delta lounge(you need a special pass). We stayed there had bagels and water for breakfast. We left to our gate. The 3 hour 30 minute flight was still bad. We arrived in Detroit,MI. We got lunch or dinner (I'm not sure which one) at Wendy's. We both (Sheila and I)got spicy chicken sandwiches. we got MUG Root beer to drink. We ate and got on our 1 hour 20 minute flight to home. Duluth here we come. It wasn't so bad except for the baby crying all the time. Mom came and picked us up and dropped Dad off and Sheila and I went to see the three brats. Oxie a big fat piece of fur, shes so cute! Oxie is a Russian blue. Tofu isn't a brat but so what, she's a Tabby. Sira is a German Shepard, Siberian husky mix. Shes big and fun to play with. I had such a great time on my trip thank you for reading my blog. My favorite thing to do was to hang out with Sheila and Dad and go to Healsville. Every thing is so great it is so hard to choose.It was such a great trip it made up for the Planes Planes and More Planes.

Taronga Zoo

I woke up around 8:30 took a shower and by 9:45 we left for the wharf. We arrived by ferry. We took a bus up to the entrance. We stood in a long line to get tickets. We finally got our tickets and went in. we saw more animals here. I still saw several platypus (plural of “oh look at that platypus”) and Sheila saw her koalas but dad saw pygmy hippos. We saw another bird show. Afterwards, to donate you gave a coin to a bird and she/he dropped it in the donations box. We saw tigers, birds, and guess what, more Tasmanian devils. We saw a Tasmanian devils zoo keeper show. We watched the devils being fed. Then we saw pelicans, elephants (we took a lot of pictures for mom), spider monkeys, and of course giraffes and to follow that a zoo keepers show on giraffes. We saw a seal show, frogs and toads, and boa constrictors and other reptiles like the goanna and crocodiles. We saw so many different animals that I can’t name them all, so there is a few. We left down the safari sky way. I had lots of fun. We got back to the room after a ten minute ferry ride and a ten minute walk back. We changed into nicer clothes and headed down for our final dinner in Australia. I got pasta and bolognese sauce and for dessert chocolate fondant with ice cream. They were both delicious. We went to sleep knowing that was our last dinner in Australia.

Blue Mountains

Today we went to the Blue Mountains. We took a 2-hour train ride to Katoomba, a small city next to the Blue Mountains. When we arrived, we went and got our trolley tour passes. We headed straight to Scenic World, which has a scenic railway which is the steepest in the world, the scenic cableway, and a scenic skyway. Once we got to the bottom of the scenic railway, we started walking to the scenic cableway. We got up and walked some more and took plenty of pictures. We walked to the express trolley and went to a chocolate factory. Sheila and I both shared a piece of chocolate cake and Dad had a passion fruit cake. We got on to the trolley and went to Lurline street. We got lunch there. I had a piece of bread from a bakery and it was sour. Dad and Sheila got some food next door to the bakery. We then went down Katoomba Street and looked at lots of different stores. We went to the train station, but Dad told us the wrong time so there was no train to take. We went back to Katoomba Street and looked around some more. We then went to Katoomba Station at the right time. We had the 2-hour trip back and I slept most of the way. We came into the hotel and laid down and watched TV. We got out at 9 o'clock and looked for dinner. We found a cafe and had a kangaroo meat burger. We came back and went to sleep.

Back to Sydney

We left to come to Sydney in the morning at 9:30. We arrived and took the train to Circular Quay. We went into the hotel and we were about to check in when they asked us if we wanted an upgrade. Dad said yes, but we needed to give them time to set it up. So, we walked around and spotted an outdoor market and we got lunch there.We then came back into the hotel and our room was ready. We went up and laid down and watched TV for a while. We then figured out that Darling Harbour (a harbour next to Circular Quay) was having fireworks on Saturday. We arrived there by ferry and walked around and looked for dinner. We went to a food court and I got Indian food (iddly sambaar). Dad and Sheila got burgers. We then went outside and watched the fireworks. After the fireworks, we got up and walked to a shopping mall where we went into a candy store and they handed out a piece of free candy. We then went to the wharf and came back to Circular Quay where we came to the hotel and slept.

Melbourne

Today I woke up at 7:30. I did lay in bed for about 30 minutes though. But I still got up, took a shower, and brushed before Sheila even got out of bed. I finished my previous blogs. Then we left to return the rental car.

We walked around the Queen Victoria market. Then we left and ate at the coconut house. It had Malaysian food. It was delicious. We started walking back to the hotel. We stopped and got FIFA 10 (a soccer video game) for me.

We walked to the hotel but dad and I went to MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) but it was closing so we quickly ran to the shop and got a mini cricket bat and also a soft cricket ball. We went to the statues of famous cricket players. We left and came and walked up 13 floors of stairs.

When we got back and made up a game called “bed cricket.” We are played it for a long time then we went with dads friend to a pub for dinner. I fell asleep after we ordered dinner. They woke me up when our food came. After with the coasters, we put them on the edge of the table flipped them with our hands and caught them. We left the pub and went to the hotel.

Healesville Sanctuary

Today we went to Healesville Sanctuary, a wildlife park. It has only Australian animals. We found our way going to the wombats first. We had a “magic moments” ticket which allows you to go in to the enclosure and pet the animals and take as many photos as you want. We were the only ones who signed up for the wombats magic moments. Wombats are really cute, furry, pig-like creatures. We had half an hour with them. We saw cute Tasmanian Devils. They got their name because of the sound they make, which is a loud scream/screeching. We saw some nocturnal animals in the “Animals of Night” exhibit. We saw fruit bats, helmeted, honey-eaters, kookaburras, and arid birds. They were all different colors. The pelicans were huge. We saw wallabies, which are like tiny kangaroos. We saw woodland birds, which are all different from each other. We also saw the largest bird in Australia, some emus. We saw platypus, which was why I really, really wanted to go there. They looked furry and cute.

We saw reptiles and we also did a magic moments with them. We got to hold a python. We also saw a show about birds and how they adapt to the world around them. Right after that, we saw someone throwing boomerangs. I bought a boomerang from him. We went to the lyrebirds aviary, but we didn’t see any lyrebirds, just a lot of other bird in there. We went through the wetlands track and saw a black swan. We saw lots of parrots in the “Land of Parrots” exhibit. We saw high country birds.

We saw dingoes. Which are dog-like animals. At the koalas home, we also did a “magic moments” but we couldn’t pet or touch the koala because of special reasons. We tried to see an echidna, but we could only see the spikes on it because it was hiding in a log. We also tried to see Leadbeater’s possum, but we couldn’t see any. We went to the kangaroos and had a magic moment with them. We got to feed and pet the kangaroos. We had lunch at the harvest café right next to the tree kangaroo enclosure. We saw some orange-bellied parrots, which are very colorful. I think we all had a wonderful time there. I know I did.

We came back and put our clothes in a Laundromat. We ordered dinner for take-out. It was Vietnamese. The day was full of fun and animals.

Soveriegn Hill

I woke up at 8:30 we were going to Ballarat today. We then got directions to go to Ballarat (Sovereign hill). We left in our rental car and drove to Sovereign Hill listening to music. When we got there, we went to the Gold Museum. It had a lot of big nuggets in there, or at least, replicas. We then went into the city. The city was based on late 1800s Ballarat. When we got inside, we got a map and started to go gold panning. Dad, Sheila and I tried to do it for about half an hour. We all were about to give up and Dad said, “No, just a couple more minutes.” In that time, a person that worked there was dressed up as an early settler. He taught us how to pan for gold but my hands were too cold to do any more. Sheila and dad continued and got a lot of gold. We then saw some redcoats and they fired their muskets.

We then walked down main street and looked at all the stores. We walked around for a while and then we stopped and ate at the dining room of the United States Hotel. We signed up for the Labyrinth Gold Mine Tour and went to the “Gold Pour.” We saw the goldsmith take out liquid gold and almost instantly turn it into a solid ingot. We still had a while for the Labyrinth tour, so we walked around and looked at the lolly stores. We then went to the tour and the tour led us underground to a mine. We saw real gold sticking out of the wall. Our way to get in and out of the mine was a tram. We went to an “old style” bowling saloon and we all tried it out. We went to the city residential area and school. We looked at the shops again and went gold panning until it closed.

We then went to dinner with Dad’s friend. We went to an Italian restaurant. We came back and went to sleep. The whole day was fun.