Our first day in Australia

G’day mate from the Gong!
We have had the longest day in the world, it seems, which was actually 2 days but it seems like even more. We left the states on Wednesday evening and arrived Friday morning, without ever really experiencing Thursday because of the international dateline.

Our trip was truly a blessing because things were just so much easier than I had expected. When we arrived at DFW, we went to the curbside check in. We couldn’t check in there but the Sky Cap went ahead and took all our luggage in for us. I told Aaron to give him a tip and he gave him $5. We had 7 bags, all really close to 50 pounds, plus a few carry-ons that we were carrying. I had weighed the bags numerous times and they were all right about 50 pounds and I didn’t want to go over because it would cost us more. It was already costing us an extra $150 just to carry-on one additional bag. We were allowed 2 bags per person with our ticket without any additional charge as long as they were less than $50. So, when we went in, the lady at the AA counter asked if any of the bags were over 50 pounds and I said I didn’t think so, I had weighed them and the sky cap said, “No, they are all under 50 pounds.” At that point, I gave the guy $7 more dollars. I am not sure what the going rate is for a sky cap but I figured about $2 a bag was probably close…and that was all the cash I had, so I hope that was good. The airport was surprisingly quiet, so people were friendly and chatty…such a blessing.

We made it through security and then went to the terminal for the long wait. We were there almost 3 hours before our flight so we had plenty of time. Aaron and Landry went for a walk and I text our friend Karl who works on the airport police and he came by and visited with us for about an hour after he got off work.

Once we got on board, we headed to San Francisco. It was around a 3 hours and we took a nap or two on that flight. Our in-flight movie was The Social Network, which was good but I fell asleep. Once we landed, we walked for what seemed like 6 miles to the international terminal and had to leave security and go back through security to get to our plane. Seemed like poor planning but it was the only way it seemed to get to the international terminal from where we were.

Once there, we had to get ticketed for Qantas, so when we got to the gate, we noticed our seats had been changed and they had moved Landry to a different row. Nice! So, we complained because before they ticketed us, the seat assignments were all together. At first, they said they couldn’t do anything and then when we told them he was 4, they quickly tried to get us back together. We ended up in the middle section; the flight is a 3-4-3 seat configuration across each row in economy, so we were ¾ of the middle row. It wasn’t too bad but it would have been nice to have a window.
The flight to Sydney leaves at 11:00 pm, so it is late and people are tired. About an hour into the flight they serve you dinner, which was a choice of salmon or sun dried tomato pesto chicken that was pretty good. After dinner, we all settled down for a sleep. Landry had already fallen asleep; the poor little guy was exhausted from all the excitement.
When flying Qantas international, you are provided with a blanket, pillow, headset, and eye covers (for sleeping) with your ticket, so that was nice since you have to pay for these things on some domestic flights. I settled in and watched a movie and then took a few naps. They come around periodically bringing snacks and such. We got a little bag with a granola type bar, apple, mints, and a bottle of water and then they would periodically come around with a basket of apples and ask if anyone needed any water.
The windows are all closed and since you fly through the night, it seems as if it is dark a really long time. I am not sure if this is the case, since all the windows were closed but it really seems like a long night. Then with a few hours left in the flight, they start serving breakfast. You had your choice of a cereal breakfast with fruit and yogurt or a hot breakfast that was a frittata with yogurt and fruit. We chose the hot breakfast and it was also pretty good. Best airplane food I have had in a while, at least.

At this point on the flight I watched another movie and Landry watched Thomas the Train, Fireman Sam, and Dora the Explorer. It is nice that all the seats have their own little TVs with your choice of movies, documentaries, shows, and music to listen to during flight. I watched 2 movies and a few shows.

We arrived in Sydney at 8:10 or so of Friday morning, about 30 minutes early. I had read that Australian Customs can be really picky about what you bring in so I didn’t know what to expect. First you go through and show your passports and get your passport stamped and such. Then, you head to baggage, and once we had collected all 7 pieces of luggage (yes, they all made it!) and the car booster seat for Landry, we had 2 trolley’s full of luggage plus Aaron and I were pulling a piece of luggage each and Landry was pulling my laptop bag. Thank goodness for spinner luggage with 4 wheels, it made it easy it pull it with the big loaded down trolley. The customs line was really long, and another blessing occurred where they opened up another customs line at the other end, so we were able to quickly go and get through the line. They asked me if we were declaring anything, and when I told them we just had some small wooden train that were painted, she said “Is that all? Then go to #8”. Luckily, number 8 line was only 2 people, so they had us lay all our luggage along a yellow line and a cute little beagle dog came along and sniffed all our luggage and they told us we were free to go! SO EASY! Really, another blessing, I was afraid it would be terrible, but it was no problem.

Then, we came out and started looking for the Stewart family who was picking us up. These are church friends of ours that we have been chatting with online. Once we met up with them, we got all the luggage loaded into their 2 cars and headed to Wollongong, or the Gong as they call it here. Having the Stewarts pick us up is yet another blessing; it was a nice ride and fun to finally meet them.

The drive from Sydney was fun, I was in the car with Deb and her girls and Aaron and Landry were in the other car/truck, they call it a Ute (like a sports utility) and it reminds me of an El Camino, a car like truck kind of vehicle. The weather was unusually cool here yesterday, probably in the low 70s with some rain. The drive was pretty; everything is so green and lush. There are some excellent views as you drive, too. You can see the entire Wollongong Beach as you go over a mountain. A nice place to be, for sure! We got to our temporary house and unloaded and then Kiri, another church friend, came over to be our chauffeur for the day. She drove us around to get to the bank, get info on mobile phones, and to do some shopping. Kiri was a great sport to spend her day off with us as we tried to figure out what to do where and when…yet another blessing in our really long day. We were able to get some groceries and house items and then she had us over for dinner with some other friends. At her house we were able to use her wifi so we felt a little connection to our friends and family in the states. We were able to get on facebook and I could send a blog post to my family, so that was nice. At one point I thought about calling, and then I realized it was 1:35 am and thought they may not appreciate that.

Dinner was really yummy, Tuscan chicken with roasted veggies, rolls, and homemade pumpkin pie and Tim Tam Slammers. She asked if I like Tim Tam Slammers and I replied that I didn’t even know what a Tim Tam was!?! A Tim Tam is a cookie that has a chocolate center in between 2 wafer like chocolate cookies and then the whole thing is dipped in chocolate. They are good by themselves but to have a slammer, you make hot chocolate, and then bite off the ends of the cookie and use it as a straw and try to eat the whole cookie before it just crumbles. It was really good, but at this point I was really full and getting really sleepy. Landry had fallen asleep about an a hour and a half before and was totally conked out on the couch. So, Ang, Kiri’s hubby brought us home. It was a fun evening with great conversations and lovely people…and the food was terrific!!!

Our first day in Australia could not have been better! It was a lovely day and we got a few things accomplished and are starting to put names with faces and learn where things are in relation to where we are. I should mention that riding in a car was quite the experience. Aaron and I both almost got in the driver’s side because the steering wheel is on the other side of the road, plus making turns into the other lane is going to take some getting used to. I am glad that I don’t have to drive, at least for a while!

Once we got back, we had the fun task of finding things. When you have 7 suitcases and 3 carry-ons of stuff, remembering which suitcase has your pajamas in it can be a challenge…and of course your toothbrush is in a different bag…and your hair brush…so we found what we could, took much needed showers, and hit the sack. It was about 10:20 p.m. when I was going to sleep and we slept pretty well and woke up about 5:00 a.m. Landry was the first to wake up so he came and got in bed with us and kicked and wiggled until we all got up. The sunrise was beautiful and we can hear all sorts of birds. So far, we have seen and heard some beautiful birds like kookaburras, cockatiels, and parrots.

Today we hope to get cell phones and a wifi cards so we can reconnect with our people in the states. We also need to find things in our suitcase and look at housing. Trevor Stewart drove Aaron around a bit yesterday looking for places and we will possibly take a bus ride and see what we can find later on today. Right now, Landry just finished his Rice Bubbles, the Australian version of Rice Crispies, and he is happily playing with his trains that have been packed for a month or two.

So far…so good!