Finally back on the blog again! Thank you all for your patience as John and I have had troubles with hotel WiFi and Mac computers rejecting blog uploads. We are finally back online! We boarded our 15 hour flight on June 23^rd at midnight, Los Angeles to Brisbane on Virgin Australia. It was by far the nicest airline that I have ever traveled on! Individual screens with a decent choice of movies, popular music, and games. You could even chat with individuals from whichever seat you chose! Luxurious. The in-flight service was fantastic as well, and I can highly recommend Virgin as an international traveler’s choice of airline.

As we boarded, exhaustion hit me like wave. I took an Advil PM to ensure that I would sleep soundly, and I was out before we even left the tarmac. I slept solid for about 4 hours, and then on and off for another 5 hours. John and I both slept through dinner, so unfortunately, I cannot tell you about it. As you will soon see, food is a very important part of my adventures overseas, and I have so far documented everything I have eaten! Once I woke up, I wrote a blog entry regarding our time in Los Angeles, watched “This Means War,” and enjoyed a satisfactory breakfast consisting of French toast, orange juice, coffee, yogurt, and a croissant with butter and jam. John and I also ate ridiculous amounts of white chocolate candy bars and chocolate chip granola bars, as we packed quite a bit and were not able to bring anything into Australia due to strict quarantine rules.

Landing went smoothly, and I only experienced mild discomfort in my ears. This is a huge improvement, as in the past, I have had intense pain due to pressure build up in my Eustachian tubes inside of my ears. It took a lot of work though, with medications and assistance including: constantly drinking water, which caused often trips to the bathroom; Airplane ear plugs; Afrin nasal spray; chewing gum; and Advil. It was a pretty successful combination, and I am very grateful to all the individuals who have assisted me in finding a treatment for this horrid problem.

Our layover in Brisbane was not the best, as both John and I were extremely jet lagged. The problem with traveling with a sibling is that you have no problem showing them your worst behavior and attitude, and jet lag enhances that problem times 1,000. Thankfully, all issues have been resolved since. On our 2 ½ hour flight to Cairn from Brisbane, I read “The Vow” on my Kindle. This is a non-fiction book that the recent movie was based off of. The book was exceptional, and it was incredible to see how this young couple’s faith enabled them to start over when the female main character lost her memory. We received lots of Coca Cola and pretzels on our short flight, which didn’t curb my monstrous appetite.

As a result, the moment we landed in Cairn, John and I went to Hungry Jacks, the Australian name for Burger King. It is exactly the same company, with whoppers and all! I ordered a double stack bacon lover burger, which had a slab of bacon so huge and so thick it looked like ham! It was absolutely what I needed to recover some strength for our transfer to the Novotel hotel where we would be staying. We found our bus driver and the transfer went without problem. Right outside of our hotel, he pointed out a tree which had large vulture-like creatures flying around it. However, once we looked closer, we saw that they were giant fruit bats, hanging upside down and flying around the treetop! The noise was wonderfully horrendous, with screeching so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think. I have never seen bats of such a massive size! It was our first introduction to Aussie wildlife. I’m excited to see the rest!

Sidenote… It is important to note that Cairns is pronounced “Cans.” You sound very ignorant if you say anything otherwise.