Yesterday was our last full day here and, while I can't exactly say that we made the most of it, we did have a lot of fun and see some interesting things. Backpacking etiquette dictated that we get up at the stroke of dawn to squeeze as much Australiany flavor from our final day in Sydney, but vacation etiquette demanded we sleep in one last time before returning to work and the real world. Vacation etiquette handily won the unsurprisingly one-sided battle, which...

And so they were...late, that is. We sat in front of the hotel, watching bus after bus come empty and leave filled with smiling passengers. I think there must be some code of ethics referred to by all tourbus drivers, whereby anyone with the name Henley must be picked up dead last on pain of death (ok, maybe just a hefty fine). Our bald but bountifully mustachioed driver did finally appear, and we groggily climbed into the bus. Staying up late at the observatory ...

I think I've fallen a bit behind here, haven't I? We cashed in a credit card promo for four nights at the absolutely incredible Park Hyatt Sydney, right on the harbor, and it's hard to write when you're too busy pretending to be the king of some imaginary country. Walking into our room instantly melted away the tensions built up over the course of three hours on a plane next to screaming two-year-old twins, and travelling for your anniversary definitely has its p...

I didn't have any doubts that today would be a fun one, but I'm a little shocked by just how much I like little Alice Springs, a speck of a city in a brown sea of emptiness. It was a long and hot 45 minute walk to a Hertz rental spot to pick up our ute (so called as it's a sport UTility vehicle and because ute is hands down way more fun to say than SUV) but having our own wheels gave us a chance to change things up on the fly without having to pray the single Ube...

I've probably never wanted to hurl my cell phone through a brick wall or into the merciless jaws of a whirring blender as badly as I did at 4:30am this morning when it heartlessly shrieked and buzzed on the nightstand six inches from my head. It was either get up then or, far worse, hike the Kings Canyon rim in a shadeless 106 degrees. This is a place that actually shuts down to visitors after 9am in an absolutely necessary effort to prevent yuppie tourists like ...