Well, I am in Australia now! I ran right into my family in the Sydney airport while waiting for my bag. We have been having such a wonderful time so far. It has been a busy few days though. Because we are visiting this huge country in such a short time, we seem to be going, going, going all the time. The first day in Sydney was wonderful. We took a beautiful cruise around the harbour. The scenery was absolutely amazing. We also walked through the markets at the Rocks, an area by the Sydney harbour bridge. We ate an early dinner at the same Italian place that I had Christmas Eve dinner at a few years ago. Then we all went to bed early, exhausted from the travelling. Oh, thanks for the letter and pictures Mel! I was so excited to get them. The next day Alexis and Dad took off to do the bridge climb, no I did not even think twice about not going. Mom and I walked around the city for a long time. We visited Hyde Park, the Australian Museum, St. Mary's Chapel, had some great sushi for lunch, walked through the Botanical gardens, and took a tour of the Opera House. It was a fantastic morning. We met up with Lex and Dad after their climb. They had some great pictures from the top of the bridge. It looked like a wonderful thing to do, but I don't think I would have handled it all to well. We had a great meal at one of my favourite restaurants in Australia, The Golden Century in Chinatown. They have all these fresh fish tanks in the front of the restaurant and they bring out the live fish to you for approval before cooking it. Dodgie2, remember our great meal there? Our last day in Sydney was a bit different. We travelled to the outskirts of the city. We first took a long train ride out to the Featherdale Wildlife park. It was great! The amount of Aussie animals that they had was unbelievable. We saw Koalas, Kangaroos, a crocodile, snakes, wombats, Tassie Devils, Echidnas, tons of birds, emus, dingos, and much more. I liked how a lot of the animals were able to room freely throughout the park and we got to pet a few of them. Our next long journey was to the other side of town to Bondi Beach, famous surfer's beach. It was beautiful. After walking around for a while, we decided it would be best to go back and cook some dinner at the apartment. We had an early flight to Hobart, Tasmania the following morning. It didn't start out to be such a great day. Lex was grumpy because it was so cold, we were all hungry when we arrived, and my dad's foot was swollen up and hurting him real bad. First thing we did was find a doctor, who reported that my father had severe gout. We all hated this for him because of the pain he was in and the fact that he hardly ever takes vacation and now he is sick. He didn't let it stop him though. We had some fresh seafood for lunch by the waterfront. We drove up to the top of Mt. Wellington to see the beautiful view of Hobart. We also went to Cascade Brewery to try some of the beers. It turned out to be a fun day. Cadbury Chocolate Factory was the first stop on our tour the next day. We took a tour of the factory, which was really interesting. They gave us plenty of samples afterwards. We then made the long drive out to Port Arthur. Along the way, we stopped for a picnic lunch at a scenic spot on the coastline. Dad wasn't doing too well this day, so we had a lot of stops along the way. Port Arthur was amazing. The grounds were huge. Dad couldn't walk around too well, so he and mom took a golf cart ride through. We all took a water cruise to see the boy's prison and the Isle of the Dead. Alexis and I made our way through all the grounds of the old prison. It was kinda freaky. I kept scaring Alexis. As my mother said, "the whole place had a strange vibe to it." I am glad that we saw it though, because it is such an important part of Australian history. Lex and I went out to the pubs that night to watch the Australian soccer team play a friendly game against Greece in preparation for the World Cup. We found a great little pub in the city where we made friends with some of the locals there. Also, later in the night there was a guy singing at the pub who might be competing on an American reality show called Rock Star. He was an excellent musician. The following day, we made the long drive up to Launceston in the north of the island. We drove along the east coast to see the beautiful coastline. We stopped at a berry farm for some great fresh ice-cream. Then we drove down to Oyster Bay to get some oysters at an Oyster Farm. They were so good! Also, we stopped in another town to see the Blow Hole. Very cool. The countryside areas of Tassie were just as beautiful. We arrived in Launceston a bit late so we spent most of our time finding a place to stay. The apartment that we got was real cute. Then we went out for a yummy steak dinner. Today, we are going to check out some of the thing in the local area. Then Alexis and I are taking a wine tour this afternoon. I think mom and dad are going to see some ferry penguins or something. I will update ya'll in a few days. Till then...