Ok, here is the mother of all posts. I'm going to try to cover the majority of the events of the Australia trip in one shot.
We landed in Australia on Saturday the 29th of November around mid-day. We were tired, bedraggled and our feet were even swollen from sitting so long. Chi Nam took us out to lunch at Hien Vuong in Footscray. We had Pho which was amazing. It was so good that Adrienne decided that she now understands why I like Vietnamese food (previously she only put up with it, not hating it but not liking it either). My and Ammon (her fiance) got home later that night and we caught up on the plans for the week.
Sunday we went to church in Footscray Ward and saw some of the people I knew years before when I was a missionary. The Vietnamese branch has been dissolved and they meet with the Aussie ward now. Bishop Toi was visiting (he's in the Stake Presidency now) and Chu Gio was there as well. There is a huge shopping center right next to the church now...it's pretty bizarre. I found my old Yarraville flat and took a picture outside for old time's sake.
Sunday afternoon and evening was spent first preparing, then eating, Thanksgiving dinner. It was a few days early, but we wanted to share the experience with a bunch of people. I cooked turkey, stuffing, corn bread pudding (another form of dressing), and Pumpkin Pie Cake. David Tran brought some chicken, someone else brought a quiche and Khanh brought potato salad (which was truly yummy). Most of them didn't really know the story behind Thanksgiving so I took a few minutes to explain it to them.
The best part of the dinner, for me, was the dessert. We didn't have canned pumpkin, so we used real pumpkin. We didn't have pumpkin pie spice, or even normal cinnamon. We did have cinnamon bark. So we shredded the bark and put it into a pepper grinder. Then Nam went on to grind it 4 or 5 times (she just kept reloading it). I threw it in the mix and it turned out AMAZING! Here's a photo of the event. From left to right: Adrienne, Khanh, Lana, Jane, My, Ammon, Eden, Jenny, Rodney, Nam, and David. I took the photo...so I'm invisible.
Monday we headed downtown to see the city a bit. We took the train from Footscray down to Flinder's Street and walked around a bit. I can't believe how much the city has changed. I think all the bad areas have been turned into shopping and restaurants.
Tuesday we headed up through Sunshine and St. Albans. On the way back down we found the bowling alley the missionaries went to a couple times while we were there. It's right by the train station. Since I was feeling nostalgic, Adrienne humored me with a couple of games. Later, we went down to the city again. This time we shopped for souvenirs at Queen Victoria Market and went down to check out Rod Laver Arena (where they play the Australian Open). We got a bunch of smaller items for friends and family members...we even got a couple things for ourselves. Here's a shot of the city circle tram we rode.
Wednesday was a whole different kind of adventure. We went down to the Werribee Zoo. When we got there, we found out about a "ute" (ute = Australian for off-road vehicle) tour that you could do. Basically we did a safari style tour around the zoo. We went out to see the Giraffes, Rhinos, Camels, African Deer, Antelope, etc. It was a total blast. Then we went around the zoo to see some of the animals at feeding time. We just missed the lions eating, so they were pretty lazy when we got there. He's a nice shot of one (don't worry, I was behind some glass when I took this photo). Notice the drool...
That night we tried to hunt down where Chi Lieu is living now. I had heard she bought a house in Coburg and even had an address that was a few years old. We used the navigation in the rental car to get there. But when we knocked on the door the very old vietnamese lady who answered said that Lieu didn't live there anymore. Then she brought us in and pointed to a phone number on her white board and handed me her phone. So I called the number and a young man answered. He said she lived there, but wasn't home at the moment (most of this is translated from a Vietnamese conversation). I got his address and we drove there. When we got to that house we saw another Vietnamese guy and I asked him if Chi Lieu was back yet and he said that she was on holiday (vacation). I asked if he was sure and then he realized he misunderstood the name I asked and led me around back. Chi Lieu lives in the bungalow out back. So now I knocked on that door and a young man answered. She wasn't home still, but I persuaded him to let Adrienne and I wait inside for her (he seemed weirded out by the request). We waited probably an hour and there comes Chi Lieu walking her bicycle. She saw me threw the windows and had a look of surprise. She's married now to an old high school friend and the young man was her step son. She goes to church at Glenroy Ward and she is just as wonderful as ever. By the way, the Footscray missionaries didn't even know who she was. And the old lady at the other house was her mother-in-law.
Thursday we headed out towards the great ocean road (right after a quick stop at High Point shopping center). We went the quick way out. Headed straight out to Colac and went south to Cape Otway. We first visited the "Otway Fly Tree Top Walk". The hike takes about an hour and for about half of it you are hiking on a suspended trail that is almost 80 feet above the ground (maybe 150-175 feet to the top of the tower). Then we went over to Triplet Falls. This hike also takes about an hour normally. Of course, being a rain forest, it rained on us about halfway through so we we a bit quicker to finish. We drove the rest of the way to our hotel in Port Campbell, had a nice dinner and went to bed. Here's a shot of the Otway Fly trail from the top of the tower.
After we got up in the morning on Friday (OUR TEN YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!), we had breakfast in our amazing hotel room, showered and headed out on the Great Ocean Road. We stopped by the Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge first taking plenty of photos. Then we stopped by this little wilderness park. When we drove up, no one was around and we almost left. Then we heard someone mowing grass somewhere and hunted them down. It was just $10 to get in with a back of feed for the animals so we decided to give it a shot. At first it was pretty mundane feeding some exotic birds in cages and such. Then we rounded the corner and there were several wallabies hanging around. We got to feed them right out of our hands and even pet them. They were very gentle and pretty amazing in their own way. Then we saw some deer, Jerusalem Donkeys, Emus, and Kangaroos. The owner came out and let us into the paddock with the Kangaroos and we got to feed them from our hands too. There were even a couple mammas with baby Joeys sticking their heads out. The last stop was the Koala area. He let us in with them too, but said that they weren't very friendly so it would be best to not try to feed them. Then he recommended we stop by Red Johanna Beach. When we go there, we saw a couple cars in the parking lot. We walked over to the beach area and found it completely deserted. It was absolutely gorgeous!
Then we stopped headed to Apollo Bay and Lorne. We stopped for a bit in Lorne to lay on the beach and watch the waves. I just love that drive along the coast. We finished up with a quick dinner in Geelong and headed back home to Nam's. They were in the final stages of wedding preparation.
Saturday Morning we headed to the Temple on the other side of town. The weather had forecasted rain, but all we had throughout the wedding and reception was sunshine. It only rained after it was all done.
Yes, that is a Hummer Limo that she chose to have drive the wedding party from the Temple to the reception hall. The reception was fantastic. We sat with a bunch of My's friends. The food was really nice. They had a first dance, then called the wedding party and parents to come out and dance. Ade and I saw that My's mom wasn't going out, so I went and danced with her myself. It did take some considerable convincing to get her to come out on the dance floor though.
After the party we drove Nam's sister (Binh) and neice (Y) home to Dandenong in the rain and headed home again. Sunday we packed up and headed to the airport. We had one bad flight in all our travels. Coming back from Sydney to LA the entertainment system was broken. No movies or TV to pass the time (there were 4 movies scheduled). Oh, and the plane was LATE. In LA we had to get our baggage and go through customs before we could board the flight to San Francisco. We had to RUN once we got through security and barely made it. We left at 1 PM Melbourne time on Sunday and got to our home at 10 PM Utah time on the same day...even though we had traveled for more than 24 hours. We are still readjusting to the time zone changes on the way back.
Here is a photo of some of the lights and a fountain on temple square.
This is a copy of the Christus statue by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.
And finally, we had a bird fly in the house. It must have come inside while I was shoveling the front sidewalk. About an hour after we came inside it flew out from the front room. The next 15-20 minutes were spent laughing as we tried to get it to fly back out the front door. We made sure to get a photo for memory's sake.
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