Summer Adventure 2024: The Wrap Up

Summer 2024 is one for the books! We left home on Friday, June 28 and we returned home this evening, July 28!

Avalanche thoroughly enjoyed summer camp with his grandparents, who spoiled him the entire time, and dropping him off and picking him up really dictated the start and end of the trip (why we flew in and out of Chicago). We are so, so, so grateful for them! They sent us daily updates and pictures and even though we missed him terribly, we knew he was having a great time with them!

We really loved Australia! Of the four cities we visited, Brisbane was by far our favorite! I cannot say enough good things about Brisbane and we also really, really liked Sydney and would go back to either place anytime! Cairns was a cute tourist town and its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef obviously makes is a solid destination. Melbourne was our least favorite place on this trip, but we did two excellent tours out of Melbourne and they were incredible, so we still enjoyed our time there. Even though Melbourne didn't really wow us, I will qualify that opinion by saying we didn't spend as much time in the actual city as the other three places because of the lengthy tours we did, so it's possible that we'd have a different feeling about Melbourne if we'd spent more time there!

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and unfortunately, this amazing trip is no exception. Our travel back from Australia with stops in four different time zones looked like this:

• 9 hour flight from Sydney to Tokyo
• departed from Sydney Friday at 9:00 pm (Friday at 7:00 am Eastern)
• arrived in Tokyo Saturday at 5:00 am (Friday at 4:00 pm Eastern)
• 6 hour layover in Tokyo
• 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Chicago
• departed from Tokyo Saturday at 11:00 am (Friday at 10:00 pm Eastern)
• arrived in Chicago Saturday at 8:45 am (Saturday at 9:45 am Eastern)
• 8 hour drive from Chicago to Toronto
• arrived in Toronto Saturday at 8:30 pm Eastern
• 10 hour drive from Toronto to D.C.
• arrived home Sunday at 7:00 pm Eastern

The total number of travel hours to get home from Sydney (including our 12 hour stop at C's parents' house on Saturday night): 60 hours! SIXTY HOURS!

Here's a breakdown of the whole trip...

• time spent on planes: 49.5 hours

•  number of flights: 8

• number of airlines: 4

                    Southwest (Chicago - Los Angeles)
                    Delta (Los Angeles - Sydney)
                    Qantas (Sydney - Melbourne)

                    Qantas (Melbourne - Brisbane)

                    Qantas (Brisbane - Cairns)

                    Qantas (Cairns - Sydney)

                    ANA (Sydney - Tokyo)

                    ANA (Tokyo - Chicago)

• nights spent away from home: 30

                    nights spent at C's parents' house: 3
                    nights spent at hotels: 24
                    nights spent on flights: 3

• hotel chains: 7

                    Hyatt Place (Chicago)
                    Pixar Place Hotel (Anaheim)
                    Hyatt Regency (Sydney)
                    Grand Hyatt (Melbourne)
                    Four Points by Sheraton (Brisbane)
                    DoubleTree (Cairns)
                    West Hotel Hilton (Sydney)

• total driving distance: 2,763 miles

• total flying distance: 24,551 miles

• total walking distance: 116 miles (307,692 steps!)

• furthest distance from Avalanche: 10,108 miles (Toronto/Melbourne)

• nights our car was parked in Chicago: 27

• license plates spotted during our U.S. driving: 47/50 (we didn't see Nebraska, North Dakota, or Vermont)

As always, C's travel planning is unparalleled! What a great summer adventure! It's back to work for both of us tomorrow!

Happy Tails to you!

The Land Down Under: Day 21

We flew from Sydney to Tokyo on ANA, which is one of our favorite airlines! We've always been impressed with the quality of their service and this flight was no exception. It was a nine-hour flight, during which time both of us slept quite a bit, and we arrived in Tokyo at 5:00 am. We've still got quite a way to go between here and home, so it was nice to get some decent rest! We're connecting through here, so we had to take a shuttle from the international terminal where we landed to the international terminal we are leaving from, which took about 20 minutes, and since then, we've just been enjoying the airport!

Had we had more available time to travel this summer, we not only would have gone to New Zealand, but we definitely would have spent some time in Tokyo because we absolutely love Japan! Unfortunately, it's just a five-hour layover, but that was still plenty of time to stop by the 7-Eleven in the terminal before heading to the lounge for a few hours prior to our flight!

bag drop was quick and painless!

the airport lounge in Sydney was
super quiet with really good food

we sat in premium economy to get the
2-3-2 configuration

we will miss Australia, but we have
missed Avalanche so much and we're
beyond excited to see him!

dinner on the flight included pasta primavera,
salad, fruit, a roll, and then ice cream for dessert

the shuttle between terminals
at the Haneda airport

this shuttle is so much better than
the Dulles people mover
LOL
(I still love Dulles as far as airports go!)

there were two other passengers on the shuttle with us
and the four of us had to follow this lady as she
escorted us to the security checkpoint

Japan is wonderful!

the 7-Elevens in Japan are fantastic - 
even the ones in the airport!

you can't buy happiness, but you can
buy egg salad sandwiches from 7-Eleven in Japan
and that's pretty much the same thing!

the ANA lounge at the Haneda airport
is very nice, although quite busy
(you can't really tell in this pic,
but trust me, it was busy!)

Happy Tails to you!

The Land Down Under: Day 20

It was our last day in Sydney today, and while we are obviously super excited to see Avalanche, we're sad to be leaving Australia. What a wonderful three weeks this has been! This country has exceeded every hope I had about it and we're leaving the four cities we visited with amazing memories!

We checked out of the West Hotel and left our bags at bell services, then spent part of our day at the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, which was great! We saw sharks, rays, tropical fish, penguins, jellyfish, and a dugong! The staff did some really interesting presentations and we're so glad we went today! We had wanted to visit the aquarium when we were in Sydney during the first part of our trip, but we had a hard time finding tickets available for when we could go!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous so we spent our last few hours walking around Sydney, with a final visit to the Opera House, before wandering back to our hotel to get our bags and take an uber to the airport. We've got two long flights and a long drive ahead of us, but waiting at the end of our journey is our beloved fluffy boy! We can't wait to see him!

an absolutely beautiful last day in Sydney!

Little Penguins!

Sydney is a spectacular city!

I liked the look of this sculpture outside the
Museum of Contemporary Art

when you look through it from the back side,
you can see the Opera House!

Australia...you are amazing!

Happy Tails to you!

The Land Down Under: Day 19

Today we began our journey home! After going out for a delicious breakfast, we checked out of the DoubleTree and took an uber to the airport. Once again, for the fourth time as this was our fourth domestic flight in Australia, no one checked our identification. I cannot get used to this! I'm also not really a fan of Qantas (despite my love of them the other day when we were able to purchase the middle seat between us!) because their boarding process is so chaotic. Today, there weren't even any boarding groups, so everyone boarded at once. What on earth?!? We lucked out because we had to board from the back of the plane and we happened to be among the first people headed in that direction, but the lack of organized boarding is too much for this Southwest-loving girl! Number order! Always!

As usual, we sat window-aisle, and when we got to our seats, there was already someone seated in the middle seat. I told him I was at the window, and so he stepped into the aisle to let me in and took note of C standing close by. As I sat down, he asked if we were together and when I said yes, he immediately offered to take the window seat. Ummmmm, no, thank you! When I declined by saying I would be sleeping against the window for the duration of the flight, he scooted over as C was putting his bag in the overhead bin, saying he would be glad to take the aisle seat. Once again, I told him no, and explained that we travel a lot and that we always sit window-aisle. I assured him that we wouldn't talk over him or pass anything back and forth and he said he wasn't worried about that but that he just didn't "want to annoy us" which was really code for he just didn't want to sit in the middle seat. Long story short, I got to sleep against the window for the flight, C enjoyed his aisle seat, and the guy sat in his assigned middle seat as intended!

Next time, I will probably just lie and say C and I aren't together. LOL!

We flew back to Sydney and are spending tonight and tomorrow here; we'll probably do a little more sightseeing before heading to the airport at dinner time tomorrow for our next flight!

we loved the view from our room in Cairns!

went to this cute little place near our hotel for breakfast

croissant french toast!

the DoubleTree was great!

I like how they call it a "departure lounge"

we were in row 15

so we boarded from the back of the plane

Happy Tails to you!

The Land Down Under: Day 18

For our last day in Cairns, we had planned to take a train ride through the rainforest in Queensland, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. Buying tickets required us to book through a third party (it seems like this is how all of the tours here are sold) and unlike our two boat tours over the past two days, this one stayed listed as "pending" while we waited to hear whether or not we had tickets. When C sent them an email to figure out what was going on, they told him that we did have a reservation and to check his email this morning, but when we did so, we were told they didn't have two seats together for us, so we cancelled our reservation. So ridiculous! And what an irritating process overall! I'm still a bit disappointed about the rainforest tour not happening, but we had a wonderful day in spite of that nonsense.

We walked around town and went to a great place for breakfast, then spent the afternoon at the Cairns Aquarium, learning all about Australian creatures. It's a very nice aquarium and the staff is extremely knowledgable and friendly, so it was definitely time well spent! It was also very hot and humid today, so being inside, enjoying the exhibits in a cool, dimly-lit building, was pretty perfect!

Happy Tails to you!