Day 7: And on the 7th day, they rested.

Our flight landed around 11:55 PM local time.  We were dirty from our day on Fiji, we were exhausted and we were so relieved to be done traveling!  Since our second flight didn't have the amenities of our first, none of our electronics got charged on the plane so when we disembarked we didn't have enough battery for pictures. Makes for a boring blog post but luckily we had just enough to contact Cathy--our flight was early!  Fortunately, so were they so we only had a short wait before they were there to pick us up.

It was quite a drive back to Cathy's place and a few things struck me about the city.  First, they have billboards that run the entire width of the freeway.  Electronic ones that change screens.  It's very distracting and I hope this practice never comes to the States.

Secondly, their toll system.  It was interesting, but I'm not sad we don't have something like it.  When they register their cars, they are given an electronic disc that gets placed above the handle connecting the rear-view mirror to the windshield.  This disc is scanned when you're driving on a toll road and your card is charged the amount of going through that toll spot.  Does that make sense?  At any rate, it costs about $8.00 to drive into town--I thought this was terrible!

Third, that city is Massive!  It just keeps going on and on and on and on.  There are tunnels that go under rivers and bridges that go over them...I've been looking at Google maps of this city for so long that shouldn't be surprising to me but I hadn't really thought about it, ya know?  

Anyway, our plan for today was to lounge around all day and acclimate and that's precisely what we've done.  We didn't get to sleep till around 5:30 in the morning so we slept until around 10:30-11:00.  The kids enjoyed exploring.  X and X² are stoked that BJ is as much as a Star Wars fan as they are.  They've been cataloging all of his memorabilia they're finding all over the house.  The storm trouper alarm clock similar to their Anakin one back home was a huge hit...but the tie fighter lego set that he's let them play with has won the big prize.  Mostly though, it's solidified in their minds that they aren't buying anything on this trip with their spending money until we get back to California and make a quick stop at Lego land to buy them a $200 star wars themed set with their combined 'allowance'.

Cathy surprised us all with gifts--Aussie flag towels and loofas!  All the kids, é included, tied them around their necks and became the Aussie Jedi's as they swooshed around in their capes.  ^ informed me that his is a blanket, not a towel, so I was not allowed to take it away when it was time for bed.

This evening Sean, Colleen and her family and Uncle Lyle and Aunt Bonnie came to dinner.  It was so bizarre to be standing in the kitchen and look to see who's coming in the front door and have it be your family that live on the other side of the world...and then you realize that YOU are on the other side of the world.  I wonder if this feeling will dim at all over the next two months?

Anyway, it was great fun spending the evening asking questions about what it was like for my Dad's family growing up and getting a different version of the same events you've heard about your whole life.  My Dad's German shepherd, Vicious, sounds like an animal befitting his name from the story Uncle Lyle told, not like the sweet little runt of the litter that Dad rescued and ironically named Vicious from the stories I heard growing up.  Then, of course, I started remembering the stories of how my Grandma wasn't able to wake up Dad for fear of being bitten and I realize that it was my interpretation of what was being told that had skewed my understanding of the events, not the actual story that I'd been told.

I'm grateful that I'm still a novelty to this side of the family--I'm sure my constant picture taking and video recording every story and event gets obnoxious the more you're around me.  For now though, Uncle Lyle and Aunt Bonnie were super sweet and told me story after story...I could've sat for hours and hours just asking enough questions to keep them talking.  But we are human and I was so tired and I'd filled up the pathetically small amount of memory on my phone by videoing the stories they were telling and I realized we'll be here for quite a long time and we'll be able to hear more stories tomorrow so we said goodnight and will hopefully pick it up again tomorrow.

I can't speak for everyone, but for me, this is Heaven.