Yun Zi, Baby Panda

What can I say, I love animals and I love pandas.  Anytime there is a baby at the Zoo or Wild Animal Park, I am all over trying to get there to see it.  I went to the zoo today to see the newest panda, Yun Zi, that was born in August.  He came out for display earlier this month.  I posted about him a while back and how I watched him online.  He's so cute!

Baby on the left and Mama on the right in the tree.

Yun Zi sleeping in the tree.

Photos of Our Australia Trip

Some of my favorite photos:

The rest of the photos:  Melbourne, Cape Tribulation, and Sydney

We are home!

I love traveling, but I also love coming home!


We got home this morning and now have to make the adjustment back to normal life and the 18 hour time difference.  I'm jumping right back into it and heading to work tomorrow, most would say that's crazy.  We weren't able to sleep as much on the flight home, so I'm trying my best to stay up as long as I can.  Mike, on the other hand, has until Monday to rest and crashed out the moment we got home.


The first thing I did when I got home was make some coffee.  In Australia, they have espresso coffees (lattes, cappuccinos, etc).  They are good, but I really miss our coffee when we are away for a while!

Sydney, Australia

I can't believe we have 2 days left in Australia!

Since leaving Melbourne, we were up in Queensland in the Rainforest in Cape Tribulation.  It was very hot and humid there.  The B&B we stayed at was very nice and secluded.  We had a great experience there trying new exotic fruits every morning.  Our hosts really made us feel like family and we were invited to their BBQ our last night there.  A funny thing about being invited to a BBQ was that Mike and I had read a book about the culture of Australia and in the book there was a pretty big section about what do to if you get invited to a BBQ in Australia.  We were both like, we'll never get invited to a BBQ.  We had a great and unique experience and probably the best part of our trip was staying up there.  

We've been in Sydney the past few days.  We have been exploring a lot of Sydney and the area.  Sydney is a beautiful city and sort of reminds me of a cross between San Francisco and Vancouver.  We are heading on a wine tasting tour to Hunter Valley tomorrow and then we are seeing an Opera at the Sydney Opera House on Friday night before heading back to the States on Saturday. 

It's raining here in Sydney this evening (I'm writing this at 9:40pm Wed night Sydney time)... 

and lightening too, which we don't get in San Diego. 

Melbourne, Australia

We made it through our 15 hour flight to Melbourne.  We were able to sleep almost 8 hours, which was a lot better than either of us expected.  We have rented a car here in Melbourne and are having fun trying to drive on the left.  Mike is the driver and I am the navigator.  I'm also constantly reminding him to KEEP LEFT. 

We drove the car all day yesterday (12+ hours) to the Great Ocean Road.  It's a very scenic road along the ocean and goes through some really cool small towns. 

We were able to sleep in a little today as we are heading to Phillip Island to watch the penguins.  They don't come out of the water until sunset and sunset here is about 730-8pm.  It's their summer here, so the days are longer. 

The weather isn't as warm as we were expecting, a little cool (like San Diego weather is now) and some rain on our first day.  It's nice and sunny today so far.  It'll get warmer once we leave here tomorrow and head up to the Great Barrier Reef. 

We are doing well and having fun!