After Brandan and Abe left for Australia last Friday, Becky, Helen and Gibson stayed in Salt Lake through Monday to make sure Sofi was settled into school. Sofi's first week of school has been delightful. We didn't have a camera with us, but here are a few pictures from our trip home. On Monday we visited the Discovery Center in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Helen and Gibson liked recording stories and photoshopping their faces onto silly pictures. Here is Helen dressed as an English lady.
Here is Gibson dressed as a Roman soldier. Each visitor to the center checks out an iPad. The iPad automatically sends all the activities you do during your visit to your email address. We could have spent a couple of hours here if we had more time.
After we left Salt Lake, we drove to Idaho, stopping to visit Grandma and Grandpa and Sarah's family. Sarah's neighbors, Jane and Will, came to play while we were there. Jane is the same age as Helen and Will is a year younger than Gibson. All the kids worked together on a craft project. Here are Will and Gibson.
Here are Zina, Helen and Jane. The kids made 3D hot air balloons from construction paper.
Sarah hung their finished projects in her classroom. Will's art is on the left, then Helen's, then Gibson's. Jane's project is on a different wall. Sarah's first grade class is going to make more hot air balloons to hang up.
Brandan, Abe and Dan have had lots of adventures in Australia this week. Normally, we would let them blog about their trip when they got home. Brandan is pretty sure he'll be too busy when he returns to post anything. We'll put up some photos now and Abe can add anything or make corrections when he gets home. When we left off last week, they were headed on a cruise from Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkeling. Here are Brandan and Abe on the boat.
Dan took this photo of some coral and fish. The cruise had a variety of options for viewing the reef, from scuba diving and snorkeling to a glass bottom boat to a submarine-ish thing. It was possible to stay completely dry and still see sea creatures. Besides the coral and fish, they saw a shark, a sea turtle and a giant clam.
Here's a photo of Abe snorkeling. Brandan, Abe and Dan all snorkeled. Abe liked the submarine best for seeing the reef.
On the first day, the cruise took the passengers to an artificial platform on top of the reef that provided a good location for snorkeling and diving. The second day the cruise took the passengers to Fitzroy Island. Fitzroy Island is covered by tropical rainforest and is part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
They snorkeled in a quiet bay and hiked to a lighthouse, a short and steep hike.
On Wednesday, they drove from Cairns to Kuranda, a nearby village in a rainforest. Abe got to pet a kangaroo.
A highlight for Abe was holding a koala. He said it was very soft and surprisingly heavy. They also saw lots of reptiles, including both freshwater and saltwater crocodiles. Abe did not hold a crocodile.
This is a photo of Abe with a curtain tree.
On Thursday morning they had time to visit a botanical garden in Cairns before catching their flight. The garden was full of tropical plants from all around the world.
The Australian fast food chain Hungry Jack's looks a lot like an American Burger King.
Abe looks happy with his meal. Eating regular meals while traveling is always a challenge. Adding food allergies makes eating even trickier.
Abe bought a wombat at the airport. He named it Fitzroy. We think Bombat the Combat Wombat would also be a good name.
Now would be a good time to add a map of Australia and a description of their travel plans. They flew from the US to Brisbane, located in the middle of the eastern coast. From Brisbane they flew north to Cairns. On Thursday, they left Cairns and flew to Adelaide, located in the south central coast area. Adelaide is the biggest city in the area. They will be spending most of their time in Victor Harbor and Normanville which are both 30 minutes away from Adelaide. On Friday they will fly from Adelaide to Sydney. On Saturday they will fly home.
Brandan, Dan and Abe did baptisms at the Adelaide temple.
Brandan's distant cousins, Cynthia and Murray live in Victor Harbor. Cynthia probably knows more about the Hulls around the world than any person alive. Brandan and Dan are looking forward to learning from her and exploring her collections while they are visiting.
Cynthia has also researched Dan's Frew relatives for him, even though she is not related to the Frews. Here is a photo of Abe standing on Frew St. The house the Frews lived in is further down the street.
The Ellis family invited them to dinner. It looks like Abe is playing video games with the kids in this photo. President Ellis is Cynthia's stake president.
The branch in Victor Harbor meets in this small, rented building.
Brandan estimated there were about 30 people in church on Sunday. Abe said there was one priest, one teacher and one deacon (him) in Young Mens. The branch met for snacks after church. You can see Brandan in the top left of the photo.
Brandan took a photo of the Australian favorite, Vegemite. Vegemite is made from yeast and looks like tar. Abe has avoided it. He's probably allergic to it, right?
It's already Monday for our travelers and they started the day with a hike to the Ingallala waterfalls. It's wintertime in Australia now and rainy. Here's a photo of Dan and Abe.
Here's another photo of the waterfalls.
They are staying in Normanville and are surrounded by sheep and cattle farms. The rain makes the landscape green and lush. You might think you were in Western Oregon, maybe the Willamette Valley, until a kangaroo hopped in front of your car. The kangaroos wander across the road like deer do in the US, sometimes with the same unfortunate end.
