The family went on a trip to Australia at the end of January. It was a whirlwind trip.
The Preparation
Annie knew about Australia. Her friend Hamish was from Australia. He had visited her back in August, and now she would get to visit him.
Not long before Annie had had Australia Day at school, to raise money for the fires in Australia. The kids in her school had learned all about Australia that day, and had been encouraged to wear Australian colors to school. Annie came home brimming with information about Australia. This came down to two facts:
People in Australia don’t wear shoes
The colors of Australia are green, yellow, red, and blue.
The former fact made packing for the trip a little difficult. She was reluctant to bring her sandals with her, because she often wore them without socks, and so if she took them off she would be barefoot; whereas if she wore her shoes, she could wear socks, and wouldn’t be totally barefoot when she took off her shoes. She expected she would have to take them off as soon as she reached the Australian shores. But it was summertime, so her mommy was encouraging her to bring sandals. In the end, she brought both sandals and shoes.
The Journey
It was a nighttime flight. Annie wore her pajamas to the airport. Annie loved wearing pajamas.
Determined to push her sister through the entire airport in the borrowed stroller, Annie lasted about four minutes before Mommy was forced to take over.
Her energy returned as they reached their gate, where she discovered she could dance with the stroller. She and Cora then destroyed all competition in the arcade games.
And Cora found a jungle gym.
After an exhilarating plane ride, they landed in Melbourne. It was the middle of the night. Annie was very tired but did notice that all the people in the airport were wearing shoes. The family was unsure, but wondered if perhaps these people were wearing shoes because they were not Australians.
Melbourne
The family’s trip coincided with Australia Day, which is similar to the Fourth of July – it is a summertime holiday celebrating the beginnings of the country, with parades and fireworks and lots of community events. They decided to go into the big city to see the sights that day. Annie was happy to find that the Australians were wearing shoes after all.
Annie got to ride the tram into the city with her friend Hamish. Poor Cora appears to have been forgotten in a corner, as usual.
While exploring the city they came across a giant parade, featuring traditional Australian imagery such as a giant inflatable Australian flag man, dancers in beautiful outfits from all over Asia and Europe, people marching with flags from all over the world, people dressed as the original Ghostbusters, a battalion of storm troopers from Star Wars, and of course all of the Marvel superheroes, among others. Someone gave Australian flags to Annie and Cora. Annie waved hers around patriotically. Cora crumpled hers into a ball and then ate bits of it. This wanton destruction of the Australian flag by foreigners was probably treasonous but Cora didn’t care.
Annie’s absolute favorite people from the parade were a group Thai dancers, mainly ladies. After the parade, she saw them standing in the sunshine on a hillside getting pictures taken, and she stared at them. They were so beautiful. She had never seen such beautiful outfits in her life. The colors, the gold! One of the ladies noticed her watching. She was carrying an enormous hat that had many tiers of food on it, like a giant wedding cake hat. She offered the hat to Annie, who took an orange and a small cupcake.This was not the last gift Annie received that day. After the parade, there was a children’s event wherein a person in a giant pig suit representing a bank gave Annie some sunscreen. Annie cherished that sunscreen. It was one of her favorite Australian souvenirs.While Annie was receiving sunscreen, Cora practiced climbing trees.
It turned out that this was also the weekend of the Australian Open. The family tried to get a family picture near the sign for the Australian Open, since they were in the vicinity of this big event. However Annie’s face was obscured throughout much of the photo shoot, and Cora slept through it.
That evening, the families went out to dinner. The children spent the meal under the table. At the next table over, a boy was celebrating his eighteenth birthday with a large group of friends and family of all ages. He wore a black leather shirt, black leather shorts, and black leather converse sneakers with spikes on them and a sash that said Birthday Princess. Unfortunately he and his friends were unable to finish his 3-tiered gold-and-chocolate birthday cake. So they gave the remains to Annie and her family and friends. They ate what they could, and then passed on what was left to the family at the next table.
The next day, the family went to the zoo.
Annie and Cora got to feed a very polite kangaroo at the zoo, who took food from their hands and gently pawed Daddy when it wanted more food. Annie was only a little afraid of the kangaroo.
However, lunchtime was a different story. It was then that Annie met her arch-nemesis. A thing of nightmares and scary stories – Annie had not felt such fear and hatred since she had been attacked by the ducks at the zoo that had stolen her cheese. But this evil bird – with its long, curved, sharp black beak – was worse. He lurked around as she ate, eyeing her food hungrily. He lunged forward and stole food out of Cora’s hand when she wasn’t paying attention. The Ibis! A monstrosity of nature, the very name strikes terror into Annie’s heart to this day.Following her traumatic lunch, Annie went to a talk about the platypus. The room was packed with children and their parents trying to see the bizarre, cute animals splashing in a tank of water. At the end of the show, bubble machines blew hundreds of bubbles. And all the children in the room recited together as a new mantra that a pledge to Blow Bubbles Not Balloons at their birthday parties. To save the adorable creatures swimming around in front of them and the beautiful innocent birds of the sky, which would all die if they were cruel enough to use helium balloons. Annie was subdued and told her mommy afterwards that she would never have balloons at her party. Even though she likes balloons.Annie posed for pictures throughout her time at the zoo. She likes to pose for pictures, as long as it is her idea to pose in the first place.
They finished the day with a trip to visit the flying foxes. Down by a river, skeletal trees housed thousands and thousands of bats, hanging upside down from the branches like black, days-old deflated balloons, and screeching and chittering to each other. Sometimes a bat would flap from one tree to another, showing its enormous wingspan, and they could almost see the cute furry foxy faces. The children were not interested in the bats in the slightest. There was a grassy hill, and they could run down it. They could throw their sun-hats down the hill while shouting “Wap!” Why would you bother looking at a fruit bat colony when you could roll around in the grass?
Home Again
And so the trip came to a close. There were roads untraveled, mysteries yet to be unravelled – such as the sign in the Melbourne airport pointing down a narrow hallway stating “Tourist Refund Scheme” – but the family was anxious to be getting back to their home. There would be other days to investigate tourist schemes. They did not know if they would return to Australia again before they returned to their distant American home, but perhaps someday they would come back.
Annie and Cora spent the flight home goofing off, of courseAs they got closer and closer to their home, the view from the airplane window was almost magical.
