Friday, December 24, 2010

Prepping for "dan Unda"

When I was a mere boy of 12, my sister Sallie and  I applied for pen pals through a teen magazine to which she subcribed. Sallie influenced me in some great ways, and some not-so-great ways -- like telling me  to grow my hair out to look cool, when all it really did was make me like Dorothy Hamill  in drag (but I digress). I got a penpal from Ireland, she got one from Sydney. My correspondence lasted maybe a year. Her friendship with her Aussie penpal has lasted a lifetime.

So the long and short of it is that I always wanted the penpal from Australia and never got one. As I grew older, I did book reports on Australia, class projects on the Outback, and wrote to the Australian Embassy for insights on koalas and kangaroos. I wanted more than a penpal from Oz. I wanted the experience.

So to celebrate my 50th birthday (which I just did on 12/19), my wife gave me the perfect gift -- 10 days in the land Down Under. Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne. It really is a dream of a lifetime. So I thought I'd share my travels on this blog.  If I'm not eaten by a great white shark while snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, or knocked unconscious by a kangaroo and put in a coma for a few years, I may just be able to put future travels on here as the Wandering Yank.

It's two days before departure and I haven't packed yet. Little thing called Christmas first. Stay tuned.

2 comments:

  1. Have fun down under (the equator)
    -Eric

    well miss you i already miss you!:(
    wait a second....your in the other room!?!?
    -claire

    ReplyDelete