G'Day from Down Under - Day 1

We started our journey at DIA enjoying the moving sidewalks - that is letting the sidewalk take us past our gate as we posed for pictures!

2 hours and a 45 minute adjustment to the plane later we land in LA. We had completed 3K of our marathon. With passports in hand we board the 13.5 hour flight from LA to Sydney. Lydia, Dominique and I are on the right of the plan and mom and dad shared the seats in the middle of the plane with an older gentleman (poor guy - dad did not let him sleep much during the flight...too much to talk about!) As the plane took off Dad got a little hungry and decided to grab just about everything that he had stuffed his bag with from our fridge...he pulled out the ham, he pulled out the bread, he pulled out the apple, and he pulled out the carrot! Other than dad whipping out the ingredients for a ham sandwich the plane ride was relatively uneventful and we were thankful for that.

When we arrived in Sydney we had to disembark the plane, go through immigration and then head back onto the plane for the last leg of our trip to Melbourne. After immigration we took a mini detour on our way back to the gate and stopped in the SYD Tax and Duty Free shop. Since we all stunk of plane we enjoyed the isles of perfume sampling (Channel Spring Chance won our vote) and the Bailey’s sample woman treated Lydia to her first legal Australian drink – Bailey’s with a hint of mint chocolate. Our detour included Lydia getting to purchase her first alcoholic beverage as the drinking age in Australia is 18.

Finally back on the plane and 1 hour later we were at our final destination – Melbourne, Victoria. We figured out we had missed a day with the time change and had also spent a little more than 24 hours of total travel time (more than half of which was spent on planes). Pop (our grandfather on mom’s side), Nick (Mom’s brother and our uncle) and Teresa (Mom’s best friend and my Godmother) greeted us at the airport with huge hugs and kisses. Mom didn’t even recognize her father it has been so long since we have seen this side of the family.

Once in Glenroy (the town/suburb that Pop lives in), the streets and sights began to look familiar. Pop’s house had not changed a bit – every photo we saw on our last visit was in the exact same place – it was such a comfortable atmosphere to see pictures of my mom as a little Catholic school girl and our parents as a happy newlywed couple.

We were at the house at about 1pm and like magic I told my uncle I was starving and my mom’s confirmation sponsor and family friend walked in with pans of food – lasagna, chicken legs, stuffed mushrooms, tiramisu cake, and plenty to drink including Pop’s homemade black wine – the strong stuff! There was so much food we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and evening eating with and entertaining old friends…by 9pm we had seen Teresa and her family (Flavio, her husband, Stefano, her 10-year-old-son, and Alessandra, her 14-year-old daughter), our uncle Nick, aunt Kathy and new cousin Nathan (Nathan is 7, but this was the first time that we have met him), Franca and her daughter Isabella (family friends and also Teresa’s sister and niece), and Maria (Mom’s friend from gradeschool). Not to mention that it’s now 3AM Colorado time. Goodnight for today!