Chocolate For Mamas and Boppas

AKA Vegimite. The most comical moment of the adventure may have been when Boodah ate (attempted to eat, more accurately) his Vegimite sandwich. "This is salty chocolate. This is chocolate for mamas and boppas." Needless to say, he only had one bite.

For the uninitiated, Vegimite is an Australian staple. Imagine a salty beef broth. Imagine a peanut-butter like texture. Spread it on some bread and you've got yourself a vegimite sandwhich. It isn't too bad, as long as you are fairly hungry and don't have any high hopes about the potential tastiness. Otherwise, it isn't very good. Boppa won the vegimite sandwhich eating contest. Please accept my apologies for the neck craning required to watch this video. It's more of a David Cross moment than anything.

So our speedy mission down under was a good adventure. Fortunately, Auntie Nicole joined us from Philly to make it quite a fun mission. Before making it to Oz, we stopped in Anchorage to check out the WilYos new villa. Their new place is awesome. It's in Anchorage, but right on a creek so it really doesn't feel like you are in town.

And in Vegas to see Julie Coates and her rugrats. It's such an amazing contrast to go from lush emerald summer Kodiak to 100 degree + desert Vegas! Of course, it's always a joy to see dear old friends.

Julie is married to an Australian, so he gave us some good pointers. Like, "Don't eat the Vegimite" and other such info.

VAustralia is an excellent airline. They really do treat you like a rock star. If you can believe it, the two 14+ hour LAX to Sydney legs were some of the easiest flying we've done with 2 rugrats in diapers. Seriously. The brand new 777 is great, and the entertainment options are endless. Decent food, cheery service, and comfy seats - what more could you ask for? Oh yes, a bassinet! Don't forget that! It's a lifesaver.

They even had a little welcome aboard baby food pack for the wee one...

Sadly, this option wasn't provided on the way SYD-LAX leg. Just the leg from LAX-SYD. We were lulled into complacency for the trip home.

Whew, this blogging is hard work on little sleep. Okay, on Day One we checked out the van we almost rented, but were denied on account of car seat issues. We picked up our new palace and wandered to the beaches, enjoying Sydney hot dogs and watching the jets take off. At about 8 PM we could barely keep our eyes open, so we undertook some Sydney side-street stealth camping.

Here's Boodah, walking Moosie after the long flight. This was very important. Fortunately, there weren't many people behind us trying to get off the plane. (200, tops.)

Stowaway! Does this meet federal safety regulations?

We'll take up the story later, where it officially starts... with Auntie Nicole's arrival to the Sherwood Palace!

But it wouldn't be right to leave you in suspense, so here it is...






THE PALACE.
(This photo is of course taken back when both sides were fully intact.)