April 8th, 2015 - Kyoto, Japan - Day 238

Peter's POV

Today was a work day. Everyone was still pretty tired from our walking tour yesterday so we spent most of the day inside working until about 1. At 1 my mom, dad, and I went out to see some gardens. It was sunny out and it was the first time since we got to Kyoto that I have put my sunglasses on.

While we were walking to the gardens we saw a little sign that pointed towards another little garden, called Murin-an Gardens. We decided to go in and see what it was. The garden was very cool it was filled with little ponds and mossy garden beds that looked very cool.

After the little garden we headed to our first garden, which we couldn't find, so we decided to go into a temple and see if the gardens were behind it. We walked through a lot of dry gardens scattered throughout the temple. Dry gardens have been around for centuries, and they are NOT to be walked on! You observe these Zen gardens from the temple, and they're for meditative purposes. It was believed that this dry landscape would help quiet the mind and make meditating easier. The sand is the ocean, the strategically placed rocks are the mountains, and the raked patterns represent the ripples of the sea. The raking is considered a privilege, because it's not only expressive (you can make it stormy or calm), but it's mediative as well! The straight lines in the photo below show a calm sea with circular lines around the rocks, which is the tide, gently hitting the rock islands.

After the dry gardens, my mom went to check out another garden. My mom went in alone because it said that the temple was under construction and we didn't want to buy four passes if it wasn't good. The temples and gardens are so old that they were not designed for people over 5 foot 6. So at every temple I hit my head at least once if I am not paying attention. My mom got a picture of one of the signs.

After our third garden we found one more garden. A different type of Japanese gardens feature large ponds and islands connected by arched bridges. This garden had a lot of cool water features and some really cool plants.

After the last garden, it was 4:00 and we decided to walk home. When we got home, my parents went out for a walk while my sister and I stayed home and relaxed. After they got back we had dinner, played a game of Euchre and they went upstairs to watch a movie. Lea and I were going to watch a movie but it didn't download in time.

Scroll through the Bonus Pics of the day!

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April 7th, 2015 - Kyoto, Japan - Day 237

Big Pete's POV

Today we had scheduled a tour of Kyoto. We have not been very big on tour while we traveled, but we thought this would be a great way to learn more about the city and the Japanese culture. We needed to leave the house by 9:00 to get to the tour so we had an early morning with the kids. Lea has been cranking on school and we actually got a lesson in before we left on the tour.

We met our guide for the day Miko, at a location which turned out to be about 3 minutes from our house. There were 5 other people on the tour and after the introductions we set off on foot to head to the Kiyomizu temple, which is another UNESCO world heritage site. I am not sure how many that makes for us on this trip, but it is a lot. Our guide took us up a back street to the temple so we could see a Japanese Cemetery. We learned that in Japan, most people are cremated after they pass, but their ashes are still buried and tombstones erected.

After about 5 minuets of walking we arrived at the temple and we realized why she took us the back way - the temple was packed!

The temple was very cool and we learned a lot about the culture. Everything seems to have symbolism and meaning behind it. The attention to detail is simply amazing.

Even the tickets to get into the temple are beautiful

We made our way through the various sites at the temple and came to one in particular which is called "going to your mothers womb". You take your shoes off and walk down a set of steps into complete darkness. You are instructed to hold onto a railing while you are walking and just follow where it goes. When I say darkness I mean pitch black - eyes wide open and blind. Then after winding you way through a small maze you come to a glittering stone which you place one hand on and make a wish. The experience was really interesting and we are all hoping our wishes come true.

We then made our way over to the main temple and took in the sights. It is a beautiful location which was a little hard to enjoy because there were 10,000 other people there, but I tried to imagine being there alone and I think it would be amazing. Here are some pictures from the temple:

The final thing we did at the temple was to drink some of its famous water. The name Kiyomizu means pure water. You could chose which stream to drink from, one was to enhance academics, one was for love and the other for health. To my extreme happiness both kids chose academics!

After the temple we started heading back down to the district where our house is located - Gion. The streets leading away from the temple were packed, but they are beautiful cobblestone lanes with cute shops and sweets everywhere.

Before making it to Gion we had a scheduled stop at another temple - Kennin-ji. This temple was much quieter and more peaceful than Kiyomizu. It is well known for its beautiful artwork on its door panels and its dry gardens, but before we entered we had to take note of the special sign they put up just for Lea.

The ceiling of the main temple - this dragon enforces the buddhist laws

This is the room where the Japanese tea ceremony was invented

We all agreed this temple was a very nice change from the hustle and bustle of the first one we visited. Once we were done we walked a short distance over to Gion, which is the largest of the 5 geisha districts in Kyoto. Again I continue to be impressed by the attention to detail and artistry of this country - below is a street sign in the road in Gion. The fans are an obvious reference to the Geisha lifestyle.

Our guide told us this was actually a tourist, not a real Geisha

The walk through the Gion was nice and learning about the lifestyle was really interesting, but we were getting really hungry. We went to a restaurant down a back ally and had a nice sampler meal where we had tempura, udon and Japanese pickled vegetables. It was nice to sit down and warm up after a long cool morning.

After lunch we visited a couple more shrines right in the downtown area. We learned the central area of Kyoto once had 1000 shrines all packed together. Seeing these little oasis's right in the middle of the city was very cool.

By rubbing the head of the bull you will have good luck in your education. I made the kids do it twice :-).

After the shrines we headed into the food market. The market here is a single very long ally that is packed to the gills with food stalls - and people! It was great to have Miko there because she could explain all the weird and wonderful food we saw.

We wrapped up the day by heading to one more shrine. This one is the oldest in Kyoto and is dedicated to the art of Japanese flower arrangement. They were preparing for a big exhibit this weekend so it was a bit under construction, but still quite interesting.

After saying goodbye to Miko and our new friends from Malaysia and New York we started on the 30 minute walk home. By the time we got there we were all exhausted. It was about 4:30 so we relaxed for a little bit (except for Lea who got right back to work) and then had an early dinner and a REALLY early bed time of 8:00 - the museum walking killed us again....

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April 6th, 2015 - Kyoto, Japan - Day 236

Big Pete's POV

Today was a great day in Kyoto. The weather has not been great, but we decided we needed to get out and start seeing things anyway. We decided we would work all morning and then head out later in the afternoon regardless of what the weather looked like.

Around 2:00 we started on a walk for the Imperial Palace of Kyoto. Kyoto was the capital of Japan for 1000 years before it moved to Tokyo about 150 years ago. The palace is usually only open to visitors by reservation, but this week it was free to enter with no reservation necessary and this was the final day so we made it a priority to get there.

The walk took about 50 minutes and led us through the downtown of Kyoto. This is such an interesting city with winding back alleys full of restaurants and cute shops but also big streets with department stores, Starbucks and the Gap. It was sprinkling lightly as we walked but not too bad where we wanted to turn back. We made it to the palace grounds easily and headed toward the actual palace.

We made our way inside and slowly walked around the interior of the palace looking at all of the different buildings and reading the placards to get a sense of what we were looking at.

Then after seeing the buildings and the throne we were able to see the real treasures of the Palace - the gardens. I love Japanese gardens and these were just awesome, but unfortunately you could not walk through them, you had to observe them from behind a rope. Still Stacie was able to get some great pictures:

Then once we were done with the garden we started to head home. Stacie caught this very cool picture of a Japanese tourist checking out the cherry trees.

On our way back out of the palace grounds we found a few more nooks that were picture worthy and Peter caught this nice picture. It seems that everywhere you turn there is something else that captures your eye and makes you want to take a picture. I think it is because of all the places we have been this culture seems the most foreign to me. It is highly stimulating and quite wonderful.

We decided to make the long walk back to the house instead of taking the subway in hopes of getting a little more exercise. By the time we did make it home we were all exhausted. We have all determined when you walk at a slow pace, like in a museum, it drains the life out of you. Think about it, when you are done with a museum tour aren't you usually exhausted? We are not sure why, but we call it museum walking and we try to take it into consideration when we plan our days. This day was a combination of a long real walk (about two hours) combined with about 2 hours of museum walking and that had everyone beat.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and bought some sushi and other prepared foods for dinner. The grocery store food here is fantastic and inexpensive. When you combine that with the fact that we can't read any labels, going the prepared food route it just a lot better for us. We had our nice easy dinner, hung out for a while and had an early bed time after a great day.

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April 5th, 2015 - Kyoto, Japan - Day 232

Peter's POV

Today was a down day. It was raining for most of the day and because of that we spent most of the day inside working. Around 4:00 my mom and I ran to the grocery store to get things for our Japanese easter meal. In the store we tried to find beef, however, because there are no english labels and pretty much no one speaks a word of english we had to guess. After about 20 minutes in the grocery store we left for home. When we got home we hung out for about 2 hours then my dad, sister, and I went to go and grab some dessert. Our original plan was for us to and grab a cake at one of the bakeries in the area, but because it was 6:00 on a Sunday we figured that pretty much no one would be open so we just went to the grocery store instead.

A shrine just up the street from our house.  There are 2000 temples and shrines in Kyoto — A shrine just up the street from our house. There are 2000 temples and shrines in Kyoto

After we got back dinner was ready and we started eating. Our easter meal was a big bowl of udon noodles with some beef and vegetables. Dinner was delicious and after we ate we went down to a canal that had cherry blossoms hanging over the side of it to take some pictures.

Lea with her new camera getting ready for a photo expedition

I also took this long exposure of the traffic at night

My shot of cherries overhanging the canal

My dad caught some Japanese tourists dressed up and taking photos with the cherries

My mom even got into the game with this photo

When we got back we played a game of Euchre and went to bed after a pretty slow easter in Japan.

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April 4th, 2015 - Travel Day - Day 231

Peter's POV

Today was our first slow morning in Tokyo. My sister and I woke up around 7:45 and tried to call our parents, but no one was there to answer. We tried to get a little more sleep before calling them again about an hour later, thankfully they were there because Lea and I where starving and we had no food. My dad told me that he had two cinnamon scones waiting in his room for us. When we were done with breakfast we packed up and relaxed until 11:30.

At 11:30 we left the hotel to go and get on the subway. When we got to the station, we still needed to get tickets, food and get to the train and we had about 45 minutes. Our plan was for Lea to sit with the bags while I got us a snack and my parents when to try and get discounted tickets. After about 5 minutes after I got back from getting me and Lea a snack, my parents showed up and told us that they needed to go and get tickets at the counter so we needed to wait. When they finally got us our tickets my mom took us with her to get lunch in a supermarket. We found what we wanted pretty quickly and were off toward the train. When we got to the tracks we found that the train wasn't there yet. We waited for about 10 minutes until it showed up and used that time to drop a sticker on Tokyo:

We found our seats and were off, towards Kyoto on a bullet train.

After a smooth 2 and a half hour journey our train pulled into Kyoto station. We found our way out of the station and found the line to get a taxi. It was probably 20 people long. The system seemed very ineffective because there were just as many taxis waiting to pick people up as people waiting to be picked up. This was so unusual for Japan as every other thing we have encountered has been so efficient.

When we got our taxi driver he said that he knew were our house was. However, did not speak a word of english other than ok and thank you so it was a good thing my parents had printed out the directions to the house in Japanese.

We found our house in about 20 minutes, the outside and surrounding area is very cute. When we walked into our house we thought that it was very cool, but VERY SMALL. We are staying in a historic district in Kyoto in a traditional Japanese home called a Machiya. My dad says it is about 650 square feet big. When we found our room we looked around for the beds because our room was just a room.

There was no beds or anything. We looked in the closets and found camping mattress like things and made the room our own.

My parents left to go and get groceries while we finished up our room.

When they got back we made dinner and watched a movie and fell into bed exhausted from another travel day.

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April 3rd, 2015 - Tokyo, Japan - Day 230

Big Pete's POV

We woke up this morning with a little bit of an agenda. It was Friday morning and we needed to go to the Vietnamese Embassy to get our visas for the next leg of the trip. We have delayed this for a long time because we were uncertain if we were actually going to make it to Vietnam, and the visa process is not that simple unless you can physically get to an embassy. In addition to the visas we Lea was still on a mission to get a camera and I was in the market for a new lens for my camera. The stores down in Akhiabara have great prices (like 30% off of what Amazon offers), so we figured it was a good place to do this. In addition to those errands, we wanted to visit a big shrine in the center of the city.

We geared up early and were standing on the train platform by 9:00. The ride to our stop was only about 10 minutes. The train system in Japan is incredible by the way, it is fast, easy and reliable. We got off our stop and were into Yoyogi Park (where the shrine is located) in about 1 minute. The entrance to the park was impressive in and of itself.

The park is one of the largest in Tokyo and has a couple of significant facts associated with it. It was the location of the first powered flight in Japan and was also used by the US during our occupation of Japan for troops barracks, we called it Washington Heights. In 1964 it housed most of the athletes for the Olympics. However, it is most well known for housing the Meiji Shrine, which is dedicated to Emperor Meiji or Meiji the Great who ruled from 1867 to 1912 and is credited with bringing Japan from a feudal empire to a capitalist society.

The park leading to the shrine was very nice, but did not have many Cherry trees, which we hunt everywhere we go.

The Torii Gate - All shrines have these and they designate the separation of holy ground from the secular world — The Torii Gate - All shrines have these and they designate the separation of holy ground from the secular world

When you get to the actual shrine complex there is a station for you to wash your hands and your mouth out before you pray. This is called the "temizuya" water pavilion and consists of a water basin and ladles. It is there to perform "misogi," a ritual to purify the body and mind with water before proceeding to stand in front of the deity. Originally this ritual was performed in the nude at special misogi locations (but to Lea's relief we did not have to disrobe) like the ocean or a river, but today the ritual has been simplified to rinsing your hands and mouth at the temizuya. The idea is to wash away impurities in your heart as well as from your physical self before you go to pray to the deity.

Once inside there were places to send prayers to loved ones, pray to the deity and to write prayers down which would be read and offered to the deity.

We all said a prayer and then headed out the east gate. It was about another 20 minute walk from the shrine to the embassy, which we found easily. I am not sure how people managed before Google Maps, but it is an absolute godsend for us navigating our way though a big city where you can't read any street signs.

When we got to the embassy it was pretty crowded and we had to wait in line after filling out our forms. As we were waiting in line I asked if we could pay with credit. The nice gentleman behind the counter told me I could not and tried to point me in the direction of the nearest ATM. We have been noticing that a LOT of businesses in Japan are cash only and its driving me a little insane. I hate using cash and having to go to the ATM, but that is what I needed to do if we were going to Vietnam, so I raced out the door telling Stacie and the kids I would be right back. I hustled down the street to find and ATM and about 5 minutes later I found one. However, when I tried to use it the machine just kept spitting my card back saying it was invalid. So I went to the next spot I could find - same result. I went to about 7 ATM's before I figured something was wrong with my card. So I called my bank, Charles Schwab, and they told me everything was fine on their end, so I was even more confused. It had been about 25 minutes since I left and I was sure Stacie and the kids were freaking out so I ran back to the embassy. When I got there, Stacie was at the counter frantically cutting our passport style pictures and gluing them to our applications. I had forgotten to tell here where those pictures were and had inadvertently caused a huge delay in the process by having her hunt them down in my absence. This was all just going perfectly! I told her about the problem and said I was going to go back out to try to find another ATM. Peter came with me this time and we found another ATM pretty quickly. I tried again and again it spit the card back at me. Peter said - "have you tried pushing the International Card button?" I gave him one of those "of course I have - what do you think I am an idiot" looks and said "yeah!" with a nasty bite to it. But I gave it a try again and of course it worked! Peter saved our bacon - we were back in business.

We hustled back to the embassy and sat down to wait for our number to be called. As we waited Lea decided it was a good time for a nap. When we took this picture she was snoring pretty loudly and dead asleep. I am not sure how she does it, but it is a gift!

We got our visa's just as the office was closing for a two hour lunch break. At this point we were all a little tired and hungry, but of course we had no idea where to eat and we could not read any signs to tell us what we were in store for. We stopped outside a restaurant to talk about our options and after about 5 minutes of everyone saying they did not care what we ate, Stacie turned and said "let's go here". We wandered down into the basement of the restaurant and found it was traditional Japanese so we needed to remove our shoes and sit on the floor. The food was udon noodles and was fantastic again!

After lunch we headed back to Akhiabara to find Lea's camera, my lens and a new electronic drawing pad for Stacie to help with landscape design. Lea had done some research and found the best shop in the district - Yodobashi.

We spent the next hour or so wandering through this MASSIVE electronics store with 7 floors of every gadget you can possibly imagine. We all found what we were looking for and left as satisfied but exhausted shoppers.

We made it back to the hotel pretty easily and laid down for a quick rest before dinner. This time we wanted something other than Japanese, so we found an Indian restaurant and made a reservation. We walked there in about 15 minuets and had the best Indian food of our trip - it was amazing. Tokyo is right at the top of all of our lists for food - it has been simply incredible. On the way home Lea and Peter we busy taking pictures and playing with Lea's new camera while Stacie and I were on a bee line for bed. After another long day we were exhausted and fell quickly asleep - ready for another travel day tomorrow.

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April 2nd, 2015 - Tokyo, Japan - Day 229

Peter's POV

Today was the nicest day that we had in Tokyo, so it was an early one. We got out of the house and got some more Starbucks. Our first stop of the day was at a garden. We found the garden easily and were amazed by the cherry blossoms right when we walked in. The garden was called Koishikawa Korakuen and was first laid out in 1629 which makes it the oldest garden in Tokyo.

The garden was very cool, had little bridges and ponds all over. Lea and I got some fish food to feed the carp and headed right over to a pond to do just that. Here are some pictures of the garden:

When we left the garden our plan was to go and get lunch. The planned lunch was a dumpling stand. When we got to the dumpling stand my mom and dad didn't think that they looked that good but we got one anyway.

The dumpling stand - these are called niku-man — The dumpling stand - these are called niku-man

The dumpling was very good and my sister and I got two more right away. My parents kept looking around for a place to eat. They finally found one that looked good and it turned out to be a Japanese style crepe place. The Japanese style crepes are very different from the French crepes. On top of the crepe there is cabbage, pork, and egg and udon noodles. It was amazing, I wasn't planning on eating there but after a tasted my dad's, I knew that I had to get one.

Making the crepe right in front of you - this lady did EVERYTHING!

After lunch I was more full than I have ever been in my life. After 1.5 niko-man and one of these I did not ever want to eat again.

While I digested lunch we went to the electronic district to look for a camera for Lea. When we got to the district called Akihabara I was amazed, there were billboards everywhere, it looked like Japanese style times square.

After about an hour and a half of comparing camera's Lea found one, the Fuji FinePix S1. She got up to the counter and we noticed everyone was using there passports to get the duty free discount. When she got up to the counter she found out that you needed your passport with you to get the discount. She later found out that they didn't have any of the camera's in stock anyway. We left the electronic district with nothing and headed to the river for a boat cruise. When we got there we found a line stretching out the door. This was exactly what we didn't need after a long day walking around the city. However, the line moved fast and we were on the boat before we knew it.

The ride was not that exciting but the tickets were just a little bit more expensive than subway tickets and they got us into the garden that we were going to see for free. While we were on the boat we decided to have a competition on who could make the most disapproving face.

I don't like it when he has this face on

Lea and I were not very good at this game - we could not stop laughing

When we got to the garden we were not amazed, it was more of a park than a garden, but still very cool. After the garden we headed back to the hotel right before dinner. More garden pics:

For dinner we planned to walked down to a place that we saw when were walking to our dinner spot yesterday but it turned out to be Italian food. We walked around a little bit longer and found a place that looked good. It turned out to be amazing and we had a great dinner. We have been so lucky with every meal in Tokyo. We just wander into these little restaurants and every one has been incredible and different.

We walked home from dinner and fell into our beds, exhausted from another big day in Tokyo.

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April 1st 2015 - Tokyo, Japan - Day 228

Big Pete's POV

After our first full day in Japan we all agreed how much we liked the city, the culture and the people. Tokyo is so different from what I remembered when I lived here almost 20 years ago. It makes me wonder what the hell was wrong with me back then. I really had no appreciation of the culture, the people and especially the food. I hated everything about the city back then and now I love everything about it. It is almost surreal, but the good news is that apparently I have grown up a little bit and expanded my horizons over the past 20 years :-).

Today started early with a 5:30 AM wake up call and right down to the gym. I had a conference call at 6:30 and I did not want to hold everyone up by working out after the call. Once Stacie and I were wrapped up with the workout, conference call and getting ready we headed out to try to find a better breakfast than Starbucks. Unfortunately the area we are in is not full of breakfast restaurants, so we ended up right back at Starbucks. By the time we made it back to the room Peter was up and had eaten (apparently at Starbucks - where we missed him) and Lea was still asleep. She is not feeling well and was really tired out from our big day yesterday.

We rallied Lea out of bed and got ready to go. After a quick stop at guess where - Starbucks - we jumped on the train to head to the worlds busiest train station Shinjuku in order to head to the Shinjuku Goyan Gardens to see some blooming cherry trees. We made it easily to the station and quickly found our way out on to the street. I dialed up Google Maps and we were on our way.

Wandering down the streets of Tokyo is an adventure in and of itself. The city is really cool and as Peter mentioned yesterday everyone is very nice and extremely polite. In fact the process of lining up for anything (like an escalator) is so orderly that we did not even realize we were cutting the line when we first arrived. We are so used to the herd approach which is so common in Europe that an orderly line is a foreign concept to us.

Peppered throughout the streets are these little restaurants which seat maybe 10 people at a time. They are really quaint and all I want to do is go sit in them and eat and have a beer. But it was only 10 so I figured I should wait :-).

We made it to the gardens about 15 minutes later and found a pretty big line. Yuka (our cooking instructor) told us how much the Japanese like the cherry blossoms and it was apparent when we arrived at the garden. This is a big deal and the city had turned out to celebrate. Our timing on the blooms appears to be good as the trees are mostly full and completely open.

We jumped in line and were to the ticket counter pretty quickly and then into the garden. There were thousands of people inside just enjoying the blooms. Most were spread out on blankets under a cherry tree with their family enjoying the day with a picnic. It was a really nice scene, and because the park is so large, there was plenty of room for everyone. We wandered around for about an hour and a half before we all agreed it was time to eat. Our little Starbucks breakfast was not holding up in the face of all this walking. Here are some pictures of the garden, which do not do the blossoms justice, you really need to see it to believe it - they are beautiful.

Stacie had done some research on where we could find a good authentic ramen shop and it was only about 15 minutes away, so we headed over to see if we could find it. By the time we arrived we were all beat and really hungry, however, the line was out the door and again the place sat like 10 people, so we were out of luck. We wandered back up the street and found another little shop that did not have Ramen, but did have food and seats and that met our requirements.

The food ended up being great and we were all stuffed by the time we left. On a side note - the weak Yen has made Tokyo a bargain, our lunch cost about $20 and was huge.

At this point we were all dragging and ready to head home. It had started raining as well, so a restful afternoon sounded great. We worked our way back to the hotel and collapsed into bed for a nap. I am not sure what it is, but being a tourist in a big city can really drain you. All of us slept for about an hour and a half before getting up for dinner. We went out to one of Yuka's suggestion - a Yakatori restaurant. We really wanted to go to a Yekatori restaurant, so we were excited to have her recommend one to us close by. Yakatori is basically grilled chicken and vegetables on a skewer, however, the good shops use literally every part of the chicken. We had all committed to trying new things while in Asia and this seemed like a good place to start.

We found our spot pretty quickly and when we arrived we were the only people in the restaurant. It was a really quaint spot (again with about 10 seats).

The workers inside were very nice, but let us know they did not speak any english - so the adventure in food continued. They did have an english menu though and that helped a little bit. We ordered a bunch of things and then sat back and watched our food get prepared right in front of us.

With each skewer that came out our chef / waiter would tell us what part of the chicken we were eating. e also had a handy english picture guide to help us understand:

The food was generally delicious - especially the vegetables, and most of the chicken cuts, however, we all agreed we would pass on the kneecaps if we went again (except for Peter, he liked the caps as well). I was really proud of us for eating everything on our plates and relishing the experience, it was a great night. The kids finished off the night is some soy ice cream that was wonderful.

Day 2 in Tokyo was fantastic and is making the transition to Asia much easier than any of us expected.

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March 31, 2015 - Tokyo, Japan - Day 227

Peter's POV

Today was our first day in Tokyo. What we saw of the city yesterday made us really like it and we were all excited to see more. When we woke up we went to have breakfast at a Starbucks down the street. Starbucks are literally everywhere here.

When we were finished with breakfast left to go to the Patagonia store. When we were out with Dave on the Daintree forest tour I left my belt at one of the swimming holes. I had waited until Tokyo to get one because I wanted to see if I could get the same belt. When we got to the right area we also began looking for a sim card, so my dad could get a data connection and use Google Maps to help us navigate. The problem is that in Japan, they don't carry prepaid sim cards in general stores, they only carry them in certain electronics stores. So we were stuck wandering around Tokyo hoping to find either the sin card store or Patagonia.

We found a couple of stores that had belts in them, but we really wanted to find the Patagonia store. We eventually had to break for lunch. We were all tired hungry and lost so we just found a restaurant that looked good and walked in. We were hoping to find some noodles, and after a couple stores we found a store with Chinese noodles. The restaurant was great and the food was fantastic. As you can see I really enjoyed digging into my bowl of noodles.

Another good thing came from lunch, my dad got a wifi connection, he found the Patagonia store and it was pretty close. We walked to the Patagonia and found a belt that we thought would work.

When we checked out I put the belt on only to find that it really didn't work, it kept slipping. We returned the belt and moved on, but my dad got a t-shirt and we all got stickers. The people here are so friendly and polite - we are all really enjoying the culture. I ended up buying the first belt that I saw that day in a store called Haglofs. Here are some pictures from the day out shopping around Tokyo.

This is a real cutting from a cherry tree in full bloom

When we were done looking for the belt, Lea said that she wanted to buy a camera. So off we went on our new mission. Luckily there was a store about 15 minutes toward the train station that we needed to go to and the store not only sold cameras, but they sold sim cards! When we got to the store, we found that the price of the camera's were more expensive than Lea guessed, but my dad was able to get a sim card, so we were back online.

We were all getting tired from a ton of walking so we decided that instead of going to see a park we would go back to the hotel for some rest before heading out around 5:30 for a sushi cooking class.

At 5:30 we left for the class and weaved our way down the side streets of our neighborhood looking for the subway stop we were meeting our instructor at. We finally found her a few minutes later than we were supposed to arrive. Her name is Yuka and she was so nice!

When we got to the class, we soon found that making sushi requires a lot of steps. First we made some sticky rice, and chopped up all of our vegetables and fish. Then we made a broth made from kelp, then we tested some different sauces and combined some to make our sushi sauce.

I had to pull wet kelp out of a pot - not easy!

Cutting the tuna for nagiri was REALLY hard to do well

After all of that the hard part began. Making sushi requires a lot of practice. First you put on the rice, which is not an easy task because you are dealing with sticky rice, which is VERY sticky. Then you put on the ingredients, next you have to roll it. The rolling is the hardest part, I never really got it, whenever I did it my ingredients would be squeezed out of the ends. So if you ever want hollow roles of rice and seaweed then you should get me to make you sushi.

We ended up having a lot of fun and Yuka so nice and patient with us. The sushi was really good and we were all stuffed by the end, in fact we could not finish it all. She told us all of her favorite restaurants in the city and gave us some advice on things to do. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel and fell into bed after a long first day in Tokyo.

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March 30th, 2015 - Port Douglas to Tokyo - Day 226

We are finally heading back to the northern hemisphere for the last leg of our trip. Our time down under has been very special and we will not soon forget the hospitality of the Aussies and the Kiwi's. We all put both Australia and New Zealand near the top of the list when we talk about our favorite stops to date.

Stacie and I woke up early this morning because we wanted to make sure we got a run in before we had to leave, which was 9:45. We left the house for the run at 6:00 right as the sun was starting to come up. When we got to the beach we noticed the tide was pretty high and it was going to be a tight squeeze between the tree line and the waterline, but we decided to go for it anyway. There are a couple of tidal creeks we need to cross when we are running down the beach and when we got to the first one we knew we were in trouble. The creek was full because of the tide level and there was no good way across. These creeks tend to smell really bad and have a bunch of junk in them so the thought of splashing across them was not too appealing. During low tide you can pick your way across easily without really getting wet, but there was no option for a dry crossing here. We found a spot that was as narrow as possible and I jumped as far as I could and only got a little wet on my right foot. Stacie was not as lucky and got both feet drenched in the stinky creek water - not a great way to start your run, or your day for that matter. However, she just rolled with it, like she does with most things these days and we were off down the beach without any hesitation. We had to cross another creek before we turned around and then do the same thing on the way back, so in total we had four crossings and had to weave in and out of the trees to avoid the water from the tide. All in all it was not the best run of the trip, but it was nice to get some exercise in.

The rest of the morning went smoothly and we set off from PD right on time. I took some pictures of the house before I left. If we ever own a beach house (highly doubtful) I would want it to have the vibe of this place. I am not sure how they pulled it off, but it's the most relaxed house I have ever been in.

This is the seat I spent most mornings in

Lea's couch where she would do all of her work

Thankfully Stacie remembered we had not placed a sticker in PD, so on our way out of town we headed down to four mile beach to find a spot. Since the whole of Australia is full of things that can kill and injure you we thought it was appropriate to place the sticker on one of the ten thousand signs that tell you how dangerous this place is. In reality we were NEVER worried about anything while we were in Australia. It's just like anything else in life, the images you paint in your head are typically far worse than reality.

With the sticker placed, we were off to the airport. After an hours drive we were there and ready to fly. We had to wait in a long line to check in, but we had time so it was not a problem. Once we were checked in (by the only grumpy person we met in Australia), we headed up to immigration and security. After another long line we were through the screening and putting our bags back together. Lea and I were the last ones through and as we were walking away from the collection area a security official selected Lea for some additional screening. He said "I need to screen your bags for explosives" Lea did not hear him quite right and thought he was offering an additional "service" so she replied "oh no thanks, I'm all right". She quickly realized her mistake and we all had a good laugh.

We got a quick lunch and then boarded our 7 hour direct flight to Tokyo.

The flight went perfect and before we knew it we were landing at Narita airport. Just as we were starting our decent the captain came on and let us know that there was a good view of Mt. Fuji off the left side of the airplane. Since Peter was on the left window we were able to get a shot of the beautiful sunset with Mt. Fuji popping through the clouds.

We landed and then walked for what seemed like a mile before we got to immigration. We spent another 45 minutes in line for immigration and then went to collect our bags. Once though customs we quickly found a place to buy our train tickets into the city and hopped on our first bullet train in Japan. This train took us 41 minutes to get into the city and then we transfered to a local train to get us closer to the hotel. Despite being in the largest city in the world (40 million people) and in a country where you can't read the language at all, the process was by far the easiest (and cleanest) arrival into a big city we have had on the trip.

We made it to our stop about 30 minutes later and hopped off. We walked the remaining 10 minutes to the hotel and checked in quickly.

Even though we had not eaten dinner, everyone was tired and since it was 10:00 we decided to call it a night and get some rest. So far Japan gets a big thumbs up from everyone. There is even a Starbucks right across from the hotel, so Lea is loving it!

More from the land of the rising sun tomorrow!

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March 29th, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 225

Our last full day in Port Douglas was a pretty dull one to be honest. We did our typical things (workout, some work and some eating) but mostly we were all focused on getting our things back together so we would be ready for our travel day tomorrow.

We did manage to walk to town to go to the Sunday market and have a look around for a sticker. These walks are nice because they take about 45 minutes each way and give us a chance to talk to the kids or as a family without any distractions. Peter and I talked the whole time about what things will be like when we get home and the choices he is going to have to make over the next couple of months. Lea and Stacie spent the entire time planning a party for once we get home. We can't wait to see all of our friends and thought throwing a big bash once we are back would be a good way to say hello.

Our time here in Port Douglas has been wonderful. The family feels connected and on the same page. We are all pretty refreshed and ready to tackle our most challenging leg of the trip - Asia.

Our final night dinner was at the Port Douglas yacht club, which sounds fancy, but is decidedly the opposite. Our guide on the great barrier reef recommended it as a great little locals place so we thought it would be a perfect way to celebrate our last night, and it was. The atmosphere was super relaxed and we had a great meal while watching the sun set over the harbor with the locals.

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March 28th, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 224

We have been running earlier in the morning to avoid the oppressive heat in the afternoon

After our wonderful day out at the reef we all needed another day in the house. Today was very mellow and just what the doctor ordered. Stacie and I had a nice run early in the morning on the beach and Peter went for one a little later in the day.

We had a tiny bit of adventure today as Stacie had to go to the medical clinic because she could not hear out of her right ear after the day out on the reef. We went in after breakfast and she was able to get into see the doc after about an hour wait. He cleared out her blockage easily and told her it is the most common thing he sees from tourists. He believes it has something to do with the humidity and the warm water. She felt better immediately and it was nice to have that resolved before we went to get on a plane in a couple of days.

We finally nailed down the remainder of our trip and I booked the last of our flights today. It is so nice to have our dates locked in place. We still have a little bit of planning to do with regards to what we are doing in each location, but just having the dates and flights nailed down is incredibly helpful. Here is the schedule for the remainder of the trip:

Arrival   Departure
Port Douglas, Australia   3/11/2015   3/30/2015
Tokyo, Japan 3/30/2015   4/4/2015
Kyoto, Japan 4/4/2015   4/16/2015
Hanoi, Vietnam 4/16/2015   4/17/2015
Ha Long Bay, Vietnam 4/17/2015   4/19/2015
Hoi An, Vietnam 4/19/2015   4/24/2015
Ko Lanta, Thailand 4/24/2015   5/8/2015
Phnom Pen, Cambodia   5/8/2015   5/13/2015
Siem Reap, Cambodia 5/13/2015   5/15/2015
Bangkok, Thailand 5/15/2015   5/16/2015
Pokhara, Nepal 5/16/2015   5/18/2015
Nepal Trek 5/18/2015   5/25/2015
Pokhara, Nepal 5/25/2015   5/26/2015
Kathmandu, Nepal 5/26/2015   5/27/2015
Overnight - Boise 5/27/2015   5/28/2015

It still amazes me how much time we have had to put into trip planning while we have been on the trip. There is a big difference between throwing on a backpack as a 22 year old right out of college and traveling as a family. Both are incredible experiences, but not knowing where you are going to sleep tomorrow is fun when you are 22, it's not so fun when you are in your 40s with teenagers. Regardless we are nearly done with the planning and the rest is just enjoying.

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March 27th, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 223

Peter's POV

Today was another big day. Our days in Port Douglas are nearing the end so we are trying to fit all of the things that we wanted to see in before we leave. Today we went to the Great Barrier Reef. Our day started at 6:30 we made breakfast and packed our bags for a big day on the reef. When we got to the marina we were informed that we were 15 minutes early. When we walked around the docks the first thing that meets your eye is two giant Quicksilver boats. Lea immediately said, please tell me that is our boat, because I wouldn't get sick on that. We said that it wasn't and moved on. When we thought we found our boat we were all very happy with it, it looked like a giant sailboat. We soon realised that we were looking another Quicksilver boat that was called Wave Runner which we got confused because the company that we were going with was called Wave Length. When we boarded the boat we got our jellyfish suits and were informed to put our bags in cubbies in the front of the boat because the back would get wet.

When we finally got out away from the marina we were immediately hit by some waves. One of Lea's biggest problems about taking a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef was that it required a hour and thirty minute boat ride. Luckily we got some sea sickness pills that seemed to help for a little while. When we got to the first dive site we were greeted by amazing coral and some very cool fish. The coral was all different shapes, colors and sizes. About 10 minutes into our first site I looked around to find where my dad was and saw that he had a little fish swimming on his stomach like the fish do with sharks. We had about an hour of snorkelling before we moved on to the next site.

We decided to go up to the top of the boat to see what it looked like. When we got to the top deck we were amazed. The view was incredible you could see the blues and greens of the coral and the sand. At the next site we joined a tour where the guides would go around show everyone certain things around the reef.

When we were finished with the snorkeling at the second site we had lunch and the marine biologist on board talked about all of the fish and coral that we could see on the reef. When we made it to the final snorkel site we all hopped into the water. The site was called turtle bay because turtles are a common siting here. After being in the water for about five minutes I felt something hit my leg immediately I knew it was my St. Christopher necklace, I thought that it was inside my jellyfish suit but when I got onto the boat to find that it wasn't inside my suit I knew that I felt it on the outside of the suit and it was down about 20 feet below us on the ocean floor. I hopped back in and looked to see if I could find it I figured out that only the actual charm fell not the whole necklace and knew that there was no way that we would be able to find it. One of the guides on the boat had a scuba tank and went down to look for it but still couldn't find it.

We went and saw the turtle and swam around at the second site for a while, the fish were awesome but the coral was less colorful than the first and second sites.

After we were done snorkeling for the day we made our way back to Port Douglas. In the end I would have rather left my necklace at the Great Barrier Reef than in an airport or at a crappy hotel. When we got back to our house we got dressed and were about to head out to dinner when Lea told everyone that she couldn't eat because she wasn't feeling good so we went and grabbed some food and brought it back. Ending an awesome day at the reef.

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March 25th, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 221

Today was a huge day, we took a day tour into the Daintree rainforest, which is the oldest rain forrest in the world. The day started around 6:30 we made breakfast and got ready to be mega tourists for a day. We were picked up by our guide, Dave around 7:30. We were introduced to the other people in our group, Dave and Marian a couple from Scotland. We had about a 30 minute drive to our first adventure, a crocodile tour.

Right before we got on the boat Dave told us to ask the boat driver, Lex, if we could see his friends. When we asked Lex he told us to come over to the side of the boat, he grabbed a bag of bread and held it out in front of Lea. Instead of tossing the bread over the side of the boat, he just held it there. After about 30 seconds of holding the bread the fish squirted water out of his mouth at Lea. He kept doing it for about a minute, squirting water at Lea, my mom and me. When he was done the Lex told us that they were called archer fish. When we left the bank we were on the look out for crocodiles. We found one laying in the water but only his head was showing, the water was warm enough that the crocs didn't have to come out of the water to raise there body temperature. We found another croc in some bushes that were growing out of the river. When we got back to shore we hadn't seen a lot of crocs, I think I would have been disappointed if we hadn't already seen a bunch of them in Africa.

After the tour we had morning coffee on the river. After the coffee we drove to a cable ferry that would take us across the river and into the Daintree rainforest.

When we were in the rainforest the scenery changed drastically. About 80% of the rainforest on the south side of the Daintree river was cut down but only 3% of the rainforest on the north side had been cut down. After about 30 minutes of driving we stopped at a boardwalk. When we stopped walking to take pictures of a creek Lea noticed a bunch of ants climbing over a railing. Dave immediately told us that you cold eat them. I volunteered to do it and he told me to just lick the green part of the ant. I licked the ant but couldn't taste anything, after about 3 tries I finally got one that tasted just like lemon.

We walked around the boardwalk while Dave told us all about how the plants in the rainforest do whatever they can to stay alive which includes building big nice leaves that have defenses. He showed us some of the different ways that plants defend themselves. We explored the mangroves and saw some more fish.

When we got back to the car we drove for while to Cape Tribulation. It gets this name because when Captain Cook was mapping and naming Australia's east coast he ran into a lot of reefs around the shore of Cape Tribulation, after a couple close encounters he decided to abandon the shore and go out into open ocean, where he thought that he would be safe. There was one thing that he missed, the Great Barrier Reef. He ran into the reef and the boat almost sunk luckily a piece of corral got stuck in his boat when they hit the reef. The coral gave them enough time to throw a sail into the hole to clog it.

The beach was beautiful. We walked up to a lookout and down the beach, right as we were leaving me and my dad saw what we think was a little shark in the water right near the shore. The water was so clear and shallow that it was possible to see the shark. When we got back in the car we started driving toward lunch. We had barramundi for lunch, which was really good. After lunch we went for a swim at a swimming hole next to the lodge.

Dave showed us a rock that the aborigines used to paint things on their bodies. Lea and I decided to paint each others face....

After we left the lunch spot we headed to our next stop, ice cream! Dave told us that the lady that runs the ice cream shop grows tropical fruit and uses the seeds and the fruit to make ice cream, but you dont get to pick your flavor, she just decides what she is going to serve that day. The ice cream was great, our mix was passionfruit, pineapple, strawberry and something I can't remember. After we left the ice cream place, we turned a corner and saw a cassowary, there are only about 1000-1500 left in the wild in the entire world, so this was pretty special.

After we saw the cassowary we headed to a outlook looking over the Daintree river.

Finally, we drove to the Mossman Gorge where we could swim in a river, the reason that crocs can't get to the swimming area is because the water is too cold, it lowers their body temperature too fast.

We swam in the swimming hole and after we got out we headed home after a long day in the Daintree rainforest. It was a fantastic and very informative day.

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March 26th, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 222

Today was a major down day. After the Daintree yesterday and with the Great Barrier Reef coming tomorrow we knew we needed some time to catch up on things and get a little rest. Lea worked on school all day and really got a lot done. I am so proud of how she is tackling the work she had left. Stacie worked on her website, Peter worked on some video editing and his app and I worked on my app and a lot of trip planning. Getting the last few weeks of the trip planned has proven to be much more difficult than expected. We played in the pool had a nice dinner and got to bed really early in anticipation of another early wakeup call for our snorkeling trip to the reef.

One thing I did want to mention here is the incredible sounds of the jungle that we have the privilege (and sometimes frustration) of hearing every day here in PD. We are literally in the rain forrest and as such there are amazing birds all around us nearly all the time. Our favorite is the Kookaburra, who sounds like an aggravated monkey when he wakes up in the morning. I really wanted to capture the sound on video, however, they only make this sound once or twice a day so I was not sure I would be able to get it. On this morning I was really lucky and got a good recording. You can hear other birds in the background, but once the Kookaburra gets going you will know what I mean.

Stacie's favorite is a bird that sounds just like a kitten. She asked our guide on the Daintree tour what the bird was and he replied "oh, that is a cat bird - we are really simple here in Australia". I will try to get one of them on video as well, but they make their sound at different times throughout the day so it will be more difficult.

Our time here in Port Douglas is winding down and we are all getting excited but a little scared to move on. Our next leg of the trip is our most "foreign" and the leg where we move the most. We are going to visit 5 countries and 11 cities in the space of 56 days, which may not sound too bad, however, since the beginning of the trip we have visited 11 countries and 32 cities and averaged almost 20 days in each country. This leg will be about 10 days in each country and 5 in each city. So a lot more movement, combined with the major cultural differences in Asia, AND the fact that we have been on the road for so long, has us all excited but a little worried about how we are going to cope. We are nearly booked though, so there is no turning back now!

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March 24th, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 220

Big Pete's POV

Today was a little slice of home while on the road. When we are home we try every year to split up with one parent and one kid going on a two or three day trip together. We call it 1P1K and we have been doing it for years. Today we decided to do a mini version for a few hours. On this trip we have done nearly everything together, so when we decide to split up it has to be for a good reason - like a parents only dinner out or when Stacie goes to see a garden. On this day I decided to rent a scooter and drive up north with Lea. Stacie and Peter were kind of stranded without a car, so they decided to have lunch in town, buy some things and have a pool party at the house. They apparently had a great time, but since I was not there I will let them fill you in on the details.

We woke up on time and got a work out in before getting ready to hit the road. Lea and I drove Stacie and Peter into town and then headed over to the scooter rental place to pick up our ride. We first rented a little 30CC scooter, but when we got over to it I was not impressed and in fact was a little worried. While I was not interested in going fast, I was interested in staying alive and this little scooter was not our ticket to a day of fun, safe riding. I glanced over and saw the much bigger, much more road worthy 50CC bikes and asked - "how much more for those?" The owner quickly replied "not much more mate - $10 or $15". SOLD!

A little about the culture here in Australia - and in a lot of the world for that matter. I rented this scooter in about 45 seconds with a glance at my drivers license and a brief check to make sure I was actually breathing. In the US it would have taken a half hour mostly filled with signing liability waivers, testing my balance and ensuring I had 15 types of insurance. The rest of the world is so laid back when it comes to liability and it is really refreshing! No offense to my lawyer friends, but our massively litigious society makes things a lot less fun! I digress....

We hopped on our fancy new ride and were off. We ripped up the coast line laughing and screaming at the top of our lungs. It was so much fun to be cruising up the road with the wind in our face and not a care in the world. We made it to Mossman in about 20 minutes and were supposed to have lunch there, but we were having too much fun (and the town was not that inviting) so we decided to keep going.

We made it to Wonga Beach about 10 minutes later and stopped to check it out. It looked a lot like four mile beach right in front of our house, and we were having more fun on the bike, so we jumped back on and kept cruising.

Lea at Wonga beach - and don't worry she did not actually drive

We decided to head up to Daintree Village to see what that looked like and to try to find a place to eat. It was another 18 kilometers up the road and we were there in about 10-15 minutes. We spotted a cafe called the Daintree Tea House off the main road and decided to give it a try.

We walked in and were greeted by a nice man who showed us to our table in the garden.

The whole restaurant is nestled into the rainforest and is very relaxing. There were only two other groups there, but given the location I was surprised to see anyone. We were really in the middle of nowhere.

We both ordered the special - Barramundi, a salad and chips for $17 ($13 USD), and were thrilled with the meal.

We spent the entire meal having a wonderful conversation about things ranging from what being home is going to be like to friends and how we are going to spend the next nine weeks. These conversations are the best things about this trip and these little 1P1K adventures.

We were having such a good time we decided to have desert as well. I was shocked to learn Lea had NEVER had a banana split -so we decided to order one up, and it was fantastic.

After our lunch our 4 hour rental time was starting to get pretty close and I still wanted to make it back to the house so Peter could at least get a little ride. So we jumped back on the bike and high tailed it back to Port Douglas. The ride home was just as much fun as the ride out -we had a blast.

When we made it home we honked the horn and a couple of minutes later the pool party came out from around the back of the house. Stacie hopped on for a quick ride around the neighborhood while Peter went to go get some clothes and shoes on.

We were gone for like 3 minutes and then Peter jumped on for a ride.

Peter and I went on a quick ride to get the scooter gassed up and then drop if off at the rental place. By the time we got back it was time to make dinner, play a game of Eucher (which Lea and I won for the first time) and then we watched a documentary on the early days of Australia.

It was a fantastic day that I will not soon forget.

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March 23rd, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 219

Peter's POV

This guy was our greeter today at the Wildlife Habitat

Today I woke up and found everyone working like usual. We decided to go back to the wildlife habitat to watch them feed the crocodiles. It was very cool. I originally thought that they were going to feed the giant saltwater croc but they only fed the smaller freshwater crocs.

When the trainer started talking all of the crocs moved over to where he was standing. He told us which croc was the leader and tried to get the crocs to jaw slap by throwing fish on the top of there mouths. A jaw slap sounds like a big pop - almost like when you put your finger in your mouth and make it pop.

After the feeding we walked through the rainforest section of the Habitat because we had skipped it the day before. We saw a Cassowary - which is pretty closely related to a velociraptor. Our guide yesterday showed us how he will follow you if you start running so Lea and I tried, but he would not follow us. They are apparently pretty dangerous in the wild.

It was nice inside the rainforest section with birds flying all over the place.

We also made it back over to see the koalas one more time just because they are so darn cute.

When it was over we left the park and made lunch. After lunch we decided to relax for a while and get into the pool.

Instead of getting into the pool Lea decided to go for a run so it was just me and my parents. We swam for a while and hopped out. We then decided t do some trip planning before dinner. We still don't have the final part of the trip planned out completely. We made tacos for dinner, they were delicious. Maybe it is because we haven't had tacos hard shelled tacos for 8 months but these tacos were amazing. We finished dinner and finished the day with We Bought a Zoo.

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March 22nd, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 218

Peter's POV

Today we did something different. We went to do the number one thing to do in Port Douglas (as ranked on TripAdvisor), The Wildlife Habitat. The habitat is pretty much a zoo but instead of walking around the cages you walk through the cages.

When we got into the park we got our pictures taken holding a koala who is very soft.

After we got our pictures taken we caught a tour and saw kangaroos and a giant crocodile that weighed as much as a small car.

After we were done with the tour we got to feed the kangaroos. At that point we were all hot and hungry. We left the park and went to go eat lunch and hop in the pool. When we finished lunch we decided to relax for a little bit. When we woke up we hopped in the pool for again for little while. When we got out we made dinner and played another game of Euchre. Another great day in Port Douglas.

Big Pete's POV

The trip to the Wildlife Habitat was a very cool experience. As Peter mentioned above there are no enclosures for the animals, other than a net so the birds don't fly away and an outside fence so the kangaroos and such don't wander off. To be completely honest there is one enclosure, and that is for the crocodiles - we were all thankful for that. Other than that there are four big areas that you wander through and you get to interact with the animals. It is a really cool approach to wildlife management and does not make you feel bad like a zoo sometimes can.

Being able to hold a Koala was pretty incredible. After the koala pictures we hung around for a couple of presentations with one of the staff. She introduced us to an Amethystine python, the largest python in the Queensland region, as well as a baby saltwater crocodile.

She did a great job of filling us in on all of the details of each reptile and then we got to feel both critters. The skin of the python is an iridescent green and blue - it looked like a rainbow - quite beautiful really.

After the presentations we took a stroll around to see what else was going on. We wandered into the "restaurant" and discovered just how much the animals really do rule this place (as you can see from the picture below).

There we some really cute Owls in the restaurant area. These guys are Lesser Sooty Owls and apparently the make a noise like a bomb dropping when they are hunting at night. I just love their expression - so grumpy! (but cute grumpy)

Just as we were saying hello to the owls one of the workers at the habitat came though and announced that the savannah tour was starting. So we decided to jump on the tour to learn some more. The guide was great and gave us lots of facts about the animals. Once we made it on to the savannah there were Kangaroos and Wallabies everywhere. We learned that there are 60 MILLION kangaroos in Australia. They are a prolific species and have to be culled to keep their numbers down. However, here at the Habitat they are friendly and happy to come up and grab a snack from you. The kids really enjoyed being able to feed and pet both the roos and the wallabies.

We were also introduced to their Saltwater Croc's who are impressive to say the least. The guide informed us that we should assume croc's are in every body of water around here and to be very aware. I would certainly not want to meet this guy out in the wild.

We all agreed it was a great way to get to see some animals up close and personal.

As Peter mentions above, the rest of the day was pretty standard, but it was nice to get out and see some of the local critters today.

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March 21st, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 217

Peter's POV

Today was another sunny day in Port Douglas. We pretty much did what we we have done every day here. Wake up, work for the morning, then relax and go to the beach in the afternoon. After we finished dinner we did add a twist the day. We played a game of Euchre and fell into our beds beat.

Big Pete's POV

The days here in PD are all running together a bit. On our way here we decided to make Port Douglas a spot where we would relax, chill out and really try to embrace the beach vibe. Today was one of those days. Stacie's hip was hurting a little from all of the running we have been doing, so we decided to go for a long walk instead of a run. We walked into town and wandered around a bit before heading back home. The heat even at 9:00 in the morning was oppressive and by the time we got home we were drenched. The day prior we had finally broken down and decided to close up the windows of our breezy house and use the air conditioning. It was a tough decision because we all love the open air living. However, when we walked into the house after that long walk in heat an humidity we knew we had made the right decision.

In the afternoon we went to the beach and did some skim boarding and tried to play a little frisbee. I have improved my skim boarding, but there is something about the physics of this sport that is not conducive to a 190 lb 43 year old (meaning I am not fast anymore). Neither attribute (age/weight) in and of itself is prohibitive, but combined it makes the sport a little tough. You see skim boarding relies on speed and the ability to keep the board on top of the water. So if you are light, and slow you wont really sink. If you are fast and heavy, you wont sink either because you are going fast. However, if you are slow AND heavy (like me) you neither have the velocity or the light weight to keep you up. So while the light and fast Peter has rides that seem to go on forever, I go like 5 to 7 feet and celebrate like a kid who has just won the big stuffed animal at the fair. It's cool to see your kids start to surpass you at just about every activity they undertake, but it's quite humbling as well.

The frisbee attempt did not go well because of the wind at the beach so we all headed home to start cooking. Peter and I jumped into the pool to cool down and rinse off a bit. The girls headed upstairs. We had a nice dinner and then decided to try to teach the kids the card game Euchre. It's a trump game popular in the midwest, but not in a lot of other places. I grew up playing it in high school and it is my favorite card game by far, but it is really complicated. Lots of rules and strategies to understand before you are even a decent player. The kids picked it up pretty quickly and I am hoping that over the next couple months we play a lot and they like it as much as I do.

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March 20th, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 215

Peter's POV

Last night Nathan hit us. I woke up at about 7:30 to the sound of...birds. Wait were did the hurricane go? I walked upstairs and found out that Nathan never really hit us, it just kept moving north and just missed Port Douglas.

My parents had walked down to the beach in the morning to see what the beach looked like after what was supposed to be a storm surge, but apparently it looked pretty normal.

Other than it being the day after a hurricane the day went pretty normally. We worked for about and hour, then my mom and I went for a run into town. When we got back my dad left for his run, running down the beach has been our main workout here because there are no mountains to climb. When my dad got back we all had lunch, after lunch we decided to relax.

At about 3 I decided to go skim boarding but when I got to the beach I found the tide at the lowest point I had ever seen it. I kept looking out to the ocean to make sure that there wasn't a tsunami coming. The skim boarding wasn't very good so I only spent about 20 minutes trying. When I got back to the house I decided that I would clean out the pool because I wanted to get in and the storm had dumped a lot of leaves into the pool. After about a half an hour of cleaning I decided that it was good enough and hopped in. At about 6:30 we left to go and eat dinner at a place called the Beach Shack. The food was good, however, I have found that here in Australia they like to put barbecue sauce on meat lovers pizza. It is actually not that bad but I wound't like it on any other type of pizza. After dinner we made our way back to the house and capped the night off with a movie.

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