Live Rent Free -OR- Sit In Jail?

so... this past saturday night, my family decided to break out our very worn monopoly board (which is older than i am). it doesn't come out too often because this board game somehow turns our nice little family into maniacs. like, seriously...
property-crazed maniacs.


it started out innocent enough, but after a few glasses of wine and some shrewd aquisitions, thing started to get a little interesting. for example, my mom was being a real hard ass with her park place/boardwalk deal, so i called her the iron claw and my brother followed suit by... well... i don't know what he was doing. but i have a picture of it...

anyway, i was quite proud of myself because i came up with the first ever "rent-free agreement" in michalek history. i made a few deals that landed me with rent free positions on every side of the board. but once the cat was out of the bag, there were rent-free deals flying all over the place.

the crazy thing is, after all of the wheeling and dealing, gina (my brother's girlfriend) kicked all of our butts by owning only the fuscia block of properties (with hotels) and sitting in jail as much as possible, so she wouldn't have to pay rent by landing on other properties. what the?!

anyway, it was 1 am when we finally called the game and i can't remember having that much fun with the fam in a long time. Good stuff!

My Adventure In Oz

I'm Home!!!!! Okay, well, I've actually been home for a week now, but the blog had to take a backseat to a few items.

I arrived at LAX early Sunday morning and spent the rest of the day running errands and fighting the urge to sleep. Luckily, I made it all the way to 8:30 PM before I passed out and woke up Monday morning feeling great. So it looks like I won the jet-lag challenge this time around. Woohoo!

I had good luck on the way there as well. I flew out late Tuesday night and arrived in the morning on Thursday, so I just slept on the plane and didn't miss a beat. Anna picked me up from the airport shortly after 8:00 AM and my adventure began.

I'm going to be lazy and not write as much as my Greece Recap, but I have more photos to share this time around. So I'm going for short caption action. And here we go...

This is my friend Anna picking me up at the Sydney airport (I met her on the Greece trip. She was the best Aussie host Ever! I never would have seen so much in and around Sydney without her.)

Trying to see the famous Three Sisters rock formation through the fog and rain...

Hiking in the rainforests of the Blue Mountains...

When we went to see an Imax on the mountains, I found out that Anna had never tried Dance Dance Revolution. I couldn't let her go on living without the DDR experience....

After a great day in the mountains, we headed back into the city for a night on the town. This is when I first got to see the Opera house...

Up bright and early the next day, we headed out to explore the city...

We went on an awesome jet boat ride around the harbor and saw all the sights, while getting splashed on and spun around. (Notice the Greek flags in the background. I missed the actual festival events by 1 day. Boooo!)

We dried off and headed downtown for some lunch and awesome views of the city...

After lunch, we took a tour of the Opera house. We heard all kinds of crazy facts about the place...including that it cost over $100,000,000 (Aus) to build. When they ran into a big finance problem, they started a lottery to raise funds and they finally opened it in 1973.

I was really intrigued by the roof tiles. It looked completely different than I thought it would up close...

Did you know Sydney has a monorail? We took it in to town for some more sightseeing...


We headed to the Sydney Tower for a quick "Star Tours"-ish ride introducing you to the different areas of Australia and a little history. Then we headed up the elevator to the top...

After some time viewing the city skyline, we made our way to Chinatown and ate ourselves silly at the night market they hold once a week...

We spent our last day together touring wine country, outside of Sydney...

I said a tearful goodbye to Anna early Sunday morning and began my tour up the East Coast. (Ugh it was awful saying goodbye! But she'll be here in the fall for a visit, so I had that to hang on to.)

Sooo... This is my Contiki group. We sized each other up over some paperwork (at 7:30 AM!), then it was on the bus to start our adventure. We stopped on the way out of Sydney for a quick photo op...

It was hard to leave Anna behind, but as soon as I hopped on the bus, I found the person who would be my new partner in crime...Suzanne. Later you'll see another blonde in a lot of my photos. That's Louise. She rounded out the 3 musketeers. We roomed together, ate together and did most of the optionals together. I already miss them loads!

It was a long day of driving for us, but we eventually made our way to our first stop, Coff's Harbor. But before we headed to the hotel, we had to make a quick stop at the Big Banana. It was Big. It was a Banana.

Then it was off to the hotel, for a group dinner where we got to know each other (and the bar) a little better...

We said farewell to Coff's early in the morning and made our way up the coast to the most Easterly point of the Australian mainland...

Then we headed down the hill to Byron Bay for lunch and some beach time, before continuing on our way to Surfer's Paradise. (In the distance, you can see the point where we stood earlier in the day.)

One more stop before Surfer's, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. I was so excited because I got to hold a koala...

And feed kangaroos...

And get swarmed by lorikeets...

Once in Surfer's, we cleaned up and hopped back on the bus for a night out on the town. We made a quick stop at the casino before grabbing dinner and dancing the night away.

Up bright and early, we headed in all directions for our optional excursions. I chose the 4WD and hike day trip...

I met more birds...

Hiked a little...

Climbed in the trees...

And just took in the awesome scenery in the rainforests...

A quick trip back to the hotel to clean up and we were on our way to Dracula's. It's a dinner show/cabaret/haunted house/Australian idol-ish performance thingy. The food was great...the entertainment even better!

On the road again the next morning, our lunchtime stop today was Brisbane. We had a presentation on opals and then we were free in the city for a few hours...

There was a parade welcoming Brisbane's Commonwealth games athletes home, but we skipped out on that for a ride on the river and a walking tour of some of the city...

Our final destination today was Adora Downs, our farmstay. It turned out to be one of our best nights...if I had to choose. This whole trip was non-stop fun! Anyway, first we took a hay ride around the farm...

And then they opened the bar for dinner...and to prep us for the barn dance later on...

The barn dance was a hit, everyone participated...

We danced into the night and then woke up early the next day for a home-cooked breakfast that prepared us for our long day on the road headed to Frazier Island. Many hours on the bus and a ferry ride later, we were escorted to our lodges and then sat down for a quick bite at the Dingo Bar...

That night, we had a dress up party. The day before, Shannon told us that we were allowed to wear anything BUT clothes. I wore a flag on top and made a skirt out of brochures...

Johnny had my favorite outfit...pillows. *ahem*

This is our awesome road crew. (Seriously, we were so lucky to have them. They took an already amazing tour and put it over the top.) Our tour manager, Shannon, went for the recyclable grocery bag dress while our driver, Scotty, opted for pillow case couture...

We danced the night away, but rose early the next day to enjoy our only full day on Frazier. Suzanne and I hit the beach and the pool before catching our 4WD tour of the rainforest with a swim stop at the beautiful white sands of Lake Mackenzie...

Today we bid farewell to the island and headed up the road to Rockhampton. On our way we stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn. I thought to myself, how much more humid and "tropical" can it get? I soon found out. You'll notice that in every picture from now on, I'm sweating...

That night, in Rockhampton (the mullet capitol of Australia...seriously, they gave the 909 a run for their money) we had an optional to the Koorana croc farm. It turned out to be the place that Road Rules visited many seasons ago...

We got to see a baby croc hatch right out of the egg...

And we got to see some not-so-baby crocs...which made us all feel a little odd about the croc chowder we just ate...

And I made a new friend...Rocky...

We headed out bright and early for the Whitsundays, a group of 70-ish beautiful islands. Our resort was on Long Island...

Our resort was built right in the rainforest, so we had bats flying overhead and wallabies hopping around our front door...

And you couldn't beat the sunset...

Even after a late night partying it up, I was bright-eyed at 5:30 AM, ready for my visit to the great barrier reef. We had a full day there, and the set up was awesome. We hopped off the transport boat and onto their semi-submersible for our first glimpse at the underwater wonder...

Then it was out of the sub and into our snorkel gear for some up close time with the reef. (I haven't developed my under water camera photos yet.) After a lot of swim time and a buffet lunch, we hitched a ride on a helicopter to get a better perspective on this natural wonder...

We flew all over and even got to see heart reef...

What a day. The reef is something everyone should experience once in their lives. I don't even have the words to describe the amazing feeling I left with that day. Phenomenal!

We returned to a wet Long Island. The rain continued through the night and into the next morning. We were a little concerned out our day sail, but we packed up and headed to the jetty to board our ferry anyway...

By the time we got to the Camira (a high-tech catamaran), the skies were clearing and it was looking more promising...

By mid-day, we were enjoying a sunny day on our sail boat. We made a stop at a white sand beach, as well as another snorkel spot. Another great day in Oz...

Once back at the resort, we grabbed a bite to eat and then threw on our outfits for our second dress up night that had a tropical theme. I hand-made my hula skirt on the long bus ride a few days earlier...

It was our last night on Long Island, so we went out with a bang and karaoked the night away. It's fun to stay at the YYMMMCCCAAAAA.....

Adios Long Island! Today was another long day on the bus, but we were rewarded with a great meal at the Rattle N Hum on our first night in Cairns...

A little fun out on the town and we headed back for some sleep in preparation of our rafting trip the next day. Good thing we did. It was a big day! I don't think it could have been any better...

Filled with lots of grade 4 rapids, we were a busy bunch. But you just couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces...
Worn out from our day on the river, we had a quiet night at the hotel. But there's no rest for the weary. It was up early the next day for my ATV adventure. (I was the only one who signed up for this, but luckily my friend Steve came along. I don't think he'll ever forgive me for the shape his sneakers were in after our day in the mud. Oops.)

Tonight was our last night together, so we went big. At the Woolshed, you eat dinner and then get up on the tables to dance the night away. Joe got us started...

But soon we were all up on the tables and the rest of the night was a blur... (Sorry Mom, ignore that part!)

Our group split up in all directions that morning, so I had to say goodbye to my girls (boooo!) as I headed off for the SkyRail...

A little worse for wear, what was left of the group slapped on a happy face, piled into SkyRail cars and headed up the mountain for some awesome views...

Back on the bus and down the mountain we went for the very last part of our tour, a visit to the Tjapukai cultural center...

I gave my best effort to throw a boomerang, but it turned out to be pretty pathetic...

Back at the hotel, we said goodbye to Shannon and Scotty, as they both had other Contiki responsibilities to tend to...

And for the first time in 2 weeks, I found myself alone. It was kind of a strange feeling. I got checked in to my room and then had a much needed nap. Later that night I met up with a few of the other girls who were still in Cairns. All of them had made a deeply positive impression on me and I was so glad to spend my last night in Oz with them. We shared a nice meal and laughed the night away. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip...

Wow...that was a blog entry and a half! Thanks for taking the time to check out my recap. So...what now? Well, I thought my next trip would be back to Oz to hit the Territory and cover the part of Oz that I missed this time around. However, I think my direction has changed a little. I'm looking into how fast I can save up the cash for a trip to New Zealand. So we'll see... Anyone want to join me?

In the meantime, I'm just basking in the glory of this trip... What a ride! Now I'm just a girl in the O-C, dreaming of the O-Z...

Blue skies everyone!