Excited About our Upcoming Vacation!

Very soon we will be here,

seeing this

and this,

and swimming or something like it, in this

Every year my husband and I take one or two "big" trips.  It usually involves foreign travel and we are so fortunate to have visited some amazing places.

Several years ago I promised my oldest niece that when she graduated from high school I would take her on a vacation to the country of her choice. She had a tough time narrowing her choices down to about 5 places: Egypt (too hot in the summer and thank goodness we nixed this early on); Japan (again thank goodness); Prague, Italy and Australia.  I was torn between taking her to Italy, which is just an amazing country - and not just because of the gelato - and Australia - a place I had always wanted to visit.  After discussing with my husband we decided to take her to Australia, because as we thought at the time, with a little one on the way, taking a trip like this (15 hr+ plane ride) might not occur for many many years.

Well somehow the trip evolved, or rather the guest list evolved.  I couldn't take one niece without taking her sister.  After all, they are quite the entertaining package.  Never mind that this is supposed to be a graduation trip and the younger sister is years away from graduating. And my other niece was not about to be left behind.  So am I brave, naive, or delusional for taking 3 young ladies to Australia along with my husband? Oh we can count the white hairs when I return and find out. 

So off we go.  Now I am so busy confirming reservations, packing, catching up on work (why do we spend so much time trying to catch up on work to go on vacation, only to come back and be so far behind? Maybe we should forgo the catching up - after all we are only going to be behind anyway). 

Such fun - If anyone has ever been to Australia and has any travel tips or suggestions, please share!