Miles from our Home

It's been a tiring journey but we're finally here. The flight was long but bearable. Andrew dealt with it by getting 'faced in Vancouver airport and then proceeded to pass out for the first five hours in the air. The new “extended range” airplane was terrific except that our seat controls were cross-wired so Jessica controlled Andrew's entertainment centre and vice-versa. The stewardess tried to reboot our units to see if it corrected the problem but then came back and said the computer doesn't even think our seats exist on the plane! Really gives you confidence that they've worked out the kinks on these new airliners, eh? (They did give us vouchers for free flights to make up for it, though.)

We had a terrific view of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House on the approach to the airport but that's all we've seen of Sydney so far since we headed straight out of town once we got our rental car. On the drive to Jervis Bay we both had a crazy burger craving but we won't eat McDonalds and the roadside venues were nothing but McDonalds, McDonalds, KFC, McDonalds, McDonalds, McDonalds, KFC, McDonalds... Finally, facing starvation, we gave in and went to KFC (the quality of which made it clear that the reason they often serve their food in buckets is so that you have something to vomit into afterwards – Andrew figures you should eat KFC once every two years just to remind yourself why you never eat at KFC.) Andrew spent the whole meal grumbling that we were bound to see a perfect burger place two miles down the road AND THEN WE REALIZED THAT THE KFC SHARED ITS PARKING LOT WITH A LOCAL BURGER CHAIN AND WE HADN'T NOTICED!

Our cottage is quaint and spacious (doubly so now that we have gotten rid of the world's largest spider in the bathroom; the legends of Australian spiders have not been exaggerated!) The neighbors on one side are the owners: classic Aussies (he was actually waxing a board when we met him) with a happy little dog called Pepper (sorry, Gibson). The neighbors on the other side, however, are quite noisy:

On a tour of the neighborhood to get supplies we found that the Aussies have attained the pinnacle of civilized achievement: the (literal) drive-thru liquor store!
You just pull in and order what drinks you want and they load it up for you. All you need to do is pay and let the good times “roll”. In fact, one customer was already drinking a road pop in her car when she pulled into the liquor store. That's just awesome.