No, We Did Not See Men At Work...

We did not have any Vegemite, see any members of INXS, throw a boomerang or play a didgeridoo. We did, however, hold a koala, feed a wallaby, have about 30 meals with no kids, get sunburned, get bitten by many mosquitoes and spiders, sail the Whitsundays, dive the Great Barrier Reef (well, at least I did), go in the Sydney Opera House (just me again, Ted was sleeping), take a crazy jet boat tour of the Sydney Harbor (more about that to follow), patronize the oldest pub in Sydney, take my first helicopter ride, touch a Nemo in his anemone, go to McDonald's in the middle of the Queensland farmland, sleep in as late as we wanted, did a pub crawl in the Rocks district in Sydney, did I mention the fabulous food complete with no kids that belonged to me? Needless to say we had a fabulous time in Australia, not only visiting the country, but also being a part of the wedding. I have picked the best pictures that had people in it to share with you all. I say this, because of the 500 pictures we took, about 450 of them are of some sort of nature scenery or wildlife. I tried to spare our blog audience as much as I could. Here's a taste of our trip:


Here I am being a tourist on the steps of the Opera House with the peanut gallery making fun of me behind me. Ted decided that sleep and then hanging out with Lee (the groom) was more important than being a tourist. I begged to differ.






The view of the Opera House at night from the Opera Bar.


In front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

All the Americans and a couple of Australians during the pub crawl.


Later in the evening I paid homage to the garbage can where I lost my breakfast and most of what I ate and drank the day of the wedding. This was on the boat dock for the jet boat tour that we took. Not the smartest decision I've ever made.


April (the bride), me and Lee (the groom) at the wedding.


Note to readers/viewers: Ted was not responsible for his tie. He was in the wedding. I just wanted to clear that up on his behalf.




Ted and I in front of the Paradise Bay Eco Lodge. It was a great place to stay and very relaxing, however, during their summer with the 90% humidity and no air conditioning I thought I was going to suffocate.


A sea turtle by our boat.


The lodge is so remote all guest arrive by helicopter. Not too shabby for the Spriggs.


At the famous Whitehaven Beach. It wasn't quite as spectacular as our internet research led us to believe, but it was mostly because there were so many storms the water level was really high and had covered most of the beach. It was still very nice as you can see.



We went sailing every day while were were at the lodge on Long Island. It all made me very sleepy. I was very reminded of Heather sleeping through our trip to Puerto Vallarta years ago.

Captain Ted, not to be confused with Officer Ted in those sunglasses.


So this is the Eco Lodge on Long Island in the Whitsundays. It has 10 huts on the beach, 8 of which are used for guests. Therefore there can only be 16 guests max. When we were there there were 2 guests: Kelli and Ted. It was fabulous. We had the whole place to ourselves. We had a our own chef and boat. The Spriggs know how to vacation.




A view of the reef. Usually the water is clearer, but the freshwater from the storms make it more murky.

Getting out of the water after the dive.


Petting a wallaby. They are way more cute than the kangaroos. The Aussie's tend to favor them as well.


This is my friend Glen. He was very soft and cute. We spend a few quality minutes together for a small fee and souvenir photo.