Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman Welcomed Me to Australia!

Okay. Not really. But I did watch the movie "Australia" on the plane.

Hours sitting on my butt in an airplane: 21
Miles traveled during that time: 10,218

I've done it! Made it to the Southern Hemisphere for the first time ever! I was thinking about it on the plane and I'm pretty sure I'm also the first in my family to cross the equator. It feels so great to be out of <35° weather, even though it's overcast.

The plane rides were all smooth and great window viewing from BTV to JFK. I dozed off a bit from JFK to LAX but woke up in time to snap a few photos of the Grand Canyon covered in snow! Great seatmate during that trip, and a fellow Wolverine! We were worried that the person who was supposed to take the seat between ours would show up at the last second, but no one did, so we had extra space...which was needed since a family of 11 (I'm pretty sure they were a polygamous family) took up the two rows behind us - kids screaming, kicking seats, oh, and vomiting everywhere. By the end of the trip the back of the plane smelled like that sawdust stuff you see sprinkled on messes in public places. At one point one of the kids said something about going to Australia, which made me extremely nervous that they would also be on my 14.5 hour flight. Luckily they were not.

That flight wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be. Most of it was at night so I just slept the first five hours, only waking to the attendant asking if I wanted "Chicken or Beef?" but after my last escapade with Delta in-flight food, I said, "No thanks" and went back to sleep. Spent the rest of the time watching movies or reading on my iPhone. I've already completed reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Fahrenheit 451 this year and my next book is Dracula, which is thus far a really creepy and actually scary book!

I realize I never finished my blog posts from Germany, but I assure you that once I get photos from my sister, I will post about our escapades in Nürnberg since next week I will be at a motel away from all things exciting and won't have much else to do. (Though, I am told that the motel has lots of eucalyptus and gum trees and kookaburra! Anyone remember that song from elementary school "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree"?)