Penguins, Koalas, Kangaroos, and More

So we went on a road trip for a few days and had a wonderful time. Our first stop was Phillip Island where Aunt Carolyn picked up our tickets for the Penguin Parade that night. I won't get ahead of myself, I'll tell you about that in a bit. After that we went to a Koala Conservation Park. There were walkways that brought you up closer to where you could see the koalas in the trees. It was their nap time so all of them were sleeping. We saw walabees and Steve got really close to them so that Allie could have some pictures. Then it was back in the car to go get some dinner. The penguin parade didn't technically start until the first penguin came ashore. You want to talk about something really cool.....watch over 1000 penguins come out of the water, walk up the beach, and head for their "condos" as Uncle Jim puts it. I never knew that penguins actually made noise. So we watched these penguins come up the beach, waddle to their homes and then we left. We headed back to the Salvos Conference Center, which by the way is beautiful, and crashed in bed for the night.

The next day we headed to the Great Ocean Road. We went to different beaches where surfing is a big thing. We made a few stops along the way to take pictures of the ocean. It's amazing to know that when you look out there, Antartica is on the other side of the ocean. We also saw wild kangaroos on a golf course. Anyway, we went to these formations known as "The Tweleve Apostles" - actually their name was changed to that from "The Sow and the Piglets". They were absolutely gorgeous even though there's only 9 left. They are rock formations in the ocean. After dinner we headed back to the conference center to get some sleep.

Thursday, we got up, and headed back to the people mover (mini-van) to do a bit of shopping. After shopping we had to get home because Steve was leaving to get back to Philly. We got him on the plane and just headed home to relax.

Uncle Jim said that we drove 1000 kilometers during our little road trip. It was amazing to see the coutryside of Australia. We were actually able to see koalas on the side of the road as we were travelling. Not sure what the plans are for the next few days. Michael and I are so enjoying the time with family. We so needed this vacation.

I've been trying to upload pictures to this post, but will try to get them onto Flickr. Hope all is well with each of you. We pray that you had a blessed Christmas. All the best for a Happy New Year.