I am officially back!
We actually came home on March 1st, but I wanted to spend the weekend settling back into the home routine and unpacking before getting too involved online again. (I have zero access in Australia unless I wanted to pay to use a public computer.)
Here's a attempt at summarizing our trip:
We flew from Minneapolis to Phoenix, Arizona to Los Angeles, California to Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. The flights went fine although the first was was rough. I took dramamine to prevent feeling air-sick, but my stress levels were so high that someone else may vomit on the plane that I struggled with an anxiety attack for the first hour and a half of the 3 hour flight.
After that I was fine and didn't have any attacks on the trip.
We landed in Melbourne earlier in the morning and stayed at the place we rented in town for the night. The next morning we flew to Alice Springs in Central Australia and strolled around the city during the day. (It's rather dangerous to be out after dark because of gangs.)
Our guide came to pick us up for the Safari at 5 AM the next morning. On our Safari tour there were five Germans, three French, and Swedish guy. My grandpa, brother and I were the only Americans and our tour guide, Todd, and the cook, Andrew, were the only Australians. The prayers of me and my brother were answered as two of the Germans were 19 years old--two friends, Susanne and Philipp, touring and traveling around Australia for three months to refine their English skills. The rest of our party was over 50, except the Swede who was probably in his late 20's.
The Safari was great. We woke up at 4:15 AM the first three days and got to "sleep in" until 5:15 AM on the fourth day. We woke up that early so we could set out on our hikes around landmarks such as Uluru (Ayer's Rock), Kata Juta, and Kings Canyon before the midday when temperature topped out at nearly 100 degrees fahrenheit. (Or late 30's early 40's celsius.)
Grandpa held up well during all the hikes. We were given a 1.5 liter water bottle to drink on our hikes. They suggested about one and hour, but I usually drank 2 1/2 - 3 a day. Bathrooms (or toilets over there) weren't easy to come by when you're halfway through a 3 hour walk across a canyon.
Some of the animals we came across in the wild were kangaroos, wallabies, wild horses, dingoes, and large lizards. (And there was a very large and scary spider in the bathroom of our campsite one night. I think it was a Sydney Funnelweb. Not pretty.
After the Safari we flew back to Melbourne and walked around downtown, visited Queen Victoria's Market a few times, rode the trams and trains, and visited the zoo.
We had one less flight coming home, so that was nice. (We skipped the stop in Arizona and went straight from California to Minneapolis.) Mom and dad picked us up and it was a happy reunion. :' )
A few random comments about our trip:
Oh my goodness, everything's expensive! Granted, maybe not if you live and work there, but for American's our money doesn't go to far. For $100 American currency we got $73 Australian back.
As for how expensive everything from food to clothing, the minimum wage is $15 dollars and hour compared to our $7.25 an hour here, so I suppose it all evens itself out there.
The Outback was pretty in a rustic way, and the stone formations we great. ^^ The landscape and heat strongly reminded me of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Kansas and Australia are both quite flat, Australia and Oklahoma share the red dirt/sand, and Australia and Texas are very hot.
Sadly, we never made it to the ocean, though we looked at it from the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. : )
So there is a poorly summarized story of our trip. If you have more questions about it feel free to ask. (I tend to be too detail oriented, so I tried restraining myself here.)
I will try to get some pictures up, but I'll have to decide which ones to post out of the 700+ I took...
~Calen
I'm scared about the flights (my concern is someone or myself with throw up on the plane.) *phobic about vomiting* But I'm looking forward to being Down Under. *hopes to pick up an accent but doubts it*
My grandpa is taking my brother and I as a "last adventure with grandpa" before we get full time jobs and families. (He's also getting up there in age at 71.)
Have a fun, safe, and blessed time. 
So close, yet so far...
Come back safe! *Hands Calen brownies for the trip*
Me too.
*meekly eats her hat* I shall have a word to that spider when I catch it... with my book. 
