Australian Tour Journal

• See the slideshow!
• December 31 - January 2
• January 3
• January 4
• January 5
• January 6-7
• January 8
• January 9
• January 10
• January 11-12
• January 13
• January 14
• January 15

Friday, December 31, 2004 - Sunday, January 2
The adventure begins! We all gathered at Dulles airport this afternoon to start our Australian tour. Everything seemed to be going slowly as we checked in our baggage and went thru the security screening process until they informed us that one person in our party would be unable to board because they were already in Australia. Impossible! None of us are in Australia...we're all standing right here...it was quite confusing but after repeated phone calls to various authorities in Sydney, we were all permitted to board the plane. Our first flight was to Los Angeles and was all-in-all uneventful. We landed in L.A. close to midnight EST so we had our own mini countdown in the waiting area. Most of us walked around the airport until the last possible moment to board the plane....we were all dreading the 14 1/2 hour flight ahead of us.

The flight was called and we found our places on the plane. We were all basically in the same row. When it got close to the New Year, the pilot just did a five second countdown, but we were ready and donned some festival apparel and rang the new year in quite joyously.

We landed in Sydney ahead of schedule! And we only had one more flight to go before we would be done. The last flight from Sydney to Melbourne would only take an hour...easy!

We arrive in Melbourne in gorgeous weather, quickly found a van and made our way to the apartments where we will be staying for the next two weeks. The apartments are quite nice. We have two three-bedroom apartments on the 24th and 29th floors. Each apartment has large windows and a balcony and beautiful views of the city.

Once we settled into the apartments, we took off to find a grocery story and to get some lunch. Some of us were hungrier than others, and we saw some interesting things along the way. Tonight we will have an orientation meeting and tomorrow morning we will start rehearsals for participation in the Opening Ceremonies.

Stay tuned....

Liz shows off her New Year's Eve "bling bling"	Happy New Year from United Air Lines Flight 839, row 42!
Melbourne at last! And the weather is beautiful!	Cast poses outside of the City Tower Apartments
We're really hungry but....	White lady funerals? What's up with that?