I'd like a Koala, please.

It's official... I love Australia.  This definitely tops the list on places we have been.  This might even top the Olympics, maybe.  Okay, maybe not, but it's close.  I'm so sorry for all you roadies stuck in China or India reading the blog and becoming increasingly jealous of this assignment.  Wait, I'm not sure I have any followers there.  Anyway, today Jason had part of the day off so we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  It prides itself on being labeled one of the "Top 10 Zoos in the world by AOL".  I had no idea that AOL even rated zoos.  This was recommended by numerous people so we had to check it out.  The best part was being able to hold the Koala....or feeding the Kangaroos...  tough choice.  Seriously, the koalas are so cuddly, but their claws are sharp and they dig into you to hold on.  Jason and I both had marks on our arms afterward but their cuteness made up for it so I didn't mind. 

The kangaroos just roamed around in this large lawn area and they are used to people feeding them.  We kind of had to stoop down to feed them otherwise they would claw at your arm to lower it (that didn't happen...we were just warned).  They seemed to be very friendly, although a few followed us around because apparently they knew our bags of food weren't empty.  I had a really cool video of them as well...but apparently Blogger didn't want to cooperate and upload it.  Maybe tomorrow.  A picture is all you get for now.

Another highlight of the trip was feeding the lorikeets.  They are very brightly colored birds that swarm the area around the 3:30pm feeding time.  They are smart, I tell ya.  We weren't going to wait for the feeding (zoo keepers come out with the feed at that certain time and talk about the birds) but we were there and thought we'd catch at least one show.  It was pretty entertaining.  The zoo keeper lady put this sticky mixture of oats, honey and other random stuff I already forgot into this holder thing, told us how to hold them and warned us they would swarm and then hurry off if spooked.  She was right - they were everywhere!  They got spooked a few times, but always came back.  Below is a neat picture of Jason with one on his head.  We walked away with droppings of the food on us and probably some bird droppings too.  We had already been pooped on by a bird on the beach in California once, so this didn't seem to faze us.