Part 2: “These dinosaurs need to get in my belly”—A

Note: Penelope shall be pronounced as in “rock melon.”

Animal sightings:

--emus

--dead skink

--live lizard

--kookaburra

--rabbit

--galahs

--honey badger?

After an early start, we reached the Gravity Discover Center well before it opened—so opted to check out the scale solar system walk, black hole, and disappointing “wind harp.” We did not climb the leaning tower of gravity.

On that note, Allie’s good throwing arm came in handy for demonstrating the giant model black hole, designed to be viewed from the second floor as you drop tennis balls into it.

WE FOUND THE HIGHWAY. Allie would like to defend this statement by clarifying that the highway randomly changes direction at T-intersections and does not always look like a highway.

Julia learned what Allie already knew: Aussies don’t mark trails very extensively, even in desert national parks. That walk was the pinnacle of our day!  Or really, Pinnacles.  At Pinnacles National Park.

Lunch: private beachside dining, complete with PB and banana sandwiches

We entertain ourselves by listening to nerdy podcasts.  Today we learned about the economics of cocaine, cartoon character voices and how they relate to consciousness, how to raise a differently gendered child, summer-related pop culture (books, etc) and viruses and how they work and may or may not kill us.

Quote from Sangam: “Oh my gosh!  My favorite Mandolinist won a MacCarther Genius Grant!”—A.  Julia finally hears said Mandolinist.  He was pretty good!

An Aussie teenager learned that Julia’s name has a lot of letters while trying to sell her internet

We saw the sunset, and it was beautiful—we wonder how it compares to the Goan sunset we missed.

We find a beachside campsite with a gazebo for eating

Dinner: DINOSAUR PASTA.  And some other stuff.

All of the stars.

We listened to 2 MacCarthur Genius Grant award winners today and aren’t ashamed to admit it.

Comic sans: the Cheetos of the font world.

Tomorrow, we will be leaving the country of Australia for the Principality of Hutt River.  Seriously, google that.