Vegemite. Or vegemite not.

Five pictorial reasons Australia is worth the long flights down under:

Reason #5: The landscape

Is it a forest fire? No, it's an amazing sunset!


Misty scene from a moving car. Grr, stupid power lines through the picture! Can you believe we drove from Canberra to Sydney?!


The man-made landscape isn't bad either!


Reason #4: The jumping marsupials

Kangaroos are delicious.


Reason #3: The opportunity to visit my niece and nephew on the way

Aren't they cute?

Plus I got this interesting picture just before the plane landed in LA:


Reason #2: The food

I do all my breakfast cereal shopping in Australia now. You can buy Weet-Bix in the US, but not Fruity Weet-Bix.


Australian snack foods are better than American snack foods. Hooray for hazelnuts and blackcurrants! Um, not necessarily together... Though I must say, I don't know why Australians have such strong opinions on Starburst candies!


Australian candies are very different than Swedish candies, which tell you what ISN'T inside. For instance, this is apparently not chocolate.


Reason #1: The birds

This kookaburra seemed totally uninterested in us.


I love sulphur-crested cockatoos.


Have I mentioned that I like sulphur-crested cockatoos?


Sulphur-crested cockatoos... they have such personality. I'd get one if they weren't so darn loud!


This is not an ugly duckling.