The Vacation Day 5 - Sydney to Alice Springs

Alice Springs was next, so we hopped on a plane and headed to it. Why you might ask did we go to a little town of no more than 30,000 people in the middle of a desert? It's where my parents live. They've been there 3 years now and since they'll be home in the fall, what better excuse did we have for flying out there? We're only going to get that reason once in our lifetimes.

My folks met us at the airport with large smiles (it'd been a year and a half since I'd seen my dad, 6 months since I'd seen my mom) and we went for a little drive out to the Tropic of Capricorn. So yes, we took the necessary pictures showing us straddling the line, I was an all out tourist and I don't care.

The rest of the day zipped by, ended by dinner at a Chinese restaurant in town. Significant for two reasons. First, Andy and I have eaten at a Chinese restaurant in every country we've ever been in, excluding those we've been through en route to somewhere else (ie Switzerland because we were on a train). And second, a man I work with used to come out to Alice on business and he claimed that restaurant was his favorite. He gave me a picture of himself standing in front of the restaurant to show to the owner to see if she remembered him. She certainly did. She remembered that he ate there a lot, and that he would order dinner, and lunch for the next day, and DINNER for the next day. Judging by how much he eats around the office, I was convinced she certainly had the right man in mind.