Sydney, Australia (December, 2014)

Barrick Gold flew our family in business class on Qantas from Perth, Australia to Santiago, Chile to check out what could potentially be our new home city.  We stopped over in Sydney, Australia for about 24 hours before heading over to Chile, staying in the Hilton.  While we were there, we went to an escape room (Escape Hunt) with the kids. We did manage to get out with 7 minutes to spare, but we needed 2 clues.

 Whippermans at Escape Hunt in Sydney, Australia.

Sawyer, our little sleuth.

Wedge Island, Western Australia, Boxing Day (December, 2014)

For Boxing Day (the day after Christmas), we headed to Wedge Island with our great friends the Kemps and Bollards.  Wedge Island is great because you can drive your car all the way along the beach.  It's a shallow beach with turquoise water and soft white sand.  It is one of our favorite spots in Western Australia.  We had a great time playing beach cricket, throwing the football, and just hanging out on a beautiful day with friends.

 Ryder and Tate, playing in the ocean.

 Addy and Zander are inseparable.

 Always together.

 Always laughing.

 Beach cricket...Cody bowling.

 Small dune for the kids to sandbar.

 Sawyer and Paige playing in the sand.

 Throwing the football around.

 A beautiful beach.

Our setup.

Singapore (October, 2014)

On the way home from Tokyo, Cody and Eliza spent a day in Singapore.  We arrived to Singapore after midnight from Tokyo and had booked the Crowne Plaza Changi which is located in the Singapore Changi Airport and is right next to the train in Terminal 3.  We booked it using 40,000 IHG points which saved about $250.  With Eliza's IHG Platinum status, we were upgraded to a club room and given complimentary breakfast in the hotel, which was great.

After some much needed sleep and breakfast, we headed into the city on the MRT (Singapore's excellent public transportation system).  We headed to Chinatown on our way to BreakOut, which is within walking distance from Chinatown and one of the newer puzzle/escape room places in Singapore.  We did 2 different puzzle rooms, "The Scientist" and "Forever Young."  We didn't do so well with "The Scientist."  BreakOut prides themselves on having non-linear clues (meaning that there are a bunch of clues that can be accessed all at once and you have to figure out which direction to go in having more than one clue at a time).  The puzzle room that we did in Beijing was linear and we only had one thing going at once, so it was clear what direction we had to go.  I think the non-linear thing threw us for a loop because we really struggled.  We found all the clues, but had a hard time putting them together.  We needed some hints, and BreakOut was good to provide subtle ones without giving it away, but still, we did not make it out of the room in the allotted 60 minutes.  For "Forever Young," we did much better.  We made it out with only a couple clues.  All in all, we really enjoyed BreakOut and we find the puzzle rooms very fun.  Apparently, there are now more than 14 puzzle room companies in Singapore.

A good date in Singapore.

Eliza, being beautiful on Singapore's MRT.

After we finished our puzzle rooms, we got some lunch and then spent some time shopping in Chinatown, which was a bit of a letdown after our experience in the Silk markets in Beijing.

We headed back to the airport to pick up our bags from the hotel and to catch our flight back to Perth to see our kids.

Tokyo, Japan (October, 2014)

We arrived in Tokyo (Haneda airport) just after 8pm and immediately headed to our hotel.  We had booked the Intercontinental Tokyo The Strings using a free Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) certificate that we got for paying the $49 annual fee on Eliza's Chase IHG Mastercard.  The Intercontinental Tokyo would normally cost 50,000 IHG points/night or around $375/night.  We were happy to put the free night to good use since it expired in January, 2015 and the Intercontinental Tokyo is one of the most aspirational hotels in the IHG portfolio.

Even though it was late, we wanted to walk around after we arrived, so we made our way out of the hotel.  It was adjacent to a train station and a very clean city hub with some cool looking streets.  We ate at Wired Cafe which had a whole bunch of "fusion" dishes blending Asian with other types of food.  We ordered some Nachos for an appetizer and they were served with a terrific sour cream sauce that was full of dill pickle flavor.  We loved it.  Liking the dill flavor of the "mexican" food, Cody got the Ham and Cheese burritos while Eliza got a Japanese curry.

We checked out of the Intercontinental after sleeping in and took the train to where we would spend our second and third nights in Tokyo, the Park Hyatt Tokyo, which we booked using 2 free Hyatt night certificates that we got for signing Eliza up for the Chase Hyatt Visa.  The Park Hyatt would normally cost 30,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points/night or around $585/night.  We were happy to put these 2 free nights to good use since they expired in February, 2015 and the Park Hyatt Tokyo is one of the most aspirational hotels in the Hyatt portfolio.

The Park Hyatt is near the Shinjuku train station, which has a lot of things going on nearby.  We wandered around the area in the afternoon and even got to try the Kuro burgers that they have at Burger King (black hamburgers with black cheese and black sauce).

At night, we went to the Robot Restaurant at night.  The show was crazy.  There were robots dancing and fighting along with dragons; girls dressed up in Anime; fighting panda bears, sharks, snakes, tigers, and spiders; and all kinds of other weird stuff.  The rooms were full of lasers, strobe lights, mirrors, smoke, and all kinds of bright colors. This was definitely one of the strangest experiences either of us had ever had.

We woke up the next day and caught a bus out to Mount Fuji and the Fuji-Q thrill park that is located at the base of the mountains.  The area is beautiful, green, hilly, and full of fresh air.  We were some of the only tourists in the park and enjoyed the thrill rides.  We weren't impressed with the lack of efficiency of moving people through the lines (I guess we're used to Disneyland), as lines that should have taken less than 30 minutes were taking more than an hour to get through.

We were sad that we didn't get to go to a Sumo wrestling match (we missed the Sumo tournament by a few weeks) and when we tried to book a Samurai sword fighting class, it was full...maybe next time.  The next day we were off to Singapore to finish off our trip.  We were flying out of Narita, so we had to catch a 2 hour bus ride to the airport from the Park Hyatt.

Beijing, China (October, 2014)

Cody and Eliza flew to Beijing for 3 days/2 nights then to Tokyo for 3 days/3 nights then to Singapore for 1 day/1 night before returning home to Perth.  The flights were all in business class with the exception of the last flight from Singapore to Perth.  The itinerary took us through Singapore in both directions and we flew a combination of Singapore Airlines, China Airways, and All Nippon Airways for our flights.  The itinerary was PER-SIN-PEK(stopover)-HND(destination); NRT-SIN-PER.  We paid 70,000 United Mileage Plus miles + $138.50 for each business class ticket (140,000 United miles + $277.00 total) for the roundtrip tickets.  Had we booked these tickets paying cash, it would have cost over $8,000 each in business class and over $4,000 each in economy.

For the hotel, we redeemed 42,000 Club Carlson points for 2 nights in a suite (including free breakfast buffet and lounge privileges) at the Radisson Blu Beijing.  Normally, one night costs 42,000 points; however, as we have the Club Carlson Visa card from US Bank, we get a one free night added onto our booking (either paying with cash or booking with points), so it came out to 21,000 Club Carlson points per night.

With our US passports, we were free to stay in Beijing for 72 hours without having to apply for a visa as long as we didn't fly into and out of Beijing from the same city (we flew in from Singapore and out to Tokyo, so it worked out fine for us).

We arrived early Friday morning in Beijing and took the train to the stop nearest our hotel.  We showered then met our friend, Joe Bollard (who had just come off a week long business trip in Tianjin, China) so we could hang out for the day.  We booked a driver to take us to the Great Wall of China, which was about a 1:45 drive from the city and we took chair lifts up to the base of the wall which was at the top of a pretty tall hill. We made it onto the wall and decided to walk to the end, which was much more difficult than we had anticipated.  The steps were steep and tall.  We got a good workout climbing up the hills and by the time we made it back to our starting point after a couple hour hike we were ready to sit down and relax.  They had an alpine slide that we took from the base of the wall to the bottom of the mountain, which was fun.

Joe, Eliza, and Cody taking selfies on top of the Great Wall of China.

Cody and Eliza at the Great Wall.

Great Wall of China.

Eliza, on top of the Great Wall of China.

Cody and Eliza on the Great Wall of China.

Our driver took us back to Joe's hotel and we had some snacks in the lounge before heading out to walk around Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City.  On the way, we sampled some of the local cuisine including miniature candy coated sour apples, scorpions on a stick (Joe and Cody ate them) and a snake (Cody tried it).

Night food markets where we tried some funky stuff.

Near Tiananmen Square.

 Spiders on a stick.

 Or, if you don't want the spiders, why not try the giant centipedes or another creature?

 This guy, spoke a little bit of English and gives his "dog balls" one thumb, way up...we didn't try them, so we don't have an opinion one way or another.

 Starfish on a stick?

Joe and Cody ate a fried scorpion on a stick...very salty.

This is a video of Cody eating a snake...enjoy!

We then made our way to an escape/puzzle room called Omega Room where we were locked in a room with clues, puzzles, combinations, and riddles and had to find our way out within 60 minutes.  We had done one of these in Singapore last year and loved it, so we decided to give it a try in Beijing.   The room didn't disappoint. Although, we didn't make it out in the allotted time and needed some clues to get through it, we had a good time.

Other impressions of Beijing that we had after the first day were that the smog was every bit as thick as had been described to us and we could see why many of the Chinese residents wore masks over their mouth and nose.  We were surprised at how cheap the taxis were (~$6 for a 30 minute taxi ride), but we were shocked at how difficult it was to get a taxi, especially at night

We woke up early on Saturday and met Joe at the famed Silk markets.  We helped Joe pick out some stuff before sending him off to catch his flight home (his wife, Tori, was watching our kids for the 7 days we were away).  When Joe left we did some shopping of our own.  We bought a huge garbage bag full of shoes (9 pairs of Tom's shoes for Eliza and the kids for about $8 each, Ugg boots for Cody for $20, 2 pairs of Diesel casual shoes for Cody for $15 each, Nike cross training shoes for each of the kids for $15 each, and 2 pairs of Converse shoes for Eliza for $15 each), and nearly filled 2 large checked bags full of clothes, Christmas presents, DVDs, and other stuff.

After shopping, we went to TGIFridays for a late lunch then headed to an Acrobatics show.

Chinese Circus Show.

How many people can you get on one bike?

Sunday morning, Cody had to head over to the Grand Hyatt hotel for an important business meeting (interview with the Chairman of the Board and the company's President of China of what ended up being his new company...Barrick Gold) which went well.  When he got home, we went for lunch and ice cream before heading to the airport to continue our trip in Tokyo, Japan.

Cage Diving with Great White Sharks, Neptune Islands, South Australia (September, 2014)

We went with our good friends, Joe and Tori Bollard and Rick Kemp (Alex Kemp stayed back and watched all 8 of the Whipperman and Kemp kids), to Port Lincoln, South Australia and then took a 3 hour boat ride out to the Neptune Islands with Calypso Charters to swim with the great white sharks. Our tour including the cage dive with the sharks was $495/person.

We redeemed 20,000 American Airlines miles and ~$41 in taxes for the round trip economy class tickets on Qantas that took us from Perth to Port Lincoln (with a quick connection through Adelaide). It was a great use of AA miles as the tickets were going for $1,138 each when we booked them.

We stayed 2 nights at the YHA Backpackers Lodge in Port Lincoln for $65.00 ($16.25/night per person…it's normally $32.50/night per person, but YHA gives you a 2 for 1 if you book a cage dive with Calypso Charters).  The girls were nervous and highly skeptical of us staying in this place (mostly worried about cleanliness and bed bugs), but all fears were laid to rest and we were in for a positive surprise upon arrival.  The hostel is immaculate and spacious. We only shared our community room with 1 other person on the first night and with 6 people the 2nd night. We hung out in the community rooms both nights and Rick was able to catch the Aussie Rules football semifinal one night while we played games. You can't really beat the price and it's good value for money.

We had some time to kill when we arrived in Port Lincoln, so we took our rental car out to some of the local beaches and sand dunes and explored a bit before heading to dinner.  We learned that Port Lincoln has the highest number of millionaires per capita in Australia due to the lucrative tuna (pronounced "choo-nah") industry.

The YHA even gave us a deal on dinner at The Pier ($12.00 for a giant chicken or beef schnitzel with pepper gravy, steak fries, a salad, and a drink…which is more than half off the menu price). That may not sound like a good deal, but, in Australia, it's hard to beat.

Calypso Charters picked us up from the hostel at 6:20 am and returned us back at about 6:30 pm.  They took care all the meals (breakfast, morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea) and we could buy cold Diet Coke's all day long for $1.00/can (we had about 30 between the 5 of us). Soft drinks are usually $3-4/can in this type of setting here in Australia, so we felt pretty good about getting them for a buck a piece.  The food was plentiful and much better than expected.  We brought along some card games (mostly played Monopoly Deal) and spent the majority of the 3 hour boat ride out to the Neptune Islands playing cards and having a good time.  There were 30 people on our boat and there was only one cage that holds 6 people at a time.  We signed up to be the group after lunch, so we watched the first 4 groups of 6 go before us and could see the great white sharks from the surface. We did get some great pictures and video from the surface as well as from the cage.

All in all, I think we saw 11 different great whites during the course of the day (3-4 while we were in the cage).  The crew would tie tuna guts to a rope and throw it out in front of the cage to lure the sharks to a point where the people in the cage could get a good view.  It was a pretty good system because the sharks kept swirling around the boat all day long and all of the 5 groups of 6 saw plenty of sharks while they were in the cage.