We have been pleasantly surprised by the infrastructure, food choices and American hospitality thus far. We have a theory that American tourists in Aus are perceived as loud and obnoxious because they have come to expect great service and are dissappointed in Australia. Waitstaff appear genuinely pleased to meet you here, and go out of their way to help. We've only found a couple of exceptions so far.

In terms of food. There is such a massive range. You could choose to order chicken fried steak (deep fried steak in chicken stock batter) and marshmallow mousse or variations, but they also do awesome salads that outdo even SumoSalads back home. There are quite a few places where you can compile your own salad, stir fry, or combination plate of hot foods and pay by weight. It's fantastic!

Infrastructure and population go together I guess. We have been surprised by the size of shopping centers, and big everything stores like Walmarts even in what feel like backwater little towns, but then, we've also been surprised by the number of cars in seemingly small towns too. Tim has gallantly driven on 6 lane highways. We got stuck in traffic at one stage when 6 lanes merged into 1 to cross a bridge against peak traffic - we weren't so impressed then.