But, first we need to finish up our flight! The kids were great through the whole 15 hour flight, and Grayson had a nice long nap on Niki!
When we landed in Sydney, we got our car and headed for the place we were staying. Technically, we were trying to head for breakfast, but maps missed a few key splits in the road, and we ended up in an underground toll road that popped us out on the other side of Sydney. While trying to get back, the roads in the city are VERY tight, and they drive on the left side of the road, and we may have clipped the left rear view mirror... It didn't break off, it folded in and got scratched on the back, but after that we changed the routing straight to our house and were done with driving where possible. The house was in an awesome location! It was like 3 blocks away from the amazing M Deli Cafe that we ate ate like every day, and it was 2 houses away from a playground! And I believe that's the order we experienced them as well. We were a little early for checking in, so after some breakfast we had a great time at the park. My parents came and met us there too. Grayson had a great time taking Grandpa on obstacle courses around the park.
The park was right next to a trail, and one way on the trail went by a field and an outlook over the ocean for whale watching. It was whale migration season while we were there, and we were able to see some splashes and sprays out in the distance. But what's better than whales way in the distance? Birds in the field! Gotta catch 'em all!
Heading the other way on the path went down some stairs and to tide pools. Grayson and I went down to check them out while everyone else was playing at the park.
And then Grayson noticed a crack and that all of Australia was going to fall off into the ocean, so he jumped in there and held it back up! Thank goodness we took our trip when we did, because we got there just in time to save the continent!
It was fun to see the native wildlife. There were lots of birds that I'm sure are typical there, but were really fun to see for me! Like these cool rainbow lorikeets in the trees at the park.
Well, after playing for a while, we ended up having troubles getting into our house. They had an electric deadbolt, but the battery was dead. We just thought our early check-in didn't work out, so we drove to a really big park close by for the afternoon. It's called Centennial Park and it's a huge park in the middle of the city, and then there are a whole bunch of playgrounds and stuff to do scattered all around in it. It also had very little traffic, which made for good left side driving practice. One of the places we played had this cool log ladder up to the top of a big slide.
There was also a food truck in the park where we went for dinner. And speaking of the fun birds, there were ibis all over the place playing the roll of pigeon. While we were eating, there were like 4 of them, and they'd all slowly approach from a different side trying to find some food, sneaking closer and closer until someone moved toward them. Grayson took guard duty and ran around the table when he finished eating. After the park ,we stopped at Aldi for some grocery shopping, and then back to the house where we found out that the lock was actually just dead, and we had to reach out to the owner to get a lock box code for the backup key. So we could have unloaded our stuff hours before, not had tired kids crying about needing to go in while we sat on the porch waiting for a reply. It wasn't the finest moment of the day, and that's saying something seeing as we clipped the mirror of our car, but we made it through, and after that we had no issues.
We had to do a little replanning after the kids were in bed. My parents had gotten Opal cards from the mission, which can be used for public transit, and we decided to use public transit as much as we could while in Sydney. There was a bus stop close by use (and close by M Deli!) that took us right to Sydney Harbor, which also happened to be right where we wanted to go for just about everything we wanted to do. It's also a major transit hub right there with stations for busses, trains, light rail and ferries. Our original plan was always to take a ferry to the zoo, and so, Tuesday morning, we headed to the zoo! I had to include a red panda, as this is Monica's favorite animal.
Brooke got to see koalas, which she loved. They had koala encounters there, and you got to stand really close, but Monica did research and we passed on this one to wait for a better one later. Anyway, Brooke still loved seeing koalas up close.
Winry got an upgrade on her ears. They look like a rabbit, but then I think it's probably supposed to be a kangaroo, except they don't actually look like that, so I don't remember what animal this is supposed to be.
I guess it could be this guy. I don't remember what this animal was, but what I realized when I was looking through the pictures was that of his whole habitat, he chose to be on the top of the wall in front of a fan! And it's winter! He gets it.
We were able to see a platypus at the zoo too. We had to go back like 3 or 4 times before it was actually out and we got to see it. It's nocturnal, so it was in a darker room, so photos and video are a little harder to see what's going on because they come out blurred, but it was so cute! And it was very active once it was out, swimming all over the place and even up and over a little waterfall to what I expect is a place where it's food is kept.
After the zoo we stopped and got some lunch from different places around the harbor, including Cheetos Puffs, which happen to be Grayson's favorite. Brooke got a Subway sandwich, and she is so obsessed with it now.
After lunch, we took a tour of the Sydney Opera house. Here is the main concert hall.
And here we all are in it as well. We also got to go to the... Grand Balcony. That's what I'm gonna call it. It overlooks the harbor, and it's all glass walls, and was pretty cool. It's open and they do parties in there sometimes.
The tour went through both concert halls, and here we are heading from the main one to the smaller one for plays, etc. I thought the main hall was more fun to see, so I just did a picture of that, but here's Grayson tucking his arms in his sleeves.
The next morning, Monica, Brooke, Niki and I all went and climbed the Sydney Harbor bridge! It was quite the adventure for sure. Brooke loved it the whole time, so that's good, and Monica loved it 99 percent of the time, and the rest of us made it through. I would absolutely recommend it. For me the hardest part was the start/end where you're actually walking under the road, but still up like 50 feet in the air. You walk out and around one of the end pillars of the bridge, and then you climb up 4 ladders to the top of the dome/arch of the bridge. Being up on the top actually isn't that bad as the beam is like 10 feet wide, so from within the guard rails you can't really see straight down. Also, we're in harnesses and connected to a steel cable the whole time. It was a ton of fun, and a great view of Sydney and the harbor.
After the climb, we did some souvenir shopping while my parents come to meet us with Winry and Grayson. Once we were all together, we headed for Darling harbour, and the best way to get there was on the train! The train was even a double decker, and Grayson was very excited to ride.
There was a carousel that we all rode at Darling harbour, and then the kids played at the giant playground.
There was a whole water section with dams and switches and the kids had so much fun playing in the water. There were a bunch of restaurants around the park, and we all picked our own thing for dinner. We were hanging out in the harbour till pretty late to see the light show... which didn't happen. There was a big light show event that ended the week before we came, but we saw somewhere that there was a nightly show, and it sounded like always, but we couldn't find the info again, so after waiting to see it, we headed home.
We were hoping to go to the Blue Mountains, and specifically to Scenic world, but with avoiding driving, we weren't sure it was gonna work. We ended up finding a guided tour bus that was heading that way. So the next morning, we grabbed some food for take away from M Deli Cafe (or as Grayson called it, the yogurt shop) and off we went. I did want to take a moment to highlight that all our disposable utensils were wood. And they worked totally fine. This was kinda a slap in the face to me, and I just don't understand why we can't move off plastic in the US. There was just NONE in Australia. I used to think it was hard for some reason, now I'm just sad.
Anyway, the only trick about that tour bus is that it only picks up at select hotels around Sydney, so we woke up and headed for a hotel lobby! We passed this cool tree on the way and stopped for a family picture.
The first stop for the bus was at this little zoo that was halfway to our main destination. Right when you walk in there's a big pen to feed wallabies, which everyone loved.
Here's Winry feeding one.
And me. I guess these were the pictures I liked the most, but everyone fed them.
When we left the wallaby enclosure, we passed by this next one and one of the birds was following Monica.
They had a koala photo op I'd call it. There was a picture line, and you got to touch the koala for the picture. We hadn't planned on coming to this zoo, so this was an added bonus, and our first koala encounter. Oh, another bonus here is that the koalas were actually awake and eating, while at the zoo they were basically all just sleeping and motionless. At the first zoo it was exciting every time a koala moved it's head, so here it was cool to see them eat and such.
In the next area, there was an albino kangaroo, and he came hopping across the enclosure straight to Grayson for some food. If only I knew what was coming, but here's Grayson feeding it.
From there, we stopped in a little town for lunch and had some pizza, and then went to Scenic World. One of the cool things at Scenic World is that they have some cool rides, like this glass bottomed gondola that goes over a 150m deep gorge.
And the steepest railway in the world. That was super cool to ride, and it was steep enough you felt like you could fall out of your seat even though they're leaning back.
There is also a raised platform trail you can walk down in the rainforest. It was fun, however I'm sure it's a lot prettier in the summer. We didn't have to worry about snakes or anything, so maybe a fair trade.
After Scenic World, we drove back to a ferry stop to head back to Sydney harbour. We got back after dark, and got this awesome view of the opera house. I will say, I am happy we were able to go to the Blue Mountains, and it was nice finding a tour so we didn't have to drive, but I feel like the tour was a little too fast everywhere. Still a good day.
Back in Sydney we needed some dinner before heading back, and pancakes were on the menu! Winry was having a hard time while we were waiting, so I took her outside and gave her a piggy back, and she'd point and I'd walk that direction until she pointed me somewhere else. She was having a lot of fun and it cheered her right back up!
While riding the bus, I noticed that Australia also has a CTC. I tried getting a picture, but they're all a little blurry what with it being night, so here's a street map. Upon closer inspection, I don't think Cigarettes, Tobacco, Cigars is a satellite of Chicago Trading Company...
The next day was time to check out and head for Port Macquarie. Once the kids were all packed up ,I think Niki took them to the park while we did some final walkthroughs of the house, etc. and loaded up the car. When I made it to the park, Grayson had made a friend, and they were lining up "tree oaks." That's what Grayson calls them, it's really... "she oaks." Never seen it written, so I'm writing what I hear. Anyway, I asked him if he wanted to go to the tidepools before we had to leave, and the other boys mom was like, "oh, you've gotta go see the tide pools!" They were super nice! Actually, everyone in Australia was super nice to us.
Grayson and I were excited to give everyone a tour of the tide pools, and while we were down there, we saw people getting ready for a swim in the ocean! A whole group actually swam over to pick them up, and then they dove in and joined them and off they all swam.
We heard a little creaking, so we all jumped in to stop all of Australia from sliding into the ocean. Again, they're so lucky we were there this week!
And here's Niki enjoying the tides.
On our way out of town, we stopped at the temple and walked around the grounds. We also went in the family history center for a few minutes and did some activities in there.
I also had this urge to be right side up again after being upside down in Australia for the week. Ah, nice to have my head in the right direction again.
The drive was about 4 hours, and Grayson took a much needed nap with his new best pal, Rainbow! Also, once we got out of the city, there was more space in the lanes and everyone drives very respectfully and gives space, etc. so driving on the highway is actually a good way to get some comfort with driving on the opposite side of the road. Oh, and speaking of, not only do you drive on the opposite side, the turn signal and windshield wipers are also swapped, so it wasn't too crazy to run the wipers one time whenever we wanted to turn!
Port Macquarie has a bunch of koala preserves around it, and there were koala crossing signs all around town. We never saw one in the wild, and thankfully never in the road, but I guess it happens sometimes.
When we got to my parents place, we had visitors! The kangaroos get spooked off easily. You can kind of see the second one back in the trees. They didn't stay too long after we came out to see them.
That night we went out for dinner, and the place we went had a koala statue outside it. They are scattered around town. I don't know how many of them there are, and I'm sure there's a way to look up the locations, but we'll see how many we happen to run into.
On Sunday, we went to my parents branch, and they asked us all to speak in Sacrament meeting. Brooke wrote her talk completely on her own, and did awesome. I think Winry wrote hers too, but I think Monica might have helped a little. Not 100% sure. Anyway, they both did an excellent job. It was nice having so many speakers because no one had to talk for very long either! After church they had their linger longer, (they changed it to this week so we could be there for it!) so everyone stuck around and we had a potluck lunch. It was a lot of fun chatting with everyone, and the food was excellent! I will say, someone made taco soup, and I was excited to try it, and it was definitely missing some spices. I'm not sure Australia has Mexican food quite like we do here in the states.
Sunday afternoon we were trying to head to this light house, and took the closest street parking spot we could find. There are trails along the coast that we were hiking to get there.
But instead we ended up on a beach. This part was more rocky and loggy, and we weren't here most of the time, but it did make for a good picture. We did some sea shell hunting and playing in the sand. We weren't here very long before it was getting dark and we had to head home. OH! while we were driving over here we also saw a kangaroo on the side of the road. He was standing up tall right in the tree line and looked like he was trying to be very non-suspicious.
We could see the whales again out in the ocean, or, we could see the splashes and sprays. I was able to get a video with something in it, it's a little up and right from the boat (the white bit) when it happens.
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