Sydney, we love you!
Mike had to work in Sydney for a couple days. It was the perfect excuse to tag along and combine Sydney, Australia with our dream New Zealand trip.
We headed to the Harborfront on the first day. It was so pretty. Really fun, pretty, and inviting too.
We were so excited to see the Sydney Opera House. The boys were too. They had both done art projects in school over our time in Singapore creating the Sydney Opera House.
Even better, we had tickets!
I took the two boys to see a Beethoven concert with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It was gorgeous! We were seated behind the stage in the choir seats. (A very normal feeling place to be seated for me!!!) I had chosen that purposefully because I was hoping it would be engaging for the boys to be able to see the conducter, and be closer to all the instruments. They really enjoyed it, and were so good and quiet and engaged during it!
Mike was a sweetheart and stayed with David during the performance, but he took in the sound from the lobby.
Afterwards, we spend a few hours exploring the botanic gardens. They were beautiful, and in such a striking setting right by the water.
The other real treat of Sydney was that we were staying by the temple for the first night or two. Mike and I switched off doing sessions and other temple work that evening and in the mornig. It was just food for the soul! It meant so much to us to be able to take trips to visit temples across Asia and in the Pacific.
The next day we headed to Featherdale Wildlife Park outside of Sydney. Our main goal: feed a kangaroo! We suceeded! We saw lots of kangaroos and wallabies. Also sweet koalas and other Australian specialties like tasmanian devils and others. This was such a hit with the boys - especially Beau!
We then headed into the Blue Mountains. We visited Scenic World there, which was a real hit with our transportatin afficionados. Unfortunately, we were completely clouded in, so we didn't get to see the views. The Skyway and the Cableway both would have had pretty views over the canyon and mountains. We did do a walk to a waterfall, and the boys had a blast playing there. I think the hit was the scenic railway, which is the steepest railway in the world! It was slightly more like a roller coaster ride! Everybody loved it except for David, who screamed bloody murder and had to be taken off! Poor thing! In his defense, it was really quite steep! We did one ride in the very front car, one in the very back car, and one more for good measure!
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| About the best visibility we got! |
It was a great spot! We picked Manley because the beaches were great and for the ferries that come right there and head into the city. That meant it was convenient for Mike to commute into work, and fun for me and the boys to explore.
Here's us after we met Mike off the ferry one night! We ate out right on the harbor by the ferry terminal after he got in, and then did the leisurely walk back to our apartment.
The boys and I loved spending time in Manley!
Here we are heading off to the beach together without dad. We have our system down!
We ate in town, and explored the pedestrian area a bit.
We loved the walking path from Manley to Shelly Beach. The boys couldn't get enough of climbing on the rocks along the way!
We did get to go to a church in a mostly Polynesian ward in Manley. It was wonderful meeting, and a great feeling there. Afterwards, we drove out to the suburbs to visit Jared and Julie Finch and family, old friends of Mike's. That was such a treat to spend time with them and their wonderful family and hear about their experiences living in Sydney for many years.
I got in a nice early morning walk with David on morning duty one day. Here are some sights I found along the way.
One evening we took the ferry into the city to see the Opera House at sunset.
Gorgeous!
And the ferry was so fun with the boys!
Swinging in Manley at dusk!
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