So long to Sydney!

Well, I'm very behind again.  Internet has been non-existent lately and it's been kinda nice!  For the sake of getting caught up, I'll give you a picture summary of our last few days in Sydney:

We took a day trip by train out to the Blue Mountains.  On the left are the Three Sisters, a well-known rock formation.

Our last day the girls resisted doing anymore walking.  So I took a nice peaceful walk by myself around the Royal Botanic Gardens.

 

A close up of the Sydney Opera House

It was interesting to see that up close it's really just made of floor tiles!

Once a year, Sydney Opera performs an outdoor opera on the harbor overlooking the Opera House.  This was happening while we were there, so we were exposed to some culture in a beautiful setting.  The girls would tell you "not again" but at least they now know what an opera is.

We arrived quite early, but all the better for people watching.

The opera was Aida and it was quite the production.  Even when the singing didn't hold the girls' attention, the scenery often did.  Do you see the live camels in front?

There were even fireworks when the victorious warriors came back from battle.

The view of the Opera House from the stands

On a rainy day, we visited the Powerhouse Museum in Darling Harbour.  This was a great, interactive museum with displays ranging from the circus to electronics to shoes to recyclables to trains to jewelry.

One funny story from the circus exhibit:  A "ringmaster" did a little program on how force, friction, gravity, etc. is used in many circus acts.  He was showing us how torque is needed for spinning plates and then started to talk to the plates to make them spin.  The girls and I were very confused until he said "Not that kind of talk".  Only in Australia are torque and talk homophones!

There was also a Wiggles exhibit!  Trina and I both loved reliving all of their songs.

Trina thought Aunt Jill needed to add these shoes to her collection

And we had one last beach day.  This time out to Coogee Beach.  Amazed at how we keep finding more and more beautiful beaches.

And in case you think it was just 10 days of perfection, THIS was what I had to live in each evening.  Those 4 girls can sure make a mess!

 Our last two days, we didn't have a transportation pass, so we used that time to visit things closer to home--mostly museums.  So in case you think we didn't get any culture while in Sydney, we visited the Australia Museum, The Rocks Discovery Museum (historical area of first European settlers), and the Hyde Park Barracks Museum.  The first European settlers were mostly convicts sent from England.  This barracks is where they were held until they served their sentences.

Imagining my life as a hammock-sleeping convict.

Hey look!  This made me feel right at home!

A little side story about Australia for those of you who don't know.  My sister and brother-in-law lived there the first couple of years that Mike and I were married.  We went to visit them when Ella was one and I was "great with Faith".  My sister was also very pregnant at the time and she gave birth to Cooper in Australia just a day after we had Faith.  So this made it especially fun to go back and relive some of those memories.  Jill and I were emailing constantly.  She was telling me places to visit and I was reporting back on all we had seen.

But all too soon it was time to leave for New Zealand.  The sadness was short-lived as New Zealand has been on my bucket list for quite some time.

The plan was that Mike would fly from Boston to Auckland on Sunday and the girls and I would fly from Sydney to Auckland on Monday.  However, Mike's LA flight got delayed a day and he ended up arriving in Sydney for a layover shortly before we boarded our flight.  And then both of our flights got delayed due to storms.  But by Monday evening, we had all eventually arrived in Auckland.

Mike found us at our gate, shortly before we boarded.  Good to see each other after three weeks.