Crikey! We've just flown in from Australia, mate! The Land Down Under. The Lucky Country. The original Outback. And boy was it bloomin' onion good!
We spent 8 days traveling the East Coast of Australia, between the country's largest city, Sydney, and its third-biggest city, Brisbane. Along the way we stopped at several popular vacation towns, including one Matt Damon's family happened to be checking out last week. But that's getting ahead of myself...
I have lots of pictures and thoughts to share, so I'll have to break our trip recap into a few posts. Let's start at the beginning with our stay in Sydney.
Day 1
Our trip started out with a plush surprise. Somehow -- and I'm still unclear how it happened and how much we paid for it -- our seats to Sydney were upgraded to Business Class. Now this wasn't a minor upgrade giving us a little more leg room and a louse-free pillow. This put us in premium, fully-reclining seats aboard one of those big, fancy planes Shane probably knows the name of. We had our own cubby to store stuff, complimentary socks, an eye mask. It was highfalutin' flying. And while the girl and I felt mildly out of place the whole time, the boys put their feet up and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
To further confirm how NOT first class we are -- as we walked off the plane, I said to Shane, "So this is how it feels to be rich." And then the strap broke off my Target carry-on bag and I dropped everything on the floor, haha. Ah, the life of the rich and famous ;)
At the airport, we picked up a rental car and drove to our hotel (ibis Sydney East if you're curious). We had a tiny city-hotel room with bunk beds, perfect for the kids. We dropped off our bags and then went off to explore Sydney, which, it turns out, is an AWESOME city.
Sydney's a big city with a lot of hustle-bustle -- office workers briskly crossing streets, buskers playing saxophones and doing magic tricks on the sidewalks. It's an exciting place to be, and we all loved it. That first day, we wandered through Hyde Park and hit a bunch of tourist attractions. We checked out the SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium and the WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo (right next to each other in Darlington Harbour), and then went to the top of the Sydney Tower. These attractions were PERFECT for families -- not too long, not too expensive and they had some really neat, kid-friendly experiences. We pet a kangaroo, saw two kinds of penguins and the boy got a free paper Paw Patrol crown to wear the rest of the day. Happiness indeed.
At the top of the tower, we started to really fizzle out, so we headed back to street level to hail a cab to our hotel. When we got snuggled in for the night, Shane checked his phone's pedometer and saw that we had walked 7 miles through the city that day. 7 miles! That's a lot for us!
Day 2
We had two goals on our second day in Sydney: 1) to see Bondi Beach 2) to buy a stroller so I wouldn't have to carry the Adorable Boy another 7 miles. (And yes, giant 5-year-olds look ridiculous sitting in strollers, but they whine a lot less. And you can just tell gawkers it's a baby with a gland disorder ;)
First thing in the morning, we drove to Bondi Beach, about a 20-minute car ride from the hotel. Bondi, if you don't know, is a really famous surf beach in Australia. It's a bit of a tourist trap with its own reality show, Bondi Rescue. I think every "It" Insta girl has taken a photo or two there. And now we have too!
Bondi's a tourist trap for a reason. It's BEAUTIFUL and has a really fun, laid-back vibe. The kids and I went swimming, of course, made sandcastles and buried the girl in the sand. We bought some fruit and bread from a grocery store and ate brunch on the beach. We watched the surfers and laughed as the Chinese tourists screamed when waves surprised their picture-taking efforts. We LOVED Bondi Beach.
After some good surf and sun time, we bribed the kids (with ice cream) to walk the famous path between Bondi and Bronte beaches. This path goes past the iconic Bondi Icebergs swimming pool (you've definitely seen it, even if you never knew its name) and has amazing views. Like these:
After our walk, we hopped in the car and drove to a mall, where we purchased a $19 umbrella stroller. Best money we spent on the trip, ha. And then back to our hotel to rest a bit before our big evening adventure: the Sydney Opera House.
Around dusk we walked, pretty much downhill the whole way, from our hotel to the harbour, arriving right as the lights came on. The Harbour Bridge and city skyline looked so beautiful lit up. I was overwhelmed, honestly, to be standing on the steps of the iconic Opera House, a building I've seen in movies, TV shows and photos, never thinking I would have the chance to see it in person. Yet here I was -- in Australia, in Sydney, at the famous Opera House. I felt incredibly #blessed.
And I tried to share that feeling with my kids. Needless to say, they didn't have quite the same moving experience. One of them told me his legs were broken from the stress of being made to walk up the Opera House steps (after riding in the stroller the whole way there). And the other said, "What's that?" when I told her how cool it was to see the Sydney Opera House in person. Oh well. Maybe next time.
We spent the next hour hanging out at the harbour, eating a little takeaway and enjoying a really lovely, warm night. We even splurged on a passionfruit tart from the famous Australian dessert-maker, Zumbo. (Check out his show on Netflix, "Just Desserts.") Quite tasty :) It was a great night and the perfect way to end our time in Sydney. And we all vowed to come back. We truly loved this city!!
The next morning started the road trip part of our holiday. I'll get into that in my next post :)
