Day 1- Darling Harbour
We trek out to Darling Harbour where The Man's first pick for our temporary housing was located. That place was booked. We need lunch and Muffin has fallen asleep in the stroller. We go to an Indian restaurant that is quite peaceful and overlooks the harbor. But the two, almost three year old wakes up and we decide we better bail and head to the Hard Rock Cafe. She gets excited about it as we spell out the words Hard Rock Cafe and I tell her we will hear music. She was fabulous, Huck was,too, except the vomiting of the baby food.mentioned already. The food was awful. Cheese just has a weird taste. Then we went to Wild Life Sydney (it's like a zoo for people with short attention spans according to the Man. Yup, I thought it was perfect!) and the Aquarium. They were great. I actually got tears when I saw the koala as I have always wanted to see a koala. My childhood lovey was a koala. In fact, Koa Koa is on a ship on the way back to his native land! Bonus, one koala was very close to the glass and had a joey on it! We also saw a huge croc, kookaburras, kangaroos and all kinds of wildlife. Something newly learned: there are penguins in Australia, not just Penguins fans!
Check it all out on www.darlingharbour.com This is the harbour that the cruise ships come into!
We plan to go back soon so the kids can play in the park, but not sure what the Aussies were thinking putting in metal slides...ouchhhhieee! I will have to remember to put some leggings in her bag or something!
Outing-Day #2 Right here in our own 'hood
So, getting up by 4 every day makes for some seriously tired people! We walked Hyde Park, full of those cool ibis birds, we have seen in Muffin's Australian ABC's book. We view St. Mary's Cathedral and go to the Australian Museum nearby. We start in a room full of see and touch Australian "stuffed animals". Yup, that would be taxidermied(is that a word?) koalas and kangaroos. Not my idea of petting a koala. We did not see the entire thing, because we got lucky and got there in time for Story Time. It was about a 45 minute session starting with a story about a wombat, followed by a painting station, play dough station, and a make a wombat station. There was room for free playing,too. Viv had fun and we got to take in Aussie parenting a bit. Our take, they are more laid back and kids are dressed very casually. I know I like my kids to look cute...but in Richmond sometimes it is crazy...the kids dressed in their smocking, monogrammed clothing just for play activities. I haven't seen anything like that here yet. Public and private school aged children wear uniforms and look adorable. Saw the cutest teen, looking a little like a Buckley boy for those who know 'um, decked out with khaki shorts and knee socks, dress shoes. Looked like maybe he was a Gryffindor, Harry Potter fans, but way cuter than any kid in those movies!
This museum reminded me of the Children's Museum in Richmond except that section designed for the little ones to be active was smaller than the CM itself since that whole museum is for interaction. It was led by two teachers. I loved that. Though it was a bit rainy this day, we decide to move forward to the Sydney Tower Eye. We pass the David Jones department store where all the windows are dressed with scenes for Christmas related to a Christmas carol that is being played. A little strange to be so warm so near Christmas. I have to go back and check out that store another time. We planned on having lunch at the Eye and discover it has very upscale shopping area inside, though it is a Westfield Shopping Centre with stores like Prada, Ferragamo, Gucci, etc. The food court is nothing like other malls we are familiar with and they use real dishes and cutlery! Muffin falls asleep. I feed Huckleberry some of his new Rafferty's Baby food and we walk and walk . The Man ends up getting Thai noodle soup, I get some kind of chicken burrito though we have been told Mexican food stinks here. His soup was okay and my burrito was delish! Then we hike on back home. Huck needs a nap and we are all tired. I later go out to the drugstore for a few things, but they are not like our stores and most of what I wanted they did not carry. So I head to the grocery and get some things and a frozen pizza for dinner. Living it up here! The Man had to figure out how to use the stove. I know they are English speaking but none of the appliances are familiar brands with ease of use! I think I have to go to the "Chemist" to get some things...another day!
Outing, Day 3
We meet our realtor, relocation specialist, Jennifer, to scope out areas for where we might rent a home for our stay here. She shows us some beach areas and other communities. We stop for tea near her neighborhood called "Crow's Nest". There I am educated on "occasional care". More on that nifty idear later.She points out a toy store that she likes to get educational toys for her grandchildren. Since I was feeding the baby, Muffin and the Man went in to check it out. He only had one thing to tell me about. Tell you that later,too. We drive some more and then pick up sandwiches for lunch. We take Muffin to a park and eat our lunch there. Lots of green space here in Aus. Each little neighborhood has a park and we are looking for something like that close to a train station and with some shops to walk to, hopefully. We look at some of the expensive popular places to live. Besides the budget, just not looking for being in such a busy area, even though it is close to the beach. I don't know how I would navigate it with 2 kids. We start getting a bit further out from the city and see nice properties...doing drive bys. One says it has two bathrooms, but when you look down the list of bulleted items the last one says, one loo is outdoors. Laughed out loud. Really? That would be handy if it was a pool house, maybe? The realtor Jennifer is very nice and we think she will get us to where we need to be...not sure she is quite used to having two so informed clients. The one property we went in, we had seen online already.
She could not believe how well our kids did, from 9-3:30. We did stop for coffee and lunch which helped. Somehow in all the mix of getting two kids out of car, into stroller etc.my wallet is lost. It is the first day I brought it and here I lose it! I have called to see if she will check her car and so far no one has used our accounts. Good Lord,only me. Keep in mind, I was pulling things in and out of the bag to entertain the kids...I sure hope it is in her car. She was traveling this weekend,so....hopefully I get good news tomorrow. Yes. She has it!)
That evening The Man goes to pick up dinner at local chain "Pie Face". It was good.
All in bed asleep at or before 8!
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