Friday morning (May 15th) we walked across the Pyrmont Bridge to eat breakfast at Plate Restaurant. It was so delicious! Lydia's plate of fruit was in the shape of the Sydney Opera House. It was just a gorgeous morning.
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| Lydia with her big plate of fruit and yogurt |
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| Daddy and Kiernan waiting for breakfast |
Then we went to the SeaLife Aquarium. We didn't capture very many photos as it's hard to take photos of aquariums. They also don't allow flash for obvious reasons. The aquarium had a dugong
that was so interesting to watch. The dugong is a marine mammal closely related to manatees. Their diet is seagrass found in shallow bays and mangrove channels. Their lifespan is about 70 years. They can be found in warm coastal waters in the western Pacific Ocean to the eastern coast of Africa. They seem like such a peaceful animal.
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| Black-tipped reef shark - most common in Great Barrier Reef |
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| Dugongs eat all day long |
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| Another view of a dugong |
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| Octonauts! |
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| Lydia watching "Dory" |
After the aquarium we went back to the playground and had lunch at
Macca’s. Barry headed back to the hotel to get Lydia a proper nap and Hannah,
Kiernan and I sat on the harbour and enjoyed the sights and sounds. We liked
watching the boats come and go.
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| Lydia learned to climb using the rope |
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| Hannah and Kiernan at Darling Harbour |
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| Kiernan enjoying a hot chocolate |
Friday night we went to the Sydney Observatory to attend a
Dreamtime presentation. The evening started in the planetarium, where an Aboriginal man showed us features of the Southern night sky. We finally learned how to use the Southern cross to find due South - this is the constellation that is featured on the Australian flag. Then he told some very interesting stories about how Aboriginal people viewed the Milky Way. They did use some constellations to tell stories. One interesting example was a constellation of one man sitting in a canoe. Each clan traditionally had a particular animal that it was responsible for protecting, and if any member of that clan killed one of those animals (like an emu), they were subject to extreme punishment. The man in the canoe in the sky was guilty of catching the sacred fish of his clan when he got frustrated by his inability to catch a more acceptable species, and his punishment was to be sent to the sky for eternity. Oops.
Even more interesting, though, was the fact that the Aborigines use the dark places in the Milky Way to see images more so than the stars themselves. Our guide showed us the shape of an emu that shifted through the year - it appeared to be running during mating season, and sitting during egg-laying time. Traditionally this was used as a sign to tell them when they should go hunting for emu eggs. Our guide related his personal experiences of hunting emu eggs, by the normal technique of distracting the emu and sneaking in to steal the egg as well as the more adventurous approach of jumping on the emu's back and not letting it get up to protect the nest!
After that, we moved up to the actual observatory and got demonstrations on both a modern, computer-controlled telescope (which will automatically track objects as they move through the sky) and a 150-year-old model that is still in pristine shape and is quite impressive in its own right. Unfortunately it was a cloudy night, but a few of us were able to see Jupiter and our host used some distant objects on the ground to demonstrate the power of the telescopes. After that, we walked to Candor
(Japanese) for dinner. Watching the kids try to use chopsticks was quite fun!
Saturday morning we had booked a whale watching excursion, but due
to high seas it was cancelled. It was opening day and they cancelled Sunday as
well, so we were pretty bummed to miss out. Since we couldn’t go whale
watching, we went to the Sydney IMAX and watched a 3D movie about humpback
whales. It made the kids happy (Barry and I thought it was okay) and gave us
something to do that was different than walking around the city. We had a nice
little lunch at a Greek restaurant at Darling Harbour called George. In the
afternoon we met a couple of animal scientists that Barry knew from international meetings (Ian and Pietro), along with some of their family, at the Darling
Harbour playground and had a coffee. Then Barry, Ian and Kiernan took a taxi to
the Allianz Stadium and Pietro, myself and the five girls went to the stadium in
his van. We met up at Golden Crown Chinese Restaurant for dinner, along with
Ian’s wife, his son and one of Ian’s employees. The Chinese food was so good!
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| Riding the carousel with friends at Darling Harbour |
After the game we caught a taxi back to the hotel. Our taxi driver
was such a nice guy and talked to us about the city.
Sunday morning we packed up our bags and left them with concierge.
We took a train to St. Mary’s Cathedral for Mass. When we got off the train we
started to see runners and I remembered seeing signs for a half-marathon. Once
we emerged from the train station we realized that the half-marathon was taking
place right on the street near St. Mary’s. It was difficult to find our way to
the church due to the crowd. We should have planned that better!
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| St. Mary's Cathedral, May 17, 2015 |
After Mass we took the train to Circular Quay to walk around for a
bit. One thing I love about traveling in the city is seeing street vendors and
artists. This man was painting on big canvas sheets or paper. He had this information posted: "Ciao, I am Giuseppe, an Italian Madonnaro. Since the 16th century the Madonnari were itinerant artists from the South of Italy-Puglia-many of whom had been brought into the cities to work on the huge cathedrals. When the work was done they needed to find another way to make a living, and thus would often recreate the paintings from the church onto the pavement. Aware of the festivals and holy days in each province and town, they traveled to join in the festivities to make a living from observers, who would throw coins if they approved of the artist's work." This man also posted that he does not sell his paintings - he donates them to churches, etc. He was taking donations to pay for his expensive art supplies.
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| Giuseppe, the Italian Madonnaro |
We walked over part of the Writer’s Walk - a series of metal discs cast into the Circular Quay promenade that hold quotes from prominent Australian writers - and
caught a few more glimpses of the Sydney Opera House. We walked up to The Rocks, which is Sydney's historic district. In the old days this area was one of the most dangerous in Australia and outbreaks of bubonic plague from 1900 forced authorities to demolish some of the structures. In the 1970s, the government was planning to demolish the rest of the structures, however, there was a campaign to save it that worked! These days it's a top tourist destination in Sydney, and for good reason. It's beautiful! We had brunch at Lowenbrau Keller. We enjoyed walking around the
markets in The Rocks, especially The Licorice Shop (great candy), the street
magician (ask Kiernan to show you his new trick), and the street musicians.
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| Sydney Opera House, May 17, 2015 |
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| Beautiful view of Sydney, The Rocks |
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| Different view of Sydney Harbour Bridge |
I often joke with Barry that we should write a book about
traveling with three children under 10 after this experience. We’ve learned so
much along the way. By far the most challenging is our toddler, Lydia! She is
an independent little soul who requires lots of “things” to keep her busy. I
may just do a blog post with our experiences in this department.
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| Lydia writing/drawing in her Peppa book |
We walked through the markets and under the Sydney Harbour Bridge,
then back to our hotel to pick up our bags. We were pretty tired and the kids
were done walking, so we took the train to the airport and arrived pretty
early. We chilled at the airport and had an uneventful flight back to
Melbourne, and then drove back to Ocean Grove.
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| Waiting for our underground train |
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Days of hardly any normal naps leads to
Lydia collapsing on the airport floor in a heap. |
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| Barry about to sink his teeth into a hamburger |
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| Oh wait! That's a donut! No joke! |
All but Barry seem to have caught a cold, so that made sleeping in
the hotel room and sharing beds less than ideal! We would have loved to see the
whales, and we regret not doing at least a harbour cruise (maybe next time).
Other than those small problems and kids getting tired legs because of all the
walking, it was a great trip!
Sarah
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