After a long, hard, 2-week long winter in Hong Kong (ha ha!), we started our spring thaw with a trip to Manley Beach - a short ferry ride from Sydney Harbour (that's Aussie for "Harbor").
The Harbour is full of local color - an "aboriginal" tourist attraction with his Diggery Doo. Yes, of course we bought his CD. No, it just isn't the same on the home CD player. However, his makeup job did impress Christina.
Anyhow, about a 30 minute ride from the Harbour is Manly Wharf. Not the Caribbean, but perfectly awesome compared with HK beaches!
Just plain ole fun in the sun without any translators needed!
One of the things we really enjoyed was the opal museum. It is just a small museum, but since we're big geology and rock fans, this was right up our alley. We learned all about the history of opal mining in AU, and we saw everything from the raw opals in stone to majestic, crown-quality gems. One had recently sold for $14,000 USD earlier in the day. We settled for the free gift - the pin-on kangaroo with a 1/2 lady-bug sized stone :-).
Another great thing to do in Sydney is the history museum. They have an awesome booklet of activities for the kids. It guides you through the museum with activity-based learning. No photos allowed inside, though. Too bad.
The bridge is awesome! We didn't climb it although when the kids get a little older I'd like to put that on our list of things to do.
The opera house is even more impressive in person than it is in all the books, if that is possible.
Once, when Christina was 3 years old (before we had moved anywhere away from Texas), we were looking for something to read - - the kids have always liked fact books. We were looking through "Great Buildings of the World," and I saw the Sydney Opera House. I said, "Oh let's read this page." She said, "No way, Mom, that's too easy! That's the Sydney Opera House, of course!" [DUH!!!, Mom]
After dinner one evening on the harbour, we were visited by two new friends who gave us a talent show just off the restaurant's knee-wall facing the harbour. They are "Traveler" (the small Kangaroo), and Kelly the kookaburra. What great fun we had :-) !
Jessica, Christina and Dad got to see the real things the next day at the zoo while I worked. What a SUPER place to visit!!!
Yeaaahhhhh....Sydney!!
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