Australia Day 3

On Sunday we headed out on the ferry to Manly Beach. A local had overheard us talking on the train last night about where we were going to eat dinner and what we were going to do tomorrow.  Like all of the other locals he was so kind and made a few suggestions for us. One of these suggestions was to take the ferry over to Manly.

Marc originally said he needed a picture at Manly Beach because in Mexico we went to Isla Mujeres (Island of the Women), but when it came time he chose to stay behind the camera.

I did warm up a good bit while we were there, but it was still winter, and we still wore long pants and sleeves.  We did let the girls roll their pants legs up to walk around on the sand a bit.

 

 Which quickly led to getting their feet wet in the cold icy Pacific Ocean.

 

Which then in turn led to getting wet up to their knees.

 Well, you know where this is going.  A wave crashed on Miss "I Don't Like to Get Wet in My Clothes." so she was done for the day. But the other two had a blast and didn't want to leave when I called them back. Mama has to make sure hypothermia doesn't set in.  Okay, that may be a bit extreme, but still, the water was really cold and their feet and legs needed to be done.

 

We went back up to some little fountains in the street, rinsed off, and bundled up.  They were quite chilled at this point.

We ordered a pizza and found a nice little area to sit and eat. The girls were so hungry! Brooke ate 5 pieces of pizza! We also bought some popcorn from the Popcorn Brothers. They cook it in a big kettle then season it in different ways. So it's kettle corn I guess, but not the traditional sweet kind. We did choose the "sweet and salty" version which was fabulous.  And the Popcorn Brothers continued to convince us that Australians really are some of the friendliest people in the world.

Pretty soon they were warmed back up enough to have a bit of gymnastics time.

 

On the ferry back to Sydney Harbour

The girls, especially Brooke, like to stop and climb on these particular columns.

We were just hanging out for a few minutes and all of a sudden an Asian lady walks by and gets so excited about seeing Brooke sitting on the column that she calls to her husband to have him take a picture of them.  You may think this is quite odd, and it is, but it's not a first for the girls.  A couple of years ago we were out and about and the girls were all wearing red, white, and blue.  We had another Asian family stop us and ask to have their pictures taken with the girls. I'm guessing they were on vacation and 3 little girls in the national colors excited them. But that's not all.

This had happened yesterday.

And this happened later in the week. It is seriously crazy. I told them that these people thought they were cute and wanted their picture with them.  The girls didn't mind.  I just hope that now that they are home they don't expect everyone to take pictures of them because they are cute. :)

Marc hadn't been by the Opera House so we stopped by on our way to dinner.

 

Another beautiful day in Australia!

Australia Day 2

After a great night's sleep we headed out on a big adventure. We walked about 15 minutes to Central train station. Marc had a surprise for the girls at the station.

Krispy Kreme! 

 After a quick breakfast we headed to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. These cute little guys are native to Australia. They are the smallest species of penguins.

But far more exciting to the kids were the wallabies that were wandering around. The girls quickly discovered that if they found a green leaf the wallabies would eat out of their hands. They were so cute and amazingly soft. If you look closely you can see that this one has a baby in its pouch.

 Pelicans and egrets waiting for lunch. The pelicans live at the preserve.  The egrets come for easy meals.

It took quite a bit of convincing to get the girls to leave the wallabies. They were having so much fun, but next up were the koalas. Just a side note, koalas are not bears, they are marsupials. This little gal was named Chloe.  Koalas sleep 18-20 hours day and they are super soft as well.

The preserve had about 20 koalas and one of them was named Maci!

Maci was taking a nap.

But when we went back before we left all she, and most of the other koalas, were up eating dinner.

From there we bought some food and the girls went to hang out with kangaroos and more wallabies. This truly was an amazing time interacting with these animals.

They like the dried grass and the ice-cream cones. Here you see a young baby peeking out of mama's pouch.

Tasmanian Devil

Kookaburra. Macy told it a couple of jokes, but it didn't laugh.

Rainbow Lorikeet

Jabiru

Before we left on our trip Marc's brother Chris made sure we were aware of this bird.  The flightless cassowary is the third largest bird in the world, and apparently they can be pretty aggressive, even towards humans. Chris thought it was his brotherly duty to inform us of this information.

 

It was funny to walk around and find a petting zoo with many of the same animals we have here in the States. This baby goat came up to Kayla and started nibbling on her hair.

This lace monitor had fun playing with the girls and following their hands across the glass. 

Dingo

Wombat

 One last visit with Chloe before we left.

And one more little joey and mama.

Before heading out to dinner we stopped by Paddy's Market.  I ended up loving this huge store that was full of booths of souvenirs, but this night I was totally overwhelmed.  Lots of booths, lots of stuff, lots of people, and I was holding on to the kids tightly so I didn't get lost. :)

Finding food during this trip was a bit of a challenge at times. For lunch at the wildlife park I ordered a chicken caesar wrap.  Pretty safe choice, right? Well apparently in Australia caesar wraps come with egg in them.  I don't eat eggs, so I picked it apart and ate some of it.  Usually I can find things to eat most anywhere, even with my very American taste, but I'm not a huge fan of sauces including ketchup and mustard on my sandwiches. Most everything Down Under has a sauce or something else fancy on it.  And most quick lunch items are pre-made grab-and-go foods. That's why we ended up at McDonald's, Subway, and Hungry Jacks several times on this trip. Anyway, I'm picky, but the girls are pickier.  After a plane ride where they didn't eat much and two days where they had chicken nuggets, I  was determined to find somewhere where they would eat. We stayed in an area of town called Darling Harbour, and it truly was darling. Such a great place to stay and they had a Hard Rock Cafe'. I haven't been to one of these in years, but when the kids' menu ($13 each!) says pasta, salad, and grilled chicken, you jump on it. The girls were so tired this night that they ended up falling asleep at the table.  All three of them! In the Hard Rock Cafe' where the music is so loud you can barely hold a conversation! And those kids' meals were basically untouched!

On Saturday nights there are fireworks over the harbor. We were all tired and cold, but we waited them out.  We huddled together and enjoyed a spectacular show before heading back to the hotel for another fabulous night's sleep.