A Sweet Sydney Ending

The final adventure for our visitors was a trip to Sydney! Their departing flight from Oz was via Sydney, so Erik and I made the trip with them, which served as a great weekend getaway and also gave us the opportunity to say farewell to my parents in person. We departed Melbourne on Saturday morning, which also happened to be Grand Final (aka the Super Bowl for Aussie Rules Football) day. Sydney's team was actually playing in the Grand Final (held in Melbourne at the MCG), so we saw many Sydney Swans supporters arriving at the airport as we were departing. Erik and I were not on the same flight as my parents and our flight was delayed, plus on top of the delay there was an accident on the train lines just minutes before we were boarding the train to get into the CBD, so our arrival was significantly delayed. I put my mom up to the task of finding a good pub for us to watch the Grand Final game and she came through with flying colors! While my parents went off exploring Sydney, Erik and I had great seats for watching the game at a bar called Jackson on George.

Originally we were all staying together in one room for this trip. Sydney CBD hotels come at a very high price on the weekends, and the four of us regularly share our OCMD condo, which is the size of a hotel room. However, my parents surprised us with a room of our own, and the views were absolutely spectacular!! We had a view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and my parents had a view of the Opera House. The Marriott Circular Quay is a beautiful hotel in an awesome location with friendly staff, beautiful views, and an extensive hotel gym!

I could not stop taking pictures from our room!

For dinner, we walked right around the corner to a small Italian restaurant called Alfredo. The location is in a historical building, apparently the oldest commercial building still in use in Australia, and the inside is small but cozy. The food was quite tasty (my mom's gnocchi was cooked to perfection!!), and we enjoyed the sounds of a piano player who befriended my mom when she requested he play some Elvis songs. :)

The view from our room in the morning!

The parentals had a sweet view, too!

On Sunday, we spent some time walking around Circular Quay and the Botanical Gardens. My parents actually took the ride through the gardens and said the 30 minute ride was worth the money.

We caught a glimpse of my parents on their guided tour of the Botanical Gardens.

In the late afternoon we took off on a ferry to head to Manly Beach. The Manly Jazz Festival was on, so we took in a few sights and sounds before heading to meet up with the Schroders.

I grew up in a small neighborhood called Sullivan Heights in Westminster, Maryland. Our bus stop was right next to the Schroder's house, so I am sure that my mother probably met Mrs. Schroder (Sharon) there while waiting for the school bus one day. One of Sharon's sons, Brian, was year older than me in school, and we could often be found on the streets of Sullivan Heights playing "kick the can" or "stickball" with the other neighborhood kids. Brian has lived in Australia with his fabulous wife, Amy, for the past nine years. When Erik received the job offer here, it was Brian who helped answer my logistical questions, and he was also helpful with our moving process. Erik and I got together with Brian and Amy when we visited last year, but this time my parents were in on the visit as well! We enjoyed a few beverages on their gorgeous patio before heading to dinner at a terrific restaurant along the water (which I would name if I could remember, but I had an amazing steak there!). It was such a lovely evening and it was really great to catch up with "old" friends, as obviously that is something that is rare in our lives here, since most of our friendships are relatively new.

Brian was the photographer for this one!

We headed back on the ferry that night, and my parents finished packing so that they would be ready to go in the morning. Saying goodbye was sad, but knowing that they took the opportunity to travel to the other side of the world to see our lives here helped to quell those somber feelings. Even though their trip was short, it was filled with excitement, exploration, and lots of hugs.

Erik and I spent Monday morning hanging out in Circular Quay, followed by a trip to North Sydney via the Harbour Bridge in the afternoon. I had never walked all the way across the bridge, so it was fun to check out the sights on the "other" side of Sydney Harbour.

Sydney has much to offer and I feel fortunate to have had the chance to visit again, this time staying in a fantastic hotel at a prime location in the CBD. We hope to head to Sydney again soon, next time staying with our friends in Manly. :)

Visitors!!

On September 23rd, our first visitors arrived in Melbourne...my parents!

Their visit was much anticipated by both us and by the traveling party, who took the trip in part to see us and also to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! Their visit was planned over school holidays so that I would be free to explore with them without the burden of working during the week. Due to the fact that my dad is still working, he could only take two weeks off, which meant about ten days in Oz after you account for travel and also spending a day in LA (where they did a whirlwind tour of Hollywood, drove up the PCH, and got in the audience for a Jay Leno Show taping!). I tried to pick activities that would "highlight" the best of what Melbourne has to offer, since they would spend only seven days here before flying to Sydney for a long weekend. I also did not want to completely exhaust my parents, as after all, it was meant to be a vacation for them!

When they arrived on Saturday morning, we let them get settled into their new surroundings, but then went to Willy for the day to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. We also ate dinner at a great restaurant within walking distance of our house, which forced them to stay awake even though they would have probably liked to have been asleep! They were troopers though, and managed to avoid going to bed until around 10pm, which helped them get adjusted to our "local" time.

Mom insisted I take this picture to show Erik driving on the "wrong" side of the car!

Strolling on a lovely Saturday in Williamstown with the CBD in view.

Williamstown Beach

On Sunday, we took a day trip to Phillip Island. This was one of the few days that Erik was able to join us for activities, as unfortunately he was (and still is!) quite busy with work. I am going to do a separate post for Phillip Island, since this was our first visit there, but for now I'll leave you with a few pictures from the Koala Sanctuary. We also attended the Penguin Parade, but they do not allow photography (much to my mother's dismay!), so the only pictures I have from that event are of the lovely sunset over the ocean that evening.

One of the koalas that my mother became attached to...she did not want to leave!

There were many wallabies at the koala sanctuary, though Sandy did not have much interest in them!

Watching the water for any sign of penguins

Monday was rather low key due to the fact that I sustained some sort of food poisoning, likely from a Red Rooster (a local fast food chain) rotisserie chicken. Unfortunately I was still feeling sluggish on Monday, but that did mean that we could relax at home and watch the Ravens play Sunday night football. Later on in the afternoon, we took the train from Footscray Station into the city so that we could ride the City Circle Tram. The free tram travels around the city in about an hour, giving a little bit of commentary along the way. It is a good way to get your bearings of the city and it was a nice way to spend a cool afternoon. On the way home, we stopped at Olympic Doughnuts so that my parents could try their famous hot jam donuts. The place looks incredibly dodgy, but luckily the girl in front of my mother explained that she had been coming to get donuts for years from that place (it opened in 1981), so my mom was convinced they were okay to eat. :)

Flinders Street Station

Hanging out at the tram stop

Hot jam donuts at Footscray Station!

On Tuesday, we departed for the Great Ocean Road! The three of us (Erik had to stay home to work...booo!) headed out in the morning and set our sights on reaching Apollo Bay that evening. We would return back to Melbourne on Wednesday night for Erik's birthday dinner. Our trip was absolutely fantastic, and I will do a separate blog post about our trip there as well, because there is just too much to write about in one post. Highlights included surfers at Bells Beach in 3 meter swells, kangaroos at Anglesea golf course, baby koalas on the road to Cape Otway lighthouse, witnessing two koala fights on the same road, stunning views from Teddy's lookout, a tapas dinner in Apollo Bay, and obviously seeing the 12 Apostles.

Wednesday evening we celebrated 34 years of Erik with pizza for dinner and cake for dessert. He even had a few presents to open, some of which traveled all the way from Africa, where Erik's mother spent some time just a few months ago.

Birthday boy!! :)

Rainbow chip cake is the way to this guy's heart!

For Thursday, we planned a trip to Queen Victoria Market. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of mom and dad at the market, but I think they enjoyed looking at the items the stalls had to offer and they did a good amount of souvenir shopping there as well. I actually drove to the market (which I would never do under other circumstances because I hate driving in the city), and came to a sign where I was supposed to do a hook turn. Well I have never encountered that before and I had absolutely no idea what to do! There were no cars coming in the other direction (though there was a cyclist who probably had to slow down to avoid hitting me), so I just turned right instead of waiting like I was apparently supposed to do. I might need a Melbournian to work with me on this hook turn thing! On Thursday evening, we headed to a local brewery, Matilda Bay, for a beer tasting. I will post additional information about that as well, because I think local readers might be interested in learning more about that adventure. We all had a great time and also met some "friends" during our tasting experience!

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." - Benjamin Franklin

Our friends!

Friday was spent watching the Ravens on Thursday night football and also packing up for the next adventure -- a trip to Sydney! On Friday night we had dinner with some members of our "footy family", who were generous to host us for dinner after just returning from a three week holiday in Europe the day before. My parents enjoyed being able to be inside the home of an Australian family and there was no lack of good food, drink, and conversation! We flew out of Melbourne on Saturday morning on different flights and met up at our hotel, Marriott Circular Quay, later that afternoon. Again, I will do a separate post on Sydney, but here are a few pictures from the trip.

Two iconic sites in one shot. Lots of people out enjoying the lovely Sydney weather!

Family!

My parents flew out of Sydney on Monday at 1pm and arrived back in Baltimore at 8pm on Monday night, over 24 hours after they left Australia. We had a fantastic visit with them, and we are so glad that they were able to make it here to see what our lives are like Down Under. Stay tuned for more detailed reports from their visit! :)

Sydney!

When my birthday rolled around back in October, Erik surprised me with tickets to Sydney, and this past weekend we took the trip! Flying domestic within Oz is rather cheap compared to the US, and we flew Tiger Airways, considered a budget airline, for about $100 per person. I do remember being able to fly from RDU to BWI for that price back in 2005, but I'm not sure that is do-able anymore!

We arrived on Friday evening around 7pm, checked into our hostel, and grabbed some dinner nearby. I was a little concerned about what might await us in our room at Eva's, but it was very clean and about half the price of most area hotels, so I couldn't complain. We had our own room (with 2 single beds...a screw up on their part which they did handle well upon check-out by charging us a slightly lower rate and providing us with free transport to the airport), and 3 shared bathrooms in the hallway. After dinner, Erik led us on a walk. I wasn't totally sure where we were going because it was really dark and their weren't many lights or people around, when all of the sudden I saw this:

This was an absolutely unforgettable way to see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge for the first time. Such an amazing view and we were the only people around to see it. The next day there were hoards of people in that same spot, which made it even more surprising to me that we were so secluded on Friday night. After some self-portrait taking and a bit of walking along the water, we headed back for a relatively early night in.

On Saturday we did a big walking tour of Sydney. Starting at our hostel in the Potts Point/Kings Cross area, we walked through the Botanical Gardens on our way to the Opera House.

No, these are not bats. They are flying foxes and they are actually killing the trees in the Botanical Gardens!

From the Opera House we walked around Circular Quay to The Rocks, both bustling areas with lots of people and a street market with handmade items. We then headed across the Sydney Harbour Bridge for some amazing views of the Opera House. We did not pay the $200 to do the bridge climb, though we did consider paying $11 to go to the top of the pylons, but we thought we had a pretty sweet view from the bridge already.

After that we went in search of food on Pitt Street, where there is some serious shopping galore, complete with a brand new Louis Vuitton store with storefront displays of animals made out of purses! I didn't get a picture of the crocodile or kangaroo in the window, but I did find a picture of what one looked like.

Pitt Street was rather exhausting, and from there we went to Hyde Park to hang out and rest. We watched a chess match take place on a life-size chess board in the park, which I now realize I should have photographed! At that point we met up with two of my friends, Joe and Pete. I met Joe and Pete on a Contiki Tour of Europe back in 2004. Joe made it over to our wedding, but I had not seen Pete since Europe. It's actually amazing how much a trip like Contiki can bond people that when you see them many years later, you catch up just like the trip was yesterday. Pete drove us out to Bondi Beach for a cool view of the city.

We had dinner and beers along the beach and then headed back into Kings Cross to end the evening. It was SO great to see Pete and Joe and it was totally random that we were able to meet up because Joe lives all the way up in North Queensland and Pete lives about two hours south of Sydney.

The boys told me to dedicate this to you, Tandi.

On Sunday we took the ferry over to Manly Beach to meet up with a childhood friend of mine.

View from the back of the Manly ferry

Manly Beach

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, and a few minutes after we arrived at the beach it started pouring. However, we had a fabulous lunch with my friend Brian and his wife Amy, followed by drinks at his place and a lovely ferry ride back into the city that evening.

It would have been a cold and windy bridge climb for these folks!

It was awesome to catch up with Brian and to meet Amy, and I hope that we get the chance to see them again soon! After the ferry ride back to the city, we headed to the Australian Heritage Hotel for dinner to meet up with Erik's friend from college who happened to be on his honeymoon (can you believe how popular we were in Sydney this weekend?!) with his lovely wife Nicole. It was great to hear about their trip, as they had been to New Zealand and also to a few other parts of Oz before arriving in Sydney. They were on their way to Fiji for the last few days of their adventure. The restaurant had decent pizza, but more importantly an amazing beer selection, and we really enjoyed trying some different beers that evening!

On Monday we checked out of the hostel and caught a bus back out to Bondi, where we did the Bondi to Coogee cliff walk. Talk about gorgeous scenery! It actually started to rain at one point on the walk and we had to cut it a bit short due to timing for our flight back to Melbourne, but it was totally worth going back to Bondi for the walk.

Bondi Beach

How would you like to do your swim workouts in that pool?

Another pool right on the beach, and I think this one was free!

Overall we had a stellar weekend filled with lovely friends, good food, and beautiful sights! This will certainly be a birthday trip to remember.