Some Fun in Sydney!

Well, first off, I have to tell you... I had a little dream-come-true in Sydney, our first night there. Drumroll, please!.... The END of daylight savings happened!! That’s right! Just a few short weeks ago, I joined the ranks of America and LOST an hour of my day to begin the tiresome getting-used-to-early-mornings-and-kids-who-dislike-going-to-bed-while -it's-still-light-outside, which we call daylight savings. (You all know from previous discussion how I feel about DLS, right?) Well, then… how exciting it was to have our friends (McAllisters) at the beach on our way up to Sydney remind us – not only were we headed into Easter Sunday, but it was also the END of Australia’s daylight savings time! All my family can tell you… I was absolutely giddy at this news. Yay! It felt like a gift!

So, I therefore used that little gift by staying up until 1a.m. preparing a lovely Easter morning for our kids. Yes, the Easter Bunny found us, even all the way in Sydney! And I daresay the Easter Bunny spent A LOT on candy and treats, because it doesn’t come cheap in Sydney. And there were no jelly beans or peeps, which was a small tragedy. Instead, the kids got to find large, foil-wrapped chocolate Cadbury eggs hidden around our hotel room (which were divine, btw,) and cute Cadbury frogs, as recommended by the McAllisters. And the clever Bunny knew it would be hard to travel with baskets, so she left the kids’ treats in cute little Easter gift bags instead.

After a delicious breakfast of chocolate and mentos, (typical Easter breakfast, right??) we got ready and headed out to church. There was a church service happening just a short walk from our hotel. So we went to their sacrament meeting. It was a singles ward, and was their fast and testimony meeting. I wanted to share my testimony, but felt reluctant to do so, being a visitor and all. Then a remarkable thing happened – I had prepared in my mind some of the things I would share if there was a lull. And yes, there was a lull. I started to get up, but another man seated a few rows back stood up. He and his family were also visiting. He shared a very beautiful testimony, and shared almost EXACTLY the very thoughts I was having! I listened to him, and felt such a warm, sweet spirit. It was lovely. I felt as though I had just shared my own testimony. Hard to describe why it meant so much, but it was a very sweet, spiritual moment for me.  They also had a gorgeous musical number of several missionaries singing an arrangement of “If the Savior Stood Beside Me.” I was so very glad we attended that meeting.

We then went over to St. Mary’s Cathedral that was also fairly close. We had wanted to attend their solemn mass ceremony, which seemed like a neat thing for Easter Sunday. But we arrived late and the service was almost over. I slipped in the back of the chapel and observed the last few minutes while Brian stood outside with the kids. When it was over, we toured the cathedral quickly. Stained glass windows are always a highlight for me and Brian. The smell of burning incense from the mass ceremony was NOT something our kids enjoyed, so we didn’t stay long. The archbishop was handing out large chocolate eggs to all the children as we exited the cathedral. Our kids didn’t feel like waiting in line to get one from him, but a kind lady just handed one to each of them, without having to meet the archbishop.

Then we walked to a park where a man had a big bubble-blowing station set up. We watched for awhile, and the kids popped all the bubbles that other children were blowing. Finally they paid the man a dollar apiece to blow their own bubbles. Spencer and Natalie were in heaven. We could have stayed for another hour or so, but decided to move on with our day.

We made our way further downtown and stopped at a mall with a really nice food court, where we ate some lunch. We let the kids choose what they wanted – Spencer and Natalie shared a large Caesar salad (which Spencer claimed was “the best salad I’ve ever tasted in my whole entire life!”) Samantha shared a large pesto pasta salad with Camille, and I got a Greek salad. Brian got some kind of sandwich, which I tasted. We were all very happy to eat our own picks. Then we rode the escalators allllll the way up to the top floor of the mall. NINE escalators in a row, I counted! When we got to the top, there was a big toy store with so many fun toys and displays! Spencer loved the huge Lego creations, and Camille and Natalie found some fun ponies. Samantha was looking at the little Ty stuffed animals with the huge eyes that she loved. Then they all played with some interactive camera/video stations for awhile.

We left the mall (riding down all those escalators again, so fun!), and walked over to the harbor. Kids whined and complained about this, because it was HOT, and it was a bit of a walk, and they were tired. But we made it, and we rested on a dock and fed the fish some dried chickpeas that I had bought that weren’t as tasty as I was hoping. While we were feeding the fish, Natalie accidentally dropped her tiny little “petshop” plastic puppy into the harbor. She had just gotten it in her Easter bag that morning, so it was a little bit devastating. But we eventually cajoled her out of it, making jokes about “poor Hershey dog, Rest In Water.” Camille told her, “don’t worry. You will see him again when you get resurrected!” ??

By this time, we had one kid who reaaaally wanted to go back to the hotel. A fit was pitched and we almost caved. But it was only about 4pm, and we weren’t really ready to call it a day. So we struck a bargain with him (not naming his name here, of course): walk down to the ferry with us, and we’ll ride the ferry then catch a cab home afterward. Done!! The ferry ride was PERFECT! Just what Brian and I were hoping for! It made it even better that the ticket machine where we boarded was being fixed, so the ferry operator guy let us ride for free, saving us $20! On the water it was much cooler, and we were sitting instead of walking so everyone got to rest and perked up a little. We sat on the top deck to feel the wind and waves and sunshine, so nice! We rode under the mighty Harbour Bridge, and went right up next to the Sydney Opera House, getting some great pictures of both. We actually saw some tiny little people climbing up on the top of the Harbour Bridge, pretty amazing and daring! (And pricey too… we looked into it, and it’s over $150 per person to make the climb – over $350 to do it at sunset!! You can even have a WEDDING up there, but I have no idea how expensive that would be!!)

We rode the ferry way out to then of the harbor to its last departure point, then stayed on and rode back to the Sydney Opera House stop. We got off there and renegotiated with our not-so-tired kid who now wanted to at least walk by the Opera House since we were so close and all. ha! It was really neat to walk up close to it, and kind of walk around a bit. But we didn’t feel like paying for a tour to see inside ($37 per person). Instead, we decided to meander through the nearby Botanical Gardens before finding an Uber ride back to our hotel. It was getting dark by then and we were all hungry and ready to rest. So we refreshed at our place for a few minutes while Brian located a good Middle Eastern restaurant nearby. Then we walked there and had a nice “Easter Dinner” of hummus, tabbouleh (Camille said, "this salad just tastes like grass," lol! and didn't eat it which meant more for me!), falafel, kebabs, lamb, and Turkish delight and baklava for dessert. (If you think about it, that’s probably more like what they would have had traditionally, back in the Holy Land, back in the day, eh?)

The next day was kind of a hang-out day. We were tired. We were ready to take it easy. So we asked for a late check-out at our hotel. (Oh, I forgot to mention, we found a good hotwire deal on our hotel – good enough that we got two rooms, first time ever! Samantha and Spencer stayed in the room next to ours, all by themselves, brave kids!) We took the kids swimming at our pool for a nice long time. Then packed up all our stuff while listening to some of General Conference (which was still happening in the States, even though it was Monday morning for us.) Once we checked out, we left our luggage at the front desk and caught an Uber downtown again to a posh bookstore. Brian had seen a book in a gift shop near the Opera House that he was hoping to get a copy of. But no luck. Instead, we were looking at VERY overpriced stationary and knick-knacks. (Made me nervous, with four kids touching everything!) Spencer somehow wandered upstairs, and found an expensive whoopie cushion, which he filled and “tooted” several times before tossing it over the balcony!! (arrrg!! Kids!) When being severely scolded by mom he just replied, “What?! I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody or anything. It was just a whoopie cushion.” And then we left.

We wandered into some other shops, got ice cream cones at McDonalds, then rode another ferry around for a bit. We also stopped at a couple of souvenir shops and let the kids pick some stuff to bring home. Camille got a tiny koala stuffed bear. Natalie got a “real” princess crown (but it broke before we arrived home), and I got a little stuffed Kangaroo. Brian picked up some magnets for us and his parents. Not sure what Samantha and Spencer decided on because I had to take Camille for an emergency bathroom trip while Brian wrapped up that purchase. Lol! Then, off to the airport in another Uber ride. We had a 6:30 flight to Auckland, that arrived at nearly midnight NZ time. Whew! Luckily the flight had TVs and everyone happily watched shows and ate a meal on the way there. Goodbye lovely Australia!! It really was a great time and we’d definitely do it again!