Day 6: Taronga Zoo

We sleep in today and laze around until we get a call from our friends inviting us to the zoo. The Taronga Zoo is just a ferry ride across the bay and the day is perfect, if not a little warm. We’ve discovered a Starbucks nearby, so Mom’s a happy camper with her huge latte. It is so easy to get around Sydney with the ferry system. We hop off the ferry and take the sky cabs up to the top. As we ride up, the skyline is in front of us and huge elephants are below us.

We see all kinds of creepy reptiles and even touch a snake. Ick! We see a koala mommy with twins. The girls think it is kind of lame that they can’t get in and pet the animals. They were spoiled by their first zoo! We did get to see a Tasmanian Devil, which we wouldn’t exactly want to pet anyway. He doesn’t look much like the Warner Brothers guy. More like a giant rat.

We have lunch in a restaurant overlooking the Harbor. It’s all glass and surrounded by trees, so it feels like we’re up in a treehouse. With full bellies, we head to the petting zoo and work our way back to the ferry dock. Back at this hotel, we head to the pool where the freezing cold water wakes us right up!

After the pool, the girls are out of the mood for more fancy dining. Fortunately, Peter and Susan’s daughters (in high school and jr. high) want to stay in and have pizza too. The girls are saved! They have been so patient with the long drawn out meals and deserve a break from us too.

It was 10 years ago that Dave and I discovered an Asian restaurant in the Rocks overlooking the Harbor. It was the best Chinese we’d ever had. Since then, we have eaten a lot of Chinese…including in China, so we figured it probably wasn’t THAT great. Our memories tend to embellish the past sometimes! We asked our group if they’d be up for trying it with us. They were humoring us more than anything, but Poppa, Michael, Pete and Susan were up for the challenge.

They sat us a large round table with a lazy susan in the middle, next to an Asian family. Everything at their table looked wonderful! Peter, being of his shy nature, walked over with his chopsticks and asked for a sample. We were all cracking up- even more so when one of the beautiful young ladies brought over a plate of twice fried beef. It was, indeed, incredible. So Peter said, “Let’s just order what they’re having!” There were a few additions on the part of Dave and I- we couldn’t resist the wayagu beef with wasabi cream sauce- but otherwise we followed our neighboring table’s lead. The Salt and Pepper Squid, Twice Fried Beef, Scallops in Soy butter, Thai Chili Octopus (we ordered a second round) and Shrimp Dumplings spun around that lazy susan and disappeared in record time. Dave looked at me, with almost a tear in his eye, and said, “I can’t believe it is still the best Chinese food I’ve ever had!”.

The neighboring table was still getting food as we were wrapping up. They told us it was a rehearsal dinner party for the young couple at the table who was getting married the next day. I’m sure they’ll remember their obnoxious dinner companions fondly! In reality, we all had huge smiles on our faces, because food does really bring people together.

Day 5: Taking in the city

Dave and I wake up early and run from our hotel, past the Opera House and around to Mrs. Macquaries Chair (a governor‘s wife enjoyed her view there from the harbor so much that he had a bench carved for her in the rocks) at the edge of the Royal Botanical Gardens. When we return to the hotel, two doormen swing open the huge doors for us and hand us water and towels! We feel like rock stars!

After breakfast, we head out to the ferry station on foot (about 150+ Jayco people) for a cruise of the harbor. Our tour guide points out interesting landmarks and we listen some and chat a lot, catching up with even more friends. It is a beautiful day- imagine the most perfect weather with an ocean breeze. Our boat takes us to famous Manly Beach. In the ferry station, we are tempted by the gelato store and a chocolate shop called Chocolate by the Bald Guy.

We head to the beach, walking through a lively area called the Corso, full of restaurants and cafes. You could people watch for hours here. It is Saturday, so local families are out with their children frolicking in the fountains. A group of young boys (I’d guess maybe 8 or 9 at the most) with skim boards over their heads launch themselves toward the beach behind their fearless bellowing leader. “Aaaarh!” the chubby leader hails and clears the way. The sands will not be safe today!

We have a lovely outdoor lunch with the Teicherobs at the Manly Grill. We enjoy fried squid, BBQ chicken, crispy fries and Dave has the Ozzie burger- a concoction that includes a slice of beet and a fried egg. It is surprisingly good! Our friends head off to visit someone at a local hospital and we happen upon a Saturday market. There’s an array of clothing, candles, toys and jewelry. We sit and have coffee and cocos and take it all in. More walking, shopping and people watching afterward.

We take the JetKat back (much faster than the ferry) and score seats outside. The water is a sparkling reflection of the sun and all you want to do is throw your head back and soak it all up. To our right, we see a group handling a sailboat- suddenly zipping from one side to the other. A motorboat seems to be dangerously close to a huge naval ship.

Back at Circle Quay, we head over to the Opera House. Hannah wants to touch it. The “shell” of the building is actually covered in white 4” tiles. There’s a function tonight, we’re thinking something to do with Ireland or Scotland, based on the number of guys in kilts. A bagpipe player suddenly begins to play and fills the steps with magic. The sun is low and a mist hangs in the sea air. We’re surrounded by such a diverse group of beautiful faces. As I take it all in, it almost takes my breath away. It’s one of those moments you wish you could freeze and capture!

We’re having dinner with our Jayco rep, Troy tonight- who has a sister who lives in Sydney and visits often. We’re off to Mosman- a sleepy little community that we get to by a 20 minute water taxi. Michael is feeling a bit queasy, so we giggle at the pallor on his face. We walk from the dock to The Bather’s Pavillion- a 1930’s style (Art Deco) bathhouse turned into a restaurant. Dinner is incredible. Hannah and Tatum finish up with milkshakes. The boat ride back gives us stunning views of the Sydney skyline at night, as the girls doze off. It has been a perfect day!

Day 4 Cont.: In the City

We take the scenic route into the city, which according to the map will provide us with endless vistas of the ocean. We drive and drive. Finally we see water, driving over an inlet. The city we drive into is called “The Entrance”. Now isn’t that a cool name for a city? Oh, we live in “The Entrance, New South Wales”. This is obviously a costal community, but that’s about all we can see of the ocean. The road is tucked between houses and trees. We can sort of smell the ocean.

I notice that Dave is acting a little antsy and so is Poppa. Dave doesn’t really lose his cool until it’s serious business, so I take note. We’re almost out of gas and there hasn’t been a gas station in sight for miles. We pull over and ask for directions, so I know it is serious! Just in time, we roll into a gas station and say a little prayer of thanks. We look about for lunch and decide to check out Red Rooster. It looks fast foodish, but we’re hungry. On vacation, we tend to eat every 2-3 hours, it seems. Red Rooster serves up roast chicken and fries. Not that the fries are all that healthy, but how nice is a drive thru with roast chicken!? We ask for ketchup (tomato sauce- which is a sweet ketchupy sort of thing) and are told that is an additional 40 cents. We need a vegetable group, so sure.

Eventually we make it into the city and roll in on the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Michael safely navigates Dave to our hotel- the Four Seasons. We see familiar faces in the lobby and stop and chat with a few old friends. Our rooms are incredible here too. They overlook Darling Harbour and we can see the Rocks and Circular Quay from here. This is where, in 1788 the British First Fleet dropped 11 convict ships and the modern history of Australia began. The Aussies seem to get a pretty good chuckle out of the fact that they are decendants of convicts.

Tonight is the Jayco welcome dinner, so we change into nicer clothes and head down to the ballroom. It is so fun to catch up friends that we’ve made over the years. The hotel presents the owners of Jayco with a huge chocolate cake shaped like a motorhome with and an ice molding on top. For all the food network challenges we’ve watched, the girls are impressed.

Everyone is amazed with how much the girls have grown up. Hannah and Tate keep looking at us with pleading eyes…can we leave yet?! They convince Michael to bust them out and take a tour of the hotel and their surroundings.

Day 4: Blue Skies. Shining on Me, Nothing but Blue Skies…

We wake up in beautiful Hunter Valley, surrounded by the Blue Mountains and head off for a hearty breakfast. We pack up and say goodbye to our fabulous abode. We’re heading to Sydney today, but are first heading to the Hunter Valley Zoo. A local had told us (at one of the wineries- Hannah is pointing out over my shoulder) that you could get close to and feed the animals there. We’re thinking that isn’t the case at the Sydney Zoo, so off we go.

The closer we get to the zoo, the more rural our surroundings. The pavement turns into a dirt road and the bridge we cross is one lane only. We almost pass the Zoo. You can see why by the photos! It may be a bit backwoods, but the Hunter Valley Zoo ends up being just what we had in mind. There are peacocks running free, along with a few roosters and other unnamed birds. We get to see a wombat up close, monkeys, dingo, wallaby, and goats. There are numerous creepy reptiles that give us all the willies. Unfortunately, we can’t read half of the posted signs because they’ve been smeared by the elements. Who cares- we get to go in with the kangaroos! They’re very approachable and docile. What a treat to be so close to them. We get up close and pet Lil’ Joe the Koala Bear. He’s snoozing in the tree without a care. His fur is unbelievably soft and he’s even cuter than the pictures you always see. Tatum is thinking of her friend Kamryn when she pets him. The zoo is a hit!

The rain is a distant memory, as the Blue Mountains are being kissed by a brilliant blue sky. Two days ago we were wearing sweaters and today we’re in shorts and T-shirts. Now that we’ve been properly educated on local viticulture, it is time for the sights and sounds of Sydney.

Day Three: I’ve been thru the desert on a horse with no name.

This is Tatum’s day! We’re off to ride horses! We start with a wonderful breakfast, where mom swipes some Vegemite for the kids to try back at the room. Tatum and Hannah bring a smile to the server’s face when they both order tea with breakfast.

Back at the room, we whip out the Vegemite (a darkish yeast based spread) and spread it on crackers for the girls to try. Hannah says it is okay and Tate immediately burst into tears as it grazes her tongue. She spits, she cries, she splashes water on her lips. We snap pictures with delight, getting the reaction we secretly hoped for.

We drive along country roads looking for the stables. Dave is really starting to master this left sided driving thing. We only have to scream, “Left, Left….LEFT!” every once in awhile. He jokes that he won’t be able to drive us home from the Phoenix airport though. We pull into the small stables, parking the blue kangaroo. We say hello to the nice woman in the window, who immediately launches into how I need to knot my scarf 2 times, will not be able to bring a camera and no car keys because, “we don’t get paid to look for keys”. We’re not feeling very welcome.

They ask us what our horse experience is (um..none…we live in the suburbs) with the exception of Dave, Poppa and Michael. She chuckles and asks aren’t we from Arizona? She puts Dave on the jumpy horse, Rusty with the blinder on his eyes. Hannah gets Archer, who doesn’t actually respond to the reins. These aren’t trail horses! Mom gets Sam, who the woman assures her is “only skittish at the post”- Yikes! Tate looks perfectly at home atop Mickey, Poppa on Brandy, who had an enormous crush on Archer, and Michael on Fred, who marched to the beat of his very own, slow beating drum.

Our guide, a 69 year old rehab nurse, softened up on the trail. A tiny little Pomeranian named Theresa ran tirelessly alongside our group. Our nurse/guide pointed out local birds and a wombat hole, before taking us past a group of kangaroos. We even got to take our horses up to a trot until poor Tatie’s shoe flew off! We were out for almost 2 hours. As soon as we climbed into the Blue Kangaroo, it started to rain. Perfect timing!

We lunched at a local winery, in a contemporary setting next to a much appreciated fireplace. It was cold outside, but we warmed up with lattes and the girls had their own tea party. We stopped by a couple of other wineries where we tasted yummy lemonade, found some swings in the vineyard, and chatted with a charming woman, married to the vintner, who told us about her 5 week trip to France and Gus the dog, who was saved from starvation and illness.

Tonight, we stayed in, munching on French bread, brie and salami instead of dinner- mainly because it got too late to go out to eat. By 8:30, we were all falling asleep!

Day Two: Rain, Rain…Go Away…

Last night, we all crawled into bed at 8 pm. How we made it that long is no small miracle. Actually sleeping in a horizontal position was WONDERFUL! Dave had a 12 mile run, so he headed out into the overcast morning. The rest of us were lounging in our jammies, contemplating breakfast, as we noticed the sky getting darker and darker. The trees off the patio began to blow violently. Soon the wind was whistling and the clouds opened up- dumping sheets of rain. Shortly afterward, a very wet, very cold athlete showed up at the door with water rolling off of his hat and out of his shoes. So much for training today!

We went to breakfast, which is included at resort- a huge spread of choices, including Aussie (and British inspired) faves such as muesli (thinking I’m not spelling that right), crumpets, baked tomatoes, meats and cheeses, and a huge beautiful comb of honey on a rack for your toast. We totally forgot to trick the girls into trying Vegemite- tomorrow for sure. I try to get a pix of their faces!

Afterward, we were lounging in the lobby, looking out over the golf course and watching the wind blow. I saw something hop in the distance…”Is that a…kangaroo?” It was! He hopped across the green to the delight of us foreigners. The staff was totally like, yeah, we see a lot of them. We didn’t expect to see them in the part of the country though. In to the Blue Kangaroo we “hopped” to get a closer look. Our stealthy tracker instincts rewarded us with an even closer view. Hope the video comes over well! We were all quite pleased with our discovery. It’s one thing to see one in the zoo, but quite another to feel like you’ve discovered your very own! (Especially, as we chuckled to ourselves, in his very own “natural” habitat- a golf course)

Well, with it raining on and off, the horseback riding was off for the day, so what else were we to do, but go wine tasting? The tasting rooms here are called cellar doors and each vineyard has beautiful buildings and grounds. The three main featured wines here are the whites: Semillon and Verdelho and, of course, the red: Shiraz. Hannah and Tatum were able to create their own adventures at each stop. At one, they posed in the vines for pictures, at the next, chased a number of geese out to a pond. One winery offered shortbread to cleanse the palette and chocolate cake to highlight their dessert wines. But by lunch time, they were done with wine tasting. We headed into the local town, called Cessnock for snacks and lunch.

The grocery was quite different. When you get your cart, you have to deposit a two dollar coin to get it, which will be returned when you bring it back. Bet there would be a lot less cart meets door dings if we did that in the states! It’s always fun to see how different the foods are. The eggs are kept in a big stack at room temperature. Yikes! When you check out- there aren’t plastic bags. Everyone brings them, like the ones you buy at home (and often forget to bring the next time). “First time in Australia?” the checker asks us. Like we didn’t have tourist written all over us when we were snapping pictures on the dairy aisle!

We walked around town, taking in the storefronts which have the feel of Main Street Mesa…without the revitalization part. This must be where the locals shop for random things like musical picture frames, boardshop clothing, real estate, patchouli incense and cream puffs? Still managed to hit an ATM for Aussie cash and find a nice lunch. We hit a mall/ market with a Target- totally different from home and a pharmacy where Michael was able to find an electric shaver after frying his from home. There was a stand in the middle of the mall selling meat pies. (We make Aussie meat pies at home and they’re a family favorite!) They really eat them here- beautiful golden pie crusts with all these wonderful fillings. Our favorite yesterday was the chicken, leek and mushroom. Can’t even imagine the amount of trans fats in those yummies!

At the wineries, they kept saying how the Verdelho went wonderfully with curries, so the seed was planted. When we ran across the Thai place, it was a given. We topped our day off with a take away feast! In Australia, we don’t do “to-go” we do “take away”. We passed on the Verdelho, though. A morning of wine tasting doesn’t leave you woozy- because you just taste and toss your little sample, but the overall effect leaves you feeling a bit pickled. Like your taste buds and tummy are on overload. Our Thai feast was just the cure. Due to the proximity of this country to so many Asian cultures, there are some seriously good Asian foods to be had here!

Day One: Hannah’s view

It’s Sunday at about 5 p.m. and we’re in the truck driving to Sky Harbor. I can see the huge airplanes towering over me. We checked in our bags, went thru security and found our gate. Now all there was to do is wait, wait, wait. Oh, and did I mention wait? I sit there watching the planes outside. I notice that it takes a lot of work to send even one plane from Phoenix to Los Angeles in a short one hour flight.

Day One: We’re going to the land “down under”

Sunday thru Tuesday. It’s been a total blur, but we have arrived. The flight over was long, but not too painful. As we were flying from Phx to L.A., we looked at our Quantas boarding passes and realized that we were scattered all over the plane in different seats. They had Hannah sitting alone, rows from us. We assured her that surely she would know her seat mates after 14 hours and 45 minutes together! She was not amused.

In LAX, Poppa got our seating issues all fixed and Hannah could finally relax. We settled in for the long flight. The key to jetlag is to re-adjust your body in flight, meaning you fight sleep as long as possible, eat dinner and then settle in for 6-8 hours of restless sleep in an upright position. And most assuredly, the 6’-5” guy in front of you will lay his seat down on your lap from the moment the seatbelts sign dings, till the moment you land.

Hannah and Tatum were troopers; there was not a complaint at all. Tatum relished having her cousin Michael all to herself, playing endless games of “rock, paper, scissors,… crane, ladybug, leaf”. You get pretty creative after the first 25 rounds, apparently.

We arrived Sydney, after watching the sun rise over the clouds, on a beautiful, clear morning. Off the left wing, we had a tour guide view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. The Sydney Opera House is a stunning piece of architecture from a distance and up close. Can’t wait to show the girls!

As we were going through customs, we ran into our Canadian friends- the Teicherobs, who were headed to the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns. We will meet up with them in Sydney for the main part of our trip. They have two daughters who are slightly older than the girls, so they will have friends to hang out with too. We said goodbye and headed to get a rental car. “Where are we going?,” asked Tate. She didn’t buy into my “42 Wallaby Way” answer.

So the problem with our blue “touring” mini van (the Blue Kangaroo), we’ve christened her)…it seems someone put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car. Brave Daddy is our chauffeur and resident good sport as we howl with laughter every time he goes to use his turn signal and instead turns on the wipers. We have the cleanest windshield in Australia! They drive on the wrong side of the road too. It is funny how that messes with your mind when you’ve driven on the other side of the road for 20+ years! Poor Dave tends to drift into his neighbors lane on the left side, but those kind Aussies just give you a little honk or hand gesture to let you know you’re about to shave the side of their Toyota.

We drove to Newcastle and had a wonderful lunch overlooking the Harbor. Newcastle is a beach town with beautiful vistas of the ocean. We noshed on the most amazing Salt and Pepper Calamari and chips. Tate peeled all the yummy deep fried stuff off to get to the prize- the squid. What’s up with a kid who loves octopus and squid over deep fried yum?!

We are spending the next couple of days in Hunter Valley, which is about 2 hours north of Sydney. It is in the Blue Mountain area and is also wine country. The list of local vineyards is huge. It’s Australia’s Sonoma. But we’re here to relax and unwind for the first few days. Hopefully, we will get to take Tate horseback riding- which is all she has on her to do list! Our place here is incredible. Really- it’s a 3 bedroom two story town home surrounded by trees and hills with 3 decks. I’m not sure how we made out so well, but our jet lagged, weary traveler bodies accept it with joy! I think we’ll sleep well tonight!

We're off!

We're heading out the door in about 30 minutes for our Australian vacation!  Today is Sunday, but we won't arrive until Tuesday because we're crossing over the date line.  Fortunately, we'll pick that day up on the way back.  Although losing a Monday isn't all that bad, is it?

We'll write more once we're on our adventure!