Sydney Trip 2008

June 21st - July 4th

Sat June 21st

• United Flight 0173 Boston to San Francisco
• San Francisco (11am - 10pm)
• Bart
  • Street Car to
  • Pier 39 - Watched Sea Lions
• Fishermans Wharf
• Cable Car

Sun Jun 22nd

• United Flight 0863 San Francisco to Sydney. Arrived EARLY, first flight into Sydney

Monday June 23rd

• Shangri-La
• Learned to make chocolate at Kimberley Chocolates in Leichhardt with master chocolate maker Joseph Attala

• Eat lunch with Jills team at the Italian Forum in Leichhardt
• Blue Horizon Bar - Snacks. We ate fried PIG's EARS
• RJ, Kira and Dad all took naps. Waking up Kira was a disaster.

Tuesday June 24th

• Aquarium
• Wildlife World
• Darling Harbor - lunch
• The Rocks
• Fish Face - Dinner. Visited one of Mom and Dad's favorite places. Food was as good as ever. Our waiter suggested a stop to Dee Why beach to see the surfers. Kira took after her brother and feel asleep in one of the world's best eateries.

Wed June 25th

• Moved to our new apartment at the Meriton Hotel (serviced apartments) on Kent St. Can't beat the view from the 53rd floor. A worried mom had the balcony doors locked shut. Visions of open air balconies was too much for me.
• Sydney Ferry to Manly Beach
• 136 Bus to Dee Why Beach
• Watch Surfing from Dee Why Ocean Pool
• Dee Why Fancy pizza - lunch
• To bed early ..

Thursday - June 26th

• Kings Cross
• Flat white at Bar Coluzzi
• 41A Surrey St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010, Australia
  • Walk down Victoria Street
  • Down stairs to Woolloomooloo
  • Lunch is tiger pies with peas, mash & Gravy at Harry's cafe de wheels
  • Walked past Dad's pool to Mrs Macquarie's Chair
  • It was so windy that we ran to the Royal Botanical Gardens to get out of the wind.
  • Fighting the wind we managed to touch the Opera House and use the bathrooms.
  • Yum Cha in china town - East Ocean
  • Went to see Kung Fu Panda on one of the nicest theaters I have been in. Assigned seats and large reclining seats with plenty of leg space. Like being in first class.
  • Tapas at Spanish Terrazas - dinner with an old friend, Mona. Right across the street from our hotel. Guess what? Kira feel asleep at dinner AGAIN.

Friday - June 27th

• Taronga Zoo - the best show ever is the open air Bird show. Highly recommended. All the shows were great, but don't miss the Bird show.
• Trampoline in darling harbor
• Paddy's market - can we find a ball anywhere ?
• Just Pho's - dinner

Saturday - June 28th

• Trip to Hunter Valley with Juli and Chris. Old friends and colleagues from 1994 (we must be getting old)
• Market at Rouse Hill and lunch at the food court. Thankfully McDonald's is everywhere.
• Just in time for the last tasting at Brokenwood
• Dinner at Harrigan's Irish Pub .. and we forgot to order RJ's meal. Guess what? Kira feel asleep at the table again!
• Over night at Cypress lakes resort

Sunday - June 29th

• Great breakfast at Cypress Lakes Resort
• Visit Vineyards that we love: Briar Ridge, Saddler's Creek, Brokenwood, and Lake's Folly. Amazing how things have changed in the years. We bought 10 cases on Papa's dime. ;-) Unlikely he'll get to taste any of it (hee, hee, hee)
• ?
• Brokenwood
  • ?
• Peppertree
  • Roberts at Peppertree
• Lakes Folly
• Saddlers Creek
• Briar Ridge
  • Trip back to Juli and Chris's house
  • Dinner at local RSL club

Monday - June 30th

• Bondi beach
  • Surfing lessons at Bondi
  • Shopping at Bondi Junction
  • Buy uggs
  • Mere Catherine - Dinner
  • Back to Meriton

Tuesday - July 1st

• Play in darling harbor playground
• Walked to powerhouse museum
• Took monorail to Sydney Tower
• Line was too long so watched oz trek and decided to come back tomorrow
• Took monorail back to paddy's market to look for bondi tee shirts, but the market is closed on tuesdays
• Took monorail to World Square stop and then walked back to Meriton .
• Mailed postcards at post office
• On walk through Kings Cross Rick tried to convince Jill to buy a bathing suit (if you can call it that) from Wicked Weasel, but she was not going for it.

Wednesday - July 2nd

• We went to the Sydney Tower in the morning. It has a spectacular view. After about 45 min of looking around we realized we were the only ones around. When we got back to the ground floor we were told that they had shut the tower because wind gust had topped 80 miles and hour.
• Kira wanted to do the OzTrek again, so we did.
• Walked through Hyde Park where we stumbled upon a large sized chess match going on <picture here>.
• Looked for a good lunch place on the way back towards home and ended up at Nessies Grill for Ribs and Steak. Kids thought it was excellent.
• Rested back at the Meriton while we waited to hear from mom.
• Walked to Symantec Office and met Mom and John on the way to train station.
• Took train out to Johns house in Parramatta suburbs. Had an excellent meal.
• Watched the third game of the State of Origin rugby league series between New South Wales Blues and Queensland Maroons at ANZ Stadium (Which is in the Sydney Olympic Park)

Thursday - July 3rd

RJ navigated us successfully from Train to Ferry to the Sydney Olympic Park

After an excellent game of tag waiting for the bus to bring us to the center for the park, we started with the visitor information center

Kira loved the park. They have a lot of great kids playgrounds made from a company called K.....

RJ has decided that he wants to learn to skate board after watching a number of kids at the Monster Skate Park

There were a number of schools using the volleyball facilities. Wow, imagine your school gym being the olympic stadium.

We had the best time, and spent the most time at the Aquatic Center, which besides having the Olympic pools and diving boards also had a couple of kids pools with fountains and a .... which we did over and over.

We tried to back to Circular Quey in time to go to Watsons bay for dinner, BUT we missed the last ferry out ..

We tool the ferry to Darling Harbor and walked down Cockle Wharf looking for a place to eat. We stumbled upon Adria Rybar and Grill which hit the spot.

Back to the hotel. Rick and Kids fell asleep immediately, mom stayed up and packed all the bags.

Friday - July 4th

Looks like United got our seating screwed up again. Mom and Dad are in coach plus and the kids are in the back of the bus. Jill called and managed to get this fixed .. "We hope"