Mom and Dad's trip - The Finale

Down to the last 2 days of Mom and Dad's trip!

I went to work again on Thursday morning and Mom and Dad just hung out and had a lazy morning. We went for the best fish-n-chips I have had here for lunch...just in a little cafe right by me in Kirribilli. Mom and Dad got a kick out of these signs that they have all over here, so we took a picture of them with one right by the cafe...Yield to the Aged, ha ha!















We then went to a few local shops in Kirribilli and then just spent some time walking along the harbour shore and enjoying the scenery.

I also finally found someone who wanted to do something that I have been wanting to do since I got here...my dad and I rode the big ferris wheel at Luna Park, the cute little amusement park right below my apartment! It was fun and was certainly a gorgeous view from up there!

That night, we went to a great Thai restaurant in Kirribilli for dinner. It was my parents' first experience with Thai and I think they really enjoyed it!

I took the whole day off on Friday, since it was their last full day here and we had a great day! We headed back over to The Rocks for our repeat visit to Pancakes at the Rocks...yum! And then our next destination was Bondi Beach! Bondi is such a beautiful beach and is certainly the most famous one here, but it is not quite as easy to get to. No lovely ferry ride to Bondi...instead we had to take 2 trains and 1 bus...but it was worth it! It was kind of a weird weather day...very sunny at times and raining at times. You can see the difference in the sky in some of these pictures. Anyway, we got some beach towels and actually hung out on the sandy beach at Bondi for quite a while. We got sun, watched surfers, got our feet (and legs and thighs) in the water, got rained on, got more sun. We then decided to do a bit of the coastal cliff walk that I had done previously, so that they could see some of the stunning views! I think they enjoyed it as much as I did the first time I did it! Never knew my parents to be such beach people, but I think they really enjoyed both of our beach experiences here!

(Side note: The Australian sun here is VERY strong. You all know that I embrace the sun and love a good tan. Well, I think I do have a bit of my dad in me because I do tend to burn some also. Even though it wasn't completely sunny on our Bondi Beach day, I still managed to get a pretty good burn. It was turning into a lovely tan (even my feet and hands are really tan!), but I think it is going to start peeling now. And, you will be happy to know that I have now purchased some sunscreen in preparation for the several more beach days that I plan to have before my time here ends!)

After some cool showers to cool and clean off from the beach, we headed down to The Rocks for our last dinner. We went to this awesome little Italian restaurant in the heart of The Rocks that has a beautiful mostly outdoor setting. During the summer months, they also have a smaller version of The Rocks Markets on Friday night, so Mom and Dad got to see some of my favorite market after all. We enjoyed sangria and bruschetta in our lovely outdoor setting...and then got rained on, ha! Oh well...they took us to a nice table inside, so we were still able to have a good time! We walked around a bit after dinner and then headed to Circular Quay to take our favorite transportation home...the ferry!

Mom and Dad, thank you so much for making this happen and for coming to experience my world here with me! It was truly one of the best weeks of my life and one that I will never forget!

Now, to my girlfriends and a certain sister...I know that my 6 month assignment here happened to be not very good timing with things that were going on in your lives...babies, school, moves to other countries, bad economy, etc...but someday, I am going to organize a girls trip for all of us to come here, so that we can all experience this amazing place together too!! :-)

Mom and Dad's Trip - Part 3

Don't worry...I will cover more than just one day in this post!

After our crazy long day in the Blue Mountains, we slept in a little on Monday and took our time getting ready. We  had planned to head out to Manly Beach, but the weather wasn't cooperating very well, so we spent the afternoon in Darling Harbour instead.

Darling Harbour was PACKED with people everywhere. There were lines around the buildings for the Aquarium and Wildlife World, so I was glad we weren't planning on going there. We went to lunch at what we thought looked like a great little place. We had a table that was up a level, so could look out at all the happenings of Darling Harbour. I think my parents enjoyed their meal, but I made the mistake of ordering the fresh prawns (not called shrimp here, called prawns). So, I got this bowl of whole prawns, head, eyes and all. I don't have a problem with peeling prawns, but when I tried to take the heads off, their guts would pop out on me. YUCK! My parents were dying laughing at me and Mom kept saying that she wished she took of a picture of me with these things. So, needless to say, I have been a little hesitant to order prawns since then...

We spent some time just walking around and looking at everything...the boats, shops, gardens, fountains, etc...and then we went to the National Maritime Museum. We had a great time looking at all of the exhibits in there, especially one about the US and Australia naval relations and one about sharks. It was pretty crowded in there too and we had quite a few laughs and repeated how this one little boy exclaimed about the sharks for the rest of the trip. I obviously can't do an accent on here, but it kind of sounded like he was saying 'shocks' with a bit of a nasal cold. Hilarious!

I don't have many pictures from Darling Harbour...I think we took some on Mom's camera that day. But, here are a few...

We headed home from Darling Harbour late that afternoon and went to dinner at a great little Italian restaurant in my area.

On Tuesday, I went to work in the morning while Mom and Dad went out to breakfast and goofed around some in Kirribilli. In the afternoon, we caught the Manly Ferry out to Manly Beach! The ferry ride in itself is wonderful and I think Mom and Dad now agree with me that ferry is by far the best way to travel around the city! The Manly Ferry is about 3 times the size of the other ferries and it is a 30 minute ride to get there. The best part is when you pass the opening out into the ocean and the waves get pretty big, so the ferry gets a bit rocky! Here are Mom and Dad on the ferry...

We stopped for a snack when we got there and spent lots of time down by the water. It wasn't really warm enough to be laying out, but there were still quite a few surfers and some people taking a sea kayaking class...that was fun and funny to watch! We walked around some of the shops and then went back to the beach for more toe-dipping and people watching! It has been a really long time since Mom and Dad have been to a beach anywhere and it was really fun to watch them having so much fun there! We ended with a fun fish-n-chips dinner and then caught the ferry back.

I worked all day on Wednesday (booo), but Mom and Dad had a great day without me! They took the train into the city and started out with some shopping at the beautiful Queen Victoria Building. The walked around quite a bit in the main city center and then made their way down to the Opera House where they did that one hour tour that I did when I first got here. I think they loved it as much as I did! I got home from work to find them doing one of their favorite things...sitting on my balcony and watching the rainbow lorikeets that always come by!

As a surprise Christmas gift, I had gotten us tickets to go to a true Aussie show that night...Tap Dogs! It is a tap dancing show that was started by 6 steel workers in Australia in the 90's. It has been made into a movie and has toured the world...and last Wednesday night was their opening night back in the Capital Theatre in Sydney! This show was 80 minutes of heart pumping, fast paced, loud tap dancing using all sorts of props...steel beams and platforms, basketballs, water to name a few! We had so much fun getting dressed up and seeing a show in the big city!

Only 2 more days left of their wonderful visit here, so one more blog post coming!

Mom and Dad's trip - Part 2

On Sunday, we woke up bright and early to go on a tour of the Blue Mountains. We had a really great time overall and the tour company packed a ton into the day, but I was a little disappointed at the beginning because the tour was not quite as it had been advertised. It was advertised as a small van with no more than 20 people and they specifically mentioned being able to do things that the bigger tour buses couldn't do. Well, a small van picked us up and then took us into the city where we got onto a big tour bus...what?? Once on the tour bus and heading out of the city, they also told us about our first stop of the day at a place called Scenic World. We would be there for about an hour and a half and in order to see most of the sights there, we had to pay another $20 something dollars for the 'rides'. I was pretty annoyed at that and wished they would have just included that in the price up front. Anyway, we paid it and it was worth it in the end.

The Three Sisters is one of the famous rock formations at the Blue Mountains and that was up first at Scenic World.

We took a cable car (one of the 'rides' that we paid extra for) down into a valley where we got to walk through a temperate rainforest and learn all about the vegetation there, as well as some history of the Blue Mountains. Here we are on the cable car...

There were all of these really cool ferns growing out of the tops of different trees down in the valley. Mom loved them, so we got a picture of her with the ferns, Mom and Dad along the walk through the rainforest and then one of the Three Sisters in the distance framed by ferns...

Here is Mom and Dad by a little water trickling down the mountains and then me by another little water spot...

We then headed back up the mountain in our other 'ride' and I swear, I felt like I was on a ride at Disney World! It was a little train thing that pretty much went straigh up the mountain. When you got in, you almost felt like you were laying down and as it started going up, you sat more upright and kind of had to hold onto this cage thing in front of you to keep from feeling like you were falling out! It went pretty fast and went in between rock formations...it was really cool! Sorry that I didn't get a picture of that part...

The tour bus then headed into a little town called Leura for a lunch stop. We were a little bit rushed, there were lots of lunch options, but not a lot with many seating areas. We ended up in a little cafe and had shared some laughs over our random lunch there. Later in the trip, we voted it probably the worst meal of the trip, ha!

After lunch, we headed to the next viewing place. However, in order to view this sight, we had to walk down 238 stairs...and then back up after, of course. It was also a really really hot day, so Mom and Dad opted out of doing all the stairs. I hiked down with most of the rest of the group to see Wentworth Falls. It was gorgeous for sure. It kept going down and down and there were cool freshwater pools at the bottom. I was so hot after all the stairs that I wished I was in the pools!

Next, we headed to a spot called Flat Rock where we got to walk all over this huge flat rock and see all of the mountains and valleys down below. It was beautiful! By this time, the weather had totally changed, gotten much colder and it rained on us. Was a nice change from the heat, but we were starting to feel pretty yucky after having been sweaty and then soaked from the rain. Here are some pics from the Flat Rock...

We started heading down the mountain and stopped at a spot to see an aboriginal rock engraving. It was still raining and the engraving was not very exciting...we could have down without that stop, ha!

Still not quite sure why this part was on the Blue Mountains tour, but once we got back into the outskirts of Sydney, we stopped for 45 minutes to tour around Olympic Park, home of the 2000 Olympics. It was actually really cool to see everything there and we had a good time exploring. Here is a pic of me and Dad in front of the Olympic Cauldron, which they later made into a tribute to all of the medal winners...you can see the gold, silver and bronze strips down below that had all of the winners names...

After Olympic Park, we took a (long and pretty slow) ferry ride down the Parramatta River and back into the Sydney Harbour...again, part of the tour. We had made friends with some really nice girls from North Carolina and Maryland throughout the day and shared quite a few laughs with them, especially on that long ferry ride home. After a full 12 hours of the tour, we had had a great time, but were ready to be done. Mom, Dad and I just headed back to my apartment to have leftovers from our NYE party and change into comfy clothers...we were exhausted!

Sorry for the long post, but there was a lot packed into this one day...more adventures to come tomorrow!

Mom and Dad's trip - Part 1

I said a somewhat tearful goodbye to my parents this morning, as they got in a taxi to head to the airport. I can't believe their time here visiting me is already over, but I am so incredibly thankful that they made the big journey and took the time (and money) to come visit me here. It really is an amazing place here and I was so happy to be able to show some of my loved ones all around! We had lots of adventures, took many pictures and made memories that will last a lifetime...and now, it will take me a few blog posts to recount all of our adventures!

As you know from previous blog posts, we walked around my area on the first day so that they could see where I live and of course, we had our amazing NYE night! On NYE day, we got up pretty early and headed out on a ferry to Taronga Zoo. I hadn't been to the zoo yet, so wasn't sure quite what to expect. The zoo is out on a point, just a few bays away from the city and the Opera House/Harbour Bridge. The whole thing is set in this gorgeous vegetation that goes uphill from sea level. When the ferry pulled up, we saw this 'sky safari' that takes the ferry riders to the top of the zoo and the main entrance. It was a gorgeous ride up and a perfect way to do it because then we got to work our way down through the zoo to take the ferry back at the end.

It was a hot and sunny day, but we had such a wonderful time there and the surroundings were just beautiful. Here are a few pics of the koalas, Mom and Dad by some beautiful flowers, the elephant show that we watched (they have a few baby elephants!) and the stunning view from the seal show (we didn't see much of the show, but I thought the view from their area was amazing)...

After our amazing NYE night, we slept in a bit and then walked across the bridge to The Rocks area. It was another really hot day and we were all still a bit jetlagged and tired from the night before, but it is always fun to see the harbour from walking across the bridge.

We went to breakfast at Pancakes at the Rocks...where they serve ice cream on the pancakes! I think Mom and Dad were a little skeptical of ice cream on pancakes...but they loved them!! (We even made a return trip there later in their visit!) I was really disappointed because The Rocks Market was not happening because of the holiday weekend. That is one of my favorite things to do here, so I was sad to not be able to show them what it was like during the Markets. We were still able to walk around The Rocks some and did a little shopping in some of the actual stores that are there.

We headed back across the bridge mid-afternoon to relax for a while and clean up before heading out to a fancy dinner. I thought it would be fun to have our fanciest dinner on New Years night, as that is still a fun time to celebrate. We went to Cafe Sydney, which is on the top level of the Customs House, a building right down in Circular Quay (the main ferry terminal and right by The Rocks and the Opera House). We sat out on the terrace, where it felt wonderful with the sun behind some buildings. We each loved our meals and had great drinks and a beautiful view!

We got back to my apartment in time to see a beautiful sunset over the harbour. Mom and Dad just loved my balcony and spent a ton of time out there. They would go out at all times of day and night to check on the weather, watch the action in the harbour, feed the rainbow lorikeets, see 'the diamonds sparkling on the water' in the afternoon sunshine and just to relax and read. They have renewed my love for the balcony too and I plan to spend as much time as possible out here in my last 7 weeks here (in fact, I am writing this blog post out on my balcony)! Here they are with the pretty sunset...

Stay tuned, more to come. Next up...our day in the Blue Mountains!

A NYE to remember...

Wow, I had always heard amazing things about NYE in Sydney, but didn't really know what to expect. It is pretty hard to describe how incredible it was, but hopefully some of my pictures and videos can give you some idea.

As you all know by now, I have an amazing view from my balcony. So, I decided to stay here for NYE with my parents and a few friends from work. We had a table full of delicious appetizers and beer, wine and of course, some bubbly! It had been fascinating to watch the shorelines fill up with people all day and by the time my work friends got here around 7:30, there was just excitement in the air everywhere.

This first video shows all of the boats along the harbour and Lavendar Bay and you can see camera flashes from all over. It seemed like almost all pieces of land around my area were just covered with wall to wall people, so we were pretty happy to be enjoying the excitement from my balcony.

Here is our yummy food table and a few cute pictures of us before the action started!

There were 2 big fireworks shows...one at 9:00 and one at midnight. Those of you who know me well know how much I love Christmas lights. As soon as the 9:00 fireworks show was over, all of the boats in the harbour (not in the bays, just the harbour) simultaneously turned on all of these gorgeous Christmas lights on their boats. I was fascinated by all of the lights, so took a quick video to try to show the beauty! After they had been on for a while, all of the boats went on a parade around the harbour...must have been trying to give all of the different people a view of all of the boats. So pretty...

My work friends had a really nice camera, so they were able to get some awesome pictures of the fireworks. At the midnight show of the fireworks, not only do they have fireworks off the bridge, but they also have barges all along the harbour that shoot off the same fireworks at the same time. One of the barges was right at the opening of Lavendar Bay, so was pretty much right in front of my balcony, but we were able to see 3 barges. These pictures and video show the barges well!

This last video shows the fireworks from the bridge. I just thought that it couldn't get any better and then, all of a sudden, there were fireworks way up above the bridge...just amazing. And the ones showering down over the side of the bridge were so cool too!

The whole night was absolutely surreal and breathtaking. We were all pretty speechless for a few minutes after the midnight fireworks ended, but then we remembered to 'cheers' with our bubbly and to blow our horns and pop our poppers! It was pretty fun to hear all of the noise from the people down below and despite still having some jetlag, we were up until about 1:30 on 1/1/11! I am so incredibly thankful that I got to experience NYE while in Sydney and it will always be a NYE to remember...

Christmas and Visitors in Sydney!

I had such a wonderful and magical Christmas back in the States and am so thankful that I got to spend that time with my family and friends. My sister picked me up from the airport when I got in and she was such a welcome sight! We headed over to her house, so that I could see Luke and Grace and hang out for a little while and we had such a great night reuniting. When I got back to my house, it felt good to be home! The next day, I got to go to Union Station and Crown Center to see the trains and Santa with my sister and the kids. That and the colder weather certainly helped me to get more into the holiday spirit! I got to see my Junior League girlfriends for dinner one night and had a great dinner out with my Kappa girlfriends...was so great to get to see them all during the holidays!

After a few days in KC, I headed to Wichita to have Christmas in my parents' amazing and beautiful new home!! It had been so hard that I hadn't been to see it since they have moved in, so I really tried to soak it all up and enjoy every minute of being there. The house truly is just perfect and it is so nice to see them so happy there together. During the week of Christmas, we did all of the normal Christmas things, just in a new setting...some cookie baking and decorating, putting together goodies for family friends, listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies and eating yummy food! My sister and her family came down mid-week to celebrate an early Christmas and we had the best time! It was so fun and special to do Christmasy things with Luke and to watch his anticipation build and then he finally got to open some presents! He loved it all and had so much fun playing around with stuff after. Grace is such a sweet and happy baby, she just sat with us enjoying it all also! Was a very special few days!

After celebrating a fun Christmas day with my mom's family, I headed back to KC to spend a little more time with my sister and family...and to pack to head back. It was also a good thing that I headed back because my parents had quite a bit to do, in order to get ready to come back to Sydney with me!!!!!

I think they were a little nervous about the long flight, but were excited to get here to see where I live and what I do here all the time. And they did GREAT on the flight! We got to my apartment and they confirmed that the pictures of my view just don't do the actual view justice! They absolutely love my area and have already spent lots of time out on the balcony gazing out at the harbour. We had a great first day and went to the grocery store and out to explore Kirribilli and McMahon's Point after we had cleaned up from our travels. Here they are after we had explored and as we were heading back around Lavendar Bay to my apartment...they look great for just arriving that day, don't they?!

Me and Mom out by the boats in Lavendar Bay...

Not sure how much Mom was loving being back in Summer weather, but she was a trooper! We came back to my apartment to relax for a little while and then headed out to a fun dinner at Ripples, one of my favorite modern Australian restaurants right down by the water in my area, Milson's Point. We had great food and some wine, which made us all a little silly after our long travel day. Here are a few pics from dinner...

Stay tuned, more posts to come about the fun times with my parents in Sydney!