the australian adventure begins!!!

I wasn’t sure that I was even going to make it to the airport. For those of you who don’t know, I don’t like to fly, and the idea of a 14 hour, 45 minute plane ride entirely across the Pacific Ocean did not appeal to me. In the weeks leading up to the trip, I alternated between calm (people fly to Australia all the time! Planes are safer than cars!) and uncertain if I could even get on the plane. Sarah-Mae threatened to knock me out and roll me onto the plane in a luggage cart, but fortunately, it didn’t have to come to that. Although I was not as cool, calm, and collected as I would like, there were no huge panics, no ridiculous scenes of me clawing my way off of the plane, and no luggage cart needed.


Almost as soon as we were in our fairly comfortable seats on the plane, the pilot gave us the good news that our flight was only 13 and a half hours (an entire hour less – hooray!), and that the flight attendants would be serving supper soon. Yes, even though the plane departed San Francisco Airport at 11:10pm, as far as Qantas was concerned, we were already on Sydney time. Fortunately, I am a night owl, so staying up late is pretty normal for me. I decided to adapt to Qantas’ strategy and immediately try to adjust to the time change. I stayed up for supper (pasta in red sauce, not too bad!), and even played a game of scrabble with Sarah-Mae. Despite being well-medicated (to help avoid a ridiculous scene in the airport), I still beat her. Yay! We started to watch a movie, and around 9pm Sydney time, I drifted off to sleep.

Miraculously, I was able to get almost a full night’s sleep (really, it was a miracle!). I woke up to find that we only had about 3 hours left of our flight! It felt so wonderful to almost be in Sydney! Sarah-Mae and I played Scrabble again (another victory for me!), and I watched the rest of the movie I had started earlier in the flight. We were served breakfast (yummy scrambled eggs and asparagus for me, fritata with bacon for Sarah-Mae), and before we knew it, it was time to turn off our electronic devices, store our carryons, and put our seats in their full and upright position – we were landing in Australia!

After landing, we took our time getting off of the plane, sailed through customs, and picked up our luggage (which was sitting at the baggage claim waiting for us, since we had taken our time). Although it was 7am after a long flight over the Pacific, we both felt pretty good! We changed clothes and cleaned up a bit, and felt even better. We loaded up our backpacks and headed to the train into downtown Sydney!

The train was fairly quick into town, and we stopped at Circular Quay, the main stop for all things quintessentially Sydney. We exited the train with our heavy packs, and were greeted by the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. I finally felt like we made it to Australia!

sydney harbor!!! 

We took a nice stroll along the harbor and up to our hotel to drop off our bags. Since it was 9am, it was too early to check in, but we were able to leave our packs and enjoy the sights of Sydney without lugging around the extra weight. On our way back to the harbor, we strolled through an open market that takes place on the Rocks every weekend. There were crafts, snacks, clothes, I had to resist buying souveniers before I have even seen any of the sights depicted on them!

After browsing the vendor stalls, Sarah-Mae and I decided to swing by McDonalds and figure out our day’s plan – not because McD’s would remind us of home, but because they have free wifi, and we could quickly check out the tours and ferries we were considering. We came up with a game plan, but decided to get a bite to eat first. While looking around for a café, I looked across the harbor and saw that Luna Park was running their ferris wheel. I had really wanted to visit the free amusement park on the opposite side of the Harbor Bridge, but had thought (when we were planning our time in Sydney) that the park was going to be closed on the days that we were scheduled to be there. I have never been so happy to be wrong! We decided to hop on a ferry, visit Luna Park, and see if they had any delicious fare (i.e., CORNDOGS!).

Luna Park was surprisingly small – at least, I was surprised. I love that it was free to enter and wander through, so we could enjoy the sights and sounds. The entrance is a bit creepy, though… you enter through a giant smiling mouth of a clown (mouth of a clown!). inside the park there were the typical amusement park rides: a ferris wheel, bumper cars, rides that spin around in circles until someone pukes, etc. We decided not to ride any rides, though, because it was $10 for a single ride! Of course there were discounts if you bought more tickets, but even $40 for an “all day pass” was more than either of us wanted to spend. But we had a great time walking through the park, and definitely enjoyed our corndogs and chips (aka fries). All in all, we had a really great time! I will just skip over the part where a seagull pooped on me. No one wants to hear about that.

luna park... 

 

 creepy clown entrance

We ferried back to Circular Quay, and walked over towards the Opera House. It was exactly the way I expected it! Complex, angular, yet rounded, beautiful, and stark against the contrast of the harbor and the downtown skyline. Gorgeous!

 

the harbor bridge and the opera house

 

From the Opera House, we walked through the neighboring Royal Botanical Gardens. The gardens reminded me a lot of Central Park in NY – a green and flourishing space right next to downtown, where families could picnic, play games, or stroll through the gardens. We walked through the heart of the gardens, past St. Mary’s Cathedral, and over to Hyde Park, where Sarah-Mae especially wanted to visit the Archibald Fountain and the Anzac Memorial. Both were very beautiful and moving.

a view of the harbor bridge from the royal botanical gardens

We decided to take a break from walking, and grab a beverage (and free wifi) from Starbucks. Don’t blame me – it’s not my fault that international chains are the ones that boast free wireless internet! It acutally turned out to be a great place for Sarah-Mae because apparently in Australia they still serve almond syrup (and the US has discontinued that particular syrup for some time). So she enjoyed her almond iced latte while I looked up directions to the restaurant we wanted to visit for dinner.


To understand our dinner restaurant choice, I have to back up 10 years. Yes, 10 years. When I was studying abroad in England, sarah-mae came to visit me (and Oxford, London, and Paris). That was the first of our international adventures. When we were in London, we visited a brand new noodle bar called Wagamama’s. it was DELICIOUS. And although they had a few locations in the UK, there were none in the US.  the next year, while sarah-mae was studying abroad in australia, she learned that Wagamama’s was opening a new restaurant in Sydney… but it was going to open until 2 weeks after she returned to the states. So, we endeavored to visit Wagamama’s to rekindle our first visit 10 years before on a completely different continent. Although it wasn’t quite as magical as I had remembered, it was still delicious, and we had a great time sharing a meal and a memory!

After dinner we headed back to our hotel to call it a night. (we had been up since 4am, you know!) the little bed & breakfast was rated extremely well on a number of vacation websites, and our room was very quaint (although I would have loved to have a tv!). I was definitely ready for a good night’s sleep! Up tomorrow: the Blue Mountains!

...australian adventure...

so, i still have two posts to write, one on my move to Arizona (it is a little crazy here!), and one on my big birthday. BUT, i am going to put those on hold so that i can update this blog as i go on my australian adventure.

many years ago, my best friend and i decided that we would go to australia (and heron island resort, specifically) when we turned 30. fortunately, it ended up coordinating with graduation, too, so it is a double celebration! yay!

anyways, she and i will be taking turns blogging about our australian adventure - stay tuned!

vacation finale

on our last day of vacation, we headed to the san diego wild animal park. i was hoping that it would be a gorgeous park of rolling hills and grasslands, where animals roamed free (or mostly free). and i was a little disappointed by how zoo-like the park was. also on the negative side was that it was BLAZING hot. blazing! and the map of the park was very poorly drawn and not to scale. so it was a little bit frustrating trying to navigate our way around the large park. we had a lot of fun, though, seeing some great animals! one of the highlights were the elephants, two of which were little tiny baby elephants - adorable!!!

which one's the gorilla? haha!

another highlight of the park was the petting zoo. it was not the typical goats and sheep, they had some really exotic animals (none of which i can remember specifically at the moment), and they were so cute!!! the best part was my nephew (#2), who would tiptoe slowly up to an animal, hover for a minute, and then slowly stretch out his arm to pet the animal. he was trying really hard not to disturb the animals!

little gramma enjoying the petting zoo

my brother making friends

nephew #2 enjoying the animals

it was a great family vacation, and a great way to celebrate my big accomplishment. i am so glad we were able to enjoy it all together!

day four

we had only planned to spend 3 days at disneyland, but when we woke up the morning of day 4, it was overcast, and not a great day to spend at the beach. so we decided to make use of our free extra days at disney (the 3-day pass came with 2 free days), and revisit our favorite disney rides. we started in california adventure, and rode toy story (my favorite!), and then my niece, brother-in-law, and i rode california screaming three times in a row!

that's us!

here is a close-up, rotated, version of the upside down picture. my neice is a rock star!

we also went back to disneyland to ride a few more rides, including another of my faves, big thunder mountain. fun!

me, my brother-in-law, my nephew, and my niece on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad,

the wildest ride in the wilderness

my nephew, a fierce pirate.

toon town time!

on our third day at the disneyland resort, we decided to start the day in toon town. (i actually had to start the day by taking my nephew to the airport, but my sister came along and traffic wasn't too bad. not surprisingly, we still ended up in the park and at the meeting place in toon town before everyone else!)  the best part about toon town is all of the fun cartoon-meets-real-neighborhood stuff - a police station, a jail, a gas station... we had fun playing with all of the props!

my neice calling the police 

 

and reading minnie's email - scandalous!

in toon town, you also get to visit the homes of some of the characters, mickey, minnie, goofy, donald (who, oddly, lives on a boat). at minnie's house, she stands on the front porch and signs autographs. and then you wander through her house, read her email, wash her dishes... okay, it is a little strange, but they are cartoon characters, after all. after touring minnie's house we walked next door to mickey's. (by the way, i would love to live next door to my boyfriend!)  at mickey's, you can play the piano, lay in pluto's dog bed, and even go through mickey's movie studio - that's where he is waiting for you to take pictures and sign autographs.

the mouse, the myth, the legend

after toon town, we headed over to what used to be tom sawyer island. it is now called "pirates lair" or something like that, and they have "rebranded" it with lots of pirate booty - literally, there's a whole treasure corner, and treasure in the old caves, and treasure in the treehouse. anyways, we spent hours running around the island, exploring all of the paths and caves, and, of course, finding all of the treasure. it was wonderful! the only down side was that, after a while, my sister called me and told me that someone had climbed to the roof of the building on the front of the island (the building is visible from a section of disneyland across the river). she suggested we stay where we were - which happened to be at the opposite end of the island. the kids were enjoying the giant pile of pirate gold, so it wasn't a problem. just a few minutes later, my sister called back and said that disney security had gotten the person down, without incident. it was just in time - the kids were ready to head back to the treehouse in the front of the island.

we played in the treehouse for a while, when a disney cast member came by... he told us that the island was closing for the day, and we needed to catch the ferry back to disneyland. i was a bit surprised, since the island was not scheduled to close for another hour, but i realized as we walked to the ferry dock, that the island was closing because of the incident my sister had called me about. there were cast members strategically placed to keep people from continuing to wander around the island, security team members at the front of the island, and at the ferry dock, and there were anaheim police officers coming to the island on the ferry. it was a bit dramatic! but of course, we didn't see any of the drama, just the aftermath.

we headed over to fantasy land to ride the traditional rides: snow white, pinnochio, dumbo, the carousel... and the teacups. i definitely sat that one out. when i was quite young, my sister and cousin took me on the teacups and spun me around until i nearly puked. (see below for a re-enactment)  and i've never liked spinning rides!

*** we interrupt this blog to bring you a special report ***

so, i will continue my storytelling of the celebration vacation (with the hopes of finishing before i leave for my australian adventure in 16 days!). but for today, i want to take a quick break.

i sit here today, on the eve of my 30th birthday, and i just want to take a minute to reflect on the blessings and incredible adventures i've been able to enjoy over the past 29 years, 364 days, 21 hours and 18 minutes. i have had so many great experiences, and i've gotten to share those experiences with so many wonderful friends and family members!

because i'm still getting settled in here, my birthday will be low-key, even though it is a fairly big event. tomorrow, to celebrate my "big day" i am going to have 30 mini-celebrations. i haven't picked them all yet, but i'm going to photo-document them and will let you know how it turns out, and how i celebrate this milestone. (although you might have to wait until after i finish my backlog!)