Sydney, Australia - Day 3

This morning, we walked back down to Darling Harbour. Ryan and Brittney spent some time with Brandon so Steven and I could see the Hubble 3D Imax. It was great! The screen we saw it on is supposedly the largest Imax screen in the world. After we saw the movie, Ryan and Brittney went to see it. Really nice to have the company and help of two extra people!



In the early afternoon, Steven went to the Sydney National Maritime Museum. I was in huge need of a nap!


































A picture of the Sydney Tower. Steven took this through a ship's telescope. Awesome!

In the evening, we did a walking tour around some of Sydney.

We walked by St. Mary's Cathedral.

We walked through the botanic gardens.

Brandon stopped to smell the roses.

I think that Brandon loved being outdoors in the nice weather! He ran wild!

For dinner, we walked to the area of Sydney knows as The Rocks. We stopped at an Italian restaurant for some pizza. Unfortunately, Brandon had a high chair accident... The high chair fell forward, and Brandon busted his lip on the table. Very bloody. Very scary. And, it could have been so much worse. Steven and I got our pizza to go and walked home. Ryan and Brittney finished at the restaurant and spent some more time out before heading in for the night.

Sydney, Australia - Day 2

Georgeous day in Sydney! I needed this cooler weather!

We all took a walk down to Darling Harbour.

We took a boat cruise from Darling Harbour.

Of course, Brandon loved Uncle Ryan's hat. :)

The boat passed Fort Denison, just for us. Only kidding. :)

We rode down the Sydney Harbour to Watson's Bay, an old fishing village. We got off of the boat for a while there. We walked on the beach and around a park there. We also enjoyed a nice fish and chips lunch at a picnic table. Glorious to be able to sit outside without sweating!!!

In the evening, Steven and Ryan volunteered to have some guy time with Brandon while me and Brittney went to the opera. She and I couldn't decide whether or not to go at first. The tickets were expensive... In the end, we pulled the trigger. Soooooo glad we did! Amazing experience. We saw The Marriage of Figaro. No regrets and one of my favorite things we did in Sydney. Well worth the money.

View from our seats.

Sydney, Australia - Day 1

At the Singapore airport, we checked in right away. We wanted to get a bassinet on the flight to Singapore so that maybe Brandon would sleep without us having to hold him.

We also stored a few suitcases at the airport so we wouldn't have to ship them back to the US or take them with us to Sydney.

We hoped that Brandon would sleep most/all of the 8 hour, overnight, flight to Sydney. When we got on the plane, though, Brandon was wound up. They also didn't turn off the overhead lights in the airplane for almost the first three hours. Steven was then finally able to rock and sing Brandon to sleep. He slept for about an hour in the bassinet, but then he woke up and wouldn't sleep unless we held him. While Brandon slept most of the rest of the flight, we sure didn't get much sleep.

We arrived in Sydney very early in the morning. We walked outside to get a cab to our hotel, and wow! It was so chilly outside (60's), and it felt GREAT! It had been months since I had felt cool, outside air. Sooooo refreshing! I had forgotten what cool natural air felt like!

We arrived at our hotel way before check-in. We also had a few hours before Ryan and Brittney arrived from New Zealand.

Since our hotel was in the Darling Harbour area of Sydney, we were able to walk to the aquarium. What a great way to start our vacation! Fishies!

Brandon was a little hesitant to "walk on water".

Ryan and Brittney arrived at the hotel right after we returned from the aquarium. Soooooo great to see Ryan! It had been eight months since we last saw him, although it didn't feel like that long. Very surreal, though, to meet up with Ryan on the other side of the world. Really neat that we were able to make timing and the meetup work.

We were all so exhausted from traveling, so we napped off and on during the day.

In the early evening, we all had enough energy to take a bus down to the Circular Quay area of Sydney. There, we got our first breathtaking look at the Sydney Opera House. Beautiful city. Beautiful icon.

It felt so nice to be on a vacation and on another adventure, especially with Ryan!