First visitor!

I will first off apologize for the amount of time between blog posts.  I'm not sure what happened.  Well, actually a lot happened (visitors, moved apartments, took a trip).  Then, I was exhausted from everything that happened.  So, I had to spend some quality downtime with myself.  Things have quite settled down now, so I am going to try to catch everyone up.  

The first big event was that we had our first visitor from the States!!  Jay, Sean's best friend from Kansas City, arrived in Sydney on Saturday, March 30th.  We picked him up at the airport that morning.  He wasn't looking too worse for the wear after the 15 1/2 hour flight from Dallas.  So, we headed to Bondi Beach straight from the airport.  Sean and I still have fond memories of seeing Bondi Beach on our very first day in Sydney in March 2012.  It is a great cure for jet lag.  I  think Jay enjoyed it.  The rest of that day we spent hanging around Mosman showing Jay some of our local haunts, like Balmoral Beach.  We ended the day with dinner at Hotel Mosman; the home of the $7.90 steak.  It is one of the best deals you will find in Sydney for a restaurant meal.  Additionally, it is Carter's favorite place to eat and we still owed him his birthday meal out.  Everything had been closed the day before, on his birthday, since it was Good Friday.


The day after Jay arrived was Easter Sunday.  The Easter bunny found us again this year!  Luckily, the Easter bunny learned from previous mistakes.   She now knows that stores are open very limited hours on Easter weekend in Australia.  So, she was prepared and did not wait until the last second to buy Easter goodies.
    

Baskets after the visit from the Easter bunny.  The kids painted the Easter chicks on the sides.

Yum!

Carter doing his Easter activity book.  

Carter left us a nice note on his new Etch-A-Sketch

We headed back to the Bondi area after our Easter celebrations.  It was the only time during Jay's trip that we could fit in the Coogee to Bondi Coastal walk.  I have been anxious to do this walk for a second time.  The one time we tried to do it, we had to abandon the walk early due to the weather.  This time the weather held out for us.  It wasn't the sunniest of days, but it was still pleasant.

Sean and Jay

  

Love all the varied views along the path!

Jay helped us to capture a family photo.

Smile!

Jay getting ready to practice his cliff diving technique.

While on the walk, we saw two A380 planes flying extremely close to each other.  We were not sure what it was about at the time.  Once we got home, we learned it was a Qantus plane and an Emirates plane flying together to signify their new partnership.

That night Sean, Jay, and our friend Mike, went to a Sydney Waratah rugby game.  Jay played rugby in high school, so this was something he had really been looking forward to. They had front row seats at the game.  When I asked Sean about it, all he said was "it was awesome".  

Sean had Monday off of work as it was Easter Monday. We took Jay on a whirlwind tour of Sydney.  We started by eating breakfast at our favorite morning spot in Mosman, Cafe Prego.  After our bellies were full, we walked to the zoo.  We took the sky safari over the zoo to the Taronga Zoo Wharf for the ferry.  We then took the ferry into Circular Quay and walked to the Sydney Tower Eye in the CBD.  After going up the tower, we went back to Circular Quay and took a ferry to Manly Beach.  We hung out there for a little bit and then took a bus back home.  Whew.  I'm tired just writing about it. 

View from the sky safari; the Sydney Tower Eye is the tallest tower amongst the skyscrapers.  It has the shape of a Q-tip.  

It is hard to beat the views on the ferry as we cross the harbour.  

Carter was loving the breezes outside on the ferry.

Sydney Eye Tower, here we come!

Carter posing with the city of Sydney 260 meters (or 853 feet) below him.

View of the harbour from the Sydney Eye Tower

Manly Beach at the end of a very busy Easter weekend

Sean had to go back to work on Tuesday, so I got to fill in as tour guide for Jay.  On Tuesday, Jay headed back to Manly Beach for a day of open water scuba diving.  He got lucky that day, the weather was picture perfect.

On Wednesday, the rain started.  That put a hamper in our plans for the last two days of Jay's visit.  So much of what we do in Sydney revolves around walking outside and seeing beautiful views.  Neither of those are nearly as nice when it is pouring rain.  We tried to make the most of it though.  

On Wednesday, Jay and I met up with Sean for lunch.  We then headed into the city so that Jay could do a little souvenir shopping.  On Thursday, we went to Darling Harbour.  Jay and I went through the Maritime Museum, ate lunch at Margaritaville, and walked around the Rocks area a little bit.  The rain finally let up some, so we decided to walk back towards home across the Harbour Bridge.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the best idea.  The rain started again full force when we were just far enough that we were committed to go ahead and walk across the entire bridge.  You know it is raining hard when you have an umbrella and you still get soaked.  Thanks to the rotten weather, we didn't take a lot of pictures towards the end of Jay's trip.  But, I did manage to snap a few in the rain breaks.

Jay in the captain's chair on one of the ships

View from Darling Harbour on a rainy day

It was great to have Jay here.  We were sad to see him off to the airport on Friday.  There is so much to do and see in Sydney; one week flew by.  He is already discussing a possible return visit while we are still living here.

Of course, our minds were kind of buzzing even as we were saying goodbye to Jay.  We were moving into a new apartment the next day and we were getting ready to welcome Sean's parents to Sydney in two days.  But, more on that later......