Royal Botanic Gardens

On Sunday, August 25th, we were blessed with more gorgeous winter weather in Sydney.  Sundays are a great day for us to get out and explore since we can get Family Fun Day tickets for just $2.50 each and then we can use that one ticket for any form of public transportation in Sydney.  On this day, we decided to go to the Royal Botanic Gardens.  Even though we have been on the outskirts of the garden many times, we had never walked all the way through it.  It is a such an amazing use of the prime waterfront property.

The Royal Botanic Gardens start on the back side of the Sydney Opera House and runs alongside the Sydney CBD (Central Business District).

We started out by walking from our apartment to the Cremorne Point Wharf (about a 30 minute walk) to catch the ferry into Circular Key.  

Carter and Aubrey wanted their photo taken by this cool tree face on our walk in the Cremorne Reserve.

One of the first structures we ran into in the Botanic Gardens is the Government House.  We had walked around this section of the Botanic Gardens back in January.  On this visit we took the time to do the official tour of the Government House.  It was very interesting, but cameras were not allowed during the tour, so we have no photos of the inside.

Waiting for the tour to start

This was a massive fig tree outside the Government House.  It was planted around the time the house was built in 1843.

The east side of the Government House

We followed the coastline of the harbour on our walk around the Botanic Gardens.  It was interesting to see the different views we got of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge throughout the walk.

The sails of the Opera House poking out from behind the trees

The beautiful coastline.  There was a little bit of a haze over the city and harbour on that Sunday.  It was due to some controlled burning going on right outside the city to help prevent bush fires.

Part of the Main Pond in the Botanic Gardens

The poinsettia shrubs were flowering

Cool shot of the fig trees

The Botanic Gardens contain many lawns that are perfect for a picnic.

Another shot as we were rounding the curve around Farm Cove

Mrs. Macquarie's Chair at the end of Mrs. Macquarie's Point (the peninsula on the other side of Farm Cove).  From this point you have an amazing view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

Like I said.......

As we walked out of the Royal Botanic Gardens, we found ourself along the wharfs in Woolloomooloo Bay.  

Finger Wharf on Woolloomooloo Bay

We had a great snack after all our walking at the famous Harry's Cafe de Wheels.  It has been here since 1945 and many celebrities have visited it through the years.  I can verify that it was one of the best meat pies I have ever eaten.  The kids had hot dogs that were also excellent.  I read that the cafe started selling hot dogs in the 1970's to appeal to American sailors.  We will have to make it a point to come back here!

After our snack, we hopped on a train and headed back into the city.  While walking in the CBD, we came across a really interesting laneway called Angel Place.  There are dozens of bird cages suspended over the alley as part of a public art display.  The name of the display is called "Forgotten Songs".  You can hear the sound of bird songs playing in the air to represent the forgotten birds in Sydney that have been displaced due to the urban development.

After a long day of walking, we were ready to catch a ferry and go back home as the sun was setting.  This is my favorite time of day to be out on the water.  

La Perouse

If you have seen this scene from Mission Impossible II.....

Then, this place may look familiar to you......

Luckily, the bridge is not actually blown to smithereens.  

This is Bare Island in La Perouse.  It is on the southern side of Sydney on the shore of Botany Bay.  

The red pin is La Perouse.  It is almost directly across Botany Bay from where Captain Cook first landed in 1770.

We decided to go visit La Perouse on Sunday, August 18th.  It was a gorgeous winter day and the water was a magnificent shade of blue.  We did not actually take the tour to go through the fort on Bare Island, but we could still explore the island outside of the fort walls.  

Another view of Bare Island with the opening to Botany Bay in the distance

Look at that water!

Carter and Aubrey posing before we went over the bridge

Sean looking down at us; he was on the bridge and we were down on the island.

Carter had a lot of fun navigating the "obstacle course".  

Sean was practicing some of his new skills with the camera by taking some landscape shots.  (He had taken a photography class just a couple of weeks prior.)

Aubrey decided to add a karate pose to the family photo.

Looking up at the bridge and mainland from the island

All the big freight ships come into the Port of Botany Bay near the airport.

Frenchmans Bay on the other side of La Perouse

Carter and Aubrey were having a great time walking along the shore and checking out all the sealife in the rock pools.

Even after being here for a year and a half, we are still finding more places to visit and explore around Sydney.  I am slowly realizing that there is no way we can see everything.  Even as we are marking things off our to-see list, we keep adding more to it. The list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter.  Sydney is definitely a city with an abundant amount of natural beauty.  We will just have to keep exploring as much as we can in the time we have.

Our Australian Life

I often focus on the big events in our lives in this blog.  But, of course, we experience normal, smaller activities that make up our life as well.  Well, normal daily activities for living in Sydney, but they maybe not so ordinary when compared to living in Kansas City.  I thought I would take a little time to talk about those things.  

I have already mentioned the carnivals (i.e. sport competitions) that the kids have throughout the school year.  It is the beach/swimming carnival during Term 1.  Then, there is the cross-country carnival in Term 2.  Term 3, which started July 15th, contains the athletics carnival.  This is a competition of shorter distance races (as opposed to the cross-country carnival).  Carter missed his athletics carnival as it was held the day after we got back into Australia.  Sean and I decided he was still too jet lagged to go off for a day of competitive running.  I think that was a good idea considering that he had woken up that morning at 2:30 am. 

Aubrey's carnival was later in the week though (they split up the younger kids from the older kids).  She had a great time competing in her carnival.  She even came in 3rd in the short distance sprint.  As usual for the carnivals, they split up in their separate houses to compete.  (I have used this reference before, but I will use it again: think Harry Potter.)  Both of my kids are in the Fraser (blue) house.

Aubrey and her buddy Hugo getting ready to walk to Allan Border Oval.  Another friend, Max, was the photo bomber:-)

Getting ready to run.....

And there she goes!!

Aubrey getting ready to compete in the tug-o-war

Another sporting activity we have been participating in is Carter's soccer.  Soccer is considered mainly a winter sport here in Australia.  So, Carter has had soccer games on most Saturday mornings since the beginning of April.  We either have the games at our home field here in Mosman, or we travel up to games in different locations in the Northern Beaches.  His team name is the Cobras.  The team consists of a great group of kids and parents.  The kids have had a lot of fun within an environment that was not overly competitive.  The season just ended on August 31st and the kids are already looking forward to playing summer soccer.  Aubrey is especially excited because she is going to start playing soccer as well.  Summer soccer is more relaxed and will just consist of 30 minute games on weekday nights against other Mosman teams.

Action shot!

End of the season photo with their coach, Dane

Another topic I want to cover is Carter and Aubrey's news at school.  From Kindy to Year 2, the kids have to get up on a weekly basis and deliver their news to the class.  This is like show and tell, but more full-on.  A list of the weekly topics for the entire term is sent home in the first week of that term.  Sometimes they are very simple topics, like tell the class about your holidays.  Other times they are more complex, like Aubrey's recent topic was "Composting is Cool".  I first had to teach her what composting was.....

Once the kids reach Year 3, they have just one speech per term, but it is a little more intense with more complex topics.  During our time in Australia, I will admit, I have not enjoyed helping the kids prepare their news each week, or each term as what Carter has now.  But, I have to concede that Carter has gotten much better at giving speeches since first arriving here.  He just gave his Term 3 speech this week about the Quarantine Station in Manly.  He researched all the facts himself and I was very impressed with his delivery when he was practicing with me.  I am pretty sure I would have had no idea how to do this when I was 8 years old. 

This is Aubrey and Peggy at Manly Beach.  Peggy is a chicken from a book they read at school.  Each child made a "Peggy" and brought it home.  Our news instructions for the week were to take Peggy on an adventure and take a photo of the adventure.  

Another photo of Aubrey and Peggy in front of some crocheted trees in Manly

Another interesting thing they do at Carter and Aubrey's school is that they give out merit awards.   The merit awards are to congratulate the kids about something they have done well or something they have improved on.  The merit awards are given out to the kids at their weekly assembly, but a child doesn't earn one every week, just when the teacher feels a student is worthy of one.  The merit awards then all add up to earning the big reward; a school banner.  Carter just earned his first school banner on August 27th.  I received an e-mail the week prior so that Sean and I could plan to attend the school assembly to see him receive it.  It was a really nice moment in his Aussie schooling.

Carter standing up with the fellow banner recipients at assembly

Carter outside the school hall after receiving his banner

The kids are both really enjoying the school year.  Aubrey absolutely loves her teacher, Miss Hesketh.  She is really growing up so quickly this year.  Carter had a very strict teacher for the first half of the year.  He did well academically with her.  However, she had to leave halfway through the year for medical reasons (something to do with her voice, which is not a surprise considering how much she yelled at the kids).  He now has Mrs. Kingsmill, who is also strict in her own right.  But, I think she is a better match for Carter's personality.  Carter seems to have relaxed somewhat since the switch in teachers.  

We are all still trying to take advantage of the time we have here.  Australians consider that Spring starts September 1st.  The winter has been mild, but the weather has warmed up considerably in the past few weeks.  The air has lost that "chilly" feeling to it.  Some days the high has gotten into the upper 70's Fahrenheit and in the sun here, that can feel pretty hot.  The sun has also started to set a little later (5:30 instead of 5:00).  Even in this mild climate, you can feel the Spring Fever starting.  

I am still learning the art of enjoying being a stay at home with both kids in school.  I am spending more time going for long walks and reading.  I find that the hours of 9:00 am and 3:00 pm go REALLY fast.  I am also trying meet Sean for lunch once a week.  Since we don't really have a babysitter to watch the kids in the evening, it is our time alone together.  

Life is good.  We are in the middle of planning all of our trips for the remainder of our time in Australia.  There is so much to see and no way we can see all of it.  I am very grateful that we are getting to travel as much as we are.  I think the entire family officially has the travel bug now!  We are always looking forward to our next adventure.......

Snowy Mountains/Canberra

It took a good 2 weeks to get fully adjusted to Sydney time after our trip back to the States. This was partly because we got nasty colds pretty soon after getting back.  Sydney winters are pretty mild, but it seems that just as many cold and flu germs get passed around as in KC winters.  Luckily, Sydney is having an even milder winter than usual.  So, the bright, sunny days have helped us battle through the jet lag and bouts of illness.

Photo from a walk I took on Cremorne Point on August 1.  Seasonwise, that would equate to February 1 in the Northern Hemisphere.  So.....this is Sydney in the dead of winter.

This is one of my favorite shots of the Sydney Opera House.  

We planned a weekend getaway pretty soon after getting back.  Sean was excited to get down to the Snowy Mountains.  He had to see for himself that snow did actually exist in Australia.  Plus, we wanted to check out Australia's capital city, Canberra.   We didn't want to make it a major trip, since we had just been away for a month.  So, we fit it into a quick, weekend trip.  

We booked a hotel in Canberra for Friday and Saturday nights (August 2nd and 3rd).  We planned to leave Friday afternoon and travel the 2 1/2 hours to Canberra.  On Saturday, we were going to drive the other 2 hours to Perisher ski resort in the Snowy Mountains, check out the snow, and then drive the 2 hours back to Canberra.  On Sunday we planned to spend much of the day seeing what we could of Canberra and then make our way back to Sydney.

The blue dot is close to where we live in Sydney, Canberra is where we stayed, and the red pin is where we went in the Snowy Mountains.

Friday did not work out quite the way we planned; our car wouldn't start when we were all packed up and ready to go.  We were hoping to leave early enough to miss rush hour traffic out of the city.  My friend, Kinsey, saved the day by coming over to jump start our car.  The bad news was that we were 2 hours late leaving, we hit full-on rush hour traffic, and it then took 2 hours JUST to get out of the city.  Overall, this added 3 hours onto our trip down to Canberra.  We didn't get there until almost 10:00 Friday night.  It wasn't a great start to our journey, but we were glad to pull into the motel that night.

Saturday morning we got up and headed further south towards Perisher Ski Resort on Mount Kosciuszko.  Mount Kosciuszko is 2,228 meters high (7,310 ft) and it is the highest mountain in Australia.  We could feel the elevation rising throughout the drive.  By late morning we reached the mountains.  We actually needed winter coats!  At least the kids and I did, Sean and his insane amount of body heat is another story.  It was 0 degrees Celsius and the wind was blowing when we got into Perisher.  After not experiencing a "true" winter in a year and a half, it felt downright cold!

Lake Jindabyne just outside the Snowy Mountains

The kids playing at a playground at the water's edge in the town of Jindabyne

Carter standing on a monument to the Polish explorer, Pawel Strzelecki.  He was the first European to explore the Snowy Mountains in 1839 and named Mount Kosciusko after Tadeusz Kosciuszko.  (Interesting fact I learned in researching this: Tadeusz Kosciuszko was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson.  Kosciuszko fought and was a hero of the American Revolution.)

A photo of the landscape just as we were getting close to the Snowy Mountains.  Mount Kosciuszko is the snow capped mountain in the distance.

Carter at Perisher

Snow angels!

Carter was trying to scoop enough snow together to build something, but the snow was too icy and packed.  

I was freezing!

Carter and Sean got a kick out of some of the cool snow vehicles.

We got our fill of being out in cold pretty quickly.  On our way back to Canberra, we drove past a sign that said the Snowy Mountain Winery and Microbrewery was about 12 kilometers off the main road.  Sean and I love to visit wineries, especially when there is a microbrewery involved.  So, off we went.  Driving to the winery was an adventure in itself.  It was a dirt road that had sheep grazing around without any fences.  It truly felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.  It was very cool, but at the same time, we wondered where the heck we were going.  We ended up at the winery and it was really nice.  Sean and I got to sample the products while the kids got to pet all the animals they kept in a little petting zoo right outside the cellar door.  It was perfect; everyone was happy!  

Driving down the dirt road with the sheep all around us

We finally made it!

Aubrey's favorite was petting the pony.

This was the ornery goat that simply walked in and out of the fence when he wanted to.  It freaked the kids out the first time they saw him do it.  Both kids stopped in their tracks and said in unison "Ohhhhh Maaaannn".  

A mob of kangaroos we saw driving back on the dirt road.  They were as interested in us as we were in them.

On Sunday, we headed out to explore Canberra.  Canberra is a planned city located outside of all the Australian states, like Washington D.C.  The area it is in is called the Australian Capital Territory.  It was decided to be the capital in 1908 as a compromise between the two largest Australian cities, Sydney and Melbourne, who were each competing to be the capital city.  The city was designed by Chicago architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin.  The city has a very geometric design as is clearly evident in a photo of a map of the inner city around the capital. The circles, hexagons, and triangles were designed around the natural topography of the area.

The Parliament House is located within the circle that states Canberra.

Sean was very excited to visit the Royal Australian Mint.  Carter has a fascination with money, so he also enjoyed this.  Afterwards, we toured the Parliament House and learned more about the Australian government.  We were slightly amused to see how the government is set up as an independent, democratic government, but it is still a part of the British Commonwealth with Queen Elizabeth II as the Queen of Australia.  She is represented by the Governor General at the federal level and by Governors at the state level.  I won't go into more on how the government is set up, but Sean and I found the similarities and differences to the U.S. government very interesting.  

Carter outside the Parliament House

The House of Representatives; the color is green to represent the color of eucalyptus leaves.

The Senate; the color scheme is similar to the House of Lords, but it is changed slightly to represent the earth and the colors of the Australian outback.   

Closeup of the Seal of Australia in the Senate

The view from the top of the Parliament House.  The white building is the Old Parliament House.  The building in the distance is the Australian War Memorial.

Carter and Sean on the roof of the Parliament House

Aubrey was in a silly mood after going through that "boring" tour.

Sean and I on the roof.  And, yes, that is a lawn on the roof of the Parliament House.  It is kind of like an earth contact home.

We spent a lot of time in the car over the course of the weekend, but we got a couple of things checked off of our Australia "to-do" list.  It is always fun to get out and see more of this beautiful country.  And now Sean really does believe that there is snow in Australia.