Twelve Feet, Six Continents, One Year

I have enough time and energy to report on our 60+ hours as tourists in Sydney in a very narrow way only. We landed on Thursday afternoon, collected our luggage, bought our transit cards and rode the lovely, modern train for about 15 minutes into the city. The Museum Station in downtown Sydney reminded me of stops on the London Tube: big, winding, hot...and never before had I needed to depend on elevators. I think it took us 3, maybe 4, to reach the surface. We walked less than half a mile through the Big City to reach our hotel. The kids did remarkably well on their first non-taxi navigation of a city. I have a very favorable opinion of the Radisson Hotel and Suites near Darling Harbor. It's a familiar kind of hotel/apartment combination and our suite was clearly a converted apartment. The location was perfect and on Thursday evening we walked to the very-nearby Tumbalong Park in Darling Quarter where our kids devoured a really nice playground. We had a lovely harborside dinne...

People: our visit in Melbourne was filled with great people.  Our host, who shares the duplex with the apartment she rents, was a generous and warm person who made us feel so welcome and comfortable. Her family, especially her 12-year old son and their 4-month old English Staffordshire named Lucy, brought us many smiles. The abundant toys in our rental used to be his and we are very grateful, especially for the LEGO. Our first friend in Melbourne was “Motormouth” Bridget at Oliver’s Barber Shop. We passed the shop several times a day and the kids always looked forward to saying hi. Bridget renamed Henry “Jabberjaws” and they were good mates. Bridget had lollipops for the kids but they’d love her without them.  The kids went to summer camp at the local primary school with a program called TeamKids. They enjoyed being in the company of peers for several days, doing kid-focused activities, and being as wild as they felt like. Ali and Cate made friends with two girl...

We spent this weekend being full-time tourists. On Friday we took the tram downtown, ate lunch in a burger bar near "the pirate ship" and then walked to the aquarium. For the most part, we were really impressed. The kids enjoyed a lot of interactive exhibits. On the low side, however, the penguin exhibit was probably the saddest things we've seen. The Polly Woodside Henry was quick to find the Megaladon jaws Lily in disguise Ali or Cate with a friendly ray Ali struck a pose with a sea turtle (sculpture) Contemplative Cate On Saturday we bought a two-day pass for one of those adorable, double-decker, hop-on-hop-off sightseeing buses. On board the sightseeing bus Part of the downtown skyline, which seems to be expanding daily The view as we cross the Yarra River We rode around for about an hour until we reached the "Melbourne Star," one of those adorable, gigantic ferris wheels. A view from the Melbourne Star ...