Wine Country

After Carl's week in Japan, I drove back to Sydney to pick him up and then we headed up to wine country. I was great to see him and as always after a big work trip (plus a red-eye flight), he was exhausted. The Hunter Valley was just what we needed.
Time together as a family, great scenery, nice 2 bedroom villa with good swimming pools for Olivia, about 100 wineries with free tastings and fabulous local produce including cheeses and meats. We had recommendations on which wineries to go to and ended up visiting about 10. We bought more wine that we had expected and have to now figure out how to drink more of it before we head home!

Japan or the beach?

Carl had to take a work trip to Japan for 6 days. I'd love to visit since I've never been and I think that it's a fascinating culture. The issue is that it is FREEZING there, the flights are $1300 each (and no reduction for the peanut) and flight schedules are nasty. So Australia wins the challenge and I decide to hire a car and head up the Aussie coast for some beach and pool action while Carl works in Japan. Will have to do Japan another time.
I rented a car and easily got back into the hang of driving on the left (the proper side of the road to drive!) Olivia and I spent the time at three different locations a few hours north of Sydney. We had a lot of time on the beach and in the pool. I definitely have a real little mermaid on my hands. And with a pool the beach, unrestricted mummy-time and one ice-cream a day, who can't have a good time?

Park

All this sightseeing can get very tiring so I decided that we needed a 'rest' day! Olivia and I went to the park for a pic-nic. She chased the birds for about an hour, poor things; she was calling "Albert" at them all the time since her current favourite book is about a seagull called Albert. She caused lots of smiles from office workers in the park for lunch.
Lunch was followed by gorgeous cupcakes from the store next to our hotel. It was totally worth getting her that cupcake just to watch her eat it - too cute, she even had to close her eyes to savour the taste.

Taronga

Now I've said before that I'm not a huge fan of zoos but I was looking forward to going to Sydney's famous Taronga zoo. Some of the animals there have multi-million dollar views of the bay, bridge and opera house.
We caught a ferry from the city across the bay, then took a cable car up to the zoo entrance. This confused Olivia since I called it a 'bubble car' and she wanted to know where all the bubbles were!
There was an baby elephant born there last July and we saw him in full cuteness playing in the water with his mummy. Particularly impressive were the big cats and the water enclosure with penguins, seals and yet more sharks. It's a fabulous zoo and Olivia and I may have to pay another visit before we leave.

Aussie animals

Right next to the Aquarium is Sydney Animal Kingdom which is like a zoo only for Australian animals. Cue lots of spiders, snakes and creepy crawlies. Amazingly Olivia was less freaked out by them than Mummy was (never have been a big fan of spiders - thanks grandpa!) The zoo is right in the middle of the city and although compact, is really well presented. They have a few open area 'walkabouts' where you can walk through giant cages with wombats, kangaroos, koalas, butterflies etc. Here is Olivia looking at a male crocodile measuring 4.8m - yikes. Note to self not to swim in any creeks while we are over here!

Daddies

For Australia Day we headed down to Melbourne. Carl had 3 days of work there and I decided to tag long with Olivia. Since the whole of Australia has the day off for Jan 26th Australia Day, we felt justified in going to see INSEAD friends of ours who live in Geelong, about an hour outside Melbourne. They have 3 girls so Olivia was in her element and changed into a mermaid outfit within 2 minutes of arriving.
It was so good to catch up with them; we hadn't seen Jonno since the INSEAD 5 year reunion and hadn't seen his wife since leaving France and never met his 3 kids. We had a very relaxed day including the inevitable BBQ and a few beers. We went to the beach and a kiddie playground for a few hours in the pm and here is a photo of Carl and Jonno catching up while the kids played (and mums supervised).

Sydney Aquarium

At Darling Harbour is a very nice aquarium. It's possibly not as nice as Monterey but it does have two HUGE tanks with underwater tunnels. One tank has Dudongs or sea cows which are what the ancient mariners used to call Mermaids, and the other tank has sharks and rays. The dudongs are quite boring but the shark tank is fabulous. There are thousands of fish including about 40 sharks and rays which can swim right over your head. I did ask one of the docents about the sharks eating the other fish but apparently they are kept very well fed and eating each other is just too much effort. Better to just wait for food to be dropped right into your mouth. In addition to these tanks are lots of smaller tanks containing jelly fish (including the Aussie poisonous ones), gorgeous reef fish, sea horses etc. A great diversion for a few hours.

Carousel

Not far from our hotel is Darling Harbour, and next to the harbour is a kiddie park and playground including a carousel and tea cups. I do have to plan some of our outings very carefully to avoid going near this park so it doesn't delay other activites by at least 30 minutes. As far as she is concerned, the beach and the playground is all she needs. I did let her go on the carousel (which now appears to be permanently closed since schools have gone back) and she was very happy.

Hot tourist spots

I took Olivia to all the typical tourist spots around central Sydney and took her photo there to send back to her school near Apple (she told her teachers that she went to see a 'new chinese school' which is true and I wanted to prove that we weren't switching schools but actually were in Australia). Also I promised the head teacher that I would send photos so they could put them in their geography album and talk about them on Australia Day which is Jan 26th. Here she is at Darling Harbour, The Rocks, and in front of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. I am also hoping that she might actually remember some of this trip rather than need the photos to prove it!

Bondi babes

Day three deserved a trip to the beach. Olivia and I took to bus to Bondi beach to check out the surf. It was HUGE and apparently bigger than it has been for months. The waves weren't as big as back in Half Moon Bay but they were much closer to shore which means that you can sit peacefully on the beach while watching the surfers right infront of you (in HMB, the biggies are way out offshore and you need binoculars to get a good view). They had jetskis towing surfers out into the surf and were also filming "Bondi Rescue" which is apparently an Aussie surfing version of Bay Watch. I'm delighted to report that you won't see either Olivia or myself appearing (or at least I hope that you won't) as we stayed out of the surf. Olivia did manage to get me to buy her an ice cream with sprinkles that is still being talked about; the fact that the ice cream truck had a mermaid painted on it probably helped. I could get used to this.

Water fun

Day two in Sydney and we're already having much more fun than Carl. He doesn't like the fact that he has to go to work while Olivia and I plan what kind of adventure we're going to have for the day. I think that he is going to have a harder time with me not working than I am!
Olivia and I paid a trip to the Australian Maritime Museum which had an exhibition on Dragons, Mermaids and Unicorns - not sure that there could be a more perfect event for her! After making paper mermaids, we went to their water play area where she played with water toys (although would NOT go to the water gun firing zone which was filled with noisy, older, fighting boys). Sadly this whole area closes next week as Aussie school holidays finish. Never mind, much more in this city to keep us busy.

Outdoor pools

One of the popular things in Sydney is, unsurprisingly, outdoor swimming pools. One is in the Botanical Gardens right around the corner from our apartment. First day in Sydney without Carl (he has to go to work - ha), Olivia and I went to the pool. Stunning views since it is right ON the harbour and happens to have a very nice cafe attached to it. I can see me becoming a mummy-who-lunches-and swims!

Beating jetlag

Yet another flight for Olivia. I counted, and estimate that San Francisco to Sydney was her 44th flight! She did pretty well on the flight even though Daddy was in business class and she and I got downgraded from Premium Economy to regular Economy since the flight was full and no-one in premium economy would switch seats so that Olivia and I could sit next to each other.
Never mind, Carl did let me go and sit in Business for 3 hours with their super lie-flat beds but that was almost worse since he then came and woke me up to say that it was his turn again. Annoying but I guess only fair since he has to work in Sydney while I'll just be enjoying myself.
Anyway, once arriving in Sydney at 9am, we had to stay awake for as long as possible to avoid the jetlag. We started with a hot-tub in our hotel pool and followed by a walk round the city. We're perfectly situated about a 1 minute walk from Carl's office and less than 5 minutes to the harbour. Things are looking good. Olivia took a ride (she insisted that it was by herself) in the tea-cups at a nearby amusement park. I can tell that we'll be regulars on the rides there!

Olivia is 3

Olivia has been inundated with presents due to the proximity of Christmas, all grandparents, birthday etc. Never mind, she seems to be handling it pretty well by asking all new guests "what you have for me?"
On her birthday, I went to school for the morning. I purchased lunch (pizza, apple juice, grapes and brownies) for all her class followed by very popular goodie bags (bouncy balls, bubble mixture, slinkies etc). It's amazing how cheaply you can entertain 3-5 year olds, although when you multiply it by 24, it does add up!
School marks each birthday by a ceremony where the child holds a globe, and walks around a small circle which has the months of the year written and a candle in the middle. Schoolfriends sit in a larger circle and sing. The birthday child circles the candle as many times as they are years old and, at each circuit, talk about what they could do at each stage. I was watching and videoing this and was a little taken aback. It's somewhat cult-like but the kids seem to like it and Olivia kept asking me if her birthday was going to have a candle at school (not having seen the ceremony before, i of course, told her that there would be no candles - after all, candles and 24 3-5 year olds don't really mix). Anyway, Olivia got to wear a princess dress and a crown, and as far as she is concerned, that is all that matters. The only altercation was Olivia telling a school friend during the middle of her ceremony "You're not 3, only I am 3!" so there.

Christmas wings

What is Christmas without a few pairs of wings, a couple of wands and some fairy outfits? Olivia got to experience Christmas in Tahoe with all 4 grandparents. 95% of the presents under the tree were for her. She was definitely on Santa's nice list! This particular Autumn fairy outfit from Uncle Neil and Auntie Barbara was a big hit.

SF Zoo

As a member of the San Francisco zoo, we got to attend a members morning when some of the animals got their very own Christmas presents. Olivia was particularly happy to see the lions got sparkly wrapping paper and both mummy and daddy lion found steaks. Mmmmm. She got to make antlers which helped when making cookies with granny later in the day.