Day 25 - July 22 Sydney
Today we decided to head into town. We drove to Sutherland station and caught the fast train in to Central station. Changed trains and got a city line to Town Hall exiting into the Queen Victoria Building which the kids hadn't been to before. We then walked down Market Street to Darling Harbour and the Sydney Aquarium. I have to say that I've never been here before - how many years did I live in Sydney for? I have to say that I'm glad it wasn't too busy - the kids are all back at school - as the set up would have been horrible if there were a lot of people. As it was we were pretty lucky that we could get in to see each of the exhibitions without waiting too long.
We loved watching the Albino lung fish - Marshmallow, and the cute little seahorses
But the best thing by far were the tunnels you could walk through. We were able to see the sting rays, the dugong and the sharks right up close, over and above us and all around - it really was a great experience.
The most disappointing thing at the Aquarium was the gift shop. The kids were hoping to spend some of the money they had, but the gift shop was only accepting cards....useless.
It was lunch time by the time we left the Aquarium so we walked down along the water at Darling Harbour and found a place doing an express lunch special, meals around $20 with a complimentary glass of wine - sounds good. Had a great lunch sitting out watching the boats go in and out.
After lunch was walked down to the ferry terminal and caught the Fast Ferry back underneath the Harbour Bridge to Circular Quay.
We walked out to the Opera House.
Then caught the light rail back up George Street to Town Hall and jumped on a train back to Sutherland.
Day 26 - July 23 Loftus
Another day at home playing trains.
For our final dinner we went out to the RSL at Engadine.
Day 27 - July 24 Loftus - Millis
Otherwise know as the longest day every.
Our flight left Sydney at 9am so had to be at the airport around 6am. Of course we had issues checking in because of our dual passports, but thankfully we were able to find someone to do it manually. Then had issues again at bag drop - they have a separate bag drop for flights to the US hidden away and it took us a while to find it.. Mel arrived at the airport shortly after we finished checking in and we headed to the food court for an early breakfast - (not too much for those of us flying as I assume we will be fed on the plane). Then it was time to say goodbye - not my favourite moment of the trip. Straight through immigration. Lexie had a hard time at security thought - she had to go back and take off her shoes, than have a pat down, then her bag got shunted to the side. But thankfully it was all done quickly and then we were through,
Browsed the shops for a while - Josh really wanted a new Australia Jersey to replace the one he had outgrown and thankfully we were able to find what he wanted. Lexie got another pin to add to her collection. Then it was to the gate to wait.
The first flight to Auckland was an easy 3 hours. We got a light lunch served which was actually quite nice and just enough time to watch a movie.
We had to get off the flight at Auckland - I thought we would just wait at the gate to reboard, but instead we had to walk down these long glass tunnels into a "international transit lounge", then go through another security check - this time it was Josh's turn to set everything off - before being allowed back into the airport and back to the gate - the same one we got off, but on the other side of the glass tunnel....
The flight from Auckland to New York was long - 15.5 hours. Another meal was served and I watched a few movies, then tried to sleep a bit - thankfully I was more comfortable on this flight than the last - the bum wasn't quite so sore! Breakfast was served just before we landed in New York.
At JFK we had to grab our bags and re-check them in for the flight to Boston. We were also able to get boarding passes for our ongoing flight which was nice - but they had Josh sitting 6 rows behind Lexie and I!
The airport was a bit confusing - lots of signs pointing no where so it took us a while to figure out where to go - but we finally found the new line for security. By far the longest one of the trip - and they were making us do the full take off shoes, take out laptops that most of the other security lines had eliminated...We had bets on it being my turn to set everything off, but no it was Josh again! But again it was a short process.
When I originally booked our flight we just had a three hour layover which would have been fine, but then they cancelled that flight and put us on a later one, so there was going to be 4 hours to kill at JFK.
Because we were at the gate so early, we had to wait for an earlier flight to leave before we could get seats. then after sitting around for about an hour I checked the boards and realised that they had changed gates on us so we headed for the new gate. Only to find out that our plane had been delayed....oh goody. More waiting. Once they finally opened the gate I managed to get our seats changed so that I was just sitting in the row in front of the kids, that was better. But then the plane got delayed again.... are you seeing a pattern here.
By the time we got on the plane we had been sitting in JFK for close to 6 hours - we could have driven home in that time.....When we finally got on the plane it was a very easy, painless flight to Logan - no issues getting our bags. Then we had to find Andy...but he was stuck in a traffic jam getting into the airport. It was another 20 mins, and midnight local time before we finally got picked up and 1am before we got home....
