Australia 2024 - Day 25, 26 & 27

 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....

Australia 2024 - Day 22, 23 & 24

 Day 22 - July 19  Loftus

Spent the morning relaxing and catching up on washing and grocery shopping.  After lunch we finally had a chance to get down the back yard and have our first play with the outside trains.  Cleared off all the tracks, then ran trains all afternoon.

We had watched a documentary the night before about Mega Fauna in Australia so Lexie took her new Wombat down and created a video of a Mega Wombat riding the trains.

 Day 23 - July 20  Family Gathering

Today we headed to the Stopics for a Hunter family gathering.  Mel started organising this as soon as I planned this trip, but unfortunately not a lot of people we able to come.  

We got to Mel's around noon, then Lexie, Josh, Eddie and I walked down to the shops.  A quick stop in Woolworths for limes - but it seems that limes are out of stock....then to the bakery for bread, and finally the Greek cake shop for dessert.

But the time we got back, Janette had arrived so we were able to catch up a bit, then Gemma and her family (Geoff, Edward and August) arrived and shortly after, Bruce.  Lunch was served - Goulash and Schnitzels. Alison arrived during dessert, Pavlova and the Greek cakes.  

After lunch Atti showed Josh his set up of flight simulator, with the full yoke, rudder pedals and VR headset and Josh was able to have a fly.

Day 24 - July 21  Kurnell

We decided to head down to Kurnell today - see if we could see any whales off the coast since we had missed our whale watching in QLD.  We packed up a BBQ picnic lunch and drove down to Kurnell and right out to Cape Solander.  

Walked along the cliff walk for a while and did in fact manage to spot at least two whales and a couple of dolphins.  Unfortunately from that far away all we were really seeing was spray on the water.

We drove back down to the main picnic area and found a place for lunch.  It took us 4 tries to find a BBQ that worked properly, but once we got it Josh did a great job of cooking us sausages and onions to make our sausage sandwiches.  Lexie did a good job off fending off the watching Kookaburras.

We walked down to Botany Bay and checked out the new Whale sculpture.

Stopped at the Grocery store on the way home to buy dinner for Grandpa and the kids as I was going out to dinner.

I headed down to Helensburgh RSL to catch up with Cathy and Warren, Helen, Meaghan, Margaret and Adam, Jeanette and Stuart.  We were having a  great night, but they closed the place down at 9pm and kicked us out!

Australia 2024 - Day 19, 20 & 21

Day 19 - July 16  Caloundra

The original plan had been to do a whale watching cruise today.  Unfortunately the tour company decided that it was too choppy to go out today so we had to scrap that plan and come up with a Plan B.

Atti had found the Queensland Aviation Museum down in Caloundra that he wanted to go to, And Uncle Bill and Grandpa decided on a sightseeing boat tour at Caloundra. In the end we decided to tag along to the air museum.  We dropped Grandpa and Bill off at their jetty, then did a short drive around Caloundra before heading out to the Air Museum.  We had fun checking out all the planes - I still think this is the cutest aircraft ever.

At midday we went back to pick up Grandpa and Bill and stopped at the tavern at the jetty for Lunch - good food with a great view, but service was slow.

We had planned to go the Aquarium in Mooloolaba after lunch, but by the time we finished lunch and drove back to Mooloolaba it was 2pm.  Grandpa and Bill dropped us off in front of the Aquarium and headed home and we went to go in, only to be told that, since the Aquarium closed at 3pm they would not accept any new entries after 2pm.  So now we were stuck in Mooloolaba with nothing to do.  Since we thought Mel would be back shortly (and we were just a short walk from her place) we decided to hang around the Wharf and bought some Gelato, but then we got the text from Mel saying that they had only just started their hike (they were doing a hike in the Glass House Mountains) so we gave in and called Grandpa to come and pick us up.

We relaxed at Bills place for a while, then once the Stopic's were back from their hike we went down to their place for one final evening together, ordered pizzas for dinner.

Day 20 - July 17  Buderim - Wingham

Had a early start today as we started the drive home.  We said goodbye to Uncle Bill and then headed straight down the M1, through Brisbane, towards Sydney.   It was a fairly boring drive, motorways are never that exciting, but at least there wasn't too much bad traffic.  We switched drivers regularly again, once at a McDonalds just south of Brisbane, then again at Lunch.  For lunch we stopped at a little town called Mclean.  We were hoping to find a takeaway and eat down by the river, but the only thing we found was an Olivers - overpriced "nutritious" food...but we did at least get a nice view.

Then back on the road.  After a quick afternoon tea stop at a service plaza, we got off the freeway at Taree and headed for Wingham.  We are staying the night at my cousin Bruce's house.  A nice little spot he has there I really enjoyed seeing his place.  He'd organised a BBQ for dinner and we went out and cooked in his little outdoor Kitchen.  Snags rissoles, onions and eggs on the BBQ plus salads and bread.  Lexie found out that Australian sausages cooked on the BBQ really are good and devoured 4 of them - so did Josh for that matter.

Day 21 - July 18  Wingham - Loftus

This morning we got a tour of Bruce's sheds - checking out all his cars.  He only has 8 of them at the moment.  I do love the new teal statesman, but nothing will beat the bright green Torana.

Had a later start today, then on the road heading back to the freeway.  First stop today was at Heatherbrae for lunch at a mexican fast food place Guzman y Gomez.  Then back on the road.  Ran into heavy traffic down near Gosford, but finally made it back to Sydney - then through Sydney and arrived home around 3:30pm.  Considering it was only meant to be a 4 hour drive today it was still a long day.

Spent the rest of the day relaxing and unpacking.

Australia 2024 - Day 18

Day 18 - July 15 - Noosa

Todays Adventure was brought to us by Lexie.  I had mentioned once horse riding on the beach and Lexie was super excited, so we had found a place just north of Noosa that did horse riding tours along the beach and booked the whole family (minus Grandpa and Uncle Bill) in.

The tour wasn't till 1pm but it was a bit of a drive so we headed up early, organising to Meet Mel and family up near Noosa for Lunch.  We drove up to Noosa itself first, managed to find a place to park and did a quick walk over to the beach and then back along the main drag.  It's interesting - if you are the sort of person who wants to see or be seen then it's the place for you - but for me it was just too busy - give me a little underdeveloped place anyday.

We had organised to meet Mel at Sunshine beach  - not to be confused with Sunrise Beach next door (think they need a new town naming system around here) Which was more my speed.  Though even there it was hard to get a park.  We found the local fish and chip shop and bought fish and Chips for lunch, 

Then Lexie and Josh went back for the deep fried Mars Bar (equivalent to a US Milky way)...not sure about that - I think I'll just stick to a standard Mars Bar.

After lunch we headed for the beach - we had to first catch a ferry across the river.

Then drive to a designated beach - Teewah Beach.

After a short safety briefing and some instructions on basic riding - you know, how to get them to go and then how to make them stop....

 We got helmeted up and assigned horses.

Each of us were given a horse according to our height, weight and riding level.

Then we mounted up...

Then headed for the beach.

                                              

I have to say it really was beautiful riding along the deserted beach.  We kept it to a walk most of the time, but Lexie was allowed to trot a little - and the guides had few other of us to try trotting as well - How does Lexie do it?  Its certainly harder than it looks.

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We rode for a full hour, along the beach towards Noosa and then back again - I must admit I'm not sure I could have done a longer ride - but it was so much fun!

Back home to change and then we all went out for dinner to the local surf club.