Australia Day 1: Sydney Layover

The weekend before our departure for Australia as everyone was packing and cleaning the house Greg got a worried look.  “I just realized we need visas to go to Australia.”  As he started panicking, we both started googling and thankfully learned that you could apply for the visas online and they usually came through within 72 hours, plenty of time for our flight Thursday.

 

Greg began the process, unpacked the passports, and began entering info.  “We have an even bigger problem.  Your passport expires in 11 days.”  Let more research begin.  I could emergency renew my passport by visiting a passport office, closest office in Seattle or Denver.  So, I filled out passport files and got all my documents together while Greg scheduled me an appointment and flight for Monday morning in Denver.  I was still fighting week three of my cold, but I got in the car and got a terrible passport photo to take with me to Denver.

 

5:30am Monday morning I left for the airport, flew to Denver and Ubered straight to the passport office.  I waited my turn, submitted my forms, and was told to come back by 2:00pm to pick up my passport.  That was easy (ha-ha).  It was 10:30am.  My sister, Mel, dropped everything and came to pick me up.  We enjoyed a fabulous lunch, 4 hours of chatting, I got my passport, and she gave me a free ride to the airport.  All things considered it was a wonderful day with my sister and I was still going to Australia!

 

All drama behind us, mostly packed, kitten baby sitting in place we were ready to go…or so we thought. Wednesday afternoon as I pulled into the temple parking lot Greg called, “We have a problem.  Our flight to San Francisco from Boise was canceled because of severe weather tomorrow.”  My temple session was nearing and there was nothing I could do so I told him I’d pray, and I hung up.  After the session I called and learned that miraculously he had been able to purchase 5 tickets to Sydney for the next day on a different airline.  Somehow, we were still going to Australia!  The journey was a bit less convenient, and we had to leave the house earlier Thursday.  The original plan left after school, now we would be leaving around noon. Wednesday night bedtime hit, and Lily still wasn’t showered, and Emily wasn’t packed, so everyone decided to just skip the whole day of school.  They had a sad goodbye to Mack (home for Spring Break) and the kittens, and we headed on our adventure.

Boise airport with all our bags.

Lily at the Seattle airport pretending to be really sad that she was too tall to play in the kids play area.

Boise to Seattle was rather uneventful except that in route we learned that our Seattle flight to LA was delayed…we landed, and it was delayed further…got dinner…flight still hadn’t taken off.  By the time we got in the air we knew our connection would be tight.  We were getting worried when our arrival time was scheduled for 20 minutes before our flight would take off.  Thankfully the other passengers let the Sydney passengers off the plane first.  We had 15 minutes before the flight was scheduled to take off and luckily, we were only a couple gates away from the Sydney flight. Tender mercies- they held the airplane for our flight!!!  What a blessing.  We got on and go settled for the painful 15 ½ hour flight.

 

I won’t go into the annoyance of having the girls sit behind us, complaining if we tipped our seats back, one of their TVs not working, the whining - all that matters is that we got to Sydney!  

 

We got our bags stored, brushed some teeth and changed into cooler clothes then headed to the train station to go find Whitney and her boyfriend, Ryan.  They met us as the station with a bag full of Australian goodies; a bag that would be a fabulous distraction and fuel for the next few days.  On to the speedy tour of Sydney!

First pics in Sydney at the train station.

First, we checked out views of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and walked around the famous Opera House.  Whitney pointed out that the iconic white room was made from smallish tiles rather than one large sheet of material as it appears from pictures.

From there we wondered the Botanical Gardens enjoying the bin chickens, cockatoos, amazing and unique plants, and what must have been an Australian coot.  While we looked around, we hounded Whitney and Ryan with questions about Australia and their life updates.  We learned important things like: chicken parmigiana is served with chips (fries), they make fun of American portions but their portions are enormous, and if a menu says pumpkin it means squash – either butternut, acorn or occasionally sweet potato.

The weather was pleasant, not too hot or humid yet, but we could feel it getting warmer by the minute.  We wondered toward a museum only to realize we were running short on time if we wanted to get lunch and visit the famed candy store.  So, we made a quick walk through to find a bathroom and get a drink from the drinking fountain.  As we headed to the train station Emily wasn’t doing well.  Upon questioning I learned that she had only had one cup of water on the long flight – yikes.  I bought her a bottle in the train station and she downed in.

 

We took a picture in front of Sticky’s before the girls started watching the candy being made.  We had watched so many YouTube videos from this store being there in person revealed how small the shop actually was.  As Kate and Lily got sucked in Emily looked miserable and said she felt like she could throw up.  Whitney jumped in and offered to help her get some air.  I had just started looking at the candy selection when Whitney ran back, “She threw up!”

I think the poor thing was just dehydrated from the flight and the heat.  Whitney and I helped her get cleaned up (thank you Whitney for being prepared with a package of Kleenex) and got someone to call a ranger (i.e. janitor).  I helped Emily walk over to a restraint selling salads and sandwiches.  I got her a piece of bread and a salad for me while the others went to find burgers.  Once she got her strength back, we joined the others, said bye to Whitney and headed back to the airport.  

 

I had changed into my Chacos at the airport which had proved to be a terrible mistake.  My feet were a bit swollen from the flight and the heat made them even worse so my sandals were rubbing like crazy.  By the time we got off the train at the airport we had done nearly 10,000 steps and I had blisters.  I was so ready to put my sock and shoes back on. 

Whitney also gave the girls clips to do French twists.  Lily and Kate struggled to make it stay but Emmy got hers to work fabulously.

Our stash from Sticky's.

Some of the snacks from Whitney and Ryan.  The KitKats were incredible- way better than regular.

We picked up our bags and got onto our Cairns flight – very sleepy.  The humidity and rain hit us as we landed, grabbed our rental car, and stopped at a grocery store for dinner.  Kate pulled out her researched list of foods to try so we bought a box of TimTam’s for dessert with our salami, cracker, and cheese dinner.  The TimTams were a hit; we consumed a few packs before we got home.

 

Greg drove the 90 minutes to Rose Gum, our place for the night in the Atherton Tablelands, in the rain, on almost no sleep, through some pretty windy passes, but we made it safely.   The last 10 miles were exciting as we watched for critters and were rewarded with our first marsupial, a red legged pademelon.  That woke everyone up a bit as we got ourselves settled into our fabulous place.  With the breeze and sound of the rain we were all sound asleep in no time.