ANZ Day 1, Sydney (12/21/2012)

We made it to Sydney and are already having a fabulous time and spending all of our money (it's so expensive here)! Our hotel is across the street and one street over from the cruise ship terminal. Right now there is another ship docked there, but ours comes in tomorrow!  We can see the ship from our room.

  
Yesterday after we checked in and took a peek at the rooftop pool(!), we walked around The Rocks, the district our hotel is in, then ate some food from a street fair (yay for safe street food!).  Here is the view from the roof:

 The Central Business District (CBD)

 The Rocks

The Harbor Bridge

Circular Quay

After that, we walked through Circular Quay and over to the Opera House. After a quick look around there, we walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens.  I had told the kids we were going to a park and they were very upset to find out that there wasn't a playground.  K even said, "This isn't a park!  This is just a garden!"  It's funny how we distinguish things differently.

C took this picture of the Opera House up close.

  This parrot was just hanging out in the garden!

 

We did ultimately find this rock thing that was clearly meant for climbing on and stopped to play.  The kids called it "rock village" and it wound up being a favorite part of their day.  

 

 

 

After the garden, we stopped at McDonald's for a McFloat on the way back home.  Before heading back up to our room, we strolled through a street market less than a block from the hotel where we visited with a guy selling puzzles and bought K a headband that might actually keep her hair out of her face!

It is interesting to note that today is the first day of Summer here in Australia.  It starts tonight, actually.  So our family is having a crazy seasonal experience, going from fall to spring, spring to summer, and when we head back to Shanghai, summer to winter!  Wild!

Maybe even a little more wild is this summertime pipe/succulent Christmas tree we passed in our walking around today (picture courtesy of C):

 Happy Holidays!!!

You might be in China if...

You might be in China if...

... someone cuts in front of you in line.
... there are dirty, wet shoe prints on the toilet seat on the airplane.
... there is a questionable pool of liquid on the bathroom floor.
... someone cuts in front of you in line.
... you are served a meal on your domestic flight and the choices are rice or noodles.
... you can barely get out of your airplane seat for all the shoving.
... there is a large unknown liquid spill on the luggage conveyor belt that passes you over and over again (once with a suitcase on it).
... everyone tells you your daughter is beautiful while they touch her face and hair.
... you walk past four ktv/karaoke rooms by the hotel bar.
... someone cuts in front of you in line.
... your hummus comes with a generous 1/4" layer of oil on the top.
... your hotel room has an ash tray in it.
... the breakfast buffet includes pork buns, sushi, and crispy chicken claws.

You are definitely in China if these all happen in one 24-hour period!

If this 24-hour period happens to be within days of a dream out-of-China vacation with no plans to leave again for 5 months, well...  it's going to be a long 5 months.