Sunday in Sydney

 In my last post I wrote about our weekend in Sydney with out the children.  Today I will finish it off.  We woke up to another beautiful morning, again enjoying a quiet breakfast in the sunny dining room of our hotel.  Food seems to taste better when it is prepared by someone, especially when there are no accompanying arguments over who forgot to close the refrigerator door, whose fault it was that the milk was spilled, or who was sitting in which chair first.  

As you can probably tell, we had not yet been away long enough to miss the children.  We did check in with Heather a couple of times to make sure all was well, but that was as much for her sake as for any other reason.  We felt confident they were in good hands.

After breakfast we again walked up and down the numerous sets of stairs, past Woolloomooloo Bay, and through the Royal Botanic Gardens to the Opera House.  From there we caught the ferry to Manly Beach.  The wind had not yet picked up, so we sat outside on the upper deck of the ferry soaking in the sunshine and the beautiful views from all sides.

We arrived at Manly Beach just in time for the 10:30am family worship service at St. Matthews, or St. Matt's, as it was called throughout the hour we spent there.  The church was full of prams, young parents, and elementary aged children as well as a handful of older folk.

I have no more photos of Manly as we rushed back to Circular Quay in order to make our 12 noon reservation at the Sydney Cafe, located at the top of the Customs House.  This was quite possibly one of the best dining experiences we have ever enjoyed.   We had a fantastic view of the Harbor Bridge, and the food was well beyond our expectations.  It was one of those meals where you are sure to consume every crumb, and wish for an extra piece of bread just to mop up every bit of sauce on the plate.  I begrudged each bit I shared with Ross, even though what he shared with me was equally delicious.

We lingered for a few minutes after regretfully finishing off the desserts, wondering how we could go back to tacos, pizza, and sausages every night, as well as all of the chaos and commotion created by our four beautiful children.  But go back we did, eventually, after one more walk around the Opera House. When I rang the children during the drive from the Melbourne airport to our house, they were too busy playing with Heather to speak with me.  We were missed, we were told, but apparently not too much.

Hats off to Heather for not only surviving the weekend, but taking such wonderful care of our children. There was much regret as we sent her on her way back to Canada Thursday morning after one last evening in which she was joined at our house by her brother Aaron, sister Lauren, and friend Karen. We wish them all the best in this next season of their lives.

Comments

[Aunt Marion]

Your pictures are beautiful.. love taking the tours with you! The Opera House is always one of my favourites.

[Suzanne]

Looks like lots of good food and happy smiling faces! So glad you had a nice anniversary. Doesn't seem like the kids suffered much while you were gone. :)