Today the sleep in didn't happen. The boys slept together in their queen size bed so when one even moves around 5:30am, the other is awake. We then had them, and every known life size soft toy resembling the animal kingdom with us in the other bed soon after. This was cool and they do like it here. So much so that yesterday afternoon Maverick said to me "Daddy, thank you very much for bringing us here!!" Great stuff from the little Mann.
We were up for a while and had brekky with Debbie given Jamie had left at 5am. The time flew and before we knew it we were struggling to find a carpark at the train station & stressing we were going to miss it!!
Luckily we found one and made it in time where we made our way to Circular Quay and the ferry to the zoo. We initially thought to drive but we would have missed the opportunity to see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge on a clear day from on a boat on the water. The boys just loved it - as did we seeing them with those golden smiles again.
I can't say we miss crowds - Nat in particular doesn't like them, particularly the pushiness. School holidays and just densely populated areas is far from where we have been in recent times, so I guess it is a good curtain raiser for our return into reality.
The zoo was great as it always is. We avoided the Australian area given we have seen every native animal in the country on our trip, and focused on the others. It became evident that the boys seem to be getting a little over seeing new things every day because a couple of times they said "OK Daddy, let's see the next thing" without really embracing what they were looking at & portraying a bit of a 'ho-hum' attitude. A good sign that 5.5 months on road will be the right duration. Just quietly I think Mum & Dad feel the same.....
Mav kept banging on about seeing kangaroos which was weird given we saw thousands in the wild. We convinced him that he had seen enough of them on the trip and continued around the international animals as it was 30 degrees and he was getting antsy.
After the short journey back to Circular Quay, we met some more close friends of ours (Steve, Sue & their son Oliver) whom we also met through the Illawarra Triathlon Club. We had iced coffee & milkshakes (beers for the dudes with hairy chests) at a local place near the Quay. As another example of how lucky we are to have friends like this, they are all travelling to Kona tomorrow morning, (as Steve is competing in the Hawaii IronMan) and they made sure they made an hour an a half of their precious time to catch a bus into Sydney City to see us. It was not long enough, but great all the same to see them and we wish Steve luck for next week. All the best mate, we will be watching and supporting & we will catch up soon to celebrate your finish.
On the train back to Jamie & Debbie's, Mav was sleep within 3 minutes and didn't wake until Campbelltown Station. The drive is about 20 minutes after disembarking and after getting back we found ourselves in the pool with the kids, then drinking Corona with some random Brie cheese we picked up in Tassie waiting for Debbie's famous lasagne to cook. The cheese was beautiful as was the lasagne, and we again had a few beers to finish the night. A nice stay here and we thank you guys heaps for taking us in.
Tomorrow we will head to the Blue Mountains with 3 more stops until home.
Jase.
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