Sydney!!

We FINALLY took a trip down to Sydney a couple of weekends ago!! It's about time since we only live 2 1/2 hours away and it's taken us 5 months to visit! We travelled in style down there in a seaplane! It was an amazing way to get there. Charlie took a half day on Friday... we went and lunch on the water and then hopped on the plane and headed down to Sydney. In all it took us 45 minutes to be in downtown Sydney. The ride down was not only quick but GORGEOUS.. even though it was overcast. Charlie gets to see the coastline everyday when he's flying, but for me it was a completely new and exciting view of the country!

After landing in Sydney we caught a ferry over to Circular Quay (ie Opera House, Harbour Bridge). It was such a fun ride over there! The homes on the harbour are absolutely stunning! I think I took a few pics, but they really don't do them justice. Once we got off of the ferry we were able to walk to our hotel and check-in. We stay at a place called The Grace Hotel. It was in a perfect spot right in the CBD (downtown) and equal distance between Darling Harbour and Circular Quay.

We headed to Darling Harbour to check it out on Friday afternoon. It's extremely touristy. Tons of restaurants, an aquarium, shopping, and an IMAX Theater right on the water. We walked around, had a pint and then headed to hotel to change for dinner. I had made reservations at the Sydney Cove Oyster Bar... it was right on the water and had fantastic views of the Harbour Bridge. Very nice!

I think we ended up walking about 15 miles on Saturday. We went from one spot to the next to check off all of the things we wanted to see. We started out the morning in an area called The Rocks. It's the most historic part of the city and it's gorgeous, with lots of cafes and cute boutique stores. They have a market every weekend and Charlie and I ended up buying a print for the house. After breakfast at the Chocolatiere (Mmmmmm, delicious) we decided to walk around Circular Quay and get an up close look at the bridge... it's definitely more beautiful from a distance!

Our next stop was the Seafood Market! Mmmm, more food ha. This time we had tuna sashimi chosen and sliced right in front of us and fresh pacific oysters shucked to order. MMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmm. It's doesn't get any better than that! We took our food over to Darling Harbour and had a nice picnic lunch... although the seagulls tried really hard to ruin the little picnic.

Finally after a looong day of wondering around the city we decided that we just wanted to sit down listen to music and have a nice drink. We found a FANTASTIC little spot right next to the Opera House that had nice Spanish style band and great cheese. We will definitely be going back there... hopefully next time we will be heading to the Opera like the rest of the crowd there... ha, we were a little under dressed.. oh well!

Well, those are the highlights from the trip! Definitely a long winded blog.. sorry! It was just such a great weekend. We are looking forward to exploring more of the city when friends and family are in town!

We love and miss you all!!

Sydney March 2009

long time no post

It's been waaaay too long since we last posted... but nothing too much has happened so neither of us have been motivated to write... sorry! My mom wrote me the other day and told me it's time to post again.. so here it is : )

The past few weeks have been pretty normal weeks for us. I think both of us are getting more and more used to life here in Australia. I am still searching for a job... and definitely getting fed up with it. I'll go through stages of sending out lots of applications and then wait to hear back (of course I never do) and then motivate myself again to send more out.. etc, etc. Hopefully I'll hear back from one of the businesses soon. I have run into several people who are in the same boat as me, which makes me feel a little better... I guess.

When I am not busy looking for a job, I am usually hanging out with my little buddy Stella. Thank goodness for the dog! She is an excuse to go for walks on the beach, harbour and any other scenic spot in Newcastle. Although walking her has definitely become a challenge since she has developed a bad habit of constantly pulling on the leash. It was fine when she was a little puppy, but she is growing very quickly and if we can't break her of the habit I am sure she'll pull me over one day. Not good. So we are working on that.... I'll let you know how it goes ; )

This weekend will be our first weekend away from Stella... WOOHOOO! Ha, now that she has finally gotten bigger and has all of her vaccinations, Charlie and I are heading down to Sydney for the weekend! It's our first time down there... other than driving through the city a few times during our December vacation debacle. We are definitely looking forward to it!! We are flying down on a sea plane and taking the train back up. The plane cuts the trip down from 2 1/2 hours to a 1/2 hour... which is nice on a Friday afternoon. So we should definitely have lots to write about after this weekend.

We are hoping to take lots of weekend trips in the next few months. I have added a little section to the right of the page that has our travel plans on it AND dates that people are planning on coming to visit us! Eddie is our first official visitor in July!!! Everyone should follow his lead and book a trip! : ) You can fly from the east coast now for $826.... CRAZY... Ha. I always feel like I am a Travelocity commercial when I start talking about ticket prices!

That's about it from here! Love and miss you all!!