Microvacation

I don't know if microvacation is a word (spellcheck says no, but it ain't that smart) but that's what I'm calling our trip to Sydney, since it wasn't even long enough to qualify as a weekend getaway. We left here around 7:30 am (not my fault we were late getting started) on Sunday morning,spent roughly 24 hours in Sydney, and were back home a little after 2 pm Monday (also not my fault, or at least mostly not my fault, that it took us longer to get home).

But in less than 24 hours, we packed a lot in, and had a damned good time. Well, Tom didn't have a lot of fun, because he was sick, but I think he had more fun being sick in Sydney than he would've had being sick at home. But anyway, we made it to the hotel with no problems (thank you Google for good directions), dumped our stuff, met up with Debbie (my sister-in-law) and her boys and headed out for lunch.

We got a little bit screwed up catching the bus, but we worked it out and got to the restaurant just a little bit late (and Karen had called ahead to let them know, so it was no drama). We ate at The Deck, and thoroughly enjoyed the food, the place, and most especially the views of the harbor. Very nice.

James and I shared a huge serving of paella. It's served for two people, but we ate all we wanted, Jack had some as well, then Debbie's son Lachlan tried some and ate all the remaining baby octopuses, and. I think maybe her other son Charlie tried some as well, and there was still a bit left in the pan after we'd all had our fill.

The younger boys all had fish and chips, Jack had grilled chicken, chips, and some kind of big ass salad. Karen and Deb both had grilled vegetables and bulghur wheat, or some-such, and everything was excellent. The only problem with the whole meal was that the girls' grilled vegetables included a big red pepper, and some evil bastard (who shall remain nameless) assured them that despite its vicious look, it was actually quite mild and delicious.

After lunch we took a ride around Sydney Harbour on one of the ferries. We cruised past the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, the Maritime Museum, and every minute of it was great. In many ways, it was the highlight of the day. I guess one of the party boats or tourist cruises would be cool too (no bar on the ferry), the ferry offers fewer distractions, and there's no way to beat the price (we bought Family Funday Sunday passes for a total of $10, for unlimited travel on busses, trains, and ferries all day). I would've happily ridden around all day, and next time we plan a longer trip to Sydney, I plan to do exactly that.

After the ferry brought us back to our starting point, we headed into Luna Park and spent the next six hours riding rides (the boys did; I don't do thrill rides)' playing carnival games (Tom won some fuzzy dice), and trying to keep up with four very energetic boys while also taking care of Tom, who was sick and rode in the stroller the whole day.

The weather was a bit punishing, especially for Karen. Around 30c/85f with 85% humidity, and it kicked her ass around pretty good. I don't know if spending half my life in SE Texas helped, or if was the fact that I was looking after Jack and James while the girls had the little boys, or if my version of "looking after" consisted of finding a spot with both air conditioning and adult beverages, and then turning the boys loose, with instructions to check in with me after every third ride.

I find that a combination of A/C and rum and coke in a tall glass with lots of ice creates the perfect balance of enjoyable holiday and responsible parenting. Once met back up with Karen, Deb and the little kids, they were happy to join me and embrace my parenting style, minus the rum.

We stayed long enough for the sun to set, and to see the park and the city, light up. Then the damned bus driver skipped our stop, and since we didn't want to sit there for another hour, and we would need THREE cabs to have enough car seats for the little fellas, we ended up walking a half a kilometer up the road to catch a train (got there just as the train was pulling in) to North Sydney (3 minutes by train, saved us 15 minutes of walking), then another kilometer (15 minute) walk from the train station to the hotel.

As we were walking (me pushing Tom in the stroller, and Karen and Deb taking turns carrying Charlie), I kept thinking that a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to do it, and I also kept thinking about the discussion I'v been having with my brother Charles on Facebook, about some of the differences between Australia and the US in terms of crime and gun control. Sydney is by no means a crime-free city, but if I'd been running around downtown Houston with 2 women and 5 little kids, I would've worried about a helluva lot more than whether or not we'd make it back to the hotel before they quit offering the full room service menu.

Once we were all "home" safely, we ordered a very late dinner (the boys didn't mind because they'd been eating junk food all day at Luna Park, but I'd only had one handful of chips since lunch, and my ass was hungry.

Tom had crashed as soon as we got home, Karen crashed as soon as she finished eating, and the boys and I stayed up until 1 watching The Chronicles of Riddick. It didn't do a lot for me, but the boys thought it was cool, and even though they were dead tired, they enjoyed getting to stay up so late.

I enjoyed it less when Tom woke me up at five, but the bonus is that I got to enjoy watching the sun come up on the harbor. For a minute, I thought about making a cup of coffee, grabbing a paper, and going out on the balcony and enjoy the whole thing, then I came to my senses and crawled back in bed and got almost another full hour of sleep.

Up at six, showered, sorted, packed and downstairs for breakfast by eight. Free wi-fi (only downstairs, not in the guest rooms) meant hat I could skip the paper and catch up on the news on my iPad. The breakfast buffet was good (Jack thought it was awesome - not the food, which he thought was good but not great, but the concept of an all-you-can eat buffet, which aren't common in Australia), and I was impressed with the selection. I had scrambled eggs and bacon (as much to try to entice Tom as for myself), coffee, orange juice, a cinnamon roll, and a couple of pieces of fruit. There were also three or four kinds of cereal, pancakes, yogurt, muesli, sausages, toast, danishes, baked beans, and probably some other stuff I either didn't notice or have forgotten about. Karen was even able to find enough vegan things to have a good breakfast, which is rare.

Once we were done, we loaded up the car, checked out, said our goodbyes and were on the road headed back to Canberra by ten. Google's failure to tell us that we were one lane too far over to take the exit we needed meant we had to scrap our directions (which, for whatever reasons, weren't just doing what we did before, only in reverse) and figure out our own way home. Luckily, we'd made a similar screw-up leaving the airport a few years ago, so we knew an alternative route, but it's not only longer, but without the tollways and tunnels, there's more traffic and more traffic lights, so it added nearly an hour to our travel time. Bummer, but we made it, we had a great time, Tom is getting better, and we've learned that we can pack a helluva lot of fun into a very short holiday if we (okay, if I) don't think vacation=laying on a beach drinking beer all day.



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