Our flight down was long, now officially Siena’s longest flight at 13.5 hours (this record will last until we fly home of course). It was quite a trip. As always Siena was great and while United didn’t exactly provide the most comfortable flight of our lives, we all survived.
Once we got off the plane we headed to our hotel. It was 6:30 am and we were ready to go. We are staying at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney. What a fabulous hotel. The view from our room is amazing, the Opera House and the Bridge are both right outside our windows. The view of the entire harbor is great. If the view wasn’t enough, the hotel is wonderful as well and the staff is great. Everyone is so accommodating; they dote on Siena and are amazingly attentive to your every need. They even provided us a stroller (push chair here in Oz) for the week. Now that is service.
While we were all a bit sleepy, we were all very excited to be here as well, so we headed right out to see the city. We are in Sydney, so it only made sense that we would head down into the harbor to see the sights. We journeyed down through a part of town know as The Rocks. It is a great area filled with history, great shops and restaurants. We stopped into the Rocks Discovery Center and toured the narrow streets, admired the murals and shops. We wandered through the area and then down to the harbor.
As we headed to the harbor, Siena stopped to admire the statue of Captain Bligh by the Cadman’s Cottage. We then headed to Circular Quay to see the Opera house. It was here that we learned a very important Sydney lesson; the edges of the waterways have no railings or fences, just a tiny ledge. This is very nice if you are a careful adult as the areas around the water have nothing impeding your views. Not so great if you are the parent of a two year old who doesn’t realize what happens if you just keep going. Siena absolutely did not understand why she could just walk along the narrow edge. Mommy and daddy were careful, but she is very fast for someone so little. You will note the rather tight holds we have on her in the pictures, looks like a bear hug, and it is, but it is one with a good reason.
We wandered through Manly for a while and then headed to the beach. It was there that the time zone change hit our little girl and it became necessary to stop for an hour or so on park bench for a nap. We headed back to Sydney and found some fun fountains to visit on our way back to the hotel. Once there we went for an early dinner. A roof top beer garden at a local pub was quick and had a nice view of the harbor.
After a quick dinner we headed off to bed, at 8 pm. All of us. Yes, we all needed to get our sleep, but we all had dreams of a great first day on holiday.
