Trip with Mom & Dad: Day 15 - Goodbyes

January 10, 2014

Today is the last day of our trip.  When we get to the airport in Sydney, Mom & Dad will be heading back to Salt Lake City via Auckland and we are flying directly back to Christchurch. It has been a wonderful two weeks! We have seen many amazing natural and man-made wonders as well as had a great time with each other.

Thanks to all of you who have read my daily journals of our trip and suffered through my new found enjoyment of taking pictures. Here is a little highlight reel of our trip! It was so amazing - I love you Mom & Dad - thanks for joining us for a wonderful trip.

Trip with Mom & Dad: Day 14 - Sydney Day 2

January 9, 2014

We got up early today and went to the Sydney Temple. It was so fun to be there not only with my family but also with my good friend, Lisa. We had a really nice time. It was much sunnier today (hooray!) but that also meant the hay fever was more rampant. Poor Brian was about as drugged up on antihistamines as he possible could be and still could barely open his eyes at certain times during the day.

You shouldn't be too surprised to discover that my Mom & Dad met someone inside the temple who used to live in Draper and actually went to high school at Jordan High when my Grandpa Crump was either the principal or vice principal. So when we went outside to take pictures, of course we ended up waiting for them. In this first picture I took while Brian and Lisa were talking, you can see my folks in the background finally making their way outside haha.

After the temple, we got to go to Lisa's house to change. It was so fun to see her home! After that, we hopped on a ferry down the Parramatta River and into Sydney Harbour. It was quite windy as you'll see from some of the pictures, but we had a great time and got some wonderful pictures.

I love this picture of my Mom. She is so beautiful!

...trying not to blow away

Coming up to downtown Sydney via the ferry!

Me and Lisa in front of the bridge

As you may have guessed, Brian and Dad spent most of the ferry ride inside the ferry. Brian wanted to avoid the pollen in the air and I think Dad's stomach was still a little queasy. Luckily we got them outside for a couple of key pictures.

It was so amazing to get so close to the Sydney Opera House!

We hopped off the ferry at Circular Quay (I learned it's pronounced "key" not "kway") in Sydney and grabbed some lunch - we are starving by this time. After lunch, we got back on the ferry to go out to Manly, which is a suburb of Sydney with famous shopping and beaches. The wind picked up on the way over so we had to bundle up a bit!

We passed by some of the naval fleet as well.

This little island used to be either a fort or a prison, but it's slowly sinking so people aren't allowed out on it anymore

Once we arrived in Manly, Mom & Dad split off to do some shopping so Lisa and I took off on a little walk over to a smaller beach and see some water dragons.  We ended up seeing quite a few of the lizards. The pictures below show a baby water dragon and a full grown one.

One of the interesting things on the walk that we saw was these little sculptures that were attached to the rocks alongside the road of local animals, fish, plants and activities. I took a picture of one, so you could see. It made the walk really interesting!

On the return, we saw this really cool lighthouse. Lisa informed me that it's not the main lighthouse, but I thought the paint job was really different.

It was starting to get dark on the ferry ride back, so we took some additional pictures of the opera house and harbor bridge in the different light.

The last thing we did on our sight-seeing tour of Sydney was visit the Olympic Park from the 2000 Summer Olympic games that were held in Sydney. Brian wasn't completely excited about this part of the trip, but I was. I remember waking up early in the morning as a little girl to watch the olympics with my Dad as he got ready for work. So it was fun to see in person some of the venues I had watched on TV.

The best part of these pictures is Mom posing. She decided she would imitate the sport at some of the locations. It was hilarious! All in all, it was a great conclusion to a wonderful day.

I took this picture because they had a video running showing the opening ceremonies. The person in the picture is lighting the torch.

This is the main track stadium. I know you can't tell, but we are making the olympic rings with our hands lol.

This was one of the smaller track and field venues where they did shot put and discus.

I want to give a huge thank you to Lisa Pelayo, who made our brief stay in Sydney a great and memorable experience.  Thank you Lisa!!!