Touristing

Warning, this post is heaps long and heaps awesome...

My parents are here!!!! Holy cow is that awesome. They also brought my Grandparents along which is super cool. They arrived at the airport Monday morning. I met them there, we all hopped in a car and I somehow managed to direct them to where they are staying while my Dad somehow managed to successfully drive on the opposite side of the road. Everyone got settled in, we got some food and groceries and by then it was time for sleep for everyone.

Tuesday morning I hopped on a bus over to their apartment and we all packed in the car and headed for Darling Harbour. I was pretty excited for this as I have yet had much of a chance to play tourist while I'm here. We got there, did some organizing and planning for the day, then decided it was lunch time. Mom knew exactly where she wanted to eat...

We ate a delicious lunch at the Hard Rock overlooking the harbour, then decided to hit up the gift shop.

Sign outside of the gift shop. Made us all giggle.

The gift shop was surprisingly disappointing so we walked through the shopping centre and then walked around the harbour while my Grandparents did a little shopping.

Margaritaville Gift Shop

After a while we bought tickets for a boat cruise around the Sydney Harbour. We had a little more time to kill though so we did a little goofing off :)

Me and Leo :)

They had a Koala out on display. I actually felt pretty bad. He seemed to want to be left alone.

Then we hopped on the boat for the cruise around the Harbour. This is the start of what will probably be a massive photo dump as I was running around taking pictures of EVERYTHING trying to remember all of the cool facts and stuff to put on here. We'll see how well my memory serves me.

To start with, just across from where the boat took off was the Maritime Museum. We wish we could have had time to go as it looked pretty sweet, but at least we got to see these cool boats from the outside.

A cool ship and submarine.

And... I got SO excited to get a picture of this just for my nieces and nephews back home...

I kept referring to this as Bucky from Jake and the Never Land Pirates.

Then the boat left Darling Harbour and the site seeing began.

The Bridge!!!!

The Opera House!!!!

He made me take another one since I wouldn't be serious.

So as payback, he's not serious. And they wonder where I get it from :)

One of the super expensive houses. This is the area is where all the rich people live.

So many boats. Reminded me of Marlin and Dory in the Harbour. (This is only the beginning of the Finding Nemo references, you have been warned...)

Shark Island

They have a shark net up, because ya know, there are sharks in the harbour...

A nude beach. Thank heavens no one was out there :/

Rock Climbing anyone?

Where my wedding reception will be ;-)

Where my wedding will be ;-) (notice the fisherman at the end)

We both behaved this time.

Luna Park

I thought this boat was going to fall apart while it was making it's way through the harbour...

One of the ugliest buildings in the world :)

Anyone up for a cruise?

Then our boat cruise ended and we were back in Darling Harbour. This was not near the end of our day though. Oh no, I insisted on heading into the Aquarium. My Grandparents decided to do some more shopping in the meantime.


(here is the start of a massive photo dump of a ton of cool marine animals)

Platypus!!!!

And again

What the heck? That's a really long neck!!!

Can you spot Nemo? :) (There's better pictures of him later, don't worry.)

You cannot imagine how absolutely massive this lobster is.

Or this crab. It makes me sad, these pictures just don't do them justice.

Actually found the seahorses a little creepy. They just kind of sit there and sway in the water.

Just thought it looked cool

Some rays

I wanted so badly for this octopus to move, but he just stayed there in his corner.

Gill and Dory :)

The underside of these Ray thingies... :/

And again.

Don't remember what that thing is.

Mr. Ray and friends :)

Before you saw the nice sharks, meet the not so nice sharks.

"Hello. Name's Bruce"

Decoration in the shark tank.

"There was this mollusk, and he walks up to this sea cucumber..." What the heck is a sea cucumber?

This is apparently a sea cucumber. It was all curled up so the picture isn't very good. But it felt really squishy.

Touching a sea urchin.

It felt like a rock. And when you touched it it close on your hand. It was a weird feeling.

Nemo?

Marlin and Nemo and another little clown fish. (I apologise for the blurryness.)

Marlin and Dory!!!! :)

Sweet looking coral.

Saw fish!

After that we did end up heading home. We forgot to write down return directions from the Harbour so we managed to end up on the other side of the bridge. After a little more adventuring we managed to make it back to my parent's apartment on Bondi Beach and everyone very gladly went to bed.

I will end this post there (if anyone is still even reading it). I do have more posting material already but it's already 11:30 and I have to get up at 4:30 to get ready for an early flight to New Zealand in the morning, so I will put up another post later on sometime. I also managed to not get any photos of my Grandparents but I know they did so I hope to upload some from their camera to post on the blog sometime this week.

Good night!!!