The Harbour & a Huggett, Sydney

What a beautiful city Sydney is! It's amazing how you can visit a place so many times and always see something different.
I suppose having the kids with us for the first time in Sydney - and being in a caravan and not a hotel room -  has brought a completely different perspective to the city.
We were able to see all the major tourist attractions and then retreat back to a National Park, only 10 kilometers from the city centre, it really was the best of both worlds.
Having said that... yesterday morning, Saturday the 19th of May,  I went for a beautiful walk along the Lane Cove River, it was early enough to see the morning mist rising off the river, it was beautiful!
I then wandered back to the caravan to have a hot shower... the mornings are still freezing, even if the days have been gorgeous.
Before long everyone was up and we were walking to the North Ryde train station to head into the city for our walk along the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
We had brekky before the trek in Kirribilli...

Breakfast in the suburb of Kirribilli - no sign of Julia!

Unfortunately we couldn't walk to the top of the bridge because the kids are still too young and don't weigh enough, but I suppose we have to save something for next time. Instead we walked across it, taking in the amazing views of the Harbour.

Richard & the kids at the start of our trek across the bridge.

The view from the bridge

A group of bridge climbers, on their way up

We stopped mid way in the tower to read about the history of the bridge before continuing to the other side.
We arrived at The Rocks to the Saturday markets where we wandered the streets for a while before catching another train into the city centre, here the kids experienced their first sushi train for lunch.
Not a good spot for Nina, we had to watch her like a hawk to make sure she didn't smuggle the Japanese cheesecake first. They all loved the idea of being able to choose whatever they wanted.

Having a sushi train lunch

After lunch I saw what would have to be close to the most unusual vending machine I have ever seen... It gave us all a laugh...

New thongs anyone?

We then took the kids  on a lap on the Monorail before we realised it was probably time to head back to the caravan park to get ready to go out to Uncle Glenn (spelt with two n's) and his partner Sue's for dinner.

The kids, excited to be catching the monorail

We decided to drive to his house in Campsie. In hindsight it was probably a big mistake, the traffic was mayhem. Unbelievable for a Saturday evening.
Mr GPS didn't help with his route re calculations. He sent us off in all directions trying to avoid traffic accidents. Gee it was only 5 o'clock and the accidents were already happening.
We eventually arrived, albeit a little late after being taken through the middle of The Burbs.
It was a real eye opener for me... On the way there we passed through a suburb called Lakemba, a full on Islamic community. It felt like we were driving through a different country. The only Caucasians we could find we're hanging outside the TAB, too funny!!

Dinner was beautiful, Uncle Glenn and Sue had gone to so much trouble... We had an entree of scallops on carrot fritters followed by souvlaki...

A beautiful dinner with Uncle Glenn & Sue

...all over lots of riveting conversation and the odd political debate... until it all got too much for Sue...

We marvelled at Sue's balancing act in her sleep, very impressive!!

Can't say I blamed her, by 2 o'clock, I was ready for bed as well, so I dragged Richard out and we said goodbye. Thanks Uncle Glenn and Sue for a great night.. And it was so nice to finally meet you Sue. 

This morning, Sunday the 20th of May - we were a little slow, but before long we had everything packed up and ready to leave Sydney town... Bound for the Port Stevens area.
We arrived around 2:30 and went for a drive, calling in at some friends house Howard & Lorraine Laughton's in Soldier's Point.
We were arriving unannounced so we sent Jack out to ring the doorbell... his line was "excuse me Mr Laughton, do you have a cold beer for my dad?"

Jack, outside the Laughton household

... much to our disappointment, the Laughton's weren't home so we text them a photo of the three kids at the front of their house... they rang the minute they touched down on a flight from New Zealand, disappointed they had missed us.

We ended up setting up camp for  a couple of days down the road in Shoal Bay, so we will catch up with the Laughton's in the next day or so.

When we arrived in Shoal Bay it was pouring with rain, so by the time we had set up - we were saturated.

The boys took off into the town to try to find the Eagles on TV, while the girls had a warm shower.  Before long the boys were back, once again realising that we are in NSW and no one cares about (a) the AFL or (b) the Eagles... so instead we went and had a quiet dinner at a little Italian Restaurant called Gianni's (popular because it is named after our cousin Gianni ;-) before an early night.

Tomorrow, we look forward to exploring the area. The coastline, even in the rain  - looked amazing.