Monday, November 15, 2010
Oh Jacaranda!
My favorite season has always been fall. This November I am missing fall but spring in Sydney may be my new favorite. My world is filled with sunshine, sea breezes and beautiful shades of purple! Oh, jacaranda tree, you are beautiful!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Trick or Treat?
We have just celebrated our first Halloween in Sydney. Like most holidays, Halloween in Sydney had a way of making us long for America. The holiday is fairly controversial here in Sydney and is not widely celebrated. Those that do celebrate, seem to have adopted the more "evil" side of Halloween and have left much of the fun, community minded side of Halloween that we know and love somewhere in the garbage with the pumpkin guts. This lends to a difficult decision for the mom of American kids. Do we continue with our Halloween traditions in spite of the way that looks to those around us, or do we succumb to pressure to steer clear of the "evil, pagan holiday?" After much deliberation, we decided to carry on with our family traditions and focus on the wonderful, positive aspects of Halloween.
So, we carved pumpkins - very EXPENSIVE pumpkins. Take a look at our masterpieces. $97 and an hour of work later and we have the first signs of Halloween in our yard. I will admit, it was a little strange to be carving them under the shade of an umbrella after having just applied sunscreen. It takes a little bit of the "fall fun" out of the pumpkins. But, we still carved away and even roasted the pumpkin seeds afterward.
Now that we have the required decoration, we can trick or treat. There are a few streets around us that we were told participate in Halloween so we planned to meet some other American friends there and trick or treat together. As a side note, these streets that are good ones to trick or treat on, mean about 1 in every 5 houses hands out candy. People will put out an orange balloon or pumpkin of sorts if they are participating.
But first, costumes! Because Halloween is so low key here, we went low key on the costumes too. I told the kids they could be anything they wanted as long as they found the costumes in the house. For the girls, that was easy. They just wanted to be princesses and fairies and we have an ample supply of girly costumes in the dress up corner. For the little man, he wanted to be Zeus. He is obsessed with Greek mythology right now after reading Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. So, a toga it was. As for the babe, I just grabbed a giraffe costume from the dress up stuff and off we went. Although I must admit the little giraffe was none too happy to participate in this activity. Poor thing woke up with a fever Sunday morning so she was not really able to enjoy Halloween with us.
Much loot collected on this hot, sunny afternoon. Time to head home...
So, we carved pumpkins - very EXPENSIVE pumpkins. Take a look at our masterpieces. $97 and an hour of work later and we have the first signs of Halloween in our yard. I will admit, it was a little strange to be carving them under the shade of an umbrella after having just applied sunscreen. It takes a little bit of the "fall fun" out of the pumpkins. But, we still carved away and even roasted the pumpkin seeds afterward.
Now that we have the required decoration, we can trick or treat. There are a few streets around us that we were told participate in Halloween so we planned to meet some other American friends there and trick or treat together. As a side note, these streets that are good ones to trick or treat on, mean about 1 in every 5 houses hands out candy. People will put out an orange balloon or pumpkin of sorts if they are participating.
But first, costumes! Because Halloween is so low key here, we went low key on the costumes too. I told the kids they could be anything they wanted as long as they found the costumes in the house. For the girls, that was easy. They just wanted to be princesses and fairies and we have an ample supply of girly costumes in the dress up corner. For the little man, he wanted to be Zeus. He is obsessed with Greek mythology right now after reading Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. So, a toga it was. As for the babe, I just grabbed a giraffe costume from the dress up stuff and off we went. Although I must admit the little giraffe was none too happy to participate in this activity. Poor thing woke up with a fever Sunday morning so she was not really able to enjoy Halloween with us.
We met our friends at the park and prepared to descend upon the neighborhood...
Much loot collected on this hot, sunny afternoon. Time to head home...
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Kuranda
The final day of our Holiday in Cairns we took the Kuranda Railway up into the rainforest. It was 1 1/2 hours chugging up the mountain to the little village of Kuranda. The kids loved the train ride - for the first hour at least. It got very hot and sticky as evidenced by our red faces in the pictures! We stopped part way up to look at the waterfall where a fellow traveler nicely snapped a photo of all eight of us. Then it was on to our destination.
In Kuranda, we ate lunch and then walked around town a bit. It is filled with shops and markets that are full of the required tourist junk. If you know me, you know I love to walk around places like this so I thought it was great. Sadly for me, the kids desire to go to Bird World outweighed my desire to browse market stalls and it was off to Bird World.
I do not like birds. J does not like birds. None the less, we spent $50 to go stand and cringe as hundreds of the dirty creatures flew around us - many narrowly missing our heads. The kids could not get enough of course. They held them and fed them while I tried to snap photos and resist the urge to send the birds packing. Fortunately, it was a small place and it started raining again so we did not spend too long there.
After about 2 1/2 hours in Kuranda, we had to catch our skyrail back down. What an amazing way to travel. As beautiful as the train was, the skyrail was spectacular. The views were outstanding. We traveled above the rainforest canopy and could see out across the Coral Sea. Another reminder of God's beautiful creation!
In Kuranda, we ate lunch and then walked around town a bit. It is filled with shops and markets that are full of the required tourist junk. If you know me, you know I love to walk around places like this so I thought it was great. Sadly for me, the kids desire to go to Bird World outweighed my desire to browse market stalls and it was off to Bird World.
I do not like birds. J does not like birds. None the less, we spent $50 to go stand and cringe as hundreds of the dirty creatures flew around us - many narrowly missing our heads. The kids could not get enough of course. They held them and fed them while I tried to snap photos and resist the urge to send the birds packing. Fortunately, it was a small place and it started raining again so we did not spend too long there.
After about 2 1/2 hours in Kuranda, we had to catch our skyrail back down. What an amazing way to travel. As beautiful as the train was, the skyrail was spectacular. The views were outstanding. We traveled above the rainforest canopy and could see out across the Coral Sea. Another reminder of God's beautiful creation!
Tjapukai
One afternoon we took the two big kids to Tjapukai Aboriginal Park. It was a highlight of the trip. It was pouring rain (again) but everything was under canopies which got this excursion off to a great start! We started our aboriginal experience with traditional face painting. That is always a kid pleaser! The kids also participated in a special didgeridoo lesson, message rock painting, a dancing performance, dream workshop, and spear and boomerang throwing. What a way to teach the kids about another culture. The sociologist in me was in heaven. Besides, what is a holiday without at least a little education. (Yes, I know I am my mother's daughter!) Much to my pleasure, the kids have listed this educational experience as one of their favorite activities of the trip.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Hartley's Crocodile Farm
It has been said that no visit to Cairns is complete without stopping at Harley's Croc farm. Being the shameless tourists that we are, we made our trip complete and stopped there. There sure were a lot of crocodiles. I did not, however, see Crocodile Dundee!
We saw a snake show (boring), and a croc show (not as boring), and went on a boat ride. Well, some of us did. The little girls were beat and being very naughty at this point and it was POURING rain, so I took them to the car where they were much happier. The rest of the gang went on the boat ride. This is where the real action began. They took the boat around Hartley's lagoon and coaxed the crocs right out of the water. Next time you want to see a croc, just put a chicken on a pole. Voila! Out they come!
We saw a snake show (boring), and a croc show (not as boring), and went on a boat ride. Well, some of us did. The little girls were beat and being very naughty at this point and it was POURING rain, so I took them to the car where they were much happier. The rest of the gang went on the boat ride. This is where the real action began. They took the boat around Hartley's lagoon and coaxed the crocs right out of the water. Next time you want to see a croc, just put a chicken on a pole. Voila! Out they come!
The Great Barrier Reef - Frankland Island
Cairns
We went to Cairns this most recent holiday. We were lucky enough to have J's parents join us so we were quite the crowd on this vacation. You should have seen all our luggage - not to mention the rental car we had to book to fit us all! We stayed in the Coral Tower Apartments which worked great for us. Nothing over the top but it was great to have two apartments for our gang to spread out. We were on the Esplanade about 2k North of the main lagoon. Close enough to take advantage of everything there was on offer.
We spent one day just playing in the Lagoon. Because swimming in the sea in Cairns is not great, they have created the most amazing lagoon in the center of town. It has zero depth entry just like the beach so it was wonderful for the little kids. They loved the fountains especially. For the older two, they were able to explore the deeper waters and had loads of fun as well.
Sadly, we had a lot of rain on our trip. But, since there was no lightning the kids just kept right on swimming. The best part of the lagoon for us on this day was the covered area right by the fountains. The adults could stay dry and out of the downpour while the kiddos kept having fun!
We spent one day just playing in the Lagoon. Because swimming in the sea in Cairns is not great, they have created the most amazing lagoon in the center of town. It has zero depth entry just like the beach so it was wonderful for the little kids. They loved the fountains especially. For the older two, they were able to explore the deeper waters and had loads of fun as well.
Sadly, we had a lot of rain on our trip. But, since there was no lightning the kids just kept right on swimming. The best part of the lagoon for us on this day was the covered area right by the fountains. The adults could stay dry and out of the downpour while the kiddos kept having fun!
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