Australia ~ Day 18

Day 18 - How do you make a vacation never end?  At this point in the trip I missed home and the kids  (I missed Brandon too but he was deployed so even if I was home he wouldn't be there) but I never wanted to leave Australia.  Our trip had been amazing and we have been blessed with such great weather and good health that we didn't miss a single beat of any day we were here.  Not a second went to waste on this vacation.  I'm not sure if it was because we had so much we wanted to do and see that we jam packed all of our days completely full or if it was because Australia is just so laid back and friendly that the energy was always there to get out and explore.  Whichever reason it was, I'll forever want to spend more and more time in Australia.

With that being said, we started off today jumping on the double decker bus for the last time.  We had our last day on it today which meant after this it was all walking for us but we knew we could totally handle it now.  Without getting tired we could walk the whole city I bet!  Sorry, got off track.  We jumped on the bus and headed out.  We needed to find another bag for Mom to carry some of her stuff home with her. To make life traveling through the airports a little easier and of course because we bought a LOT of souvenirs and gifts for everyone!  So while we were up north we went to KMart a lot and knew they had what we needed.  But the only KMart we could find was a bit of a walk from a bus stop we hadn't been to yet.  So following a map we set out on today's adventure.

After we finally jumped off the bus at the train station area we started walking to KMart.  We passed this cool building with plants growing all over it.  I think this is a great way to keep greenery in a large city that is full of buildings and not very many trees!  This needs to happen more and more around the world!

We also walked through some Sydney Paddy's Market which is a huge Mall type area and found this place!  I couldn't believe it was a real store that used these commercials!  These were absolutely hilarious commercials for these underwear!  Check out the videos I posted from you tube. I couldn't believe it was an actual commercial on TV!  Just one more reason to LOVE Australia!

Man I hope those all gave you a good laugh as I know I was rolling when I first watched them!!!!

Moving on......

We walked by the University of Technology Sydney and they had some amazing buildings as well.

After we found Kmart and found Mom a bag we headed back outside to find it a little wet.  It was kind of nice to see the rain.  We weren't scared of a little rain.  It was vacation after all and nothing could get us down.  We did have mom's new luggage bag with us though so we stopped and waited for it to let up a little before continuing on.

Once the rain let up we continued on our way to find the closest bus stop again.  We had no trouble getting on the first bus.  Once we got to the Darling Harbour area we did get off the bus and had to catch another one.  The one we caught however had a not as nice bus driver and he wouldn't let us on the bus with Mom's new bag.  He said luggage wasn't allowed (even if it was brand new and empty).  So we emptied all our stuff out of our other grocery bags and put the luggage inside an empty bag and made our way onto the next bus that came along.  Good thing they come every 10-15 minutes and it's a different driver each time.  This time it was a nice person and they didn't even notice Mom's bag.  So on to the hotel we went to drop off our stuff and to get ready for a night of OPERA!

After we made our way back to the Opera House for our night of Opera on the harbor we of course sat and ate dinner and enjoyed the sights.  I didn't have my big camera with me again because I knew cameras at this Opera were not allowed, so I used my phone and played with many settings and took all these awesome photos on our walk.

#Garden200 200 years for the Botanical Gardens!

A panorama of the Sydney Harbour!  How amazing is this picture???

The Sydney Harbor at night panorama.

OPERA ON THE HARBOR!!!!!

This is one of the main things that had to be done while in Sydney!  To see the opera.  We had hoped to see one inside the Opera House but since there were none there at this time of year we did the next best thing and went to this one.  We did tour the Opera House so it kind of made up for it.

Our opera was called Turandot

The set was simple yet amazing!  It's hard to tell by the pictures just how large it really was so I stood by the dragons head and mom took a picture so you could really see how big he was.

The Synopsis of the Opera

The ending of the show when everyone was up and moving and heading out of the theater area.

We made our way to the top of the hill quite quickly and jumped in one of the first cabs to our hotel.  It was very simple to get back to our room.  I'm glad we didn't have to walk around the park in the dark.  We were kind of worried about that.

So there you have it, day 18 down in the books.  I am so incredibly grateful for this chance to be in Australia with my Mom.  Nothing could have been better!

Tomorrow is our last full day........

~Till Next Time~