A Great Birthday Weekend by Suzanne

We had another great weekend!  It started off a little shaky, but ended up wonderful.  Friday night we were heading down to Circular Quay,  (the main Sydney Harbour, where the bridge and the Opera House are) to find something to eat.  On a whim, Ethan decided that we should catch a ferry to Neutral Bay, he had heard of it and maybe we'd find some restaurants over there.  The ferry left in 3 minutes so there was no time to decide.  We jumped on!  We got to Neutral Bay and started to walk.  We did pass 2 restaurants close to the wharf, but wanted to go further (plus one looked very pricy, the other Thai, not our family's favorite.)  It was a very residential area north of the bridge.  On foot, not knowing where the business district was (except for seeing the tall buildings too far off for us to get to,) all we could do was walk.  We walked.  It was uphill.  We walked some more.  We were hungry.  We were tired.  We had not dressed for a "hike." I was trying to give Ethan some credit for being spontaneous.  But eventually I had to say, "I'm not feeling it.  When do we cut our losses?"  Finally we all gave up finding that "great area with the cool inexpensive restaurants" that we had envisioned.  We walked back toward the wharf and were planning on going back to Circular Quay to eat, but there were not very many choices of ferries back.  We ended up eating at the Thai restaurant mentioned above.  I was very worried after we ordered, with many special requests for each meal, that we would maybe have 1 out of 5 happy campers when the food came.  It turns out that everyone was satisfied, we even ordered more of the dim sum because they were such a hit!  It all turned out good in the end, the night was salvaged.

Saturday was a little relaxed, we had no plans until dinner.  We decided to go back and see the markets at Chinatown that we had barely skimmed over last time.  They were a hit!  We were of course looking for some gifts for Luke's birthday, and found some, as well as lots of souvenirs that many will enjoy when we bring them home.  I also got myself a great pair of UGG boots.  We wandered back through Darling Harbour (the second main harbour here, also gorgeous) and the Australian car show.

Ethan's colleague, David North, had invited us for dinner with his family in North Sydney.  He picked us up in his car here at the hotel.  It was only about a 15 minute drive to his lovely home and family.  He and his wife Mary have a son Mac who is 10 and a daughter Kate who is 12.  They had also invited another family who lives here in Sydney, Suzanne (pronounced Su-zon) and Gavin and their two 12 year old twins, a girl (Lilliken) and a boy (James).  Suzanne grew up in Sweden and her Swedish parents were there visiting, and came to dinner as well.  What an international group we had!  (Mary, the host, and Gavin, Suzanne's husband, both grew up in England, just to add another nationality to the mix...)

Here is most of the group!  From left to right, back row: Me, Gavin, David, Suzanne, Mary, Ethan, Christian.  Front row:  Lilliken, James, Kate, Marianne

We had a lovely evening with lots of laughter, lots of wonderful food, and lots of wine.  The night was so enjoyable and entertaining.  It is amazing to me that the English language can bring so many people from all over the world, onto the same playing field where we can enjoy each other's company, experiences, and differences.  Suzanne and her parents are lovely singers and they even sang some Swedish greeting songs to all of us.  We had a wonderful time.  The kids all got to play outside together, which is a treat when we live in a hotel!  They also enjoyed the two dogs, as well as some extra TV channels that we don't get here in our hotel.  :)

Sunday was Luke's birthday, and I've been praying all week that it would be a wonderful day for him.  He had really been looking forward to it!  He woke up and got to open several gifts, including money from both sets of grandparents which he loved.  He had chosen to go to Manly beach but the weather was looking a little cloudy and cool.  We stuck with the plan and it paid off.  The sun came out for a lovely day.  We started the day with some Starbucks and some donuts on the ferry to Manly.  We had a great lunch right by the beach at the Manly Grill.  Then on to some beach time.  Everyone played for a long time on the beach, Luke and Elise were the main ones who braved the water.  (Mom did get to lay by myself on the beach for a while which was so relaxing!)  We ended up staying at Manly for so long that we ditched our plan of going to the Sydney Eye, the tallest tower in Sydney, for the views.

Luke sporting his new Kevin Garnett jersey and some legos that he got.

After the beach we just came back to the hotel, showered, and went down to Darling Harbour to eat dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe, another choice of Luke's.  It was the most American place we have been yet, and we had some great American food.  We ended the night with cookie cake ( baked in the hotel with slice and bake cookie dough) and watching a movie that Luke had received from Nana and Papa for his birthday.  He had a wonderful birthday, one that he'll never forget!