Visitors

We love having visitors. The boys get so excited. They went to sleep on Thursday night and I said "Just close your eyes and think happy thoughts about our visitors. They'll be here tonight and you'll see them when you wake up". The taxi delivered Caro and Bert that evening and we chatted about how it was visiting Bert's parents in France, coping with the language barrier, coping with the onslaught of winter here after three weeks enjoying summer in Europe! And early on Friday morning, I walked into the lounge to discover two very excited little boys climbing all over Caro and Bert who were valiantly trying to sleep! It was inevitable, so we all embraced the day and farewelled Brennan off to work. By 8am we were ready to go, and left the house to catch the train. Bert wanted to see the Opera House and Bridge, so we trained to Circular Quay before walking up Pitt St to catch the monorail to Darling Harbour. Caro sneaked the boys into the Aquarium for free by removing a year from their ages, and we spent the rest of the morning looking at the 'fish zoo' at top speed. I'm pretty sure that Bert saw everything he'd planned on seeing, while I spent most of my time navigating the pram through the crowds and chasing two excited boys and getting them to come back to the pram!
After seeing the sharks, we emerged to have lunch at a pub on Darling Harbour. Ahh, beer in the sunshine, nothing beats it! We took the train home from Town Hall station, and sent Caro and Bert home while we did some grocery shopping. An hour or so later we arrived home to find the tv on and those two visitors sound asleep!

Day two of the visit was taken with a cheap harbour cruise - the most effective way to see Sydney Harbour in our opinion is the ferry to Manly. The boys love the boat ride, and go mental running around on board. "Take a grown-up with you" is the continual cry, along with "Come here", "Stop", "Listen" and "Can you see Grandpa's house?". We had yum cha for lunch at Manly Phoenix, then cruised to the Ocean beach for a look-see. Plenty of surfers, but Bert was disappointed not to see one get eaten by a shark. Caro had all the shark excitement on her last visit to Manly with the shark alarm going off, but nothing this interesting this time around. The boys dug in the sand. Then gelato to eat on the boat ride back to the CBD. Amazingly both boys managed to eat theirs without covering themselves in icecream stickiness! We had a quick look around The Rocks Markets before the boys became too tired, and we took the bus home. What a nuisance it is when the trains are having maintenance. The bus took twice as long as the train would have taken, but we made it home. We sent Bert and Brennan out for beers and pizza and relaxed in front of the fire. We frittered the night away chatting, but a house with three young boys never allows a sleep in. Sunday morning arrived and we bid adieu to our visitors and spent the day cleaning the house.
No wonder Monday was a non-productive day at work!