The Sought Sights in Sydney...

The morning after we saw Wicked, we woke up at 6am (from where we were sleeping on the street in Lucy) and began our 11-hour journey to Sydney.

We saw the sun rise and set, but we didn’t see any kangaroos or koalas… alive, anyway. We saw plenty ‘o dead ones!

Our destination near Sydney was Jessica & Judd’s place. Jess was my “goodest friend” (as we referred to each other so awesomely) in Junior High. She married Judd, an Aussie, and they settled near Sydney with their 2 adorable kiddies: Lauren (5) and Christian (1.5).

It took Christian about 2.5 seconds to fall completely in love with Lowell, and our 2 little families had a wonderful time together.

Sunday was our “do-all-the-cheesy-touristy-stuff-in-Sydney” day. Since we learned to loathe busy big city roads in Melbourne, we opted to take advantage of the public transport and take the train into the city. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em right?

At the train station, there were 3 aboriginals playing the didgeridoo (and other cultural things). They were jamming until I sat down (in response to their beckoning), then they immediately stopped and started asking me questions: “Where are you from? What are you doing here? What do you do?”
I was still determined to get a decent picture, so I was answering out of the side of my mouth while posing for the camera. The guy on the right who was actually playing the didgeridoo obviously didn't take my hint, but I give the guy behind me points for style.

We saw the opera house (not to be confused with Oprah’s House. Lowell used to think it was HER house. Heh heh).

Sang opera in front of the opera house...

(I apologize to all other Canadians for the name I may or may not have made for us as a nation).

We walked across the Harbour Bridge…

And we visited the original and GIANT Hillsong church near Sydney.

Gillian warned us to be prepared for huge… and that was a gross understatement. It was GINORMOUS. The church seats between 2 & 3 thousand, and they fill it up 3 times a day. HOLY MOLY!

It was nice to go to church again (as our only options in Thailand were Buddhist temples which we weren’t so into, and could’ve been awkward seeing as we don’t worship Buddha).

Judd’s brother, Luke, kindly brought us back to Jess & Judd’s after church, and we enjoyed the rest of the evening with the family.

On Monday morning, our Sydney stop had come to an end, and we began driving further north. We went a tad out of the way and stopped at Blue Mountain National Park. Here we enjoyed some sightseeing, walking, and, of course, a nap.

This is the '3 Sisters'.

This is a very close up shot of one of the '3 Sisters'.

That night we stopped at our first Australian campground! Between staying with good friends such as Judd and Jess, and being just plain ol' cheap, we had been avoiding camp sites. We've been continuing the tradition we started with Mom & Dad which included showering 4 times (in a 12-hour time span) while at campgrounds (you know, because we only stop at campsites every 3-4 nights so we need to milk them for all they're worth... and maintain some semblence of hygeine). The showers were cold (blech), but at least the view from Lucy was pretty!


Next... further north to HIPPIE TOWN!