We'll do our best to recap our wonderful time with the hard working parents, Joel and Frances, of one Lucas Elbag (almost 2yrs) and let you in on, not necessarily in chronological order, some of the fun we've been getting into.
As you saw from the panorama pictures we wasted no time working on the mac as Evan was really excited to see how his pics turned out. Our first few days in Sydney were very relaxed with trips down to Manly beach or to the mall with Joel and Lucas as our main activities. We have already posted about the walk from Manly to Spit which was a nature highlight of our stay.
We made a few observations in the mall such as the slight variation of store names such as...
Hungry Jacks = Burger King (same logo, E wants a T-shirt)
Bed Bath and Table = BB&B
Wheel and Barrel= Crate and Barrel
The Big W= Wal Mart
Target = Target (m was really happy about that)
We really enjoyed not having a fixed schedule and after a few minutes with Lucas why would you ever want to leave? From morning skype calls to. "Mimi" (his grandma, Evan's aunt Sharon) to learning new words daily "cuz" "kiwi", and counting to 20...us 13, him 14, us 15, him 18, us 16, him 18, us 17, him 18, us 19, him 20, yaaaay!...he really likes 18, we were never bored and when nap time rolled around after lunch everybody was game for a semi.
One of the adventures from the week+ included a drive to the Blue Mtns to see the views and the Three Sisters. We were tempted to walk the 'giant staircase' but after 90 of the required 800 stairs we were satisfied in cutting off the journey and heading to lunch. The mountains are so named because of the bluish appearance from the abundance of eucalyptus trees. Here are the Three Sisters:
That evening we were dropped off at the Sydney Football Stadium for a Rugby Union Super 14 match between the NSW Waratahs and the Wellington Hurricanes, a name we found a bit perplexing as hurricanes are actually known as cyclones down here. Rugby Union is one of the two types of rugby played here along with Rugby League, union is more traditional with scrums and the like, while league is styled a bit more like 'gridiron' with 6 downs to score or else you're punting away.
We found the match to move along very quickly, 40 minute (mostly) running clock per half. The whole game was over in about 2hrs, and luckily for the home supporters the Waratahs came out on top 20-3. Unlike cricket where we had an entire day to nail down the rules and nuances, we left this match with as many questions as answers about things like the scrum and the kicking back and forth to start play. All in all it was a really great time and we think you'll like the pictures when we get them up. Also, for those of you who have never seen a rugby ball, I am proud to say that the Gilbert name is forever linked to the sport as Rawlings, Wilson and Spalding are at home.
Apparently when he's not busy at Quality Mill, AG is successfully running a side business in Sydney. Joel can attest to their quality. In reality, it's run by a chinese guy who never changed the name from the old owner.
That's all for now, Michelle has fallen asleep and we have a busy day tomorrow. We hit the happy hour pretty hard tonight and watched some exciting cricket action as India were 4/56 after 12 overs chasing 317 put up by the Aussies led by Ricky Ponting's superb 126 total. I couldn't resist. We will post more tomorrow and finish up this recap and maybe even touch on our surfing exploits, key word 'our'.
Over and out.
1 comment:
Your inconsistent posting took me 2 days to find this. For shame, for shame.
Bed Bath and Table makes me laugh. So did Lucas' counting. And yeah, I've got nothing.
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