Long weekend in Sydney

Josh and Jody had invited us to spend the Queen's birthday long weekend with them in Sydney - woohoo! .....and what's more, we were able to get an early start on the fun, with the girls, even before the long weekend got fully underway, last Friday.

First stop was at our fave Coogee Beach - with lunch in the sunny courtyard of the Coogee Bay Hotel, a walk along the beachfront and time for the girls to have a bit of a shop in the local surf shops (they both love a bit of a shop these days).

We settled into our rooms at the Intercontinental Hotel facing onto historic Macquarie and Bridge Streets and looked forward to our first peek at Sydney Vivid on Friday night as soon as the lights came on at 6.00pm.

Ella couldn't resist striking a pose as we walked past the Justice and Police Museum on the way to Circular Quay.

Abi, in particular, was quite excited by all the light shows on the Quay (it's because of her well developed photographer's eye I'm sure).

Our room at the hotel looked out to Bridge Street and the Botanic Gardens beyond. This was our beautiful early morning view from our 18th floor window.

Josh and Jody had driven up (in their new car!) late on Friday night - so we all felt very happy meeting up for a slap up breakfast together at the Fine Food Stall on Kendall Lane at The Rocks on Saturday morning.

We spent most of Saturday pounding the streets of the CBD: shopping and sightseeing and enjoying Yum Cha for lunch at Sky Phoenix in the city. These have been very rare pleasures over the last two and a half years and we all really enjoyed the novelty of being among crowds, with all the big city shops and restaurants fully open for business.

Saturday night we were booked on a one hour Sydney Vivid cruise, departing Darling Harbour as the lights came on at 6.00pm.

Once again, Abi was probably the most thrilled by all the lights on show in this part of town.

Rob's killer photo of the new Star Casino, under lights, taken from our cruise boat .......

Sydney was CROWDED for Vivid this (cold) long weekend - it was actually really difficult to find anywhere decent to eat in the city without a prior booking. After our cruise ended we walked and walked - ending up at East Ocean in Chinatown before we found a table free. It was a memorable meal there however with some wonderful seafood (lobster!!!) available for our delight.

Sunday morning saw us back at The Fine Food Store for breakfast (when you're on a good thing stick to it!) ...

.... before we headed around to Barangaroo Reserve - new territory for J & J and A & E.

The Wulugul Walk at Barangaroo ....

The girls finished off some shopping in the city after the long walk around this part of the harbour. We had some downtime at the hotel in the afternoon before setting out again - this time across The Domain and down to Woolloomooloo, hoping to avoid the Vivid crowds around Circular Quay, Darling Harbour and the city.

Abi was quite impressed by the "horse sculptures" on the wharf front at Woolloomooloo (22 hands she estimated!).

We enjoyed our meal at the relatively uncrowded Woolly Bay Hotel (with no walk ins accepted in the more up market restaurants along the Woolloomooloo finger wharf) and afterwards Joshy led us the long way back to the hotel, around the edge of the Botanic Gardens (part of his early morning running track), and past Mrs Macquarie's Chair where we recorded this historic moment.

Possums are actually very cute - but only in the right place!!

We estimated we walked about 18 klms on each of our two days in Sydney - I was surprised the girls coped with it as well as they did - with no complaints .... but they both looked pretty tired this morning at the end of our stay with only the drive back to Canberra to look forward to.

We enjoyed the hotel's buffet breakfast this morning before heading off for a final stopover in sunny Coogee before the inevitable drive back to Canberra.

The company of J & J and Ella and Abi is a precious gift for Rob and me - but to be able to enjoy their company is such relaxed and happy (and memorable) circumstances is precious beyond words.