Week #4: An Introduction to Our Friend, Sydney

Nov. 6

Last Thursday night, we drove 3 hrs to Sydney.  Our ward was having their Temple Day on Saturday, so we decided to just make a weekend out of it and see the city.  Friday morning, Sterling got up and went to the temple, so I stayed with Cora.  I got bored in our hotel room and decided to walk to the temple to meet Sterling there.  It took about twice as long as I thought it would, but we got there and it was beautiful!

Australia Sydney Temple

 (*Note:  For anyone interested in going to the temple in Sydney, there are temple patron accommodations for only $50/night! Guaranteed, there isn’t anything that cheap anywhere in all of Australia!  The motel was bought by the Church and probably built in the 70s.  It smelled a bit like my grandpa’s old trailer we used for camping, but you got used to it after a minute.  The furniture was also a bit unusual.  I’m pretty sure that it was from the temple before they remodeled it so the “couch” was likely something that was in a waiting room.  It was a comfortable little place, yet every morning it took me a moment to get my bearings.  The large paintings of the First Vision and the Nativity made me feel a bit like I was waking up in a church building. J)

That afternoon, we ventured downtown to the Sydney Opera House.  To be honest, I always thought it was a weird/kinda ugly building, but it is so much more appealing in real life.  The weather was perfect and the water was clear.  We went inside, but didn’t do the tour because it was a little pricey, but we enjoyed just walking around.  There was even an exhibit of Dr. Suess outside one of the theaters. 

The "fam" outside the Sydney Opera House

Me and Harbor Bridge

Gazing dramatically

View of the city

View of the city

Sterling and Cora enjoying the Dr, Suess exhibit inside the Opera House

When I was in the restroom at the Opera House, as I so often am, Sterling caught Cora’s tongue.  On camera.  Not with his hands.  That would be weird.  Cora has just discovered that we laugh when she sticks her tongue out so she does it quite frequently now.  I just hope she realizes that it’s not cute when she’s older!

Cora's cute tongue

The path outside the Sydney Opera House extends to the Royal Botanical Gardens along the coast.  We spent a few hours just enjoying the weather and looking at cool plants.  Now this wasn’t like the Botanical Garden in DC—this was more like the Central Park of Sydney.  Except for it was way cleaner and safer feeling than New York’s.  People were spread out everywhere picnicking, taking photos, and making-out .  I guess that’s okay? Photos can’t do it justice, but here are a few, anyways!

Royal Botanic Gardens

I love that this person's leg is peeking into the shot.  Good thing it's a nice looking leg :) 

Palm tree forest downtown inside the Royal Botanic Gardens!

Rose Garden

These purple trees were all over.  They look kind of fake, but they go well with the green :) 

Another shot in the gardens and us (you can tell Sterling had the camera because he took a ton of photos!)

Then we got really hungry and didn’t know what to do!  We’ll, we knew that we needed to eat, but we didn’t know where to do it.  The boardwalk area was beautiful, but not really in our price range, so we headed to the shopping district because Sterling had read about this awesome Victorian-style shopping center, arcade style. 

This is another shopping center, but I love the juxtaposition of the Neo-classical architecture with the modern skyscrapers in the background.  There was a lot of that is Sydney.  We thought it was pretty exciting.   

When we got to the Strand Arcade, I felt like we were walking back in time.  The shopping center was much smaller than your average mall, with little (really little) stores on both sides of the 3-story building.  There was stained glass everywhere and fancy ironwork on the banisters and store signs.  And most importantly, this is where were we were able to find a place to eat!

View of the Strand Arcade from the top floor

I ordered a halloumi salad at a cafe.  Now, I didn’t really know what it was, so I had to ask the waiter.  Apparently, halloumi is a cheese that gets soft when heated, but it doesn’t really melt so you can grill it and stuff.  (I think I had it once before with our fancy friends at dinner on the 4^th of July this year…)  It kind of reminds me of mozzarella, but it’s a bit saltier and heartier.  So delicious.  It came on a salad of arugula, pine nuts, cucumber, grilled eggplant, and sun-dried tomatoes.  I realize I’m going into more detail that is probably necessary for a salad, but it was really that good!  Now, I want all of us to go out and buy some and eat it.  Everyday.  Then the world would be a better place. 

Random photo from online of halloumi 

Our long-awaited lunch

An orange in your Coke? 

After eating, we walked around the shops that sold things like couture wedding dresses, fancy hats, corsets, fake-looking cakes, and million dollar shoes.  We had fun looking at all of the stuff even if we didn’t get anything—and the restroom there was really cool!  

One of the fancy cakes

Then we decided to head back to the harbor and take the ferry across to a place called Manly.  (I know—strange name, right?)  I guess it’s a big beach place, but we went at night and it was actually pretty chilly, so there wasn’t much swimming going on.

On the ferry, Sterling was in charge of the camera.  He must have taken about 30 awkward photos of me and Cora with wind in my face, or Cora looking intently at the wooden bench we were sitting on.  AND IT WAS FREEZING!  Everyone on the ferry, eventually decided to sit inside, but Cora was totally happy being outside in the wind, so we stayed.  You know, so we could get the full experience, right? J  

On the freezing ferry

Just chillin'

This was taken at one of those moments when you realize the world is so incomprehensibly huge.  

At Manly.  Once we were off the boat we realized that it really wasn't that cold out because there wasn't any more wind blowing in our faces. 

Manly turned out to be a great place.  We saw the beach and decided that we must return when the weather was a bit warmer.

The beach!

Now at this point, we were again, very hungry.  Walking around all day will do that to a person.  Because we get per diem while we are here (thank you, tax payers!) we decided to go out for a nice dinner on the beach.  We found this placed called White Water with good interior decorating.  (That can be just as important as the food!) I ordered crab ravioli with prawn mousse (I was being adventurous) in a kaffir lime leaf and coconut milk sauce on a bed of wilted spinach.  Turns out, that combo of flavors is pretty delicious.  Here’s a unfortunately, unappetizing photo of an actually incredibly appetizing meal:

Crab ravioli (with fennel and grapefruit salad in the background)

Sterling always (lovingly) makes fun of how much salt I put on everything, but I am pretty sure he ate way more salt than I did that night!  On our table, there was a little bowl of black finishing sea salt.  As he ate his potatoes it went like this:  One bite.  Sprinkle a little.  Another bite.  Sprinkle a little more.  And maybe a little more.  Bite.  Mmmm… And so forth.  Not all salt is created equal, we learned. 

Cora was an angel and decided to fall asleep during dinner that night, so Sterling and I could have a romantic evening.  She’s a great 3^rd-wheel.  It was so wonderful to just talk my handsome Sterling, be on the coast, and relax after a day of walking around.  (I’m going to have to retire both my shoes and my jeans after this trip.  My shoes are almost worn through and my jeans are a little threadbare where they have rubbed between my legs from all of the walking!  How embarrassing…)  On the way back to the ferry, we had to get some ice-cream to finish of the night right!

On Saturday morning, I went to the temple with the ward while Sterling watched Cora.  Afterwards, they had what they call a Sausage Sizzle.  It’s essentially cheap hot dogs on the “barbie.”  When Sterling asked his Australian co-workers about putting “shrimp on the Barbie” a few weeks ago, they said, “What swanky BBQ are you going to?  Have you seen the price of shrimp here?!”  I thought that was pretty funny J  So, we had a Sausage Sizzle instead, which means a sausage thing on a cheap white piece of bread with butter on it.  Not my favorite.  But!  It was so great to spend time with the ward members and there were some really good desserts. 

In the afternoon, Sterling and I went to Paddington Market.  (Everything here is named after something in England.  There’s even a Hyde Park and Liverpool.)  We didn’t get anything, but people were selling everything from hand-painted underwear (which was actually kind of impressive) to porcelain bowls and cups (that I totally would have bought if we had $500 to spend on dishes) and hand-sewn hounds-tooth coats for little girls.  It was not your run-of-the-mill market.   Cora was a definite charmer and laughed and smiled at anyone who talked to her.  She just makes life better J 

Paddington Market

After the market, we walked around Paddington.  It is known for it’s Victorian architecture and interesting boutiques. 

Check out that iron lace work!

Gingerbread style

 Sterling was in heaven looking at European textiles and other design/décor places. 

You know he's thinking of something cool to do with that fabric :)

On the quest for food (again), we arrived at this sourdough place mentioned in our brochure after it closed.  So sad.  So, we went to this Dean and Deluca of a grocery store near by and got a snack.  This place had sushi samples.  What???

Sorry, Sterling!  I can give you a kiss??

I love Chinatowns and I love to hear Sterling tell me about China and Taiwan, so we went to check out Sydney’s Chinatown in the evening.  He introduced me to the Taiwanese version of scones.  Translated, they are called, “grease sticks.”  That’s what they were.  Fried dough.  You dip them in warm soy milk.  I don’t think it would be considered the “breakfast of champions” by any means, but they were good!    When Sterling ordered in perfect Chinese, the girl serving was totally taken off guard and told the other woman working how perfect his Chinese was.  I love it and for some reason it makes me all proud even though I have nothing to do with Sterling’s language ability J 

"Greasesticks" and warm soy milk in Chinatown

We finished off the evening with sushi for dinner.  (We really do more than just eat.  I feel like this post is all about food!  Oh well.  It’s a big part of vacation for us.)  Our trip to Sydney was indeed a success. 

Nov. 1

‘Cause We’re Classy Like That

Wow!  I can’t believe it is November already.  Or as it is called at Sterling’s work, Movember.  This is the month where the male-kind have a mustache-growing contest.  Every guy that participates gets sponsors and the donated money goes to support men’s health and cancer research.  This is awesome.  But, I also have this theory that men really like to grow mustaches and most of them know that it is socially unacceptable, but this gives them a good excuse to do it.  I wish I understood the power that men feel by growing facial hair, but I probably never will!  Now, fortunately, I really like it when Sterling is a bit scruffy, so he might just grow a beard for the month then shave it into a mustache for the last day.  I could go for that J I think he’s going to do it. 

I’m totally that mom

On the 31st, we went to the Halloween party at the US Embassy.  This meant that we had to sneak out our hotel sheets again for our toga costumes.  Now, this party was more like a summer fling.  The witches were sweating in their black plastic hats and the SpongeBob was a little damp.   The Boy Scouts were selling sausages on white bread for $2.  Other festivities included face painting, Halloween crafts for the kiddies, and reptiles on display.  When our number was called, we went inside the Embassy building to go trick-or-treating to each office.  From my observations, my bet is that some of those ex-pat wives were some serious PTA-ers in their day.  That embassy was decked out!  Feeling adventurous, we decided to check out the haunted house set-up in the cafeteria.  Cora didn’t blink an eye or make a peep, but I definitely screamed several times and I’m pretty Sterling jumped more than once, too.  It was the most elaborate homemade haunted house I have ever seen!  “Dead” people were wandering around or staring at you as they sat on the ground.  Flashing lights came out of nowhere and bloody things were dangling from the ceiling.  It was totally maze-like and I felt like a 10-year old again, clinging to Sterling’s arm.  At the end we got to stand in front of the ambassador’s house and get a photo with him and his wife.  

Trick-or-treating to the Ambassador's house (he and his wife are the NASA people)

She's getting ready to shot that arrow!

At the embassy

Then we heard that they were about to start the costume contest.  To be honest, I didn’t even know that there was one, but as soon as I heard about it, I got kind of competitive.  We literally ran to where it was, pushing people out of our way to make sure we could get there in time.  I was totally that mom, pushing the 5-year old boy out of the way so we could get on stage for the 0-3 year age bracket.  But the ambassador like her Cupid costume the most, so we won!  Does that make it okay to push 5-year olds out of the way?  Probably not…  We got a signed, laminated certificate and stuffed hand puppets (an octopus, turtle, lobster, and starfish) for a prize.  This experience will be perfect material anytime Cora plays 2 Truths and a Lie for the rest of her life J 

When we got home, I felt it necessary to sort the candy we got from trick-or-treating.   We are sharing the one bag of candy we collected, so unfortunately, there won’t be any trading.  That would have been fun. 

Sorting candy

On a completely different note, for Family Home Evening, Sterling suggested that we check out the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s new YouTube channel.  There happened to be a video of the choir singing, “Pilgrim’s Song.”  I sang this song in high school, under the direction of Ryan Murphy who arranged it, and now leads the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  I told Sterling that I would like it sung at my funeral and he kissed me on the forehead.  I guess that is a “yes”?

Here are the lyrics:

1. My brethren I have found, a land that doth abound with fruit as sweet as honey

The more I eat I find, the more I am inclined to shout and sing, “Hosanna”

Chorus:

My soul doth long to go where I may fully know the glory of my Savior

And as I pass along, I’ll sing the Christian song, I’m going to live forever

2. Perhaps you think me wild, or simple as a child, I am a child of glory

 I am born from above, my soul is filled with love, I love to tell the story

3. My soul now sits and sings and practices its wings and contemplates the hour when the Messenger shall say come quit this house of clay and with bright angels tower

On that note (literally), we miss and love you, as always.  Until next week...