Is summer over yet?... February Part I

Having left the U.S. at the tail end of a typical hot and humid St. Louis summer, I'm not sure we were ready for summer to just be starting in Australia, but we didn't have much of a choice. Not that we don't like summer, we really do. However, given the choice I think both Steve and I would prefer to have all four seasons throughout the year. So when unusually hot summer weather struck Sydney early (the first weekend we were here) we found ourselves quickly asking people how long summer would last so we could have our expectations in check. People told us the same thing we might say of a Midwest winter. Just when you think it is about ready to end in February, you'll have another blast of hot, humid weather that rolls into early March and the start of autumn. Welcome to our current state of affairs. February started fairly mild, but as the month has worn on so have the temperatures and it now looks like we are right in the middle of the most consistently warm weather of the summer.

Never mind the weather, it's been hot, but I really haven't minded too much because February has been by far one of the best months I can recall in recent memory. We kicked off the month taking in the Chinese New Year celebrations here in Sydney and then welcomed my parents for their first trip across the Pacific. They were our first visitors since our arrival, and Emma especially was beyond excited for them to come (it didn't take long for her to ask what surprises they packed in their suitcase for her). Then on February 17th we had another very special arrival (but more on that in the next blog).

Here's a look at how we enjoyed the first half of February and the end of our "year of summer."

The start to the Chinese New Year... the city lit up in red and what else but fireworks on the harbour to celebrate!

Waiting for it to get dark to see everything lit up for the New Year, Emma and daddy took part in their favorite pastime as of recent, playing tag. This time at the footsteps of the Opera House.

We loved exploring all of the lights and decorations around the city to celebrate the New Year. These bunnies at Circular Quay were Emma's favorite.

These lanterns were beautiful at Martin Place.

Emma would have loved these horses too, but she was passed out by this time...

Even the Opera House was red!

Grandma & Grandpa arrived and Emma knew one of the first places they needed to go was the beach! First stop one of the most well-known surf beaches in the area, Manly Beach.

We took the ferry from Manly to the heart of the city, Circular Quay.

Found this seal resting on the back side of the Opera House. There were signs up saying he was being monitored - hopefully he was feeling better soon!

While enjoying the sights around the Opera House we saw the coolest thing. Make a Wish Foundation and the city of Sydney were making this little boy's dream come true as he helped to save the city as "Iron Boy" and defeat the villain on the stairs of the Opera House.

Aside from taking Grandma & Grandpa all over the city, Emma was happy for them to see her in action at some of her regular activities... swimming lessons top the list!

We spent a lot of time watching Emma play at all of her favorite local parks too (there are a lot of them in her rotation). Like mother, like daughter here?

Most parks in the area feature this nice mulch/dirt ground, and the result for Emma looks like this.

One of the best parks I've ever seen, Brightmore Reserve, has little roads for kids to safely ride their bikes, scooters, trikes, roller-blades... you name it!

But when dad's around it's back to playing tag.

Enjoying brunch out at The Boathouse at nearby Balmoral Beach, one of our favorites. Life seriously cannot get much better than having this gorgeous beach and amazing indoor/outdoor dining on the waterfront just a 10 minute drive from home.

The day before our second big arrival in February, Emma and I took Grandma & Grandpa to reportedly the best wildlife park in Sydney, Featherdale Wildlife Park. It certainly did not disappoint. First encounter with Australian wildlife and Grandpa held a snake!

Emma never misses a chance to feed wallabies or kangaroos!

Grandma & Grandpa's first time meeting a kangaroo.

Wombats get cuter every time I see one.

Love the fairy penguins too, this guy was molting (shedding his feathers) - they sometimes say they look like exploding pillows when this happens!

My first time meeting a cassowary, they are gorgeous! About the same size as an ostrich or emu but featuring this brightly colored neck/head and an interesting "casque" on top of it's head.

Taking an up close look at a Tawny Frogmouth.

But at the end of the day, the koalas stole the show!

Despite the fact that almost every single one was passed out asleep - how do they not fall out of the trees, seriously?!

Emma was pretty excited to get to pet one!

I wonder if this guy had any idea of what was going on around him...

Emma got a lot of special surprises from Grandma & Grandpa, dress up clothes are one of her favorites!

Smiles with Grandma!

We played at the park at Cremorne Point a lot while Grandma & Grandpa were here, one look at the view from the park and it's easy to understand why we like to go there.

Our last family of three photo... family of four photo coming soon!

Grandma & Grandpa come to visit

One of the perks to being back in the midwest is being that much closer to our family. As a result we were happy to have my parents come down for a long weekend at the end of April. Being the great parents that they are they packed their car full of goodies for us and weathered lots of rain in the nine hour drive both down and back. Although the drive wasn't fun, the visit was a ton of fun and we had great weather the whole time they were actually in St. Louis!

Emma was so excited for Grandpa and Grandma to arrive and it was so much fun to see her face light up when they actually arrived and got out of the car and weren't just a figure on the computer screen. So on Thursday afternoon once they got into town we spent lots of quality time in the backyard just having fun, the bubble wand was clearly the hit of Emma's special bag that grandma and grandpa brought down.

Friday came with more beautiful weather which meant some more relaxing and playing at home and opening a very early birthday gift - a new wagon for Emma! She loved getting going for her first few rides with all of the attention on her. The attention continued as we headed to the park for lots of sliding and swinging with grandma and grandpa.

Paparazzi 

If it means going on a walk, Dakota is excited about the new wagon too!

I don't think Grandpa was as excited about the slide as Emma

Going to the park with Grandma is way cooler than just Mom

Life is good

Friday evening was spent with my dad and Steve going to a Blues playoff game while my mom and I hung out with Emma at home. Unfortunately Steve and my dad did not do enough cheering at the game.

Someone's not spoiled at all...

And Saturday morning was one more gorgeous day with lots of time outdoors spent at Grant's Farm. Emma loved the horses, goats, riding the carousel and so much more - pretty much everything except the super long lines that we all could have done without. Lesson learned that will never come back on a nice Saturday afternoon again!

"Neigh, neigh!"

This young Clydesdale was worn out from all the photos!

"Look! I'm petting a goat!"

Emma loves carousels, but isn't quite ready for riding the animals very often yet

Beer for the adults, giant bouncy balloon for Emma

It's rare to get a family photo this good!

We were so sad to see the weekend come to a close but it wasn't before one last nice family dinner out (at our neighborhood favorite, Trattoria Marcella) and another walk around the block in the wagon that almost put Emma to sleep!

"Being pulled in this wagon is exhausting..."

Two weeks where they drive on the wrong side of the road...

We feel so incredibly blessed by the amount of traveling we have been able to do this spring and summer and one of the big highlights was spending two weeks exploring England and Ireland at the end of June and beginning of July. The first stop on our trip was London for four days.

View over the Thames

We flew out of Zurich late on a Saturday evening with two friends that were visiting us from the U.S. We were lucky enough for them to spend part of the week preceding in Switzerland with us before heading to London together. Although our flight was delayed, it wasn't all bad for us as it meant Emma pretty much went straight to sleep as soon as we got on the plane. And we spent the better part of the hour flight chatting with the man seated in our row who ended up giving us some great tips for places to go in London (I think Steve and him may have even become pen pals)!

Playing games in the airport while we wait for our flight!

Since our arrival time was quite late even without the flight being delayed we all agreed to take an iconic black London taxi from the airport to our rental flat. While it took us nearly an hour just to drive into London from Heathrow we enjoyed getting accustomed to driving on the "wrong side" of the road and talking a little with our taxi driver, because after all we all spoke English and we could understand each other (what a concept)! We quickly got a sense for just how friendly people are in the UK and were glad that it remained true for the majority of the rest of our trip.

Little reminders were everywhere in regards to the direction of travel.

After getting in late on Saturday night we made Sunday morning a little more relaxed and used the day as one to orient ourselves with the city. We enjoyed taking a double decker hop on hop of bus tour throughout the city and seeing nearly all the major sights (my favorite "site" was probably the ridiculously expensive houses that cost more than 25 million GBP!). Emma also had a blast riding on the top deck of the bus. At first we were a little hesitant to bring her up to the top since it was not covered and it was a bit of a windy chilly day, but we gave it a try and it was literally like opening the window of a car for a dog the first time. She just loved holding onto the rail and looking over the side while watching the world go by! But I'm not sure who thought it was most funny when after some serious contemplation she deliberately took her pacifier out of her mouth and threw it over the side of the bus before turning back at me with a big grin on her face! Oh the fun we have watching her discover new things.

Great view of Big Ben from the bus!

Emma's taking it all in!

As part of the bus tour we enjoyed a short river boat cruise on the Thames as well. And after making a pit stop for lunch at a Mexican restaurant (don't judge, we really miss good Mexican food) we enjoyed wandering through the Speakers Corner at Hyde Park before making our way through the ridiculously expensive Harrods Department Store and back through the park to see Kensington Palace and gardens. By that point in time we were all sufficiently tired and managed to find a small pub to enjoy some more traditional British food and drink before calling it a night. 

Kensington Gardens

It was a good thing we made Sunday a bit of a low key day because we had to be ready to go early Monday morning as we were off to Wimbledon! Unless you are willing to spend a whole lot of money, you are unlikely to be able to get tickets ahead of time as the lottery system doesn't provide good odds. Since we didn't beat the odds (nor did we fork up the cash for the guaranteed seats) we got up early to head out to queue for grounds passes. Although we could have gone a day early and camped out all night in order to actual get tickets for one of the main "show courts" we opted to just go at 6 am not knowing whether or not that was early enough to ensure we would get tickets. Lucky for us after nearly 4 hours of queuing we got in the gates! While the wait was very long, and very very cold, we had a good time in what was perhaps the most organized and controlled line I had ever witnessed at a sporting event. It's fair to say these people that run Wimbledon sure know what they are doing, so much so that they even give you a "How to Queue" brochure when you enter the line!

Early morning on the tube

Huge queues!

Our "golden tickets!"

Despite feeling quite under the weather that morning with two new teeth coming in, Emma was a trooper and actually seemed to have quite a bit of fun as she was time and time again noted as being one of the youngest Wimbledon fans! And not too many people can say they came to Wimbledon on the eve of their first birthday! How crazy is it that Emma was born on the first Monday of Wimbledon last year and this year she attended the first Monday of Wimbledon!

Getting some love from dad for being such a trooper!

Since our goal was to just get grounds passes we promptly found ourselves a seat on the famous "Murray Mound" formerly known as "Henman Hill" and staked some blanket space for the rest of the day as we knew it would get quite busy by the time Britain's own Murray was scheduled to play. As three of the four of us grew up as tennis players, going to Wimbledon and sitting on the "Mound" was a pretty big check on the bucket list. In between watching Federer, Nadal, Sharapova, and Murray play on the big screen we took turns watching some of the smaller matches on the sidecourts. Steve and I especially enjoyed seeing Isner play up close and see just how tall he is! We also made sure to try out Britain's famous "Pimms" drink, which is their very popular summer mixed drink amidst our eating very non-British Asian food and on the way home a stop at Subway!

Very busy "Murray Mound" once Murray started playing!

Sneak Peak of Court 1 even though we didn't have tickets

Our piece of the Mound for the day!

Watching Isner play

Hope to see you again soon Wimbledon!

It was a pretty good Monday to say the least, I just hope that we get to go back again someday. Although it's cool as an avid tennis fan to go to any grand slam (Steve and I are now three for four) there is just something extra special about going to Wimbledon.

Lucky for us we didn't have to worry about Tuesday being disappointing in comparison, since Tuesday was Emma' first birthday! Unfortunately she really didn't feel well and was not herself at all, but we tried to make the best of it. So we lined up the best that London has to offer to visit for the day.

Where's the birthday girl?

Our morning started with a walk thru Trafalgar Square before heading down to see the very impressive changing of the guards ceremony at Buckingham Palace. To say the least it was not a small production! It's so amazing how much the British love the royal family!

Buckingham Palace

 The pomp and circumstance that happens nearly everyday in front of the palace...

 

From there we toured the inside of Westminster Abbey (unfortunately we could not take photos inside), before walking by the Parliament and Big Ben, and onto the London Eye. Steve actually went on the London Eye along with our friends while I stayed below with the birthday girl who enjoyed just some time to play outside in the nice weather. By that point in time we had seen a lot of sights for the day and so we headed in the direction of Picadilly Circus, which is basically a big open area at the convergence of several major London streets that are lined with shops, restaurants, theaters, and more. Our plan was to simply wander and explore the area but the all important first goal on the list was to get some ice cream for the birthday girl! It was a good thing that was the first stop because from there things went downhill for the poor girl so we called it an early night. Although things didn't work out too terribly as our friends got to enjoy a nice dinner out and we got lucky and found a Papa Johns (I know, we're really pathetic and starting to crave American food).

Westminster Abbey

Parliament

The London Eye

Wednesday arrived and as our last full day in the city we had a few remaining destinations to make it to. Our first stop was the iconic London Tower Bridge (not to be confused with London Bridge which is actually quite plain and unsightly). We were able to go up and through the inside of the bridge, which was not of particular interest, but there was an interesting display of information about bridges around the world. From there we toured the London Tower/Castle and saw the famous crown jewels before making our way onto St. Paul's Cathedral where we arrived just in time to still be able to make the 500+ stair climb to the top of the dome for a view of the London skyline (which is actually somewhat unimpressive in comparison to many other major cities). However, St. Paul's Cathedral was beautiful and interesting in both its similarities and distinct differences from the other famous place of worship in London, Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately once again we paid a very steep admittance fee but were still unable to take photos of the inside.

London Tower Bridge

Our last stop of the evening was for a nice sit down dinner (our last chance for one with our friends as we were headed separate directions the following day) in Covent Garden, which is famous for its good restaurants, market, and street performers. It was a fun area to eat dinner outside and we all enjoyed some good food.  And on the way back that night I learned just how far underground subway lines can run as the stop we got on at we had to take a elevator down the equivalent of 19 stories underground!

Beautiful and random painted trees outside St. Paul's cathedral!

Come Thursday morning it was time to head for our next adventure in Bath, England while our friends finished one last day in London before heading back for the states. So with way too much luggage in tow we made our way for the train station and the 1.5 hour train ride onto our next English speaking destination!



Classic London telephone booth photo!