June 2, 2014
Today the kids and I ditched the car and explored Sydney on foot. It was such a better experience! I have no idea why we drove so many place in this crazy traffic. It was about a 30 minute walk from our house to Darling Harbour. We left our apartment area around 8:45am and didn’t return until 8pm. To say that the kids are troopers is an understatement. We walked practically every square inch of Darling Harbour. The first thing we saw when we crossed into the area of Darling Harbour was a gigantic play area so, of course, that is where we spent our first hour exploring. It was a very cool play area. There was an entire section of water play with a river that snaked through concrete pathways. The kids could direct the flows with moveable dams and diverters. There was also a huge slide, two rope climbing structures, and a zipline. Connor and Carolina didn’t want to leave and probably would have been content staying there all day. I had to promise them a return visit in the afternoon in order to get them off the rope climbing structure.
Once we left the play area, we headed to the Austrialian Maritime Museum with a quick stop to eat an Anzac cookie and croissants at a cafe. We had to try the Anzac cookie since it is one of those treats that Aussies are known for. We didn't really care for it, but I am going to give it another try before we leave in case we just got a bad one.
The Maritime Museum was very fun for the kids because we were able to board three different ships. We went aboard a submarine, a destroyer and a tall ship that was an exact replica of Capt. James Cook’s ship. I found Cook’s ship incredibly interesting. The museum did a great job explaining the ship to visitors. There were docents at several stations around the ship that would explain each area and answer any questions. One interesting tidbit was that Cook was one of the first captains to be very diligent about guarding his sailors’ health. Each sailor had to eat a bowl of sauerkraut a day to protect against scurvy. Cook also gave each of his sailors two hammocks so that the sailors could wash and dry their bedding when it became too soiled. Connor said his favorite ship was also Cook’s ship. Carolina kept saying that she couldn’t live in any of them because it was “too small”. There wasn’t a lot of space to walk around on any of the ships. The first ship we went on, the submarine, really made an impression on her when she saw where the sailors had to sleep. There certainly isn’t a lot of space to spread out in on a submarine. We sped through the actual museum building part, but we spent a lot of time on the ships.
After we grabbed lunch, we walked to the Powerhouse Museum, which was touted as one of the best museums in Australia. It was full of science, innovation, and energy displays. The museum had an exhibit on video games so Connor was very happy. The exhibit had all kinds of video games from the 1970’s until today that you could play. I liked playing Pac-Man and Mario Brothers, which is the extent of my video game knowledge. We explored more of the museum, but didn’t even get to all of it before we had to go. We took another swing by the park for some more play time before meeting up with Matt’s Rotary District at the Sydney Aquarium.
The district had a reception inside the aquarium. We were able to tour the aquarium before heading into the reception as well. The aquarium was nice, but small with Australian water creatures (both salt and fresh water). The shark tunnel was a crowd favorite. The big winner of the night, though, was the free photo booth at the reception. To say the kids loved it would be an understatement. They dominated the photo booth and came away with at least 20 sheets of photos. It was really cute watching the screen outside the booth as they posed for photos.
The Maritime Museum was very fun for the kids because we were able to board three different ships. We went aboard a submarine, a destroyer and a tall ship that was an exact replica of Capt. James Cook’s ship. I found Cook’s ship incredibly interesting. The museum did a great job explaining the ship to visitors. There were docents at several stations around the ship that would explain each area and answer any questions. One interesting tidbit was that Cook was one of the first captains to be very diligent about guarding his sailors’ health. Each sailor had to eat a bowl of sauerkraut a day to protect against scurvy. Cook also gave each of his sailors two hammocks so that the sailors could wash and dry their bedding when it became too soiled. Connor said his favorite ship was also Cook’s ship. Carolina kept saying that she couldn’t live in any of them because it was “too small”. There wasn’t a lot of space to walk around on any of the ships. The first ship we went on, the submarine, really made an impression on her when she saw where the sailors had to sleep. There certainly isn’t a lot of space to spread out in on a submarine. We sped through the actual museum building part, but we spent a lot of time on the ships.
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