For the first 6 days of their visit, Erin and Claire were on school holidays. We let Mom and Dad have a few days to recover from jetlag, and then we took a two-night, three-day trip to Canberra, the capitol of Australia. It had a Washington D.C. feel to it, with the government buildings and museums, although it has a lot more planned green space. Unlike Sydney, Canberra experiences 4 distinct changes of seasons, with lots of leaves falling in autumn (they don't call it fall here). Mom and Dad remarked on how strange it was to see the colored leaves when all of the trees and flowers are just beginning to bloom in the northeastern U.S.! We enjoyed visiting a good number of places in Canberra, including Questacon, a fabulous science and technology museum that we could have spent two whole days exploring, the Old Bus Depot Markets (two huge warehouses of local food and craft), the Canberra Glassworks, where we saw a gorgeous bowl blown from start to finish, and the National Museum of Australia, where the adults wish they could have spent more time visiting amazing exhibits on Aboriginal culture and Australian life and history.
Erin pull her weight at Questacon
Claire at the entrance to Questacon's "Eaten Alive" exhibit!
Alien creatures Lachlan and Opa in Australia's future at the National Museum of Australia
When the girls returned to school, we stayed local, enjoying some day trips confined between the hours of 9 and 3, including trips to the mountains and the coast. Mom and Dad also struck out on their own, taking a Sydney Harbour cruise and attending a ballet at the Opera House (a performance at the Opera House is always a must see for them!) Mom and Dad enjoyed getting into the daily routines, taking them to school and picking them up (even getting to know a few other parents), watching a netball game, practicing the piano with Erin, helping with homework and having tea and dinner with our neighbors!
Claire and Oma plant pansies on the front veranda (since Oma and Opa have left, Claire has reported that she wants to be a gardener when she grows up)
Sadly, they left yesterday, but save for the house being a little quieter, and me being a bit morose about the loss of all of my household and childcare help, that's ok. We will see them in 6 1/2 weeks when we return to the States for our northern summer visit!
Before they left, they gave me and Rick the ultimate gift- they took charge of the kids for 2 days, one night, so that we could celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary with a short trip to the Southern Highlands, an area that is about one and a 1/2 hours southwest of Sydney. We stayed in a restored settler's hut that was built in the 1830s in Berrima, a small town that retained its historic character when the railroad bypassed it and basically cut it off from much modern development. It was the perfect romantic hideaway, with the not-so-historic kitchen and indoor toilet added for modern comfort!
We relished the opportunity to be completely free from the responsibilities of small children and church life. We enjoyed a spectacular bushwalk at Fitzroy Falls, poked through antique and specialty shops and ate grownup food at grownup times! It was truly amazing to consider how far we have journeyed in the past 10 years- the date of our spring wedding in New Hampshire has become an autumn celebration, the Pacific Ocean now lies between us and Camp Calumet, and we have children who speak with Australian accents. Had anyone suggested on the day of our wedding that this might be the case, we would never have believed it. Never say never!
10 years- we made it!
