Manly Beach

McDonald’s McCafe Queenstown, New Zealand- If you didn’t notice the new blogging location we have arrived in Queenstown and it is like nothing either of us have seen before.  It feels like this tiny little town in the middle of the mountains mainly because that is exactly what it is.  There will be much more on Queenstown and New Zealand as we move around the country this week but due to delayed blogging consider us still in Sydney while reading.  (Travel sidenote: as you can see we are at McDonald’s…we got a great tip that if we need free internet that is the place to go and it has come through several times already)

With the way we scheduled our flights we gave ourselves one day in Sydney to give us a bit of a break from flying.  We were thinking we would use the day to walk around the city and figure out plans for when we return at the end of our trip…that changed when our shuttle driver told us Manly Beach had open volleyball courts.  Most of you know we have a borderline unhealthy obsession with volleyball so there was no question that is where we were headed.

After finally doing some laundry in the morning (usually if couples aren’t by each other on a plane they ask someone to switch…April almost asked a stranger to switch with her so she wouldn’t have to sit by me but then said she would stay as long as I changed my shirt) we planned out our route to get to the beach.  Luckily in Sydney everything is accessible by water so we took a ferry (another example of something that is daily transport for normal people but becomes an attraction when on vacation) and arrived at Manly Beach.

It could not have been a better day for the beach or beach volleyball for that matter.  So that we don’t rub it in too much how nice it was I’ll use Celsius and just say it was 32 degrees and all sun.  We must have had “looking to play” written all over our faces because a guy came up to us fairly soon to see if we wanted to play a game.  We were very excited to get to play…we were less excited that the guy was 6’3” and his chosen partner was 6’5”.  Let’s say for the sake of the story that we didn’t keep score.  It was a lot of fun though and there was nothing better than running into the ocean to cool off after each game.  If Roddick hadn’t practically asked April on a date this might have been the highlight of the trip so far. 

Over the last week we have been noticing a lot of things that remind us of friends/family back home so of course we had to have pictures of each of those things.  We realized we had so many we might as well share them on here...so here are a few shout outs:

2 Hey!  Not only good tasting but extra large pints on special for $4 during the Aussie Open men's final.  (Pat is roommates with Matthew Pollari...Hi Po!)

Not just a street named after Owen...it also had a clown fish ice cream shop on it I'm sure Owen would love!

We still haven't found anyone that will let us bring a koala for Noah or a penguin for Kaden but we did find a beach, camping area, creek, and range all named for Noah so that has to count for something.

Aunt Bonnie you have been in our thoughts and prayers this week so we thought it was very fitting we found your Nail Spa in the heart of Sydney.

Annie's is a women's clothing boutique and casual dining restaurant (picture if a store like The Limited sold dresses during the day and steaks and seafood at night...strange).  We had one problem with Annie's...both times we tried to go eat or have a drink there she was closed.  I can only assume she was avoiding work by playing with her friend Jamie or at the Last Chance depending on which Annie was supposed to be working.

Stretching a little here as a better name would be AK's and UP's but still a nice little village.

Dad's open air plaza in the heart of the Sydney skyscrapers!

You'll like the way you look, Luke guarantees it...3 times.  Warehouse.

Kangaroo Joey.  Doesn't look much like our friend Joey except you can tell this Joey is sad too.  I guess Joey must be a Bear's fan like Joey back home.  SUPER BOWL PACKERS! :)