12/12/05
Arrived in Sydney!

I don’t even know where to start in describing the events that led up to our arrival in Sydney. I had to quit my job, close on the sale of my apartment, move all our belongings out of NYC to our upstate home, shut our house down for the winter, and survive 24 hours of travel with a two year old! The sale of our apartment didn’t finalize until one week before we left for Australia, so you can imagine the stress of leaving loose ends open before our departure! With dumb luck and good timing, we managed to get everything completed for our departure.

As far as the cars were concerned, I got fuel stabilizer and filled all the gas tanks with the stuff. I put all the cars that were stored inside (Alpine, Mustang, and Ferrari) on jack stands and ran them to get some of the stabilizer into the carburetors. There’s a dehumidifier that runs inside my garage, so humidity should be kept in check, and I’m hoping the critters will stay out! The cars outside (Accord, and F-150 Pickup) were filled with correct amounts of fuel stabilizer and  the tires were over inflated to minimize flat spotting. I would have been nice to get some oil down in the cylinders for each of these cars, but I simply didn’t have enough time. After the tires were inflated, I took the batteries out of the cars and stored them inside the garage which will be much warmer than outside.

The flight to Australia began as a two hour car ride down to Newark Airport from our house in Upstate NY. I decided it was easier and cheaper to rent a car as a one way drop off to the airport than to get a car service. As I packed the car in the morning, it was 15 degrees F outside. I couldn’t wait for summer to arrive for us in 24 hours! From Newark, we flew to L.A. The baby was relatively well behaved, and learned how to use ear phones for the first time. Hearing the audio program from the movie playing on the screen helped kill some of the time in this 5 hour flight.

Here’s a very sleepy Ellie.

The grueling 15 hour flight to Sydney was the toughest for all of us. Having a map with the display on how much further we had to travel was a mixed blessing because watching the time tick away was almost worse than not knowing how much more there was to go! We managed to survive the flight without a major meltdown, and can now feel confident that Ellie can do this again without much drama.

Immigration was a breeze, along with Baggage claims and Customs. Soon we were outside in the 85 degree heat heading towards town center. (From this point on, I will be reporting temps in Celsius as it will be easier for me to learn the “feel” of 35 degrees Celsius, as opposed to doing the conversion every time.) The corporate apartment I rented has a Darling Harbor View, and was a nice treat to kick off our 6 month stay in Australia.

After washing up, and regrouping, we immediately went back out. Right outside the hotel was this interesting car. The color scheme and badging said Charger, but it was a lot smaller than the American ones I’m familiar with.

Anyone know if this is a replica, or an actual car made in Australia?

On our second day, we walked over to see the Harbor Bridge. We walked from Darling Harbor to take in some of the Sydney waterfront. Sydneysiders really know how to embrace the water as many restaurants, shops, and attractions are found along the water, and it’s not just for tourists. As many tourist found along the water, I felt there were just as many locals dining and drinking along the harbors.

I really wanted to see the Sydney Opera House up close, and I was not disappointed. Visually, there were so many angles to explore, and I could spend days photographing it.

As the sun set, the light and shapes changed on this building, and was a real treat to watch.

It was Sunday night, and the waterfront was beautiful. I couldn’t wait to see more!

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