A Visit from the US
This month we were lucky enough to have 2 sets of visitors from home!
Jared’s high school buddy, Rob, and his wife, Leslie, came at the end of May and spent 10 days with us and shortly after they left Jared’s college buddy, Craig, and his wife, Monica (“Mo”), arrived and spent a week with us. I think we were just as excited to see old mates from home as they were to see Sydney (not to mention all of the goodies that each of them brought - note to future guests there is a Reese's Pieces and Twizzler toll that must be paid upon arrival).
Unfortunately, it stormed for two days straight before they arrived, which destroyed the beach and took most of the sand out to sea. The water was literally coming up onto the road, which if you ever Google Earth Manly, you'll see that the road is a good 30 meters away from the beach.
Even through the rain, they were able to get out and experience most of our top favorites in Sydney including the Manly cafes (Rob & Leslie were on a first name basis with the owners of the Interpolitan by the time that they left) and restaurants for brekkie and dinner, meat pies, the Rocks and the Rocks markets, the Botanical Gardens, etc. As an added bonus, the Vivid Sydney festival was going on during the weeks that they were here, so they were able to see the Opera House take the form of the world's largest canvas with different colors and patterns being projected onto it. Craig and Mo's arrival also coincided with Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, so as soon as we picked them up, we had to rush back home to catch the start of the game. Nothing better than finally getting to celebrate the Penguins winning with someone that understands hockey (even though Mo was spinning lines of bad mojo).
Since they were in town we also decided to make a trip to the Hunter valley for some wine-tasting and kangaroo spotting. The first trip with Rob and Leslie was fantastic... it rained the entire way up, so we didn't feel like we were missing much in Manly and then as soon as we arrived in the Hunter, the sun came out and the skies turned blue. We discovered some great wineries and caught a few pictures of the roo’s. The second trip started quite the opposite... the sun was shining and the skies were blue the entire trip until we got about 20kms from the start of the wineries. Then after giving Craig and Mo a lesson on how the driving system works over here (i.e. having to have L & P plates displayed on your car during your learning period - basically a big sign to get out of the car's way because the driver is terrible), we experienced first hand how dangerous P-Platers can be by being rear-ended as we were waiting behind another car to merge onto the road. The girl actually asked me if I was going to call the police because she was going to lose her license again if I did (key word - again). Thankfully no one was hurt except a few headaches and sore necks. Unfortunately, we weren't able to continue our trek to the Hunter Valley as our back tire got the worst of the collision. Our transportation home was a dual cab tow truck and thankfully the driver was nice enough to drop us off back in Manly when we got back into the city.
After that disasterous start to Craig and Mo's trip, things turned a bit brighter as we were headed out to the Whitsundy Islands and the Great Barrier Reef!
Jared’s high school buddy, Rob, and his wife, Leslie, came at the end of May and spent 10 days with us and shortly after they left Jared’s college buddy, Craig, and his wife, Monica (“Mo”), arrived and spent a week with us. I think we were just as excited to see old mates from home as they were to see Sydney (not to mention all of the goodies that each of them brought - note to future guests there is a Reese's Pieces and Twizzler toll that must be paid upon arrival).
Unfortunately, it stormed for two days straight before they arrived, which destroyed the beach and took most of the sand out to sea. The water was literally coming up onto the road, which if you ever Google Earth Manly, you'll see that the road is a good 30 meters away from the beach.
Even through the rain, they were able to get out and experience most of our top favorites in Sydney including the Manly cafes (Rob & Leslie were on a first name basis with the owners of the Interpolitan by the time that they left) and restaurants for brekkie and dinner, meat pies, the Rocks and the Rocks markets, the Botanical Gardens, etc. As an added bonus, the Vivid Sydney festival was going on during the weeks that they were here, so they were able to see the Opera House take the form of the world's largest canvas with different colors and patterns being projected onto it. Craig and Mo's arrival also coincided with Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, so as soon as we picked them up, we had to rush back home to catch the start of the game. Nothing better than finally getting to celebrate the Penguins winning with someone that understands hockey (even though Mo was spinning lines of bad mojo).
Since they were in town we also decided to make a trip to the Hunter valley for some wine-tasting and kangaroo spotting. The first trip with Rob and Leslie was fantastic... it rained the entire way up, so we didn't feel like we were missing much in Manly and then as soon as we arrived in the Hunter, the sun came out and the skies turned blue. We discovered some great wineries and caught a few pictures of the roo’s. The second trip started quite the opposite... the sun was shining and the skies were blue the entire trip until we got about 20kms from the start of the wineries. Then after giving Craig and Mo a lesson on how the driving system works over here (i.e. having to have L & P plates displayed on your car during your learning period - basically a big sign to get out of the car's way because the driver is terrible), we experienced first hand how dangerous P-Platers can be by being rear-ended as we were waiting behind another car to merge onto the road. The girl actually asked me if I was going to call the police because she was going to lose her license again if I did (key word - again). Thankfully no one was hurt except a few headaches and sore necks. Unfortunately, we weren't able to continue our trek to the Hunter Valley as our back tire got the worst of the collision. Our transportation home was a dual cab tow truck and thankfully the driver was nice enough to drop us off back in Manly when we got back into the city.
After that disasterous start to Craig and Mo's trip, things turned a bit brighter as we were headed out to the Whitsundy Islands and the Great Barrier Reef!
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