Leaving Sydney...NOT!

November 3rd--We got up at 6:00 a.m. this morning to be ready to leave the apartment by 8:00 a.m. We went downstairs to fit in our free breakfast as well. At 8:00 a.m., we checked out and got in a taxi heading to the airport. We arrived at the airport about 8:30 and went to check in for our Qantas flight. The lady could not locate our tickets. She saw our booking information, but their were no ticket numbers assigned. So, we had to go over to the sales desk to try to figure it out and get our tickets "issued". The lady at the Qantas sales desk was very helpful, but not helpful enough as she put us on the phone with British Airways (who we booked our round-the-world tickets with). Mike was on the phone with British Airways telling them to get us our tickets issued or we were going to miss our flight. The guy finally told Mike that there was nothing he could do and for us to call our travel agent. Mike was like "you guys are my travel agent. We've booked Round-The-World tickets directly through you." Anyway, by this time check-in had closed for the flight so it was obvious that we had missed it. So, at this point British Airways couldn't help us and Qantas couldn't help us. We finally got connected to the British Airways Round-The-World desk in the US and the lady there was very helpful. We still don't really understand, but somehow they had a "system glitch" and the tickets were booked, but not issued...whatever!! The unfortunate thing was that we had missed the one Qantas flight to Alice Springs for the day. The next flight didn't leave until tomorrow. Also, the direct flight that we were originally supposed to be on was full so we had to book an indirect flight for tomorrow. We were now flying out of Sydney at 8:20am to Adelaide and then Adelaide to Alice Springs arriving a little before noon. Of course, we also had to change our RV and hotel reservations for our next 2 stops. Luckily, we had some extra days at the end back in Sydney, so we just pushed everything back a day. By the time this was all taken care of, I believe Mike had been on the phone for over 2 hours, but we had our boarding passes in hand for tomorrow's flight. Luckily, the kids were really good through this whole ordeal. There was actually a television next to the monitors that was playing cartoons. So, around 11:00 a.m., we left the ticket area and made our way downstairs to look into getting a hotel for the evening. The guy at the information desk was excellent. He got us a fairly inexpensive hotel close to the apartment. We hoped in a taxi and went to the Novotel on Brighton Beach. After getting checked in, we found something to eat for lunch and then headed to the swimming pool. It had turned HOT in Sydney today...high of 35 Celsius. We spent the afternoon at the hotel pool before heading to dinner. We walked about 10 minutes along the beach promenade to a restaurant called Sabia which sits right on the beach. The kids were able to play in the sand too. Brighton Beach faces Sydney airport so we watched planes take-off and land while eating our dinner. After dinner, we stopped for some much needed ice cream after the stressful morning we had and headed back to the hotel. It was early to bed for everyone as it was going to be another early morning.

Slow day in Sydney

November 2nd--We took it pretty easy today as we had to get ourselves ready to leave for the outback tomorrow. We started the morning off with laundry, blogging and updating pictures. After that, we walked over to David Jones which is one of the big department stores here in Sydney. We ate lunch in the Food Hall there which is on the basement floor. We then looked through their Christmas section at ornaments and such. From here, we walked back to the apartment for a rest. I wasn't feeling very good...trying to catch a cold. So, I laid down to rest and Mike took the kids to the playground at Darling Harbor for the afternoon. He ran into a couple there with their daughter who were from Texas. They now work and live in Melbourne, but were visiting Sydney. They had lived in the neighborhood next to us in Frisco...small world!When they got back, Mike walked over to Regus business center to print off our itinerary and directions for camping in the outback. We then went to eat at Nando's for dinner. After dinner, we headed back to finish packing up. We had to rearrange some stuff because we are going to store one suitcase in Sydney. Then it was to bed early for everyone. We have to get up early tomorrow morning for our flight to Alice Springs.

Bondi Beach

November 1st--Abby and I went to the grocery store first thing this morning to pick up some food for our picnic lunch. We were heading to the beach today and were taking food with us. After we got back from the store, the boys were ready to head out. We took about a 30 minute bus ride to Bondi Beach. One of the bus stops was right by the beach. We found our spot on the sand and immediately started enjoying our picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day on the beach. It was very sunny, but windy too so the temperature was in the 70's. We enjoyed watching all the people learning how to surf and playing in the sand. The water was too cold to actually get into. I think the kids got their feet wet though. We stayed on the beach until about 4:00 when we made our way off the beach. We all enjoyed snow cones while watching beach volleyball and skateboarding as we made our way up to the street. We then walked toward Bronte beach while enjoying the Sculptures by the Sea. We got to see the spectacular Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk transformed into a giant sculpture park of over 100 sculptures by artists from Australia and across the world. Some of the sculptures were so pretty with the water behind them. It was fun and different. After looking at the sculptures, we made our way back to the main street by the beach to find dinner. We decided on Bondi Trattoria knowing that they had to have pizza, which they did. We all enjoyed a wonderful meal before boarding the bus back into Sydney. By the time we made it back to the apartment, it was late and way past the kids bedtime. We all had a great day at the beach. Sydney reminds us a lot of San Diego with its weather and beaches.