Visiting the observatory

SV finally got to go to the observatory to look at stars. She was very excited and was reading all the facts in the little museum. Once on the tour she answered lots of questions and in turn asked lots more. The highlight though was being able to look through one of the original telescopes at the observatory at the moon which is reflected in her eye. Also looking through the brand new high powered modern telescope and seeing the clouds of Jupiter and other stellar objects.

Vivid 2019

This year we only stopped briefly at Vivid on the way from one activity to another. We were quite impressed though as there was much more space and some interesting exhibits. The one downside was that more of the exhibits were 'sponsored by' companies and people had to line up for them. To us that is a very poor outcome, but others didn't seem to mind too much. In any case some of the classics didn't disappoint and we had a fun hour or so looking at the light installations.

Riding a steam train

We were lucky because we got 1st class tickets on the last steam train of the day. It happened to be the Garratt class locomotive. These were the most powerful engines in Australia and can outperform most of today's diesel electric locomotives. We had a great time until we learned our second lesson about steam train travel. Burning coal is a messy business with lots of coal dust. There was something about it though that made both SV and TV enjoy the journey in style.

Sydney transport heritage day

TV and SV headed into the city on the bus, of course, to take a look at all of the heritage buses, trains and ferries. Unfortunately we only had time to look at the buses and trains this time around, but we still had heaps of fun. The buses were nice but having gone to the bus museum we have seen them before and so didn't spend too much time. The steam trains on the other hand were relatively new to us. They were from an era when rail travel was a luxury endeavour and steam was still king. SV was still quite drawn to the vending machine, but she was happy to go look at the trains particularly when under steam. One thing we learned about steam trains was just how loud they were when they got going, particularly that steam whistle.

Indoor climbing

TV took SV to the climbing gym to give bouldering a go. She really took to it and had heaps of fun. She was well suited and only really ran into issues as she went higher up as she started not being able to reach between the holds which are more designed for adults. Our friend MJ joined us as well and took some photographs of us. Eventually we got tired and went across the street to a brewery for a cool beverage.

Going to the airport

It was nice being able to have all of us going to the airport together. It was an emotional good bye this time around.

Packing to go again

EV was very helpful in packing all the bags for their trip away. All three ladies were ready to go.