Playing tourist on a rainy day

The first full day in Sydney with mom and dad was rainy, rainy, rainy. We had lofty plans of seeing the Opera House and walking around lots, but the weather had other ideas. We did manage to get in a quick walk around Lavender Bay before the rain had us packing it toward the ferry.

Once the rain started up and pretty much soaked us all to the skin, we agreed that a change of plans might be in order. So we caught the ferry to Darling Harbour and visited the aquarium.

Dad, a ray, and a little bit of a Toby photobomb

At lunchtime, Mom and Dad graciously agreed to use a voucher I'd bought by accident. I was trying to buy a Groupon for a haircut, but accidentally bought one for two buckets of prawns (shrimp) and a bottle of wine instead. Oops! So Mom and Dad got a nice table out of the rain to enjoy my mistake.

We had a leisurely lunch and tried to decide what to do next. The weather wasn't really improving, so we decided to do some shopping and then head over to the Australian National Maritime Museum. I was very excited by this plan because I've been wanting to visit the museum, but I've been saving it as a rainy day plan.

The museum turned out to be awesome - probably my favorite museum in Sydney so far. (Of course, I might be a bit biased since I'm a water girl.)

First we toured the submarine stationed in the pier by the museum.

Here's me demonstrating the use of the very tiny head on board.

And we also checked out a destroyer class ship called the HMAS Vampire.

As you can see by the pictures, the weather was no better so we headed inside to check out the museum. Right off the bat we saw this speedboat that an Australian built in his backyard and used to set the world record for fastest speed on water: 317 mph. This was especially cool because Mom and Dad met the driver at a boat race earlier this year and talked to him.

There were so many great displays in the museum. One of my favorites was in the Viking exhibit: the display was made up of salvaged nails from an old Viking ship and used string to recreate the shape of the hull.

We gave the museum our best shot, but after a couple of hours everyone's feet were tired. So we caught the ferry back across the harbor, dried off, and ate a warm dinner. As we were finishing, the skies started clearing up! We decided that with a little bit of ice cream magic, we could go out for an evening stroll. So we all chose a Magnum flavor...

What an Aussie family!

And out we went!

We checked out the mustache on the Luna Park face.

We also walked around and found some flying foxes having their dinner in a blooming tree. I don't know if standing and watching the bats at night will ever get old, and I think Mom and Dad would agree! Too fun!

We made it another hour or so, then called it a day. It was a great day, weather notwithstanding!

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