Fishy vego day

Today was utterly exhausting. Dan took the day off work (and tomorrow as well) and we decided to take Dante to the Sydney Aquarium, since I've never been there in all the time it has been open! Since my nephew and niece, Ben and Alexandra, were staying with my parents for a few days I decided to take them along as well to give my folks a day of peace. I felt really bad since we were sending Atticus to child care instead of bringing him, but the idea of dragging him through the crowds was not even remotely appealing. Afterwards we were going to meet up with Dan's family for dinner to celebrate his sister's birthday.

It took us a bit longer to leave the house in the morning than expected, so an hour later than planned we headed off. Poor Atticus was devastated to be dropped off at "school" even though we explained that Auntie Bec was going to pick him up. He thought the "party" was going to be right then and there, poor kid.

Then, we made the mistake of driving into the city to try and park at the recommended parking station ($12/day instead of $30) but it was full. Took another hour to find a parking spot in the end. Poor Elora was howling for a feed.

The smart thing we did, however, was purchase our admission tickets online. I highly recommend doing this, people! Not only do you get 10% off, but you do not have to queue with the rest of the plebs to get in. And remember, it is school holidays. The queues when we got there were incredible! By then the kids were starving so we had lunch and finally got into the aquarium for the afternoon.

It was a fantastic place. I really quite enjoyed it, even with all the crowds and pushy tourists. I'm glad we didn't bring Atti - better on a day when it's not so full of bodies. The kids had a great time and weren't too overly rowdy (about a 6 on a scale from 1 to 10 in rowdiness). Having my 13 year old nephew around was good. He's a great help!

Afterwards we went to a Vietnamese Vegetarian restaurant where we ate Peking "Duck", Lemongrass "Chicken" and other assorted "meat" dishes. Ben was quite confused since the dishes had meat in their names but the restaurant was vego! Bec explained that the "meat" is actually gluten... it was all rather interesting, and pretty tasty.

I think we were all glad to get home in the end, though. It was a long day for everyone.

Dante and Alex with a seal.


Dan and Dante being silly near the entrance to the Oceanarium.


The three kids "inside" the giant Oceanarium tank.