What day is it?

ok, it's sunday in sydney. we're having a great time. just a few quick highlights. i dont know how to upload photos from here, so that may come later.

wed, nov. 10 (happy birthday, jan!):

-arrived in l.a. around 9:30

thu, nov. 11:

-"enjoyed" breakfast at denny's
-swam at pool
-took bus from lax marriott to santa monica pier (went to wrong bus stop, went to right bus stop, got on wrong bus, switched to right bus, walked a mile to have dinner)
-delicious dinner at fritto misto
-walked to venice beach
-cab back to hotel
-shuttle to lax
-11:30 pm flight to sydney
-slept about 9 hours total
-jan's (and sons') care packages for the boys came in very handy (raisins, granola bars, pens, journals, etc. - qantas could use your expertise. your stuff past thru customs no problem. the dried fruit from the q-snak bags caused all kinds of quarantine concerns!)
-boys have been journaling like crazy - almost an obsession for them!
-boys did great on plane, especially once we all found our optimal sleeping positions (made all the difference!)

sat, nov. 13:

-arrive at syd ~9:00 (~1 hour early)
-sped thru customs as nice flight attendant took pity on me and gave us the express pass
-purchased a "sydney pass" (all train, bus, ferry for 3 days)
-took train into city (~20 mins) & walked about 6 blocks to hotel
-able to check in immediately to our room at 'four points by sheraton sydney harbour' (cade told me i did a good job on the hotel)
-the room looks directly over the harbour with the sydney aquarium in the foreground - we were pleasantly surprised with our wonderful room (i expected a much smaller space, harder-to-work appliances, and just generally "typical ugly american" worries!)
-we were all starving, looked for a place nearby and went to tony roma's (yes, that tony roma's!) next door to our hotel and experienced our first encounter with the sticker shock that goes along with food iand other incidentals n syd (more about this later). seriously, $50 for lunch for the 3 of us
-took a 5 minute walk to the syd aquarium - very cool w/ lots of marine life (go figure), our favorites being the little blue penguins, sharks and the dugong, which is very similar to a manatee
-returned to the hotel for dinner (seriously, the best mushroom soup i've ever had - better than hungarian mushroom from old wives tale) and bed (the boys managed to stay up past 8, and i a little later)
-i got to talk to kristen, our muse for this sojourn, as she called our hotel since i have no idea how to make local calls
-sadly, i did talk to sean last night - he's with friends in the east bay for the or/cal game - to find out josh's car was broken into by breaking a window in his car, and sean and ian's luggage (including all of sean's keys) were stolen. i hate when that happens!

sun, nov. 14:

-left hotel around 9:30 am
-took ferry to circular quay with majestic views along the way
-walked to opera house - very cool (understatement), huge, and i cant believe it hasn't always been around
-hopped on sydney explorer bus to luna park
-luna park has probably about the coolest entrance of any amusement park i've ever seen
-grabbed the ferry back to circular quay
-hopped on the bus to kings cross for a pizza lunch
-sydney explorer back to hotel area and did some shopping for essentials at the market
-paid $25 to get online to find out ducks won by 2!!!??? (did i mention things were expensive here?)
-got stuck on elevator, just for a minute, on way back to the room. kind of cool - i've always wanted to get stuck on an elevator
-got to talk to kristen again & she confirmed i'm gong to be her date for the ball on fri. i've never been to a ball before - another first!
-time for dinner and excited for the zoo tomorrow!

observations so far:

-food is VERY expensive
-we really like it here
-we're having an amazing time
-syd is very easy to get around
-people are very helpful and nice
-weather is amazing (i dont know the temperature, but actually quite hot)
-food is VERY expensive