Australia Day 14: The longest day Ever!

We have seen advertisements for something called City2Surf on the buses and saw signs on the road warning of traffic issues for today, so we thought they were for the same event. When I wake up in the morning I check out the window to see if I can see crowds of people, but there is nothing happening outside from what I can tell, so we are confused. We learn that City2Surf is an event where people run from Hyde Park down to Bondi Beach, but apparently is not happening today.

At breakfast we find that you can get an omelet, you just need to put in an order with one of the employees. Nate and Kailey both order an omelet, although it is not quite as good as the first restaurant.

Today they have premade Belgian waffles available too, which is a favorite with Nutella!

We have several hours to kill before we need to head to the airport. Nate wants to take the ferry to a different beach called Manly Beach. We grab a couple towels to sit on and some water bottles and take the #333 bus down to the Circular Quay. When we arrive at the wharf there is a long line of people waiting to get on the ferry and the ferry gets full before we can get on. We have to wait another 20 minutes before the next ferry leaves. The ride is pretty smooth which is amazing as it's decently windy. There are a ton of sailboats on the water and Kailey enjoys standing by the rail and getting splashed by some of the waves. It takes 25-30 mins for the ferry to reach Manly Wharf.

There is a police presence in the water near the Opera House

Tons of sail boats around the harbor. Same boat trip, but looking one direction was very cloudy and the other direction was sunny. A storm is expected to blow in as the day goes on.

This boat looks like it is just about tip over it is leaning so hard!

It takes 5 minutes to walk from the wharf down to the beach. Manly Beach is very different than Bondi beach. The beach is very narrow and crowded with people. The left side of the beach is for surfers and the right side for swimming. They say there can be rip currents though, so we only let the kids get their feet wet and make sure we are near by. Once again the water is very cold.

The kids really want to make a sand castle, but with the beach so busy, there's not really a good place close to get wet sand. They try at one place just on the edge of the wet sand and within about 30 seconds a wave has already wrecked what they started.

The kids give up on building a sand castle and decide the water is more fun to splash in and out of. I give them about 25 minutes to play before we need to head back towards the ferry.

When it's time go to we find a rinse station and clean off our feet as best we can and put our sandals back on. I quickly stop in a shop to see about getting a Sydney magnet but I literally only have a couple minutes or we will miss the ferry. After crossing the road we run to get on the ferry just a minute before they depart.

We decide to get some gelato on the wharf when we return to the Circular Quay, one last treat on our trip. But we don't want Kailey trying to eat it on the bus, so we wait until she is done eating before we get on.

Yummy!

We find it interesting that these police vehicles have "snorkels" on them for driving through deep water. 

By this time we were starting to run short on time. Then we find out the reason for the road closure signs we had been seeing for today. There is a protest along part of the bus route making terrible traffic and it takes us a long time to get back to the hotel.

When we finally get back to our hotel we quickly go up to our room on the 21st floor, only to discover our room keys no longer work. I had paid for late checkout, but they hadn't programmed our keys for that, so we have to go back downstairs to get the keys redone before returning to our room. Thankfully this is one time where we don't have to wait several minutes for an elevator.

Since we will be traveling for the next 24 hours I want everyone to quickly shower and change into our airport clothes. Nate helps pack up and then we weigh the bags. We make sure both bags are under 50 pounds to avoid adjusting things for our Southwest flight to AZ after landing in LAX.

We check out around 3:30 PM and get an Uber to the airport. It is starting to get cloudy and windy as the storm is blowing in.

We make it through bag drop and customs without issues. We remember to ask for an actual stamp in our passports and they direct us to the counter where we can have that done. We still have several hours to kill before we can get on our plane so we let the kids look at the shops, with the understanding that we will be buying NOTHING! After a while Nate says he's feeling a little off, so we head to our gate to sit down.

Some very cute, but expensive chocolate

The kids really enjoy all the different Tim Tam flavors

We haven't eaten lunch yet, so I go to find a water bottle filling station and some food. The water filling station has a long line. When it's finally my turn I see what has been taking so long. It will start off strong for a second or two, and then the water slows to a small stream and then stops after a short time. You then have to pull away the bottle and repeat until you have enough water. It takes three times per water bottle. Luckily I only have two bottles to fill.

When I'm done I walk to a food court area and buy some chicken nuggets from McDonalds. We know we'll be fed on the plane but we need a little something to tide us over. This is a very interesting McDonalds. The kitchen is upstairs and they bag and send the food down a conveyer belt system where a worker gives it to you along with sauces and drinks. After a little snack and sitting down Nate says he's feeling better, but still feeling strangely exhausted.

Waiting at our gate

Our plane is a huge double decker plane. The plane is going to be only half full, so they gave us two rows of 4 so we can lay down across the rows to sleep if we want.

I make sure to sit in the row with my ticket so I can get my special non-dairy meal I ordered. Kailey sits with me with Landon and Nate 10 rows behind us on the other side of the bathrooms.

There is a camera on the tail of the plane, and you can watch it on the screen in the back of the seat in front of you. Nate took this picture as we were taking off.

Through the magic of time travel we are taking off from Sydney at 6:45 PM and we will be landing in LA at 2:24 PM (same day) even though our flight time is around 13 hour and 40 minutes. The beginning of the flight is pretty uneventful. After getting up in the air they come through and give everyone a cold bottle of water, followed by dinner a little while later.

My special dinner was pretty good. Nate and the kids had roast beef with mashed potatoes.

Around 4 hours into the flight Kailey says she doesn't feel good. I'm also not feeling great. I take some Pepto Bismol and give her a Tums. I also locate a sickness bag I had brought along. After about 15 minutes she makes use of it…poor girl.

I bring her to the bathroom and she's feeling a little better. No way I can sleep while trying to help her. She does fall asleep but I'm on guard. I start to feel a little woozy. I make the difficult decision to leave Kailey and I rush to the bathroom with bag in hand. I feel like I going to loose it, but thankfully I don't. After getting out of the bathroom Nate is there. He's feeling a little unwell again, so I offer him some Pepto. He goes to sit with Kailey as he's doing better than me and Landon is sleeping.

Slowly I start feeling a little better. But there's still 8 hours to go…this is going to be a long flight/night.

As I'm sitting in Nate's seat, closer to the bathroom about half or more of the flight attendants head for some sleep. There's a hidden stairway, and it's funny to me that it looks like a little closet that keeps fitting more and more people like a clown car. I imagine there must be stairs that brings them to some sleeping quarters.

A couple times I go up and see how Nate and Kailey are doing and they seem to be sleeping. When Landon finally wakes up I get an opportunity to lay down for a while. I don't think I sleep at all, but it does relieve stress on my butt and lower back and it's nice to have a different position.

A couple hours before we land I go back up to switch positions with Nate so I'm in the correct seat when they come to bring my meal. Kailey hasn't thrown up any more and it's been around 6+ hours. I tell her she can eat a little bit if she's hungry, but to do it slowly. She has a muffin and fruit in what she orders, but she mainly picks at the muffin, eating maybe half of it. I eat some of her fruit as she hasn't touched any of it, and it's better than the mushy veggie cake they gave me.

As we are coming in for a landing Kailey says she's not feeling well again and she leaves her breakfast in a sickness bag, which I'm able to throw away before buckling up for landing. Thankfully she is feeling a little better again after that.

This is a picture of the plane we flew on after landing at LAX

After customs we have to walk down to Terminal 1, doing the opposite of what we did on the way there. By the time we get there and try drop off our bags we find Southwest only lets you drop a bag four hours before a domestic flight, so we have an hour to kill before we can drop our bag. Unfortunately there are almost no chairs or seating to be found. We finally go down to baggage claim and find a bench by the door where we can sit.

Eventually we get our bags dropped off and make our way to security. This time we are trying to look for signs that say TSA pre-check but we don't see anything anywhere. We ask an employee as the security line is really long. She directs us down a different direction that crosses through the regular TSA line. It's horribly un-organized. I'm not sure if it's always like this or it it has to do with the government shut down that's been going on for a couple weeks already.

Our gate has several flights that need to leave before our flight since we are so early, so we sit across the way at an empty gate. As it gets closer to our flight time we move over to our gate when our flight is next.

At this point Kailey is telling me she's hungry. I'm not sure about feeding her, but I set out to look for something light. What I really want is just some plain crackers, but all I can find are chips. There is a Wetzel's Pretzels next to our gate, so I get one of those as I can see they are just plain. After I order it the guy takes it from the case, slathers it in butter, salts it and then gives it to me...oh well. I share it between the four of us, so it's just a few bites each.

The last leg of our journey, a quick one hour flight to Phoenix

Our flight is pretty much on time, leaving a few minutes after our scheduled 8:35 PM take off. The kids and I are sitting together, and I'm most thankful that Kailey seems to still be doing okay. On the flight they hand out drinks but I don't have them give one to Kailey. She has water, and that's all I want her drinking. They do give us some pretzels that have a mild BBQ flavor and she nibbles on those too.

They are expecting a storm to be rolling into Phoenix shortly after we land, so I'm glad that we arrive on time. Earlier in the day there was a ground stop due to thunderstorms and there may be more of the same coming as it's remnants from Tropical Storm Priscilla. Our weather station had recorded just over 2" of rain in the morning.

The kids want to do a shoe picture with the airport carpet when we arrive back in Phoenix. The carpet isn't as cool as the carpet at PDX (Portland, OR) but it has airplanes on it.

We finally arrive home just a minute before 11 PM, Sunday October 12th. (5PM Monday in Sydney). We do a quick search inside and out for scorpions as this is the time of year they like to venture indoors. Thankfully we don't find anything. 30 minutes later the rain starts coming down. So glad to be at home at last!

Home sweet home!

(34 hours awake with 22-1/4 hours of that being travel)

Recovery

After sleeping for around 8 hours we wake up to Kailey getting sick again. Thankfully I had put a bucket near her bed, so no messes were made. Unfortunately whatever bug she caught really did a number on her. She has to miss a couple days of school because she is throwing up about every 15 minutes the first day home. I eventually take her to the doctor the second day home, and they give her anti-nausea medicine. She wasn't keeping water down and I am worried she will get dehydrated.

Nate and I also continue to have stomach issues for several days and I am having really bad lightheadedness. I had been having some issue with lightheadedness on our trip, but it got worse after getting home and being sick. After seeing a doctor and have having multiple tests run, they find I am anemic. So I have many weeks or months of recovery ahead.

The storm that rolled through knocked down several trees in the area, and caused some flooding in places.

Overall the trip was worth it, and I'm so glad we were mostly healthy on our trip. Both kids enjoyed their first trip abroad, and are looking forward to future family adventures, weather near or far.