Sydney Aquarium

To the Royal National Park, NSW, Australia

Today, when I woke up, it was raining and looked foggy, plus Mom and Dad didn’t seem happy.  I asked what was going on and they said that they just found out that they might have to be at school in person to re-enroll Kylie and me.  Dad and Mom are still trying to see what they can do. 

While we were eating our toast, the couple to our left took pity on us because we had no awning and asked if we wanted to sit under theirs.  We thanked them and took them up on their offer. It turned out their names were Anita and Dean; they even had a daughter named Kylie!  After offering us cookies and coffee, they let us look at their fancy Jayco trailer, then let Kylie and me watch TV.  Mom and Dad talked until it was time to go, when we thanked them and wished them safe travels. 

Meg, Anita, Kylie, Dex and Dean

In the car, Kylie and I did homework while we talked about what to do in Sydney.  We decided on the aquarium since it was still raining. It took quite a while to get to Sydney and park. When we first walked in, we got our pictures taken by a very enthusiastic woman and then Kylie and I got a sheet of paper that we could stamp.  If we got all the stamps, we would get an award.  

The first part of the aquarium had some fairy penguins swimming in a tank with some big fish, plus some moon jellies. In the next section, there were some orange crabs that Mom thought were fake plus a four foot long eel that looked very stuck in a pile of big sticks.  I really like the stone fish we saw because I stared at it for a couple minutes before I realized that the big "rock" in front of me was a fish.  I also liked the huge spiky, twenty-armed sea star.

My favorite thing in that section though was the all aquatic snake that only had gills.  The one thing I couldn’t help but notice was the plastic seaweed and other tank accessories.  I also really enjoyed the lobsters that were huge, bigger than a baby.

Next, we walked through a big plastic tube under water.  We watched sharks and stingrays swim around and above us.  Once the dugong – similar to a manatee but with a dolphin-like tail – swam right next to Kylie and me.  There were also giant shark rays.  Any guesses what they looked like?

The dugong, relative of the manatee

Giant shark ray

We were just walking to the next section when a man asked us if we wanted to see some penguins.  We said yes and were whisked into a really cold room with another couple where we got into a boat. The one minute ride floated past the Emperor Penguin exhibit.  It was really "cool".  When we left the penguins, we went to the reef section with an area where we could touch sea stars and sea cucumbers.  My favorite part came right at the end.  You could color in a fish on a piece of paper and then scan it. Then it would appear on a screen swimming with other fish colored by other kids.  (Dad’s note: while we were doing that, Dad went back to the car, which was 25 minutes away, to feed the parking meter.  He’s a great guy!)

 

When we left the aquarium, we were hungry so found a restaurant where we had a killer Indian meal. Spicy Indian food is one of my favorites. We then had an hour's drive back to our new campsite in the Royal National Park, south of the city. But, when we got there… the gate was locked!  It turned out it closed at 8:30 and it was 9:45.  With nothing else to do, we camped on the road just outside.