Museum, Market, and Manly

The day started off much earlier than the one before and I went to get breakfast with my parents.  We ate down by the quay outside at a small café.  I had a fruit salad with yogurt in an effort to begin cleansing my insides...let's just say that I haven't really been keeping up my exercise regimen nor have I been looking closely at what I've been eating.  After breakfast we intended to go to the grocery store to get the items we need to cook Christmas meals but we got sidetracked at the bank.  I needed to head in there because it was time to close my Australian bank account and convert my remaining money to USD.  It took WAY longer than I had anticipated and they had me moving all around the bank and from line to line.  It was kind of frustrating but in the end everything was taken care of.  I no longer have my account but I do have a good amount of USD in my wallet.

Because the bank took more time than planned, we ran back to get my brother from the hotel instead of heading out to the grocery store.  We wanted to make it to the Sydney Jewish Museum before it closed at 2pm.  We were able to do so, but again it took us much longer to get there than we originally worked into our schedule.  The walk was really long but we finally made it in time to move through the museum for a little while.  The bottom floor displayed a timeline of the history of the Jewish people in Australia while the upper floors were dedicated to the Holocaust.  No matter how many times I read about those events and the horror that occurred, I am still shocked that such things could have happened.  I enjoyed my time browsing through the museum but unfortunately we didn't get there early enough to really take it all in like we had wanted to.  However, Hanukkah Harry was there and Kenny and I each ended up with gifts on our way out the door :)

From the museum my dad split off to check out a war memorial we had walked by earlier while Kenny, my mom, and I went down to Paddy's Market in what I can only assume was Chinatown.  It was a crazy experience and I'm not too sure if I liked it but I'm still glad I did it.  We spent a couple of hours there before getting back to the hotel so that I could get a workout in while Kenny went to the pool.  After everyone was showered and clean, we made our way to Circular Quay to catch the ferry out to Manly.  This was one of my favorite experiences when I came here before and I was not disappointed this time either.  Not only was the ride amazing, but Manly itself is a great place.  We strolled along the beach before finding a nice place for dinner where we ate good food and enjoyed the company among us.  After dinner we walked around the other side of the peninsula before heading to the wharf to catch a late ferry back to Sydney; the ride itself takes just over 20 minutes.  Back in the room we all just plopped down at our computers for a bit before going to bed.  All four of us are set-up at the table looking out to the Opera House and the bridge and because we're all trying to steal the internet off of the hotel next door, sometimes one of us (usually me, go figure) gets dropped from the network.  Super frustrating when I finish a blog entry and then can't publish it and then am forced to go back and write it all again. Yeah, that just happened.