We had a wonderfully HOT sleep at the Pier One Hotel last night! Their Air Conditioning is broken! So we opened the balcony door and slept to the harbour breeze instead. It is about 24 degrees right now and lets say a bit sticky! There is a wonderful blue sky though and we got to get going to breakfast so that we have the energy to get to Circular Quay to meet Sarah!
After a wonderful breakfast at the restaurant in the lobby of the hotel – great buffet of food and a gluten free station which I loved, we were off on our walk to Circular Quay! To get there, as we were on one side of the Sydney Bridge, we needed to walk under the bridge and then around to Circular Quay, past the Overseas Terminal where we arrived. The Manly Ferry leaves from Quay 3 and we arrived just in time to get on the ferry! Similar to Vancouver, they have a card you can use on the ferry, and you can also scan your credit card to pay, which we did. Very convenient service!
When we got to the Manly Ferry Terminal, the 4 Pines Restaurant was across the street from the terminal. I had selected this restaurant due to its location as Sarah said she could meet us at the ferry terminal. The restaurant also had gluten free food on its menu which was a bonus! I had forgotten to check one LITTLE thing – was it accessible! Nope! So up about 20 stairs I went so that I could have lunch with my friend! It was awesome sitting on the balcony watching people arriving at the ferry terminal – we were the first patrons to arrive at the restaurant (yes we were early for once) so we got to select where to sit, and the place quickly filled up! I loved the reservation sign they had on the table – hand written with the 4 Pines logo on the back!
At that point, I phoned my mother to wish her a happy “Australian Time Zone” birthday as it is November 20th and her birthday were we are located! In Richmond, BC, where she is located – her birthday will be tomorrow…
Sarah arrived along with her Aussie accent she has acquired and we both had the shrimp tacos for lunch while Andrew had a burger! The pub actually brews its own beer so the display of beer options was a bit large, however Andrew finally settled on one that he was going to taste with his lunch. It was great seeing Sarah after all these years and hearing about her family who has grown – her oldest son Hamish was having his Grade 10 Formal tonight – which is like a graduation of sorts – at this point they continue at school to go to university, they go to trade school or to work. The other interesting thing that is happening in Australia, which I first thought I heard about in Melbourne but thought it could not be true, is that kids under 16 are going to be banned from Social Media and having cell phones effective December 10th. For Sarah’s youngest, that will only last a few months until he is 16, however it is a pretty interesting thing for the government to crack down on!
Sarah had to go back to work to a meeting so Andrew and I decided to walk to the beach in front of the 4 Pines restaurant, which was next to the Manly Ferry terminal. I THOUGH that was Manly Beach, however it was not. Manly Beach is on the other side of the peninsula so we then walked over to that side – much better!
We sat at the beach for a while and then we walked down the main street of Manly Beach which is sort of like Granville Street in downtown Vancouver – no cars allowed. There were lots of stores including a nice Gelato place named Anita’s where we stopped for a cool afternoon treat! Then on our way to the Ferry Terminal Andrew spotted a very important store “Whole Green Gluten Free Bakery”! Sarah had mentioned that one was going to open up and I had looked on Google Maps and Google for one however could not find one within 2 kilometers. Funny we would run into it on our walk! Needless to say, I patronized the store and ended up with a spanakopita, 2 Portuguese custard tarts and 2 chocolate croissants! I cannot wait to try them! Also, there was a Coles Grocery next door, so we acquired some snack food and things to make lunch/dinner in the room and we were ready to rumble and get back on to the ferry!
We quickly scanned onto what I thought was a waiting ferry, however it has just arrived and still had to let people off! Once we boarded, we sat downstairs as normal and had a great ride back to Circular Quay where we got off the ferry.
Now we are walking back to the Pier One Hotel for the evening. It was a full day! On our way there, we pass by the Museum of Contemporary Art – which was funny as it had a huge sign about it saying “MCA” and I thought when I saw the building from a far, that it was missing the “Y” and that it was probably a hostel like building. Nope! Now we are closer I see why the Y was missing! There were two interesting art pieces out front – this “eye” and the braided head of a woman! We then walked back around the Overseas Terminal and under the bridge to our hotel!
We relaxed tonight and had some of our goodies that we bought from Coles for dinner! Tomorrow we are not sure what we are going to do – the weather forecast is for rain! That is not good!