Big 2.2

Yesterday had been a little rushed to make it to church since we had just made it up to the Sydney Eye whenever it was time for church. Instead of rushing we decided to take our time up there and wait for the whole skyline to light up. That meant we had to get up early in the morning to go to church, but really it wasn’t too early. Afterwards we enjoyed a nice Sunday brunch with all the leftovers that we’ve stocked up on. With not much else planned for the day except for fireworks and a water show later on at the Harbour, we once again decided to head to the markets and do some souvenir shopping. Sunday is definitely the best day to do this for the deals, but not necessarily since its always overcrowded. We had to fight our way through the aisles most of the time, which started to bother us after a while. I think we’re both ready to be back in Goldsboro to walk around freely and not have anyone in our way all the time! Somehow we always manage to spend a considerable amount of time at the markets since there’s just so much to see! But I was ready to be back and maybe catch up on some reading and just relax in peace and quiet. So I grabbed a book and sulu and we headed to the park across the street to relax on the swings. Inbetween the time of walking down from the markets and going to the park the sun had set which meant the air was a lot colder than I expected. I was clearly not prepared for this weather, so although it was only about 60 degrees I thought it was absolutely freezing and would not be able to read without thinking about how cold I was. Riley was keen on feeding the birds with a piece of bread that he had brought but there were no birds to be found since they were obviously hibernating. We lasted maybe five minutes before we left and went back inside to read and look up more recipes, as you can imagine this was Riley’s choice of activity. We had delicious sweet and sour chicken planned for dinner and I was more than ready to get started on that! The recipe really does go by rather quickly with two people, especially since we’ve gotten quite used to being in the kitchen together and working as a team. The recipe might have been slightly altered since we didn’t have enough sugar for the sauce, but was still good none the less. We were soon on our way to Cockle Bay to catch the water show before heading to the Harbour to watch fireworks. We didn’t know what was happening when we arrived because Cockle Bay was packed! We have been through this place many times since the IMAX theatre, Sea Life, wax museum and aquarium are all right along the water front and have never seen this many people. We fought through the crowd to try and get a good view on the show but we knew it would be hard. Soon it didn’t matter though since it was actually a firework show as well.

Turns out that this is where the Harbour fireworks go off and the reason why we never saw them that one time we waited by the Opera House. It was truly a great show and we soon decided that we would stick around for the next show in close to an hour. We didn’t have to wander far until we came across our entertainment for the next hour. It was a juggler/entertainer who was promising the audience that he would do a grand finale juggling act with three knives and an axe. Well that sounded all fun and dandy until we realized it was going to take him the whole hour to get to this grand finale. Apparently it was more of a comedy act instead of a circus act, with jokes we weren’t too fond of it. However, he did keep our attention and laughing slightly so we stuck around. He’s been around the world and kept asking if there were other nationalities represented in the audience and when he got to America gave let out a big yell. He says we gotta be proud to be Americans, which I definitely am! Unfortunately he hasn’t been to North Carolina, but rather just the big cities like Seattle, Boston, New York City, LA, and Miami. Finally he did get to the final act which was quite impressive. All throughout the show he kept busking people for money. This is what Australians call the act of singing or playing an instrument for money – busking. He made it into a guilt game that if you didn’t give him money you’d feel guilty since he has to provide for his family and blah blah blah. We didn’t agree with this since it’s his choice to do this act instead of having a real job like everyone else. But in the end he entertained us long enough to see the next show which was just a water show with no fireworks. It did have music from all other the world though which dancers lit up on the water fountain. Hard to explain, but basically because of the light show it looked like dancers were dancing on top of the water. 

The light was projected onto the water to make it visible!

Earth just floating int he background!

Stop, turn, take a look around, at all the lights and sounds!

Fancy lookin' fountains!

Pano of  Cockle Bay!

In order to see the fireworks show one more time we walked around the Bay one last time, fighting our way through the crowds of people to try and find a good spot for the show. We had planned on going to the car overpass that was right behind the waterfront but the police men had blocked that off so we were sent in the other direction to stand on stairs to get a good view of the whole Bay. The firework show was awesome and a great way to end the Vivid show for us. We don’t know what we’re going to do without the Opera House being lit up now, but we still have the real Saturday night fireworks to look forward to! We had found a coupon earlier in the day for lava cakes at Dominoes, so with Riley’s extra money that he had found we decided to treat ourselves. They were definitely delicious and fulfilled our American need for good, but not so good for you food that we are missing!