Having A Gay Old Time In Sydney

We arrived in the land down under seven days ago and have been adjusting to the warmer temperatures albeit between rainy days. We arrived in Sydney late and it turned out to be a sleepless night in a hospital and a hostel in the red light district.

Elyssa started to have chest pains in New Zealand and the last day there they became painful and frequent so we decided we would take her in once we arrived in Sydney. So we all went to emergency upon arrival to observe Australia's health care system in action. They were fantastic and took El in right away where they put her on an ECG. After a series of tests they decided she should be forwarded on to the pediatric hospital; here children go to pediatric for all treatments not just specialty care and adults only go to regular hospitals. As it was quite late we decided Jake and Elyssa would head to the other hospital and the boys would stay at our quality budget hotel we found just a few blocks away and we would see each other in a few hours when we assumed she would be released. Turns out the only one that got any sleep was Elyssa in her ER bed. Easton had his eyes opened to prostitutes and transvestites outside our hotel which raised a few more questions than one Dad was comfortable answering and the hotel was sketchy at best. The boys ended up packing up at 6am and taking all of our gear to a ritzy new hotel then heading to the hospital to check on the girls. Turns out they could find nothing wrong with Elyssa and released her around 10am which was comforting to all of us including a sleepless and exhausted Jacquie who did not sleep any.

Upon heading back to our upscale hotel (Holiday Inn), we cleaned up and hit Sydney for a few days. We saw the typical sites such as the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour and an abundance of museums. We saw more museums than normal as it was raining a lot in the area which was halting our beach time so with only a day and a half of sun over four days we killed two birds with one stone and took a ferry ride through Sydney Harbour to Manly Beach (weren't able to make it to Bondi or Coogee Beaches due to weather). We were only able to stay in Sydney for four days as it was overly busy due to the International Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and the reviews from the locals were mixed as far as if it qualified as a family atmosphere so we headed north to find sun and to avoid more uncomfortable questions.

After careful consideration, we picked up another campervan to get around in. This one is considerably smaller than our one in New Zealand which is much less stressful on Jeff but much more crowded. It took a couple of days of travel north but we found heat in Port Macquarie where we visited a Koala hospital and watched the locals body boarding doing 360 degree spins and flips. Needless to say each beach we stop at E is trying the same but has some work to go to match them.

We then headed up to the historical Trial Bay Gaol at South West Rocks which acted as both a hard labour prison and internment camp. This turned out to be where we found the most amazing campground complete with kangaroos and kookaburras.

We are currently in Coffs Harbour and are slowly making our way to Byron Bay where the kids are hoping to take surf lessons. Bye for now!