We slept in a little on Saturday because we had quite an exciting night. Around 12:30 am we were awoken to a beeping sound. It was very similar to an alarm clock beeping and it took us awhile to realize it wasn't an alarm clock, it wasn't a car alarm from the busy city streets, and it was happening throughout our apartment, out in the hallways, and apparently through the building! Fire alarms maybe? No smoke or heat anywhere that we could tell. Joel looked outside and said, "There are fire trucks out there! We'd better move!" We jumped out of bed, I threw a sweatshirt on over my tank top. I ran into the room where our bigs were sleeping and made sure they were up. Maddy was climbing out of bed and I thought G was too. The Littles were on the sofa bed in the living room and getting up too. Most everyone grabbed sweatshirts and I grabbed my purse and we were out the door pretty quickly. At this point I should note that our apartment has a weird feature that I've never seen before. In order for the lights in all of the apartment to work, our key card has to be inserted in a place by the front door. When removed, the apartment goes completely dark. As we ran out the door, Joel grabbed that key, plunging the flat into darkness. We hurried down the hallway toward the elevator/stairwells and all of the sudden realized we only consisted of 5 Gibsons. Garrett was missing. Or more to the point, still in bed, or still 'getting ready' in the pitch dark! Ironic we got out the door without him since he's literally our biggest kid right now!
To be very clear, we were only about 30 feet, max, from our room at this point. Joel said he'd go back for him and I should start down the stairwell with the other 3. Maddy was at the front of our group and so I told her to keep going with the littlest two. We passed a big crowd of people who looked kind of bewildered. I'm sure we did too but what were they thinking taking the elevator?! The kids started down the stairwell and I was kind of hanging back waiting for Joel and G. They didn't come and didn't come. Finally I went back around the corner towards our elevator and our room and Joel was yelling for me. There were two stairwells! Neither of us knew it. Since the kids with me were already going for it, I told Joel we'd just meet at the bottom. (Can you count how many lethal mistakes we'd have made by now if this had been a real fire?!)
As we made our way down 10 flights of stairs, we ran into a few people who said all was clear and we could go back to our rooms. But a) I had told Joel we'd meet him downstairs and b) there is no way I was going to make Maddy climb back up all those flights of stairs. (Or any of us. Maddy's in excellent shape, better than me, she just gets wiped out easily and adrenaline is terrible for her, as is lack of sleep.) So we kept going. We finally made it to the lobby where it was warm, and all was clear. Joel and Garrett had gotten the message early on and gone back to the apartment. Maddy, Carter, Rebeka, and I sat on the couch in the cozy lobby full of people and waiting our turn for an elevator.
Eventually we made it back to room 1001 and I gave my sleepy, almost 6ft tall 13 year old lots of hugs and apologies for leaving him alone in a dark apartment in a (not) burning building! Then I crawled in bed with my husband and we rehashed the whole thing, at first defensively, and then we both died laughing at how terribly we handled the whole thing and with so much relief that it wasn't really an emergency. So awful. Joel said, "Four kids is just a lot to keep track of!" Um, yeah. But you'd think we would be used to it by now!
So, on Saturday morning we slept in. When we finally woke up, (Garrett's first words to us were, "Thanks a lot for ditching me in a burning building. I almost died." Darn it, we were hoping he wouldn't remember.), we decided to visit the other zoo that we'd read good reviews about in Sydney- Featherdale. I remembered visiting it when I was here in 1999. We were looking forward to petting koalas and kangaroos too. Maddy woke up with an awful headache so she opted out of the morning trip to Featherdale. (Thanks a lot middle of the night fire drill.)
Carter and Rebeka really enjoyed it, but I honestly thought it was a little rundown and the animals looked pretty sad. It was about an hour away from our apartment by train and bus.
When we got back we collected Maddy, who was feeling a little better, and headed out to Paddy's a market for some shopping. Paddy's market is a huge, indoor marketplace with all the souvenir crap one could imagine. Lots and lots of junk, with a few treasures here and there. The kids found some nice souvenirs for their friends, and Maddy bought a little painting that was original and really pretty. Rebeka was thrilled with her $5 shiny necklace in the shape of the opera house.
When we left the market, we were just a few blocks from Darling Harbor. Maddy hadn't been there yet so we walked down there just before sunset. Since it was Saturday, and the first day of the local schools' winter holiday, it was crazy busy. Also 'Cool Yule'- the winter festival- was in full swing, complete with fake snow blowing, an ice rink, and a floating (fake) iceberg! It was about 60 degrees out- and July- so funny to us!
Before we left Darling Harbor for the last time we got drawn in by some street performers. They were ridiculous and it ended up being a waste of 30 minutes but it was pretty funny to watch them for a bit.
On our way back to the apartment we decided we should eat out. Unlike most of our other accommodations, Sydney didn't have a dishwasher and I really didn't want us to have to hand wash dishes in the midst of getting packed up to leave in the morning. We stopped at a little Indian place and enjoyed their free wifi and chicken tikka masala.
Back at our place we did one load of laundry (to the tune of $6!) and got things packed and organized. Tomorrow we'd leave for Coffs Harbour and hopefully warmer weather!
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
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