I was itching to try something new in the kitchen, so I decided to find a new recipe.  I was exploring the Crockin’ Girls site and came across their recipe for Chicken Enchiladas and thought it would be a good one to experiment with.

After reading some of the comments on the recipe, I opted to make a few modifications.  Below is my modified version, the link above will take you to the original one!  The steps in the original call for making adjustments after 4 hours, but since I’m typically at work when I’m using the slow cooker – that’s not going to happen!  I wanted to see how it would turn out if I put everything in at once, so I did.

Ingredients:

• 3 Chicken breasts
• 1 plain Greek yogurt
• 2 cans of enchilada sauce
• 1 half a small jar of salsa
• 1 can low sodium chicken broth
• 3 slices of Velveeta cheese
• 1 cup low fat shredded cheese (cheddar or Mexican blend)
• Tortillas

Directions:

1. Place chicken in slow cooker
2. Melt Velveeta cheese slices in the microwave in microwaveable mixing bowl
3. Add container of Greek yogurt, cans of enchilada sauce, and mix together.
4. Mix in the salsa to the liquid.  Then mix in the can of chicken broth.
5. Pour liquid mixture over the chicken in the slow cooker
6. Set on low for 8-10 hours (I did 8 hours)
7. About 30 minutes before you’re ready to eat, preheat the oven for 350 degrees.
8. Take the chicken out of the slow cooker, shred the chicken, and then place the shredded chicken back into the mixture.
9. Take two glass casserole dishes, spray lightly with cooking spray.
10. Take tortillas out and fill with the chicken from the slow cooker, making sure to place the overlapped portion of the tortilla on the bottom of the dish.
11. Once all tortillas are filled, use any remaining sauce from the slow cooker and pour over the top of the enchiladas.
12. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the enchiladas
13. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the cheese on top has melted and the tortillas get crispy.
14. Enjoy!!
    

    Yum!

Makes 8 enchiladas.

[#36 of #52]

This weekend was a busy one!  What was originally supposed to be a full-on get together (GTG) with the 409 girls turned into Ali coming to visit Atlanta.  The 409’ers are a special group of women that I met on The Knot while planning my wedding.  We were all planning weddings for April 2009 and had all made our way onto the message board specific to our wedding month/year.

When I joined, several of the women had been planning their weddings for awhile, and had already formed pretty close bonds.  Seeing that Josh proposed 7 months before we got married, I was a relative newbie. Luckily, they didn’t scare me off in the beginning (I received warnings from other women on The Knot about the group – ha!).

Since our wedding month, we’ve all grown even closer, and moved off The Knot onto our own password protected message board.  We’ve shared personal details from our lives, provided encouragement, empathized and sympathized in times of sadness.  I consider these women great friends, even if I have only met a small portion of them in person!

Last year, the first 409 GTG was held in D.C.  Josh and I weren’t able to go because we were saving all of our vacation days (and money) for our Australia trip.  This year, the plan was for everyone to come to Atlanta.  Life had other plans though!  Babies were born, homes were sold and purchased, insect outbreaks, and other personal situations arose and unfortunately the attendee number slimmed.

Ali booked her airfare and hotel pretty early on, and rather than paying change fees and making other plans, she flew down to Atlanta to hang out with Jen and myself!  I was really excited to meet her for the first time.  For those of you who ever came across Three Sheets to the Wind, Ali was the mastermind behind that blog. It’s been awhile since she’s posted, perhaps she’ll start back sometime soon (:)).

On Friday night, Jen, Jen’s husband, Ali, Josh and I met for dinner at Taco Mac.  Ali is a beer connoisseur, so it was only fitting we took her to a location with a large list of beers to choose from [next time, I vote we visit Brick Store Pub in Decatur].  We spent time talking, catching up, and just hanging out.  Meeting Ali was just like seeing someone I hadn’t seen in awhile, no awkwardness – just a continuation of previous communication.  She’s awesome!

On Saturday, Jen and Ali ran in a 5K near Jen’s house and then we met up for lunch at Mary Mac’s Tea Room.  If you either a) live in Atlanta and have never been, or b) have never been to Atlanta – you should put this on your list of places to eat!  It is one of my favorites in town!

My veggie plate: Black-eyed peas, green beans, mac 'n cheese, and sweet potato souffle

Before we were completely full!

After lunch, we made our way over to the Georgia Aquarium to explore the world’s largest aquarium.  While it was a little busy, we had a great time!

Penguin love.

409'ers with the beautiful fish

My favorite part of the Georgia Aquarium

We were hoping to see the Dolphin Tales show, but we had tickets to the Braves games vs. the Pirates, so we needed leave and meet Josh at the stadium.

We had seats in section 334, which was nice and shady!  Unfortunately the Braves didn’t take home the win, but we still had fun!

Go Braves!

Sunday morning, Jen and I met to go pick Ali up from her hotel and take her to breakfast.  We decided on The Flying Biscuit, and I’m so glad we did.  Neither Jen nor I had been before, so we were relying on all the wonderful things we’d heard about the place to be true – and they were!

We ordered breakfast, chatted about the weekend and life in general.

The Flying Biscuit Breakfast

After we finished, we dropped Ali off at the airport with the plan to talk again soon on the board.

All in all, we had a fabulous weekend though we missed everyone that wasn’t able to attend.  After “hanging out” with these ladies online for so long, the thought of hanging out in person is a no brainer!  I do hope that there is another GTG in the future and that more ladies (and husbands*) to attend!

* Special thanks to Josh and Jason for hanging out with us this weekend!

[#35 of #52]

Our 15th day in Australia was New Year’s Eve – the last day of 2011.  It’d had been a good year, but it was one that I wished away so that I could be in Australia, for a little over two weeks.  I was here to ring in 2012 from one of my favorite places on earth, a place my heart inexplicably calls for.  I know it sounds silly, but it’s true.  I’d seriously move to Australia in a heartbeat if the opportunity presented itself [and if Josh were down with it – I suppose ].  I was also going to cross off #13 from my life list.

We woke up early because we were going to have breakfast with my friend Jess.  But, due to her work schedule, she called while we were getting ready and told us she wasn’t going to be able to make it.  I was a little bummed, but life happens!  We laid around the room for a little while before deciding to go downstairs to get breakfast.  It was raining and we didn’t necessarily want to go out in the rain.  Of course, the hotel took advantage of the holiday and charge $25 per person for the breakfast buffet, which was definitely sub-par.

After finishing breakfast we opted to just hang out in the room due to the weather, and because we knew we’d be up late for the festivities.  We took a nap, played around online, watched TV until about 3 pm when it was time to start getting ready!

My hair was being a PAIN while attempting to curl it, so I ended up going with the normal straight look.  Ugh.  Once dressed we were ready to leave the room a little after 5 pm.  As we were walking down the hallway, I saw something in the mirror that I wanted to touch up – so I ran back into the room.  As I was moving around, the closed part of the sleeve on my dress tore open.  AH!!!  Panic set in because it looked stupid.  Thankfully Josh kept a level head amidst my stress and pinned the sleeve with a safety pin. Crisis averted!

Josh all dressed up! So Handsome!

Sparkly attire for the evening filled with fireworks!

We made the 15-20 minute walk down to Macquarie Street, where we had to go in order to go through security before heading into the party at Opera Bar.  We stood in the queue for what felt like forever before it started moving, only to show our tickets and stand in another queue, which took quite awhile!  I definitely wished I would have worn my cheap flats down until we made our way into the party!

It was around 7 pm that we entered the doors of Opera Bar – to say I was excited would have been a complete understatement!  We walked around, checked out the scene, and then made our way to the bar to grab a drink.

We finally made it inside!

There were some seats inside, and since my feet were killing me, we sat down for a little bit.  It worked out well though, since we were near the kitchen, we were among the first to enjoy the passed canapés.

We (foolishly) didn’t eat lunch, so I was anxious about eating knowing we’d have a few drinks throughout the night. My favorites were the halibut wrapped apples, the margarita pizza, and the mini fish and chips baskets!

After a few bites to eat, we made our way outside to the photo booth that they setup.  We took pics and emailed them to ourselves!

Photo booth fun!

The dance floor was hopping, but Josh wasn’t in the mood to dance (and my feet were still killing me) so we watched on the side.  Josh walked around and ended up finding a great spot away from the midst of the party to stand to watch the fireworks.

Photo taken from The Opera Bar's Facebook page

We met two couples, one from Perth and the other from the UK.  I talked to the two girls while Josh went to go get us a few drinks.

At 9 pm, they did the family fireworks around the Harbour, so families with kids could head home and not stay out late.  It was a nice preview for what was about to come.  It also gave me the chance to try a few things with the point and shoot camera I brought with me.  I didn’t take the DSLR because it was too bulky and I didn’t want to chance dropping it if the crowd got a little rowdy!

After the first set of fireworks, they did the parade of lights, with boats going around the Harbour decorated with light.  Of course a boat parked right in front of us, but we still had a pretty good view.  I was standing in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and next to the Sydney Opera House – nothing was going to ruin the night!

At 10:00 pm, 11:00 pm, and 11:30 pm, small set of fireworks would go off to help us keep track of the time.  Midnight was nearing and I was getting more and more excited!!  Josh went to go get champagne so we were ready for the countdown.

You Only Live Once!

With 80 seconds until the new year, the countdown appeared on the bridge.  The crowd started cheering!

And as the seconds counted down, I counted my blessings and realized how lucky I was to be in Sydney, ringing in 2012.  As the fireworks started, tears came to my eyes.  I was really experiencing this moment, something I’d always said I wanted to do – and I was doing it with my fabulous husband, who’d put up with my ridiculous planning for so long.  I was so happy he was there to experience it with me and looked forward to many more magical moments throughout our marriage.

A view of the bridge

The fireworks were outstanding, better than I ever could have imagined.  The colors were vibrant and the view was spectacular.  I didn’t want this moment to ever end.

Fireworks behind the Sydney Opera House

I turned around to Josh once they were over (since he was filming them the whole time) and give him another kiss and a big hug – still quite emotional.  We talked about how great the fireworks were and how I wanted to move to Sydney.   Josh reiterated that he didn’t want to move, but promised that we’d come back.  He said he’d had a great trip and realized there were still so many things to see, that he wanted to come back.  Of course, that brought a smile to my face – and I assure you, I’m holding him to that promise!

After the fireworks were finished...

The walk back to the hotel was pretty pleasant.  There was a lot of rubbish out on the roads that we had to walk through, but the crowds weren’t bad at all.  It was a very celebratory time and there were smiles all around.

It was the perfect way to say good-bye to 2011 and hello to all the greatness that 2012 would bring!

2012: Time to Dream

[#34 of #52]

Today marks mine and Josh’s third wedding anniversary, man does time fly by!  It seems like just yesterday we said, “I do” to each other.

Since I recently wrote about our love story, I thought I’d share some of the highlights of our third year of marriage:

July 2011: We celebrated Josh’s 29th birthday (The big 3-0 is coming up soon! Muahaha)

Golf themed, of course!

August 2011: We babysat together for the first time - twins no less!

August 2011: We celebrated Birdie’s 1st birthday

Our "little" bird-brain, Birdie

September 2011: We took part in taking a pair of twins to their first Braves game!

November 2011: We went to Mercer’s Homecoming Weekend

Go Bears!

November 2011: We hosted our first Thanksgiving with both families

Thankful for a great family!

December 2011: We golfed with kangaroos

December 2011: We climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge

December 2011: We rang in the New Year in Sydney

January 2012: We bought a house!!

January 2012: We celebrated my 29th birthday

February 2012: We went to our annual Mercer/KSU rivalry game

February 2012: We celebrated Runner’s 7th birthday

April 2012: We went to the Masters Golf Tournament

Crossed one item off of Josh's Life List!

April 2012: We enjoyed opening weekend of baseball from amazing seats thanks to my parents – Go Braves!

The TED!

It’s been a fabulous year and I’m already looking forward to year four!

I love you, Josh!

[#33 of #52]

Up until we decided to paint our kitchen, Josh and I have had pretty good luck with painting.

Our master bathroom and dining room turned out just fine (minus a few spots where I may or may not have accidentally gotten paint on the ceiling).  So when it came time to paint our kitchen, we thought it was going to be an easy update.

We strolled into The Home Depot and I went up to order our paint.  The conversation went a little something like this:

THD Guy: “How can I help you?”
Me: “I’d like to get a gallon of Behr Paint in Orange Ice with an Eggshell finish, please.”
THD Guy: “Would you like to get the paint and primer mix.”
Me: “Um…sure, why not?”

Since it was a light color the thought of primer hadn’t crossed my mind.  I don’t know what I was thinking though, because when it comes down to it, you can’t really prime AND paint at the same time.  Seriously, what was I thinking??

Clearly, I wasn’t.

We taped off the kitchen, laid our plastic down, and got to work.

Buh-bye builder's beige!

We started behind the fridge, since it required us to pull the fridge out of it’s cubby, we wanted to do that area first, so we could move it back while we worked on the rest of the room.  The trim areas were painted, and for the most part were successful.  Then we rolled the walls in between the trim areas.  Since Josh and I were both painting, it didn’t take as long as it did when I painted by myself (thankfully).

We definitely needed two coats of paint – which was obvious after we finished the first pass. So we let the first dry and went back for the second layer a little later.  We were hot and I was a bit cranky, so a break was necessary.

Getting there...

Round 2 went a lot faster, which was good.  Once we finished, Josh started peeling some of the tape off.  I suggested that we wait a bit, so it could dry a little first – because that’s what we’d done in the other two rooms we’d recently painted.

A couple hours later, he goes to pull tape down, and with it, the paint came off the wall by the cabinet.

Yes. You read that correctly.  The paint pulled off with the blue 3M tape.  And when I say it pulled the paint off, not only did it pull the orange paint off, it also pulled the builder’s beige paint color with it.  You can see the drywall now!!

It did this by the cabinet above the fridge.

Yep, that's not the builder's beige you see...

It did this next to the cabinet where we keep the cat food.

I'm not sure what the black thing is, perhaps whatever holds the drywall down?

It did this near the ceiling.

Ugh...annoying!

We also had some seepage onto the cabinets and cabinet trim.   The paint is light orange, so it definitely sticks out.

Seepage is no good...

I told Josh I’m not happy with how things turned out, so I’m thinking we’re going to either a) pull the paint off – if it comes off that easily, it may not be an issue b) sand down the areas where the paint peeled off and level it out with some wall filler/plaster type stuff (the name escapes me at the moment) and repaint the kitchen with NON-primer/paint mix or c) hire someone to do it.

Most likely we’re looking at option B.  But, since we’re talking about hiring someone to install crown molding in different areas of the house, we might be able to swing a request for them to fix our errors in the process.  We’ll see.

For now, I’ll just look at the wall daily and growl under my breath.  I’m hosting a wedding shower in a little over two months, so we’ve got to get this corrected soon!

Have any of you had painting fiascoes while painting in your house?  Do you know how we can fix our little situation easily? I would love to get some feedback on this one!

[#32 of #52]

Hi there, it’s me, Amy, you know, one of your newest customers.

I’ve browsed your website for years, but never bought anything.  I just couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for, that is, until recently.  I spotted a rug that I thought would be perfect for our formal living room, and the hubs agreed.

The rug we purchased for our formal living room

We decided to take the plunge and make our first purchase.

When filling out the form to purchase, I noticed that you had a check-box available to allow people to sign up for your email marketing messages.  I work in email, and I get a lot of email from other brands, so I wasn’t interested.  I was just testing out this relationship – in dating terms, we met for coffee.  I didn’t want to fully commit yet.  I left the box unchecked.

Within minutes of submitting my billing information, I get an email asking me to confirm my Omail subscription – before I even receive my purchase confirmation email. *scratches head*  Pretty sure I didn’t check the box to receive emails… 

Just click the link!

The email said to click on the link to confirm my subscription.  Because I was curious, and because I didn’t want to receive emails, I didn’t click on the link.

The next day, I received an email from you regarding my purchase, great, I don’t mind that kind of communication – it’s standard.  But then you sent me an email about saving on my next purchase.  I’m glad you enjoyed our coffee date, but really, this seems a bit forward, it’s been less than 24 hours.  Because you seemed nice, I let it slide, chalked it up to the fact that I’m that great – you want to have me as a customer again. 

And then a few hours later I get an email welcoming me to your Omail messages. 

Welcome to Omail!

Wait, what?  I didn’t ask for emails from you.  What are you doing?  This seems a bit desperate.  Have you ever been out on a coffee date before?  Don’t you know you’re supposed to play it cool for a couple days and then casually ask if I’d like to go out for dinner sometime – IF – I gave you the green light.  Did I play with my hair?  Did I laugh at your jokes?  Did I ask you to give me a call sometime?  No. I said it was nice to meet you at the end of the date.

By now, I’m a little annoyed, but it gets down right creepy when the next day you stop by my inbox and suggest recommendations.  Just because I purchased a rug from you, doesn’t mean you know what I like, want, or need for my house. I shake it off though, because my rug arrived.  Speedy service, yes. Cheap shipping, yes. Emails worth reading outside of my transactional emails so far, no.

The next day you’re already asking about my next purchase.  And four days later, you’re begging me to come shop with you again.  Followed up with an email about sales the following day, and then a SECRET SALE (in all caps, no less)!  I’m getting a little nervous, should I ask for a restraining order?  Or are you a harmless brand enamored by my ability to make online purchases?

I decide to keep an eye out to see how many more emails you’d send, so I’d have a good record of the times you communicated with me, against my will.  A fun experiement for my already overcrowded inbox, I hope I have the strength to keep this up.

There are more sales, more caps locks, and then you ask me if I forgot about the product I already purchased. 

Did you forget about meeee?

Am I hearing this right?  Did you listen to anything I said on our coffee date?  I liked the rug enough to buy it already!

While I hadn’t forgotten about the rug, (once we finally got around to taking it out of it’s wrapping – it didn’t look like it did online, and it didn’t match the room), we wanted to return it.  Ugh.  I hate returning things, companies can make this process so difficult.

I followed the steps on the package information about how to return something to Overstock, and requested a shipping label from UPS.  I imagine this would be like me asking you to stop calling.  I thought I liked you, but really, I liked the idea of you.

It was only $2.95 for shipping to me, but when I have to pay to ship it back, they’re going to credit me the total purchase minus shipping, which is about $25. Wow, thanks guys.

Then you email me again asking if I’m still interested in the product, that I already purchased, AND requested to return. No, I’m not interested in the product.  This is the last time I meet someone I met online for coffee ever again!

Are you still interested in me? Check yes or no.

There’s no need to get angry, there’s no need for all caps subject lines either.  Clearly, you’re not stable and I’m not interested in clingy.  After 22 days and 21 emails, I think that it’s time to end things for good. 

My inbox after 3 weeks of Overstock emails...

As I go to unsubscribe, I notice you have me checked for ‘Standard Email’. 

How would you define 'Standard'?

Sending me an email EVERY day is standard!?!?  Are you crazy?  Wait, I’ve already answered that – you’re practically stalking me after we went out for coffee.

You’ve already disinterested me from receiving your emails, so while I think it’s great that I can hear from you once a week, once every two weeks, or once a month, I’m really not interested. 

So I unsubscribed.

Whew, finally opted out of the nonsense

And then you tell me it could take 10 days for you to completely remove me from your messaging.

10 days, so that means 9 or 10 more emails – right?  Let’s hope not…

Regards,
Someone who will never opt-in for your email communication again

Are there any brands out there that bombard your inbox? Any one of them that you just *had* to stop receiving emails because it was overkill? I have a few, but I’d love to hear about yours!

[#31 of #52]

We woke up after a good sleep and got ready for our day on the town.  We left our room around 11 am after getting ready and Skyping with my mom again.

First stop, the Pylon Museum!

When you do the BridgeClimb, they give you a ticket to visit the Pylon Museum for free.  We made our way to the pedestrian walk way to make our way onto the bridge.  The pedestrian walk way can be found on the Eastern side of the bridge from the city side (use the ‘Bridge Stairs’ in Cumberland Street, The Rocks). Or if you are coming from the North side you can use the steps near Milsons Point Railway Station.

If you’re not able to climb the bridge, definitely make time to go up on the pedestrian walkway – you’ll have great views of the city.

We made our way up the stairs and turned in our tickets, and continued to climb a few more flights of stairs.  We got to the top and read all about the bridge and look at historical artifacts on display.

Old signs from the Sydney Harbour Bridge's opening

Fun Facts about the Sydney Harbour Bridge:

• The bridge opened on 19 March 1932
• It’s made of 58,202 tons of steel, 600,349 cubic feet of granite, and 3,354,893 cubic feet of concrete.
• The arch of the bridge is 439 feet (134 meters) above sea level
• The length of the arch span is 503 meters / 1650 feet / .32 miles
• It took 71854 gallons (272,000 liters of paint to give the bridge the initial three coats of paint)
• The area of steel work that gets painted on the bridge is about 5,220,496 square feet (485,000 square meters)
• Back in 1932, it cost 10,057,170 pounds, 7 shillings, and 9 pence to build the bridge.  This would be approximately $160,902,000 USD today
• The Sydney Harbour Bridge isn’t the biggest steel arch in the world, but it’s the third longest.  It’s also considered to be the greatest because of combination of span, width, and load bearing capacity

We also took photos of the Sydney Opera House (because I didn’t have enough by this point – ha!).

Gorgeous day on the Harbour

While we were at the top of the Pylon, we could see them setting up for New Years Eve along the top of the Bridge.  I got *very* excited seeing this, because I knew we’d be watching the fireworks so very soon.

Close-up of the fireworks setup going on

In the shop we picked up a few postcards and a coffee table book about the history of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  On our way down we watched the movie playing with aerial views of the city.

We walked back down the steps and decided to stop at The Australian Hotel for lunch.

The Australian Hotel

Taken from their menu:

The Australian Hotel was originally located on George Street, next to where the Museum of Contemporary Art
now stands. The Sydney Gazette announced that The Australian was open for business on 12th August 1824,
making it the oldest continuously licensed pub in the City of Sydney. When the plague hit Sydney in 1900,
many of the buildings were pulled down to prevent further outbreaks, including The Australian Hotel.

In 1913 the present building was constructed and remains to this day, one of the most intact pubs in Sydney, still retaining its original features and unique split level bars.

The building is still an attractive and well preserved example of Edwardian style architecture with quality and
taste present throughout the hotel, from the tiling through to the tap faucets. The Australian Heritage Hotel still
has many of its pre-existing features, such as the metal awnings, etched signage and saloon style bar doors.

The menu was rather large and everything looked delicious.  Josh opted for the Crispy Bacon pizza [Mushroom, slow roasted tomato, red onions & mozzarella cheese], and paired it with a bottle of Endeavor (pale ale).  I chose the Queenslander [Crisp smoky bacon, roasted tomatoes & chunky pineapple] and a schooner of their house brewed Scharer’s Lager.  Both were delicious!

Queenslander pizza

After lunch we made our way over to Hyde Park, which to me, is a beautiful spot within the city. We took a quick walk through on our way to the Australian Museum.

The Australian Museum

As we walked up to the counter, the guy working immediately asked if we were from the States – I guess it was a little obvious when we spoke!

There was an Aboriginal art gallery open, which we walked through first.  I love Aboriginal art, so we spent a lot of time in there!

Aboriginal art piece

Next was the Indigenous Australia exhibit.

Here fishy, fishy!

Then we walked through the Wildlife Photography Exhibit, which had some AMAZING photos from all different ages and categories.  It was pretty inspiring!

When we left the museum, we walked over to St. Mary’s Cathedral.

St. Mary's Cathedral

We walked in through the shop on the side of the building, and I looked everywhere for signs saying no photography – and I didn’t see any in our pathway inside.  I couldn’t recall if we took photos when we were there several years back.  So we found a pew in the back away from everyone and I snapped a couple photos (no flash).

Inside the cathedral

As I was putting my camera up a man approached us and told us that we shouldn’t be taking photos, and that Josh needed to take his hat off.  Ooops.  I really didn’t mean any disrespect and was the quietest I could be.  We picked up our stuff and walked out, and I made a donation to the church on our way to the door.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for an ice cream cone and a Coca-Cola and sat in the park and people watched.  It felt good to sit down since we’d been walking around all day!  Once we felt rested, we continued onward and stopped at a few shops on Market Street and in the Queen Victoria Building (such a pretty mall!)

Once we were shopped out, we stopped at a convenience store to pick up stamps for our postcards near the hotel.  We went upstairs, backed up the photos from the day to the computer and external hard drive, and discussed what we wanted to do for dinner.

We opted to go back to Goshu Ramen Tei as the food the previous visit was really good!  They even recognized us and welcomed us back.

After dinner we went back up to the hotel room to relax, work on postcards, and watched TV.  Josh fell asleep really early, while I was up until 11:30 or so.  I had a hard time falling asleep because I knew that the next day was going to be the day I’d waited to experience for as long as I can remember!  New Year’s Eve in Sydney, in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House!  AH!!!!

[#30 of #52]

After a good night’s sleep, we woke up refreshed.  While we were out of the country, my mom had surgery on her knee to remove some old screws from a previous knee surgery years ago.  So the first thing I wanted to do was call my mom.  Because we forked over $60 for internet for the week in our hotel, I opened up Skype and gave her a call.

We talked about how Sydney was so far, how the BridgeClimb was, about how she was feeling, and my dad and brother popped on the screen for a little bit to say hi.  Our conversation lasted about 20 minutes, it was good to see her on the screen.  (Later I came to find out when we got home my mom didn’t remember it at all after she asked how the BridgeClimb was a few days later!  Guess the pain meds were still working.)

Once we ended our “call” we got ready and walked over to Darling Harbour to go to the Sydney Aquarium.  In looking at the ferry times and the zoo hours, we opted to go to the Taronga Zoo first and would finish up the day at the Aquarium.

We loaded the ferry and we were off to the zoo.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous so we sat outside, well, and because I wanted to take pictures!  Soaking up the Sydney Harbour made the ride go by quickly.

View from the ferry

As we were getting off the ferry, I noticed a t-shirt worn by a young man standing in front of us.  Before we knew it, we were talking to a family from Atlanta!  Such a small world.  They were also in town to celebrate the New Year in Sydney.

The Taronga Zoo was FANTASTIC.  It was my first time seeing it, so it was really cool to experience it with Josh, since I had seen a few things in Sydney from my previous trip.  The zoo was well laid out, once you learned how to read the map.  There were so many things to see – we found it to be much nicer (and better) than Zoo Atlanta.  Since it was a couple days before New Year’s Eve, the crowd was thick – but it was manageable.

First stop was the Red Panda exhibit.  These little guys were adorable!

Red panda in a tree

We then made our way around to the Wild Australia exhibit with animals from the country in an open area.  But after visiting the Cleland Wildlife Park, it wasn’t nearly as cool to experience.

Roo in the zoo

We then made our way to the giraffes, as it was feeding time.  The zoo has several animal encounters, all for under $25AUD, where you can get up close and personal with some of the animals.  We opted not to do this, but it was fun to watch the kids who were interacting with the giraffes.

So fun!

After the giraffes, we made our way to lookout point, which had phenomenal views of the city.

View from the lookout point

Next up were the big cats!  We heard there were tiger cubs – so of course we wanted to see them.  Apparently, everyone else did too.  There was a long line of people that wrapped around a few different exhibits.  It was starting to get warm, so Josh went to the snack stand and bought us each a Lemon Calippo while we were standing in line.  Before we made it to the tigers, there was a group of lions for us to view.  The lion was napping in the shade at the back of their area, but we were able to see a stunning lioness pretty close.

Queen of the jungle

Being an ADPi and all, lions hold a special place in my heart.

We made it to the tigers, and they were only letting a certain number of people go in at a time.  Well, we were the last two in the group – so by the time we made it to the window, there was no way for me to easily get in and take photos.  It was a bit frustrating, but then the mama tiger walked around to the side, so I could snap a few photos.

And right before it was time for us to leave, the tiger cubs came closer to the window.  The guy was telling us to leave, but I wanted to capture the cuteness of the cubs – so I ran over and took a quick photo before leaving.  He saw me struggling to get photos early on, so I think he let me have my moment.  Whew!

Precious tiger cub

On our way back to the ferry pick-up, we had to walk through the gift shop.  I wasn’t interested in buying anything, so I went to sit down while Josh looked around.  There was an open window to the seal section, so one ended up swimming by.  A couple kids were pretending to throw things in the water for the seal, and he kept swimming around and interacting with them – I only wish I had that on video.  He was a curious little dude!

We made our way down to the dock to catch the ferry back over to Darling Harbour.  Trying to get on the ferry was a tad bit ridiculous!  There were a lot of people and it wasn’t very clear what door each ferry was going to let you load from.  Once we made it back to where we started, we stood in line to get tickets to the Aquarium.

Having been to the Georgia Aquarium several times, it has given me high expectations for an aquarium.  I did visit the Sydney Aquarium back in 2003 and really enjoyed it, but it was a bit different this go round.

Josh and the Great White Shark

There were a lot of exhibits, but it wasn’t nearly as glitzy as the Georgia Aquarium – which isn’t a necessarily a bad thing.  I feel like there were more boards talking about the fish and other creatures in the Sydney Aquarium than there are at the Georgia Aquarium.

The crowds were pretty bit here too, which were starting to get old.  Josh and I were both experiencing a sensory overload.

I took a few pictures inside the aquarium, but I don’t feel they turned out as well as I would have liked.  I’m still trying to learn the manual settings in different environments.  It’s much easier to take pictures with natural light outside!

Lovely blue starfish

When we were done at the aquarium, we walked over to The Hard Rock Café to pick up a pin for my mom since she collects them.  We also picked up a few more gifts for family members.  The whole walk over to Hard Rock we saw several restaurants that all had fabulous menus posted outside.  We mulled over our options and decided to dine at Blue Fish.  We each got the Fisherman’s basket (Fish Fillet, Crumbled Prawns & Calamari Rings, BBQ Calamari, Seared Scallop & BBQ King Prawn served with Chips & Tartare Sauce) – Josh paired his with a beer, I chose a Bundy and Rum (surprisingly, my first one of the trip).

Our seats were outside, facing the water, so we were able to people watch while we enjoyed our dinner.

Our view from Blue Fish

We walked back to the hotel as the sun was beginning to set.  After a great day walking around, we retired to the hotel.  I made sure to back-up my photos from the day, I didn’t want to chance losing them before we got home!

Both the Taronga Zoo and Sydney Aquarium are open 365 days a year (with special hours on certain holidays), so if you’re ever in Sydney, there’s no excuse to miss it!

Have you been to the Sydney Aquarium or the Taronga Zoo?  What was your favorite thing to see?  Or, if you haven’t been to either, what’s your favorite zoo or aquarium?

[#29 of #52]

Our second day in Sydney was a pretty full one.  After crossing off #31 from my life list (climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge), we were hungry and wanted to get breakfast.

A view of the Bridge with a few BridgeClimb groups

Close-up of the climbers

I suggested that we go to Pancakes on the Rocks , a famous establishment.  The restaurant first opened in Sydney in 1975, and it was the first pancakes restaurant in the city.  I’d been to Pancakes in Paradise on the Gold Coast, so I thought I’d be cool to check this place out too.

We found the restaurant after walking around (and turning on Josh’s GPS on the phone and looking up the address on foursquare since we knew we were close).  It wasn’t too crowded, so that was nice.  The first thing we noticed was that the menu was HUGE. So many things to choose from.  We wanted breakfast, so we went with pancake (of course).

I ordered regular pancakes and eggs (boring I know), and Josh got the Strawberry Patch.

Strawberry Patch Pancakes

My plain pancakes and eggs

Just like the menus, the meals were HUGE.  And look at the ice cream scoop sized butter on the pancakes!

Needless to say, we were pretty full after breakfast!

Next up on our agenda was a tour of the Sydney Opera House.  When I visited Sydney back in 2003, we didn’t do a tour – just saw an opera – so I was really excited to learn more about the SOH.

There are variations on two basic tours, the Backstage Tour (2 hours) and the Essential Tour (1 hour) [which is given in multiple languages].  We chose to do the Essential Tour, and since we booked online early (imagine that) we got a small discount off of our purchase (any little bit helps!).

We arrived, checked in, and went to stand in the meeting area until our tour guide came to get us.  He introduced himself, passed out our audio pieces so we could hear him talking on the tour, and we were off!

They Sydney Opera House was designed by Jørn Utzon, a Danish architect.  The city of Sydney created an international design competition where entrants all over the world submitted their designs for the opera house, Utzon’s design was selected in 1957.  Construction began in 1959, and due to various factors ran over budget and took much longer than expected.  In 1965, a change to the government party in charge took place, and after a few disagreements, Utzon resigned from the project.

The Sydney Opera House officially opened in 1973, and Utzon was not present for the festivities.  In fact, he never actually returned to the SOH after leaving the country in 1966.  How sad!

The inside of the SOH is a magnificent building, one of my favorites.  The curves, the lines, just beautiful.

Inside the Sydney Opera House

Love the lines!

On the tour we watched video clips, had the chance to see the Orchestra Hall, and see one of the stages being set up for an opera.  While we were in the Orchestra Hall, there were no other groups viewing the room, and no one was on stage, so our guide let us take photos!

Inside the Orchestra Hall

I had heard you couldn’t take photos inside, so it was quite the surprise.  I took a lot in the short span of time he let us take photos.  When anyone came out on the stage, we had to stop, but luckily they weren’t there long and we could continue taking photos.

After our hour tour was up, we walked outside to take a few shots of the exterior.  I couldn’t help but hear two gentlemen talking about the NFL.  One was obviously an American, the other was an Aussie.  He was a security guard standing outside of the SOH.  They were discussing the Steelers and Eagles, and I chimed in about the Falcons.  We discussed football for a minute before the other American went on his way.  We ended up spending 45 minutes talking to the guard though!  He was a huge New York Giants fan, which was really surprising to us.  He told us that he and some of his mates would always head to a local Hooters to watch the Super Bowl every year.

We discussed the differences between Australia and the United States.  He was planning a trip to the US in 2012 to see Hawaii, Los Angeles, Vegas, Miami and New York.  His primary goal in New York was to go to a Giants game.  I couldn’t help but think of him while we were watching the Super Bowl this year!  The cost of living difference between Sydney and Atlanta was pretty high, but I still interjected that I wouldn’t mind living in Sydney.  He stated that he thought it’d be pretty cool to live in the States.  I guess the grass is always greener…

We looked at our clock and realized we needed to head back to our room to change clothes.  We said good-bye and made our way back to the hotel.  Original plans included a nap before coming back to the SOH to see the orchestra – but that clearly wasn’t happening now.

Change of clothes made, we walked back down to the SOH and made our way to our seats for the Philharmonic Phireworks: Not New Years Eve matinee performance.  We were right next to the orchestra.  When the singers were performing, I was easily entertained.  When it was just music, it was lulling me to sleep!  I had to fight it off, it didn’t help that I’d been up since 2:45 am!

Once the show was over, we took the long way back to the hotel (a.k.a. I suggested we go a route we didn’t need to go).  Josh was hungry, so this didn’t go over well.  I really just wanted to walk around the city and find a place to eat.  Time was not on my side, the man needed to eat.  We got back on track to head back to the hotel, when we decided to eat at one of the Japanese restaurant next to our hotel, Goshu Ramen Tei.

My dinner!

The food was delicious, and definitely needed since we hadn’t eaten anything since our massive breakfast.  After dinner we were exhausted from the busy day and all of the walking.  We went back to our room and were asleep by 9 pm!

There was more of Sydney to see the next day, so we needed to rest up!

[#28 of #52]

After my last post about our dining room dilemmas, I wanted to post a quick update on how things were looking!

We still haven’t finished up the trim areas, and touched up certain spots with paint, but that’s coming (so excuse the blue tape still on the windows and along the ceiling).  We do however, have all of our dining room furniture put together and in the dining room!

On Friday, the last piece of our dining room set arrived – I was so happy for it to get here.  The delivery guys weren’t too excited about carrying the 216 pound table up our front steps, but they did it anyway.

When Josh got home on Friday, he started putting it together only to find that one of the base pieces was cracked in an area that needed to be solid for support.  We called up our local Cost Plus World Market and luckily they had three base pieces in stock and they told us we could bring it in to swap it out.  Josh took care of getting the new pieces and putting the table together while I was in Macon celebrating 75 years of sisterhood with my fellow sorority sisters.

One of the first things we did when I got home was flip the table over and get everything situated.

Our new dining room set

View from the kitchen

We celebrated by having leftover BBQ chicken at our new table, which was great after a laboring afternoon working on landscaping in the front yard.

A great end to a great weekend!

[#27 of #52]