Brighton Bath Houses

*** update***  I guess I failed to mention what the bath houses are used for.  They are mainly used for storage of gear and a place to change.***
We are slowly crossing things off our to do list and this was one of them.  The Brighton Beach Bath Houses.

 I guess there are lots of wealthy people that live in this area and they can afford their own bath house on the beach.  I hear they are quite expensive. 

They are all painted differently.  Here is the Australian Flag.  Emma liked this one.

 Dottie liked these two...  not quite sure why she is posing like that.. she is such a ham.

Pretending they are swimming with the dolphin.

 The Kangaroo one...  trying to fight it.

 Who do you think will win this fight?!

They even take wedding pictures here... how cool is that!

Puffing Billy Train

 A couple weeks ago we took a ride on the Puffy Billy Train up in the Dandenong Mountain ranges.  It's an old steam train that they have brought back to life. We opted not to ride it the whole way and just did a half trip, just didn't know how long the kids would last on a train.  In the end we ended up being on it about 1.5 hours total and that was plenty of time.
 Here we are about to cross a bridge over a road.

 It seemed to be the trend on the Puffing Billy to sit on the sides of the train.  So here is Emma sitting on the side.  It was mostly kids doing this but some adults played along too.

 Some of the beautiful country side.  Lots of rolling hills.

 We went half way and stopped and got off to wait for the next train heading back to where we just came from.  Here they had a small park with walking trails and a lake, and a small cafe where we had lunch.

 

 Love this picture!

 Coming back across that same bridge from the beginning.  It was kind of scary.

 Everybody sitting on the edge. 

Cute little engineer and passengers...  that other kid just joined in.. not sure who he is!

Sydney day 3

 Starting off on the tour bus again.. have I told you how much we liked this thing.  It was perfect for us.  Luckily our hotel was pretty close to one of the stops which made it very convenient.  Plus the kids just loved sitting on the top in the very front. 
No we are not on that bus in particular just thought we would take a shot to show you what it looked like.

 This last day was just a do what ever day because we had technically seen everything we had come to see.  So today we decided to ride the ferries and trains.  While getting to the ferry terminal we passed a few party boats..  these things were amazing.

 On a ferry ride in the harbour with the bridge and Opera house in the background.

 Cooper was having a great time.

 Here are the only aboriginal people we have seen.  That are all dressed up anyways and they only do this for the tourist.  They were playing the didgeridoo along with techno music..

 After the ferry rides we took a walk around the Opera house again and under the bridge.

The girls singing their opera.

 I am not sure how many times we walked by this guy and every time Jordan gave Dottie some change to go throw in the thing.

 Dottie would go give them money but we could not get her to sit with us next to him.  Go figure!

On our way home... Dottie's face pretty much explains how she was the whole day!  But as soon as we got home they both said it was the best trip ever!   We had a great time.

Sydney day 2

 Here we are starting the day off on the tour bus again!  The girls would always try to get the front seat on the top deck and pretend they were driving the bus.

 Not sure what the significance of this is.. but it was considered art.  And it was in the middle of the road.  The tour bus said it was also controversial. 

 Here we are coming under the Harbour bridge to get our very first close up view of the Opera House.  Or as Emma would say the Oprah House.  She could never pronounce it right.. so she just started calling it the party house.. ?  who knows.

 It was a little smaller than I had pictured but still very cool to see. 

 And the Harbour Bridge behind us.

 They told us how many tiles were used in the construction but I can't remember now.  They said they were Swedish tiles.  It took 14 years to construct the Opera House.

 People climbing the Harbour Bridge.  We would have liked to do this but couldn't with the kids.  Plus it was like $200 a person. 

 One of the ferries in the Harbour.  We took one of these over to Manley beach across Sydney Harbour. 

 After walking around the Opera House we walked around the botanical gardens.  These gardens were originally for the Queen to walk about. 

Emma with the Opera House behind her.  It was a fairly windy day.

 Lots of interesting trees in the gardens.. and tons of interesting birds including cockatoos.  This tree fell over in 2008 but it still is growing just fine.

 There were also these in the gardens... Bats...  big ones!  They are grey headed flying foxes.
 There were tons of them in these trees.  I read that they are kind of taking over these trees but that they are also listed as a threatened species in Australia. They are trying to figure out how to get rid of the bats and move them to a new home but no success. 

 We stopped for lunch and had some chili dogs.. while looking at the Australian army ships.

  Another one of the statues in Sydney. Also a view of the Opera House from the ferry boat.

On our ferry ride over to Manley Beach.  The weather didn't want to cooperate too well with us and it turned out to be very windy.  Especially when we got to Manley beach we couldn't even walk down to the ocean.  So after we got there we pretty much hoped on the next ferry back and were done for the night.