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I have been working too much so we decided that I would take Luca to Sydney for his 5th birthday to have a boys weekend/vacation. It was super cool.

The night we arrived (his birthday) it was really late his time because of the time difference but we put on our nice shirts and went out on the town. We walked by a few restaurants and he decided he wanted sushi. At the end of the meal and knowing how he would be with a lot of attention at the late hour I told the chef to bring out an ice cream with a candle but not to do any singing. He was a little spaced out hanging over the back of his chair watching a group of Japanese girls take each others pictures and out comes the waitress who obviously didn't get the message from the chef. She starts singing happy birthday and then the whole restaurant is singing happy birthday. This group of Japanese girls he was watching are all suddenly smiling at him and singing at him. He totally collapsed into himself. So tired and shy. Quite beautiful really. I sat with him on my lap until he managed a bite of ice cream and we decided to go.

We stayed at a nice hotel that looked over Hyde park. We took trains, buses, taxis and the monorail. Luca really loved the underground trains. We took the ferry to the Taronga Zoo which is huge and fantastic. Luca got to choose where we would go and what we would see: gorillas, salt water crocodiles, tigers, snakes, koalas, sea Lions.... the gift shop. He was fascinated with the room service and the rooftop pool at the hotel. We had a fight one night because he wouldn't let me go out to pick up some food... "I just want them to bring the chips from downstairs!" The strange flocks of crazy birds in the park (Ibis and Cockatoos i believe). The big busy city. We went to the aquarium and walked through the shark tunnels. We walked across a very large pedestrian harbor bridge and got to see it swing open to let ships pass while we were on it.

The trip was great. I didn't take too many pics but here are a couple...