Sydney Bound-what we did

Matt wanted to check Sydney out & so we made a long birthday weekend out of it. We stayed at the Holiday Inn @ The Rocks. It was a great location. The roof top pool had spectacular views of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There is a cruise ship dock right there and it was fun to watch the ships come in and out each day. They are enormous!
  I am sure the fine dining there is great but the family friendly options are a bit limited between The Opera House and The Bridge. We found a delicious Italian spot and had dinner there twice!  The Holiday Inn wasn't anything fancy. The rooms are nice. Highlight of the hotel was the American bacon they had on the breakfast bar. I think we all ate our weight in bacon during our stay.
  We spent Saturday at the Taronga Zoo. It was recommended to us by a friend and the views from the ferry were worth the price of admission. We watched the sea lion show, grabbed lunch, and wandered around all day.
  Sunday, we decided to check out the local market and found some souvenirs. A Christmas ornament (we try and get one from all our trips), a picture of Sydney Harbour, and a couple swim bags made from seed sacks (nice reminder of Metamora).Then we hopped a ferry over to Manly. It was an overcast day but it made it enjoyable and not super hot. The Manly Beach was nice and we had a nice lunch right off the beach.

  Monday, was sunny but breezy. We checked out of the hotel but our flight wasn't until 6pm. We took a ferry over to the Aquarium. There were tons of bars and places to eat. Matt and I could have spend the whole day trying out each one. However, the kids didn't seem to like the idea of walking thru the Aquarium alone so I guess the decision was made. Bars another day! It was busy but there was tons of sea life to see. Walking thru the tunnels watching sharks swim by was cool and they had some giant crab and lobsters too!. We had lunch at King St. Wharf, watched some Monday Night Football, & enjoyed couple cold ones. The waitress told us how well behaved our kids were (which is always nice to hear and nice when people notice). We took the train to the airport where a gentleman said we had a lovely family. It was finally time to head home. A short flight and we were back in Brisbane.