We had our first family trip away from Sydney last weekend. We took a cruise from Sydney to Brisbane -about 36 hours cruising time with two nights on the boat and one full day. We had a tiny cabin on the bottom floor of the ship but it still had a small window and was perfect for us.

Jude and Anna were very excited to have bunk beds – the top beds folded down from the ceiling – with a ladder up to their beds it was kind of like having a playground in our room. We made the most of the one day on board. The kids swam in the pool, which wasn’t heated so it was decidedly brisk. Anna preferred the hot tub, smart girl. They had a great kids area and on Saturday night we took advantage of it by dropping the kids off there and Marcy and I had a night out for dinner and drinks.

We berthed in at Brisbane bright and early on Sunday morning and we took the journey down to Sea World which involved a bus, train and taxi. We had been talking about what they would see at Sea World and so even though everyone was tired after a very early wake up we checked in to our room at the resort and went right next door to Sea World.

Jude’s favorite thing to do there was to feed the sting rays. We would buy a small cup of food (slimy fish and prawns) for them and Jude would bravely feed the stingrays by hand. As you can see in the photo above these sting rays can be quite aggressive getting up out of the water to snatch the food. A couple of times they took Jude completely by surprise.

The Sea World Resort really catered well to kids. They had a pool area that was certainly built with the little ones in mind. It was heated so Jude and Anna spent quite a bit of time in there every day. Here is Jude showing off his jumping skills.

On Wednesday we flew back to Sydney. That day also happened to be Jude’s 5 1/2 year birthday. Jude wanted to have a cherry pie but I called a dozen bakeries on the Gold Coast and not one of them had a cherry pie. Not to worry, we saw a Krispy Kreme donut shop at the airport back in Sydney and Jude decided he wanted to have a donut. So, Marcy got out five and a half candles and stuck them in the donut and we all sang Jude Happy Birthday. He was thrilled.