We had a very busy last few days, including a couple of interesting tours. We went North out to see some sand dunes, and then to Port Stephens to see some dolphins. The Flight home was long as expected, and the 6+hr layover in SF wasn't much fun either... Aside from that, the trip was great. Our girls performed great at the championships and we got to see quite a bit of the Sydney area. EDIT: I added a video of the Team Performance from the preliminary round. I was unable to video the final round as we weren't really allowed [View Full Entry]

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We have been busy for the last couple of days doing a great deal of sight seeing...we saw the Opera House, went up in the Sydney Tower (and walked around outside), Aquarium, Wildlife World, Blue Mountain Tour, Whale Watching, Dolphin Watching, 4X4 on the sand dunes, and sand boarding on the Sand dunes. Whew. Flight leaves at 2:45PM Friday afternoon....it's going to be a long day. Oh, today I had Kangaroo for dinner :) It was good, much like beef, but very lean. I do have more photos from today at the Dolphin watching and sand boarding, but I will probably [View Full Entry]

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4 very long days of competition...Saturday was over 12 hours at the venue. The team went into the final round 2nd behind a group from the USA ("Legends"). They do the final round in reverse order, so our group went 2nd to last. They absolutely nailed their routine with only one small bobble and surely put the pressure on the US team who were watching from the sidelines (maybe not the best decision in hindsight). The pressure must have got to those USA girls as they had a bit of a tough time and Canada ended up taking home the GOLD [View Full Entry]

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We had a couple of slow days leading up to the competition. First day of competition was good. The group performed well and is seeded 1st going into the final round on Saturday. Taelyr did her freestyle today and came up 0.1 point short of moving on...we all thought she deserved better scores, but that's how it goes. Kendall, Sacha and I went to the Manly Oceanworld to see the aquarium. They had lots of fish and a big shark tank with a tube you can walk through. Tomorrow will be a very long day as they are doing Solo, 2 [View Full Entry]

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I finally found an internet kiosk where I am able to upload photos...so check back to the last few days for updates. Had the Team Canada welcome dinner last night. It was nice to see everyone together in the same place. Today we were very busy, we went to Manley Beach in the morning and Bondi Beach in the afternoon. Both were very nice beaches...some of the nicest I've ever been to. The sand is unbelievably soft and clean. The waves were stong at both and the water very cold though. I imagine it would be very nice when it's a [View Full Entry]

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Went to see Taronga Zoo today. Pretty much a 'typical' zoo although it was neat to see koalas and kangaroos here. There was even a place where you could walk amongst the kangaroos and they would hop right up to you. I got some good pictures of that. I will post them tomorrow. The ferry ride took us right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and right along side of the famous Sydney Opera House. Starting to adjust to the time a bit better already. We didn't wake up until nearly 6AM today. Training is going well. Today they have a 4 [View Full Entry]

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Everything went quite smoothly with the flight today (and yesterday ;)). We even arrived a bit early into Sydney, but they wont allow planes to land before 6AM so we had to circle around for 15 min extra. We landed just as the sun was rising so that was neat. The hotel is very nice. We have a 2 bedroom suite with 2 bathrooms and a full kitchen and living room. We also have full laundry in the room. The location is great, about 200 meters from the harbour and a very busy activity area. Prices are high around here though. [View Full Entry]

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Left Calgary at 6:20PM today. To San Fransisco at 8PM local time then on to Sydney at around 11PM. [View Full Entry]

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Thursday we went to Mitchelstown Caves, a cave system discovered in 1883. There are some incredible formations down there. Unfortunately, it's a private system and they don't allow any photographs. Following that we went on to see Cahir Castle, it was also pretty impressive. Certainly the largest castle we have seen. Then, on the way home we stopped at "The Rock of Cashel", which is a huge church built on the top of this rock mound. The oldest structure on site is a round tower built in 1101. Yesterday, Taelyr and I went down to see the Blarney Castle and to [View Full Entry]

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Just a quick update. I'm on the computer that belongs to the B&B, so I can't upload any pictures. It was quite an exciting few days. Taelyr placed 3rd (Bronze Medal) in her Solo event!!! I thought Sacha was going to pass out. She also received a Silver Medal in the 3 Baton event. Rumor has it that she placed 4th in the 2 Baton event. The Group (Music In Me) won the Gold Medal!!! ALl the Mom's cried. It has been 15 months of hard work by the girls, and hundreds of hours of volunteer and fundraising by the parents....well [View Full Entry]

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