Surfin' Balmoral

   Last week was unbelievably wet in Sydney.  It rained, not just a steady rain, a complete downpour, for most of 4 days.  So much rain that it ends up being the wettest July here in 61 years.  Whew!  By Friday, the rain let up a bit but the swells coming in from the ocean were still resulting in huge waves up and down the coast.  They even made it into our protected, normally calm Balmoral Beach.  The surfers were out and we had to take a look.

     Things cleared up on Saturday and we checked out the wild surf conditions at Manly. 

More rainbows appeared as the storms moved out.  The kids have gotten so used to seeing them that they hardly look up any more. 

    Other big news here this week is that Sydney's first, and Australia's second, Costco opened.  It's the first warehouse store here and has been jammed all week.  It's not likely we'll be shopping there since it's not convenient and doesn't make sense to buy a membership given the time we have left here.  Some of the familiar American brands are tempting, the 1 kg jars of Vegemite - not so much.

    Aussies are also quite excited and proud of Cadel Evans, the Australian who won the Tour de France this week.  They love their "sport" down here!

   Chris has moved to Melbourne.  Just kidding.  He's there most weeks though so we look forward to his arrival back in Sydney at the end of the week.  Sam is looking forward to a weekend of sports that won't have to be cancelled due to soggy field conditions again.  Mia is hanging in there after a rough week at school.  She now occasionally calls Australia her "prison."  Think she misses home? 

   We're just glad the Sydney sun is back out!