The Longest Day (and Night and Following Day. . .)

It is 3 am and I am sitting on the couch with Zachary who is not embracing "GMT +10" as our new time zone.   We are coming up on 24 hours in Sydney.   Lack of sleep notwithstanding, we are loving it so far.  Our temporary apartment has a beautiful view of the harbor, we are 3 minutes from a park and it is a short stroll to the ferry.  What's not to love? 
I'd like to be able to say that the flight wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it would be but that would be a bit of a stretch.  Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it could have been worse.  The good news is that Zachary fell asleep on take-off and landing.  The bad news is that those were the only times he slept on the 15 hour flight from LA to Sydney.  I'm sure everyone in our section will remember with fondness Zachary's belly laugh and ability to sing the "Wild Kratts" theme song at the top of his lungs, oblivious to everyone sleeping around him and the effect of noise cancelling headphones on personal volume control.   I have to say that the Qantas cabin crew was more than understanding - we spent at least 3 hours in their "crew rest area," they made him several snacks and let him sit on my lap (with the proper child restraint, of course) on take-off and landing.  I shall plan to write a future post on Qantas premium economy when I can bear to think of the flight again. 
Sophia continues to be an excellent flier although I think she spoke for everyone in the final 5 minutes when she kept crying out "I can't take it anymore!"  It was very turbulent coming in for landing as there were storms in the area.  In fact, had I not been holding a 38 pound dead weight in my arms I would have been reaching for the paper bag.  Her feelings continued to be mixed on this great adventure.  She broke down in tears as we went through customs:  "I want to go home to our real house in Austin."   But she quickly bounced back and was entranced with the scenery as we drove through town.  Despite only sleeping about 6 hours on the flight, she was in rare form all day.  Had definitely switched into full hyper-drive by afternoon and crashed around 7:00 pm.  Here's hoping we don't see her for quite some time yet today. 
It is going to be a big week.  Our air freight (3 boxes) arrives this morning and I have my first driving orientation/lesson this afternoon; tomorrow I will be going househunting.  Both will no doubt prove interesting so I will be sure to post an update.  Fortunately, Andy's mum is with us now so that is a huge help and will allow me to do all the necessary running around.  And I may even be able to take a nap at some point. . .