OK, let me start by saying that I have a monster sized head. I’m on the very last button of adjustable hats and those supposedly “one size fits all” caps? You’re kidding me!

So, knowing that I had a week off while Shona was at a conference, I figured I’d dash down to “The Strand Hatters” in the city & see if a proper hat shop couldn’t help me out with one of my daydreams of owning a “driving hat”. Then…. each time I had remembered my plan, I also remembered that two of the kids would be at school for the week, which means I’d have to be back home by 2:30. The only chance? Take all four down on Saturday.

Sounds great! I’d started working on ideas like Driving to the Zoo, taking the cable car down to the ferry, riding across to Circular Quay, then taking a train into the City (my kids love public transport), but when I heard about the weather the other day, it looked like it would all fall apart. Still, the kids sounded interested and there was a DC Comics Lego exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum, so we decided to give it a go.

So on one rainy day, we enjoyed two tram rides and three train trips, helped the four kids enjoy 5 different things that day.

1. Trains: Easy entertainment for the kids. Not only a means of getting to stuff, they enjoyed chatting to people (four kids with only a small age gap seems to be a great conversation starter). Travelling over the Harbour Bridge is always great too.
2. Trams: They were pretty excited about “trains that drive on the roads”, but they’re pretty crowded in town. Handy, but not too exciting.
3. Just being in the city: We caught a train into town hall, walked through eh QVB & up through the Pitt St. Mall. For kids who’ve spent almost all of their life on the Central Coast, all the big buildings were a blast. I had figured that being in the city, finding gluten free options would have been easier, but with the rain bucketing down at different times, we were stuck in one food court. Muffin Break came to the rescue with a GF choc-chip muffin!
4. The Strand Hatters: (OK, this was my highlight, not theirs). Is it hipster central? Yep. Does it really matter? Nope! They were really really nice guys working there. The bloke who spent 10 minutes helping me find a hat had all kinds of opportunities to show me more expensive stuff, but in the end he said that a couple of the hats on sale were closest to what I was looking for & I ended up buying two hats for less than I thought I’d pay for one (he even gave me an extra 10% off on the two 50% off hats he sold me!). I’d go there again in a heart beat!
5. The Powerhouse: The DC comics thing was pretty awesome and the powerhouse itself has all kinds of different things to look at. Were I to do it again, I’d consider driving in and/or going there first so the kids weren’t quite so tired. That said, it was still pretty awesome & the kids loved it.

Best of all, with the wise use of awning & tunnels, we managed to time things so we basically never got rained on the whole time we were there!

So I did it! New hat(s) and a great day out with the kids.

And now for the pics: