Lunar New Year Celebrations in Sydney, A walk down memory lane

Posted on by Lea Ann Reynolds
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts center. It is one of the 20th century’s most famous and distinctive buildings. In 2007, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We are here at a great time. The Lunar new year is in full swing right now with decorations and parades. This is the year of the Rat. We don’t know much about the Lunar New Year but we are told it is the beginning of a calendar year whose months are cycles of the moon (occurring in late January or early February).

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is an arch bridge across Sydney Harbour between the Sydney central business district (CBD) and the North Shore. The view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is an iconic image of Sydney, and of Australia itself. The bridge is nicknamed “The Coathanger” because of its arch-based design. Many people pay to climb to the top of the arch from one side to the other.

This is also called the Chinese New Year in many parts of the world. We took a long walk yesterday and I took random photos of all the decorations around Circular Quay which is close to where we are staying. We also walked around close to the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour bridge.

This area is the harbour where we will embark on the cruise ship.

We have toured many of these places on our last trip here. Sydney brings back lots of memories for us. This is where we started our transatlantic cruise from Sydney to Hawaii to Seattle in April, 2017. On that cruise we met a couple, Jessica and Tom.


At the time, we didn’t realize the course of our lives were about to change. Tom and Jessica retired and sold all their possessions including house, cars, trinkets so they could travel the world as long as they wanted. They have become nomads living out of 3 suitcases. Sound familiar?


They have been at it for 7 years now. Jessica keeps her blog updated daily and the information she has on her travels is just unbelievable. I have a hard time keeping up with mine. She’s an amazing writer and entertainer. Click here if you would like to visit their blog. It’s wonderful. www.worldwidewaftage.com 


On the cruise we were all on, we became so enthralled in their story and lifestyle it was all Chuck & I could think about the entire cruise. After reading her blog, we were able to decide that we could make this happen for us if we really wanted it. Thank you Jessica and Tom for guiding us through this journey!


Neither one of us were hesitant except for the fact we didn’t want to leave Chuck’s parents. We had a long talk with his dad and he said we should go and not regret it. He said they would be fine and to not worry.

Well, we did worry but it helped to relieve some of our stress knowing they had great caretakers and Chuck’s brother, although he lived in Texas was available to keep an eye on things. For us, leaving them and our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren was tough.

After being gone for almost 10 months, with email, texting and social media, we are able to keep in touch with them as much as we did before since we were in Virginia and they are all in Texas.

Sadly we lost both Charlie and Josephine this year, so at times it is hard thinking that if we would have just waited 6 months or a year, we wouldn’t have missed those last 4 months with Chucks dad.

Sweet Josephine passed away a month before we began our journey. We will miss them but Charlie really wanted us to not wait. He had the travel bug too in his younger years and wasn’t able to pursue it.

So, now we are dedicating all our travels to Chuck’s dad. He would have been proud and would have loved the places we go and how we are doing this on a budget and still not dipping into our savings for retirement.

He was always worried about outliving his money since he was almost 98. He was close! We promised him we would keep an eye on it. We actually have a financial advisor that we have been working with for at least 3 years now that helps us stay in check. 


We are very grateful for Ricky at Financial Dynamics in Richmond. He has helped reassure us we are on track and I was also able to retire early.

So, we will continue our travels and continue reliving our memories as we embark on new destinations until for some reason that we can’t. We love this lifestyle and don’t see it ending anytime soon. 



May God bless you always!

Chuck & Lea Ann

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