While planning our Sydney vacation, one activity kept getting mentions from anyone who has visited Sydney before. And several of you asked in Facebook comments: any plans to climb the Harbour Bridge?

We all definitely wanted to climb, but the incredibly unpredictable weather made planning a challenge. With all of our remaining days predicted to have 70 to 90% chances of rain, I just went for it and picked a day that only showed rain and not rain accompanied by thunder and lightning. As the BridgeClimb Official site points out, climbs go on rain or shine and only get canceled for lightning.

We started the day at the Australian Museum, then grabbed some lunch. We decided to walk the kilometer to the bridge climb starting point, and the skies responded by unleashing ridiculous amounts of rain on us. It poured.

Our chipper guide Alex introduced himself and led us through the routine of safety briefings, donning of suits and harnesses, and practice clipping in and climbing stairs while tethered to the safety line.

Since we immediately locked up our personal effects like bags and phones, the only photos you will see here come from the official photo dump.

All of us–even the kids–took a Breathalyzer to ensure that none of us drank alcohol before our 2PM climb. Everyone passed.

After all the practice, we were off! And somehow, miraculously–the rain stopped. The skies stayed overcast but completely dry for the duration of our climb. As we like to say in our family, better lucky than good.

Our guide Alex also acted as our photographer, snapping the photos you see here. Alex tried really hard to get us to strike silly poses, and we halfheartedly complied.

Three hours after our journey began, we left Sydney BridgeClimb and decided to celebrate with drinks at a pub nearby. As soon as I summoned a taxi to take us back to our apartment, the rain started up again.

Better lucky than good, indeed.