Another incredible day in Sydney yesterday. Got up and took a nice walk down to the harbor and had a great breakfast at one of the waterfront restaurants. Amy was fascinated at how much better looking the Australian seagulls are than the ones in Florida. She's convinced there's some seagull makeover facility here that smooths and whitens their feathers.
After breakfast, we split off from Monica's family and went to buy Claire a fleece for our trip to the mountains. Coincidentally, there is a two block area near our hotel filled with outdoor equipment shops. The guy at the shop was warning us about dropbears that live in the mountains. They are a particular type of vicious koala that likes to drop out of the trees onto unsuspecting humans below and attack them. The laughter of a nearby woman confirmed my suspicion that this was one of those ficticious stories designed to frighten the uninitiated. We had a good laugh.
We walked about a mile from the hotel up to the Botanic Gardens. Were able to see the ANZAC Memorial, St. Mary's Cathedral and Hyde Park on the way. The Botanic Gardens were awesome. They had signs encouraging visitors to touch the plants, walk on the grass, hug the trees....so we did. Claire especially enjoyed hugging various trees. There was a huge ficus tree that reminded us of the one in our backyard in Florida that she especially enjoyed hugging. It was like finding an old friend.
The coolest part of the gardens was totally unexpected. We were in one area and heard what we thought were a lot of birds nearby. We went to investigate and it wasn't birds, it was a huge colony of Flying Fox bats. Our whole family is fascinated by bats and we especially love the Flying Fox. I got a photo of Amy pointing to a sculpture of a Flying Fox while we were at the zoo the day before. We stood there watching them for a long time.
We walked around the Opera House and then it was time to meet Monica et al for the Bridge Climb. WOW, what an awesome experience. Got suited up in our jumpsuits that are specially designed to blend in with the bridge and the sky so motorists on the bridge are not distracted and our special safety harnesses that keep us attached to the bridge at all times. We did the climb and got to 440 feet above Sydney Harbor overlooking the city. Our guide, Dee, was great. Short, feisty, funny woman in her late-20s (?) sporting a modified faux-hawk hairstyle. She really kept us laughing. It was our group of 10 and two other single climbers, including a teacher from the Dallas area who was here chaperoning a group of 40 5th and 6th graders. This was his one excursion on his own and was a gift from the parents of the kids on the trip. Pretty cool.
Finished the climb and we were all starving. Luke, who is an awesome tour guide, took a quick poll of food preferences and decided we needed to go to Phillip's Foote (http://phillipsfoote.com.au/ ). Its a restaurant where you grill your own food--go to the counter, order your cut of steak, chicken, fish, etc., and head to the grill. It was a lot of fun and really good after a day of excercise. Lots of good food, beer and conversation.
Luke's son Stewart sat at the table with us and that kid is one of the most engaging boys I've ever met. He told us several jokes that, told by someone else, wouldn't be that funny but Stewart's charm and style just makes you laugh...even the one that had to be the world's longest joke.
We finished dinner, took the train back to the hotel and crashed.
Here's the photos-- http://katseyeview.shutterfly.com/473
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