Sydney--Day 3

It was another great day today. Got up and went to breakfast at Queen Victoria Building that was originally built in 1898. Has a beautiful clock tower that, according to a website "displays a series of mechanically moving tableaux of British kings and queens every hour on the hour. This "exhibition" is heralded by loud trumpeters and ends with the beheading of Charles I." Dang, I saw the clock but missed the beheadings.

Went to the Sydney Tower to get more sky high views of Sydney. The 1,000 ft high tower was pretty cool and we did an OzTrek kind of a virtual tour of Australia similiar to the Soaring attraction at Epcot.

Took a quick tour of Paddy's Market in Chinatown but not enough to do it justice. We had to take off to get out to Manly to have dinner with Brent and Cindy. I met Brent at the Teradata Partners conference the same year that Luke and Monica met. We took the ferry to Manly and he picked us up at the wharf. Then, we were off for a quick tour of Manly. As he was taking us to see the statue of where Duke Kahanamoku introduced surfing to Australia, we saw a film crew from National Geographic channel filming the beach. We looked out and there was a pod of southern Right Whales a few hundred yards off the shore. We watched there for a few minutes and Brent had us hop into his truck and we booked up to another point to get another view.

Then, we went to his house for a "barby". They have an incredible house thats up a steep driveway and then up another 2-1/2 flights of stairs to get to the front door. We had what Claire called "The First Annual Treehouse Meatfest". He cooked a few steaks, a bunch of sausage and a whole chicken. It was totally yummy. Brent's son, Xander, fell in love with Claire. He was sitting on her lap after dinner and she was scratching his tummy and he had this look of contentment and then leaned up and kissed her. I think she needs to spend her summer vacation as a nanny for the Kirkbys.

Amy and I were commenting about how all our Australian hosts know so much about their country's history. We ask lots of questions and they always know the answer. Of course, knowing my Aussie buddies, they could very well be bullshitting us.

PS Yes, we are aware that Michael Jackson died. Alan predicted the cause of death right when it was announced when he said, "He's today's Elvis without the bloating."

Photos are here-- http://katseyeview.shutterfly.com/539