Tourist For A Day...

On my last day in Sydney, I had some free time, since the conference was over, but I didn’t fly out for one more day. I took advantage of that.

I went to Circular Quey (pronounce “key”). That is where you can see the famous bridge, the Sydney Opera House, walk to the Rocks, the old settlement remains, or to the Sydney tower.

What cooler way to get there than the RiverCat? This ferry was moderately priced and offered a great view along the way. The warmest thing I had to wear was a white, short sleeve church shirt. Keep in mind, it’s winter time in Australia. It was about 8 degrees Celsius not to mention the wind chill factor. After living in Arizona and Hawaii, it was nice to be cold again.

This is Sydney from the RiverCat. The tower is easy to see behind me.

"Mine! ... Mine! ... Mine!"

Me at the Opera House

A cool fountain at Darling Harbor. For the record, Lisa Simpson was right, the water does drain the other way down under.

After I got some pictures of the sights, I went to the exact center of Sydney, where a giant tourist trap has been built, the tower. For only the cost of an arm and a leg, you can take a “virtual” tour of the outback, an elevator ride to the top of the tower and walk around the Sydney Aquarium. I only spent the arm and did the OzTrek virtual tour and tower elevator.

Down from the Tower

Some church and fountain. I don't know about them, but I've seen 'em on post cards. That must mean they are something.

On the way back, I made sure to buy trinkets and souvenirs for myself and my loved ones. Now that I have a dozen nieces and nephews, I have to try hard to find something reasonably cool, but affordable. Also, each item has to different enough so the kids don’t fight over who’s is who’s, but also similar enough so they don’t fight over…well…who’s is who’s. They are all equal, but different. I got them small koala bear clips, with Australian flags. They each had a different color. Each koala was holding onto some real Australian coins and a piece of Australian candy. Man, I am just the perfect uncle.

My flight back was uneventful. I landed in Honolulu at about midnight. My family was in vacation in Big Island. To join them, I had the first available flight out to meet them. Unfortunately, that was not till 8am.

I hauled my luggage out to the small isolated terminal to sleep while I waited. Security shooed me away, saying I’d have to come back at 5. So, I ended up sleeping on the concrete sidewalk, in my suit, with no pillow or blanket, waiting for my chance to fly to Kona. Needles to say, I didn’t sleep well.

I finally got to Big Island, and finally got to start my graduation vacation which my family was having without me.