The long ride home

Laura joined us for our last breakfast at the Interpolitan Cafe before leaving Australia. We took a walk up and down the Corso admiring the Australian Souveniers and window shopping. We finished packing up our four suitcases. When we came to Australia we had four suitcases but two of them were empty. Now they were filled with wine, candy, stuffed animals and other Australian goodies. We hugged Laura and got into the van at 12 noon. She'll be back home in just over three weeks, just in time for a snowy New England Christmas. There was a lady on the van that was traveling to Brisbane. She was telling us that she just came back from New Zealand and said it was beautiful. Tony and I would like to visit Australia again someday but probably would do a cruise so we can see more of the country.

When we got to the airport we passed through emigration without a problem and waited for the flight that was leaving about 4 O'clock in the afternoon. There were lots of empty seats on the United flight so we got to stretch out a bit. I moved into the center section where I had two seats. At least on this plane I could see the video screen even though they showed some of the same movies they showed on the way to Australia. I watched Wall-E and Henry Poole again and then fell asleep. I even missed the delicious dinner. Tony had chicken. The flight went pretty quickly (considering it was over 13 hours) and we arrived in San Francisco at about 9 AM California time. We had to get out luggage to bring them through customs and went through without a problem. We called Laura to tell her we arrived but didn't realize it was only 5 AM in Australia.

Tony had soup and a I bought a turkey sandwich at the Bourdin bakery at the airport. That was our Thanksgiving dinner. It was very good. We got on another plane and arrived four and a half hours later in Washington DC. We called Brian and he said he would pick us up in Boston. We arrived in Boston at 11:30 PM. It was about 20 hours of time in the air. My ankles were swolen but I wasn't feeling too tired. I had a lot of naps on the plane.

We are looking forward for our girls to come home. Stella will come home today and Laura will be here on December 21st. We had a wonderful time visiting Laura in Australia. She was a great tour guide and we enjoyed visiting her school and meeting some of her friends. Manly is a beautiful town, Sydney was a big, clean city with plenty to see, and the Australians we met were very friendly and helpful. It was a great vacation.

Laura meets Jaws...diving with sharks

Wednesday morning was warm but cloudy. Laura slept over so we could get an early start to go to the Manly aquarim to dive with the sharks. We got there at 9 so Laura could get ready and we came back at 10 and went into the aquarium. We walked downstairs to the shark tank and then Laura and the dive instructor Nick and Terry from Essex, England came out into the tank. The sharks were swimming all around Laura and she almost got hit in the head by a turtle.

She said it was fun but it wasn't really diving, it was walking. She couldn't even pat the nice sharks. There were grey nurse sharks in the tank, Wobegon sharks and big sting rays and turtles. Now Laura knows how it feels to be a fish in an acquarium. The rest of the day we walked around Manly and then went to a Greek restaurant called Terra Cotta for dinner. The owner is from South Africa and he told us that the Octopus and the lamb were very good. They only use the biggest octopus and it is marinated and grilled. I tried it and it tasted like chicken or chook in Australian. Laura had salmon with goat cheese pesto. We also had dessert and then walked back along the beach to the B and B.

Tuesday lazy without Laura

On Tuesday morning I got up and took my morning walk. After breakfast Tony and I walked down to the Manly aquarium to sign up Laura for a Shark Dive on Wednesday morning. If she gets eaten I'll feel bad because we had to pay for the dive. Eugene told us that someone was injured while diving last month. Fortunately he wasn't bitten, he was just hit in the head by a shark. That made me feel better.

I decided to stick around Manly and Tony went to Sydney to do some shopping. I found some penny slot machines so I did a little gambling and had a beer. I also walked along the ocean and watched the surfers and volleyball players. You can only swim between the flags but there was a small swimming area because of the high waves. Laura got out of school at about four o'clock so we went out to dinner at Il Gondaliero. Laura and Tony had Gnocci and Jamie (Laura's Australian friend) had spagetti. It was a very small restaurant but it was one of my favorite meals of the vacation. After dinner we had some ice cream and then walked up to Jamie's apartment. She shares the apartment with another girl from the Uni and pays $180 a week each for the two bedroom apartment.

A fine day for a Crocodile encounter

When I took my morning walk on Monday the sun was out and it was a fine day. That's what they say in the Australian weather reports if its going to be sunny. The temperature was about 22, which I would say was about 80 degrees in the sun but there was a nice cooling breeze. It's always smart to carry a light sweater because if the wind especially when riding the ferry. Tony and I went down for breakfast around 9:30 and then went to the bank to exchange my last travelers checks.

Laura had class until 10 so after that we bought day passes to the ferry and headed off to the Taronga zoo. http://www.taronga.org.au/

The ride to Circular Quay was rough because of the heavy surf and then there was a smooth ten minute ride over to the zoo across the bay. The zoo area is beautiful with lots of trees and peacocks walking around. We saw a kookaburra close up and heard him make his call. We saw several sleepy kangaroos and wallabies and I even got to touch one. We also saw a Tasmanian devil who didn't whirl like the one on TV but he did have some sharp little teeth. I heard that Tasmanian devils leave nothing behind when they eat something, they even eat the bones.

The orangutan had nice long hair and he was eating something out of a jar using a stick like a spoon. Pretty smart I thought. One of the gorillas was carrying her little baby around. He was just four months old born in August and I thought the father gorilla looked pretty proud. We saw several koalas sitting up in the trees. They didn't move around too much.

When we got to the salt water crocodile we were standing there looking for him and all of a sudden he started swimming towards us. He climbed out of the water and then laid down right in front of us. If there wasn't glass between us I think he was looking at the Scafati's as a tasty morsel. He had a big mouth with lots of sharp teeth. We also saw the little fairy penguin. There is a group of them that live near the harbor wharf in Manly but I haven't Penguins in the water there just seagulls.

We left the zoo at about four o'clock and headed back to Manly for a little rest. We had 8:30 reservations for Cafe Sydney, which is the 2nd best rated restaurant in Sydney. The restaurant is located on the 5th floor of the Custom Building. It was very dark in the restaurant but offered a great view of the bridge and the harbor. We sat outside and they even put blankets on your chairs so you can cover up if you feel chilly. Laura had nocchi, Tony had filet mignon and I had red snapper. I wouldn't recommend the restaurant. My fish was very dry but Laura finished her meal and was still hungry. It was nice to go into Sydney harbor at night to see it all lit up. When we got back to Manly we stopped into a bakery where they make meat pies. It smelled great in there. Tony got a raisin pastry and Laura and I shared an eclair. Tony walked Laura back up to the school because she was pretty tired.

Sunday in Sydney

Today was a windy and cloudy day. We got on the ferry and went to the Rocks market. The Princess Dawn was in port and there was a line of people waiting to get on their 12 day cruise around the islands. Laura and I went into the Rocks Museum where Laura played solitaire on the computer and I learned that the streets in the Rocks area were once paved in wood blocks. It was quite dangerous to pave the streets. They used hot tar which is poison and then they would hand the hot blocks from person to person. They used wood because it was quieter than stone and easier on the horses hooves. The rocks area is kind of like Fanuel Market. We also went to the museum of modern art where there were a couple of interesting exhibits. YINKA SHONIBARE is an artist who uses beautiful batik material to make clothing styled like what people wore during the French Revolution. http://www.mca.com.au There was also an artist who had a team of people tearing words out of books. They had the books with all the holes in the pages as well as baggies full of the torn out words.

For dinner we went to the Kiosk where we had a six course dinner. This restaurant was right on Shelly Beach. We walked down the walkway along the beach where we saw what we though might be a penguin but when it spread its wings we realized it was just some kind of water bird. It did stay there and posed for us for a while. For dinner we had some unsual fish such as Leather jacket and Kingfish. We also had duck and a souffle for dessert. Tony had the wine with the dinner and he enjoyed trying all the different Australian wines. After dinner we took a taxi and dropped Laura up at the school so she wouldn't have to walk home in her beautiful new dress.

Market day

Saturday morning I got up early and took a walk down to Shelly beach. I saw the sun come up and there were surfers and kayakers out in the water. It was beautiful walking along the boardwalk. I found a couple of nice shells at the beach. After breakfast at the Interpolitan Cafe we bought daytripper tickets to the ferry. For $16 you can go on any ferry or bus all day. We went to Paddy's Market which is near Chinatown. It is a huge inside market. Downstairs there are all kind of stalls selling souvenirs, tee shirts, shoes, clothes and Aborigine stuff. Kind of like a flea market. Upstairs there was fruit and vegatables. We bought a tee shirt and some souvenirs. We also got some avocados and kiwi fruit. After Paddys Market we got back on the train and went to the Rocks Market. This market is outside in an historic part of Sydney and sold a lot of handcrafted items. Tony bought some bread and had a wine tasting. I bought a hand painted Christmas ornament with Koalas on it.

Even though it started out a warm and sunny day all of a sudden the wind started blowing. Laura was comfortable because she had a sweater on but i was getting cold. We decided to hop on another ferry to go over to see Darling Harbor where the aquarium is. There are a lot of huge buildings there like Aon and IBM. We walked around for a little while and then got back on the ferry to Circular Quay. When we got back to Manly we made a reservation to go to Gar Fish for dinner. On the way back up the hill Laura stopped and bought a pretty flowered dress. Gar Fish is a very popular restaurant which is right across from the harbor beach. Every time we walk by there it is always busy. One of the things that was on the menu was something called a bug so we asked to see it. It was like a small lobster or a big shrimp. We didn't have it but the people next to us had it and it looked pretty good. Laura had her favorite salmon, Tony had John Dory and I had the crispy fried Baramundy that Eugene told us about. The meals were quite small and we were still hungry. We got a cheese plate and then walked back to the B and B. Laura decided to go back to sleep in her own bed so we walked her up to her Uni.

Trip to Blue Mountains

Friday:

Laura and I got up early to go to Blue Mountains. The van driver picked us up at 7:15 and we took a scenic ride to Sydney to pick up some other passengers. We had a bus driver named Mel and there were people on our tour from Canada, Germany, Holland, France, Viet Nam and New Mexico. The ride to Blue mountains took about two hours and we stopped a couple times for some beautiful views. When we got to Blue Mountains we took a tram that goes at 52 degrees (it is very steep) down the canyon. The tram was first used by coal miners and there are lots of caves in the mountains. We took a walk to see a waterfall and saw some cockatiels and cockatoo. We stopped for lunch in the town of Leura where Laura had Pasta with Pesto and I had a salad. It was good and we were hungry after all the walking and sight seeing. On the way back we stopped at a clearing where we saw three kangaroos munching grass. Scientific fact: the difference between wallabies and kangaroos are Kankaroos back bones go all the way down to their tails. They can balance on their tails, which makes them good boxers but they can only go forward. They can't jump sideways or back like Wallabies. After the tour the bus let us off at the ferry and we went back to Circular quay in Sydney. There was a night marked at the Rocks so week took a short walk around and bought some Macademia nuts for a snack. We're going to two markets on Saturday with Tony.

We got on the Ferry to Manly and Tony met us there and we went out for dinner at the Manly Italian Restaurant. Tony had lasagne, Laura had veal with mangos and I had fettucine Alfredo but it didn't have a white sauce like at home. They gave us huge portions so I had to get a doggy bag. If Stella was here I would give her some.