Busy & Fun Time in Australia

Have been so busy and having so much fun in Australia that I haven't had a chance to do a blog posting in several days - sorry. Here's a brief recap, though.

Sunday, March 2nd:

• Church. We started the day by going to church. Learned of the Hyde Park Branch of the church that met on the second floor of a commercial building not even a five-minute walk from where we're staying in downtown Sydney. When we walked in somebody said, "It looks like we have more visitors..." and they asked where we were from. When we replied "Boise, Idaho in the U.S." they start to chuckle, just due to the irony: the branch had some 30 visitors from Idaho! There was a large group of retired farmers from southeast Idaho (Pocatello and surrounding areas) on an "Ag Tour" of Australia. The Hyde Park Branch is a small branch, and there were more visitors from Idaho than there were local members. Funny.
• Sydney Opera House Tour. We checked out the schedule of events this week at the Sydney Opera House, but there was nothing really that we wanted to see. So we took a guided tour, and it was actually very interesting. Quite the structure! But I guess it should be. Projected to cost $5 million over 5 years to build, it ended up costing more than $100 million over something like 15 years. Crazy. Included herein is a picture of the Sydney Harbor Bridge with the Opera House in the background.
• Cockle Bay Wharf. This has become one of our favorite places here in Sydney. At the end of Darling Harbor, this cute little wharf has a beautiful boardwalk area, tons of shops, and a lot of nice restaurants. And while most of Sydney (except for the many bars) shuts down at 6pm, shops/restaurants here are open late!
  
• Sweet!!! Quite literally. Located on the boardwalk mentioned above is the only Lindt Chocolate restaurant in the world. We indulged in a yummy dessert here (see photo on Flickr site).
• Aussie Beef! I've found Aussie beef to be quite yummy, so we ate dinner at a restaurant on the boardwalk, a place called I'm Angus Steakhouse. Very yummy!!! Michelle had a yummy filet, but I had a 600g (about 18 ounces) New York strip in my sons' honor! :-)

Monday, March 3rd:

This was the day we did a tour of the Blue Mountains, a very beautiful area about 60 miles inland from Sydney. We booked a tour with a tour company, and there were 21 of us that toured in a small bus throughout the day. The bus picked us up just after 7am, and we got back after 7pm. Our tour guide ("Bob") was great, and we made several stops to and from the Blue Mountains:

• Featherdale Wildlife Park. Our first stop en route to the Blue Mountains was this cute little park. What a great selection of Australian animals they had! We're pictured here with a koala that we had a chance to pet. These little guys are SOOOO cute, but they smell rotten! They have a very low-energy diet, so they sleep something like 20 hours a day (now Brianna is officially jealous!). :-) We also enjoyed their petting zoo, where we got to interact with kangaroos. Have never seen that in a petting zoo in the U.S.!
• Boomerangs. After Featherdale Park, we drove to an open area where we were offered "morning tea" and were taught how to throw a boomerang. We discovered that I rock at throwing a boomerang (stated with all appropriate humility, of course). I threw the thing quite far, and it actually came back to me (or at least got pretty close). We bought a boomerang, and I look forward to practicing at home (and seeing how many people I can injure / things I can break in the process)! :-)
• Blue Mountains. Our pre-lunch stop was at an overlook point where we got to see most of the Blue Mountains from up top. Picture a mini Grand Canyon, but covered in deep vegetation. The bulk of that vegetation is eucalyptus trees, and secreted oil from all of these trees is picked up in the sunlight and reflects blue (hence the name).
• Country Club Lunch. After all that we had done that morning, we were quite ready for lunch, and we had lunch in a clubhouse at a country club there in the Blue Mountains.
• Three Sisters. There is a prominent rock formation (pictured herein) in the Blue Mountains. The best view of this formation is from the bottom of the valley, and getting there and back was half the fun. We descended on the steepest cable car skyway in the world, and ascended back up on the steepest train in the world (52 degrees!).
• Sydney Olympic Park. On the way back to the city, we drove through the Sydney Olympic Park. It seems like the 2000 Summer Olympic games in Sydney was just yesterday!
• River Cat Ride. From the Olympic Park, we took a "River cat" river cruise back to Circular Quay (pronounced "key"), the main passenger wharfs in Sydney Harbor, right near the Sydney Opera House. Saw some beautiful riverside homes en route!

Well... that's all I have time for now; will have to summarize Tuesday and Wednesday later. It's Thursday morning here, and we're gonna get ready to go spend a good chunk of the day at Manly Beach. I've posted more photos (134 in total now) covering through Tuesday. To see the photos, please click here.