This morning we were eating breakfast at the hotel and we ran into Shelley Zabel. This means nothing to most people reading this, but Shelley went to grade school with Maria in Kansas. What a small world. After breakfast, my dad headed off to the Lilly offices for a couple hours while my mom and I walked around the Botanical Gardens downtown. IT was the usual beautiful flowers and scenery, but the one really unique part about it was the amount of bats in the park. Yes, bats. Actually they’re called “flying foxes” which sounds even more terrifying. Apparently they migrate to the area each year and live in the palms in the Garden. I was led to believe that bats are nocturnal, but these guys were flying around like crazy making all kinds of noise. It’s something that was neat to see once, but I have no need to experience again.
After the gardens we walked around The Rocks until it was time to meet up with my dad again and head to our afternoon lunch cruise. We signed up for a Tall Ship Cruise on Sydney Harbour. The boat itself was a sailboat that was built in 1922. We ate lunch on board and helped with the sails as we coasted around the harbour. It was quite an experience. The ship had an amazing history which seemed more enjoyable than the usual, commercial harbour cruises. We also got to work on our tans a little, which is much needed.
We got ourselves cleaned up and headed toward the Opera House to see a play called Optimism. We stopped along the way and had a drink at the Opera Bar while looking across the harbour toward the Bridge (which we still plan to climb on Sunday!). The play was based on Voltaire’s Candied, but was very modernized. There were a lot of neat aspects about the play including some of Votaire’s deep philosophical ideas, but there were also some crazy sets and costumes. Overall we really liked it.
On our way back to the hotel we ate dessert at a little café right on the water. We each had a pastry and some gelato which was delicious. Right now we are packing up our suitcases because we leave for Cairns in the morning. Our flight leaves at 9:15 so we’ll get an early start on the day.
Have a great Tuesday.
I just caught up on 3 days at once. I laughed out loud at two things....the free ice cream and the hair thing. Glad you finally got to go to the beach. I'd love to see sailboat pictures. Did you all have your sweaters tied around your necks? Have fun in Cairns and good luck scuba diving!! Oh, and I don't ever want to be around a "Flying fox"!
ReplyDeleteI think I missed the day about the hair and the ice cream. Glad I read Michelle's comment so I could go back to read those thing. Can't wait to hear about Cairns. You guys aren't missing a whole lot here. The wind and snow is just about unbearable today. Also they are inducing Carrie this evening or tomorrow morning. Josie should be joining us soon!
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