March 25, 2005

Today was a real roller coaster ride. The morning was very nice. I got up early with Carol to take a walk along her normal route. It took us past the lovely beaches near her home where we could watch the high waves and surfers. It was the first time I've exercised since our first few days in Oz. It was also a great chance to chat and see how each of us is doing in our lives. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

When we got home, it was time for brekky. Andy and I walked to a local bakery for some bread and hot cross buns. I had always heard of these and sung the song when I was in grade school but never knew what they were. They are sweet buns with actual crosses on the top. There are chocolate ones and plain ones. In Australia, they are very traditional at Easter time and being Good Friday, it's the perfect day for our first ones. Andy and I also got a chance to see the beaches and have a walk on a beautiful morning. It was cool and sunny. Back at Carol and Vincent's, Carol made us some great Frittatas and we had a lovely breakfast with our hot cross buns and more great conversation. It's been great to get to know Vincent and Carol more.

The afternoon encompassed the downward section of our roller coaster. I wanted to go photograph the Sydney temple but other forces were against us. Some major traffic slowed us down and frustrated us. I was able to get my temple pic but we lost some time. Carol and Vincent were to pick us up at our hotel at 5:00 so we wanted to maximize our time this afternoon. Again, though forces worked against us to this end. Tonight we are staying in a B&B on Cremorne Point on the Sydney harbor. I really wanted our last night in Sydney to be special so I splurged a bit on our last night's accommodation. It was worth it. Cremorne Point is a small peninsula that juts out into the harbor. With a short walk, we were able to be right on the harbor with an excellent view of the opera house and bridge. It was beautiful. But, the next hour and a half was very frustrating. We wanted a bite to eat and were unable to find anything within a few square kilometers. Plus, the roads in this Northern Sydney suburb delayed us with "No right turn,""No left turn" and "No U turn signs" making it very difficult to get anywhere or do anything. We finally had to settle for Dominos Pizza. Well, we were really looking forward to food at the rugby game so this was just an entree as the Aussie's would call an appetizer. Putting the downside of the roller coaster behind we explored Cremorne Point, facing dangers like hundreds of spiders hanging high above us in the trees. Vienna was especially brave as she is a bit nervous around spiders. Cremorne Point was beautiful and cheered us up.

The evening brought us up the roller coaster again with an awesome rugby game. We've never seen it and frankly I was not expecting to be impressed. I assumed it would be just a rougher version of football. But, surprisingly, we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Rugby is a little like football, but instead of stopping the clock every time a play is over or there’s a timeout, the clock keeps running so the action keeps going. It is fast moving and easy to follow. Plus, we got to jump and yell and "barrack" for our team: the Roosters. Over here, they don't say "root" for a team - that's a euphemism for something I won’t discuss here. They say "barrack." So we barracked for the Sydney Roosters. It was to no avail, though, as they lost. But we had a great time! We also enjoyed the food at the stadium: more fish and chips and an Aussie hot dog. Well, the hot dog tasted a little like liverwurst, but it was still good. It was a great evening and I'd even go to another rugby game if given the chance.

After Carol and Vincent dropped us off, Andy and I took another romantic walk out to the point to see the harbor by night. It was a beautiful sight and a wonderful way to finish our trip to Australia. The moon was bright and the ferries went back and forth across the harbor. We decided to get to bed late and get up early so that we have a better chance to sleep on the plane. We'll need to change our body clocks to be fresh for the drive from LA. In the morning we want to see the sunrise over the harbor, and then it's onto our 14-hour flight home.

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