The last day in Sydney was a ZOO!

Jim and I spent our last day at the Taronga zoo. It was amazing. We had to take the ferry across the harbor to get there. Then we spent about 5 hours there and probably only saw about 1/2 of the animals. It was huge.

One of the things I really loved about it was that they were very succient with their animal descriptions. (Pelican example below.) It just told you what you needed to know without all the fluff.

These are all the Australian Animals

Koalas - Yay!

Kanagroos and Wallabies - they let us just wander in the enclosure with these guys, there are no fences separating us form them. We were just told to stay on the path and the animals knew how to just stay out of reach.

Platapus and some huge bird with a horn on its head.

Non-Australian Animals

Any resemblence?

Merekeets - there was like 30-50 of these in the enclosure. They were so cute all running around together, but don't stand still long enough for good photos.

Red Panda

Giraffes

Monkeys - Which Jim loves, go figure.

Reptiles

(Jim took this picture, isn't it great!)

Sea things.

Grizzly Bear

Jim rubbing noses with a pigmy grizzly bear. He is so brave!

This is us after a full day of animal viewing. Yay!

Bilberry Adventures

This is my friend Jason Bilberry. We went to Crater High School together. He lives in Australia. After my time in Sydney I was able to extend my trip to hang out with him and his family in Adelaide. It was fantastic to be with an old friend. This trip really showed me how old friends can be anchors in your life. They remind you where you have been which can show just how far you have come. Which in turn can give you the strength to get where you need to go. He has a wonderful wife Jane, and two amazing boys.  I won't lie, the boys have just as much energy as any little boys do, but for some reason you put an aussie accent on them and I could hang out with them forever - especially when they are calling me a cheeky monkey. So cute!

I was greeted at the airport by Jane and Ronan. It's been 7 years (we think) since we have seen each other, so they studied my picture on the blog to make sure they would recognize me. They got me on the second try after only one false greeting to some brown haired stranger.

The first full day we dropped the boys at school then the grown ups went off to wine country for a bit of wine and cheese tasting. Beautiful country and even better company. My favorite quote of the day is when Jane, who is a full time mom, said "I feel like an adult again." I loved it. So many people are hung up about being young and daring - I just loved that Jane was relishing the adult company - I was too.



Besides the wine country tour, Jane arranged all these great activities for us to do. One was a night walk in the bush at Warawong (don't know if I am even close to the spelling). We saw tons of Australian night animals that I can't even begin to recall the names of. But it was totally cool, cause we were just walking along on a path no fences or nothing and our guide would just shine a flashlight on them and show us the different animals. There were tons of possums, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures because of their sensitive eyes.
These last two animals were very wiley (Ronan and Jason), but I managed to suspend them with my flash. He he he.
Day 3 was started with swimming lessons for Ronan (who has no fear of the water), then a trip to the pier at the beach. Adelaide is on the southern coast of Australia.

The boys being cheeky monkeys.

A great deal of my time in Adelaide was spent talking about, practicing and watching "footie", or Australian rules football. I learned all about kicking the footie, marking the ball (catching a kicked footie with two hands), bumping other players, hand passing and goals. I can now say that I can hand pass and kick a footie quite well, but with little accuracy, which I think is probably the most important thing. I am also pretty sure I can now distinguish the difference between footie and rugby.

Sydney day 2 and 3

I got it (actually I got a lot of them, but I thought I would spare you the series for now.) The view from our room of the opera house with the sunrise. Totally killer. Jim really loved the fact that #1 I was up at this time and #2 I was letting the light into the room and #3 I kept talking about how great it was. He finally got up. He he he.

Day 2 was a gsk sponsored tour of the city sights.
First stop the Opera House. We got an awesome tour.

Jim and I out front of the opera house.
(Even though this picture is of the brigde across the bay.)

Opera house in all it's glory.

Jim in front of one of the sails.

The inside of the sails are concrete sections individually formed and placed. It is amazing.
I will blog one day all about the opera house when I have more time. It was amazing.

Then we toured around the neighborhoods and stopped at Bondi (pronouced Bond-eye) beach for lunch.

Day 3 was our full day adventure. We started with Sandboarding, which wasn't as adventurous as we expected because you just sat on your but and went down the mountain of sand. Jim and I raced up and down the mountain as fast as we could to get as many chances at it as possible.

But we did go against our guides warnings and try a little standing up.

Also at the beach were some random camels. So we touched them and got our pictures taken with them. They were actually softer than I expected.

Did they put the concrete pyramids in the background to make them feel more at home?

Then off to a winery/brewery for bbq lunch. It was the best meal we have had so far.

Then off to the dolphin watching cruise. The sights from the bay were beautiful.

We are having a great time. Usually too tired for any nightlife. I know, we feel like losers. Although, last night we made it to the pub across the street to watch a big rugby game. This is the second one I have watched. I think I love rugby. It is fast paced and hard hitting. I think they play in the park in Honolulu. I am going to have to go watch one day.
Hopefully I can find a power converter for my camera today. My battery is low and I forgot about converting the voltage when I bought the adapter for the prongs. Annoying.
So I'll post again when I can.
Peace!
MEA

1st Day in Sydney

I am so stoked. One thing I was really hoping for in Sydney was that we would have a view of the opera house from our room. Voila! This is our view. How awesome it that! The sun rises right behind it. I will try to get a picture of that before I leave.

Al dropping me off at the airport.

Ready for my 10 hour flight! Which put me into Sydney at about 8pm their time (and 1am my time).

Jim (my brother) arrived early Thursday. He was happy to see that I registered him as "Jimmy", which he hasn't allowed people to call him since he hit Jr. High. He He He.

First thing we did was stand in line for our Maui Jim sunglasses.

Then took a little walk around our neighborhood.

Then to a garden in the city where I laid in some flowers and Jim made elephant ears.

(Both of us wearing our new glasses, of course.)

I thought these were pretty.

Then we went on the gsk pub crawl. They took us to 3 bars to try 3 of the local beers. This was at the first bar, where the beer was as good as the views.

Lee (a co-worker and friend) and I.

Then back to a reception at the hotel where they had these animals we could touch and take pictures of. The Croc was about 3 feet long and felt so cool. The handlers said he would get up to 1 ton in adulthood. Crazy!

Peace! MEA

Back to Waikiki

Thought this was a very cute door mat to come home to.

Plus it totally matches the pot my plant is in.

Look how well it all goes together. Nice!

Close up of the plant. Isn't it pretty?

Finally stained the bed. I am really into dark wood right now.

Since the bed is so high and you kinda have to scooch off of it, I needed really low profile drawer pulls that wouldn't scratch me. I think I did a pretty good job. I even had to center and drill the holes for the pulls. After three hours, a couple calls to my dad, and a small emotional breakdown I think I did a pretty good job.

The look pulled together.

A birthday present from my mom and Henry.

Close up of my new bed spread. I absolutely love it.

It is a pale tourquoise blue with this type of stitching all over.

I bought some really soft totally white sheets to go with it. They are so crisp and clean.

It's great.

OK, that is all I've done so far. I'll keep you posted.

Peace! MEA