The picture to the left is a photo of the Sydney Opera House taken from a ferry while going under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This is probably the most photographed opera house in the world. We have watched the spectacular New Year's Eve fireworks in the harbour many times on TV. In person, the Sydney harbour is even more impressive. The harbour is made up of an extensive network of bays, points, and rivers. These waterways are accessible by ferries that act as river taxis to and from various points in the city.
Like Melbourne, Sydney has a great mass transit system that makes it easy for locals and tourists to get around without a car. There are trains, ferries, monorails, buses, subways and bikeways that connect the city with the suburbs. We made use of the trains, ferries, and buses during our stay. Speaking of Melbourne and Sydney, we have met many people from both of these cities. Melbournians and Sydneyians both made adamant pleas to us about how their city was better. Rather than joining the fray, we will just say that they are both great cities for different reasons.Some of you have asked us about how we have gotten along with just the three of us traveling together for such a long time. Overall, we have done quite well despite the usual family conflicts and issues that arise whether we are at home or somewhere on the
other side of the world. We did start to melt down in Sydney though. As a result, you won't see as many group pictures in this slide show. After traveling together for almost 7 months, we needed a little more "alone time" than we have had in the past. The jokes that we used to think were funny were no longer funny. Personal habits became annoying habits. I just don't understand why me tapping my fingers on the table while using a knife as a toothpick can be considered annoying to Jennifer. She of course has no annoying habits.
We took turns exploring the city and split up at times. One such "alone time" was for Jennifer to attend the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House. She got to enjoy the music without Noah asking her "how much longer" or me asking "does this mean I can go to the rugby game tomorrow". While Jennifer was at the Opera House, Noah and I were off eating pizza and popcorn.
We did all go to Bondi Beach together. We had watched the Australian reality TV show about the Bondi Beach lifeguards, so we thought it would be fun to go there. The TV show is a combination of Baywatch and 90210. What's there not to like? Our plans were to take a look at the beach and then go for a walk down the coast, but seeing the large surfer waves changed our minds. We rented boogie boards and ended up riding the waves the rest of the afternoon. We originally rented the boards for one hour, but that turned into three hours. After finally convincing Noah to take a break, we went on a walk on the beautiful coastal walkway.
Wanting to play baseball on a nice baseball field, I found the Olympic Park fields on a web site that has 3 manicured fields with batting cages for use by the public. We set out to the Olympic Park Village, home of the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics. It takes a while to get there by ferry or train since it is a ways out of town. A unique characteristic of the Olympics in Sydney is that all the facilities were built in one area so the entire Olympic complex is massive. The only problem is that the baseball fields that were on the web site were not at this location! They have everything but baseball fields here. I still don't know where the fields are. Maybe I should have checked this out in more detail prior to going all the way out there?!We are off to our last stop on the trip - Fiji! to see our slide show of Sydney, Australia, click on the following link ==> Sydney, Australia Slide Show
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