The Blue Mountains

A Kookaburra

Young  male kangaroo

A Goanna

Wentworth Falls

Leura, NSW, Australia

From the cable car

Through the glass floor of the cable car

A tree fern in the rainforest

The Three Sisters (who knew there were more?)

Our tour guide, taking a picture of one of our fellow travellers sitting with legs hanging over the edge!

No thanks!!!

Flat Rock

I don't know if any of my pictures will do these spectacular mountains justice! Not like our mountains in the Pacific Northwest, but sandstone mountains with beautiful cliffs and formations. We were lucky to go on a beautiful day, weather wise, and it was gorgeous. We had a a great Aussie tour guide named Les who knew a lot about the outdoors and had actually grown up in the Blue Mountains. A great day!!!

Sydney Harbour Cruise

We decided to take a Harbour Cruise today as the weather cleared up. Mom and Leslie, here on the deck before we left, were beginning to wonder if they brought "Oregon" weather with them!
The next photo is of Shark Island. Lots of talk about sharks today...hmmm...not good.

The Pacific Ocean!!!

Beautiful Middle Harbour homes and Yacht Club

Luna Park , North Sydney

The Queen Elizabeth docked in Circular Quay on Tuesday morning, February 23.

The Queen Mary docked in Sydney the same day!!!

A fun day!

Kristin is safe in New Zealand!!!

We had a few tense hours yesterday hoping that Kristin was not in Christchurch! But she was in Invercargill having fun! She is there on a school exchange with 15 middle school students from her school in Tacoma. I could not remember if they were even going to Christchurch or not. Good Mom, huh? She and the chaperones were actually having a day off, with the kids attending school for the day. What a relief!

Our first visitors down under

Yay, the gang's all here! Mom and Leslie arrived in Sydney this morning! We're gonna have so much fun!!!!

Second week in Sydney

Almost the end of our second week in Australia! I'm still keeping myself occupied by roaming around the city, shopping, drinking cappucinos, you know, just relaxing! My tennis buddy Sally and her husband Jay were here in Sydney for a day, so Jay took this photo of us at the harbor with the Opera House in the background. We had a great time walking around the city, seeing the sights.
On Valentine's Day, we could see the fireworks display over Darling Harbor from our apartment balcony. Beautiful!
The corner pub on our block, Three Monkeys, is the first picture. Great little bar and great fish and chips! Plus those cute monkeys!

We've taken lots of photos of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge. We just can't seem to get enough of those views!
Overall, it's been a great experience so far. My Mom and sister, Leslie, are arriving this coming Sunday for a 2 week visit. I'll be posting more pictures as we begin to see the sights!

The Neighborhood

I thought you might like to see where we are staying and what's around us. It looks quite a bit different than West Linn, that's for sure! Lots of people everywhere! You have to get used to walking down the street and plowing on through or else you won't get anywhere. It's a different lifestyle for sure in the big city. I walk to the grocery store pretty much every day, can't get too much at one time because I have to carry it home! No matter what time of day I go there, there are always tons of people. It's amazing!

St Mary's Cathedral

This is our new church in Sydney. It is so beautiful and huge! Today at mass, the Cathedral Choir performed and it was spectacular. The Cathedral Choir is made of up boys and men only. So obviously, the boys are singing the "women's" parts. It was really great. There is also a fantastic organ in the cathedral, which sounds amazing. Unfortuately, there is no photography allowed inside the church, but I am including some pictures of the outside. Enjoy!

Eeeeeeeek! Bats!

 Oh my gosh...we went to dinner last night at a co-worker of Dave's place, just a little east of the city. Right after we got there, it was dusk and we heard this screeching coming from outside. Our hosts said, oh yeah, it's the bats. They come out at dusk fly around to different trees looking for food. So we went upstairs, and watched them flying around, right outside the house!!! From palm tree to palm tree! And they were BIG! The only bats I have ever seen have been a lot smaller than this. When they flew, they looked about the size of a crow. Yikes!!!
Our dinner was fantastic. Fish, fish and more fish. And lots of wine. I mean LOTS of wine. And chocolate suffle for dessert. I just knew I would like this place! Dave even got an invite to golf. What a great night1

Museum of Contemporary Art

Just got back from seeing the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was incredible. So many photographs from all areas of her life, not just her work. Lots of her family and celebrities and political figures, too. Wow. What talent!
The museum is in Circular Quay, across the water from the opera house. Today was my first walk down to the harbor and it was great, not too far from here, which is awesome. Weather continues to be great, high 70's and warm at night. Absolutely beautiful.

Pictures

I can't wait to start posting pictures. Our camera is currently in a box travelling to Sydney. We should have it by Friday. Yay!!!!

5 days in Sydney

Well, I think we are beginning to get used to being here in Sydney (sort of). It is great being downtown and being able to walk everywhere for evrything! I don't think there is any way, even if you lived here for 10 years, that you could possibly go to every restaurant or coffee shop, or check out every little shopping area. It is just incredible how many shops, coffee bars, restaurants there are here! Amazing!!!
I'm still figuring out how to use all the appliances...everything has pictures on it, the oven being the worst. Maybe I will get it all down before we leave!
By the way, I have to comment on my Trailblazers!!! LaMarcus is awesome! Got to start streaming those games!!!

Hello Sydney!

We have arrived in Sydney! Today is Monday, Feb 7, 2011. Dave is off to his first day of work at the Eaton plant in Mascot. I am still getting settled and figuring out where everything is and how to get there!
Hopefully I can figure out how to do a great blog...time will tell.