Day 247

Q and G tanning at Manly Beach.  Notice the pine trees in the background.

It seems like we have been here a long time.  Not complaining.  We are in Australia - I wouldn't recommend doing this country on any shorter timeframe than two weeks.  And our trip has been amazing.

But we do miss home.  Simple things like beds and coffees and turkey sandwiches.

A and S playing in the sand.
Notice the millions of people in the water.

Today we slowly made our way down to the Circular Quay (pronounced Key) harbor and picked up a ferry to Manly Beach where we caught some rays and watched the tide slowly force our retreat.  We scored our first Mexican food that we ate on the beach.  Pretty good.  Manly Beach is slightly less chaotic than Bondi and has a less international crowd.  There is a nice walking street there too.  The beach itself is bordered on the street-side by pine trees.  From a distance it looks like northern Minnesota - except for the sand.  And the ocean.  All in all, we like Manly more than Bondi.  Both days have been outrageously perfect.  80 and sunny.  At one point today I told Gillian I would pay her if she could find a cloud in the sky.  She gave up after about 5 minutes.

Ferry ride to Darling.

After Manly, we ferried back, showered at our hotel, and then ferried again to a place called Darling Harbor.  We didn't like Darling much.  Very touristy.  We bolted from there and decided to walk back to our hotel.  Along the way we found a Jamie Oliver restaurant.  After a long wait we had some decent Italian food.

We are tired of eating out, however.  We love Australia but we want to eat on our own terms.

Tomorrow will be interesting and mostly uneventful.  By 10am we plan to be squatting in a park overlooking Sydney Harbor.  We plan to sit there for 14 hours.  Yup.  I have tried to figure out a good way to get out of this reality, but paying $700 per night per person to join some aristocrats on the roof of our hotel is not an option.  Nor is paying $400 per person for priority access near the Opera House.  No, we are going blue collar on this one.  We are going to sit in that park and darn well enjoy ourselves!  Oh, I can only imagine the bickering and fighting.

Anyway, the fireworks will be eventful.  We will celebrate New Years Eve 17 hours before Minnesota does.

And the next morning we fly home.

Looking forward to it.