Australia, Day 2 (Aquarium, Madame Tussauds, Wildlife Sydney)

Thrivent was kind to give each of us a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses.  I, of course, had to model mine.

We walked down to Darling Harbor to sight sea and go to the aquarium and then realized there were other things to do there as well.  We found a cute restaurant along the harbor that had a $10 steak dinner - it was fabulous!

A random wooden soldier on our walk - I think it was in front of a chocolate shop.

Aquarium

I love this picture, because you can see what we looked like all day.

A dugong (similar to a manatee, but has a tail like a dolphin's)

Madame Tussauds

Captain Cook

Madame Tussaud

Wildlife Sydney

Can you see the stick bug?

Australia Day 1

What a long day of travel!  I started out from Harlan at 1pm on Friday afternoon.  Dave and the kids drove me to Marshall Michigan where I met Rick, and he drove me to the airport. I met Mom there, we got through security, got a bite to eat, and took of from Detroit to Los Angeles at 5:50pm.  We landed in LA 5 hours later.  We had a slight lay over in LA.  We boarded our next plane at 10:45pm (LA time) and traveled 14 hours to Sydney, arriving Sunday morning at 8am (Sydney time).  Our flights went well.  The only problem that occurred was with another passenger, and elderly woman, who felt chest pains during the last 45 minutes of our flight to Sydney.  The captain called for a doctor while in flight.  When we landed we all had to wait for the paramedics to come on and escort the woman off before we could get off the plane.  We didn't have to wait too long to get through customs when we got to the airport.  We found the van service to the hotel and got to the hotel at about 10am.  We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel while we waited for our room to be finished getting cleaned.  After checking into our room, and freshening up, we decided to walk around near our hotel and take in Sydney.  Sydney is such an eclectic city.  The architecture and restaurants/stores have Chinese and European influences.  It's not like any other place we've been to.  Parts of it remind me of China (mostly all the Chinese vacationers) and other parts remind me of London.  The weather is warm and humid, but the skies are beautiful.  We finally felt like we were in Australia when we saw the Opera House in person.  Here are some of the pictures from today...

Mom's boss sent a bouquet of flowers to welcome us (we had to use the trash can as a vase).

The hotel lobby

Sydney Opera House

Our hotel (The Four Seasons)

After our outing, we spent the entire afternoon at the spa getting massages, facials, and pedicures.  After such a long flight and hardly no sleep, it was amazing.  We ordered room service and enjoyed sleeping in a bed.  Tomorrow we have a free day and hope to go to the aquarium and one of the many beaches.