Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The Qantas flight non-stop to Sydney was excellent!  I actually managed to sleep for about 12 hours, so after checking in to the Shangri-La Hotel, we hit the ground running!

When Stevie and I were in Sydney last February, the skies were gray and we dodged rain the entire time.  

The Opera House looks different in the sunshine.  Beautiful!

So the walk around the harbor docks and Sydney Opera House in the bright sunshine was a totally different and wonderful experience, despite the mass of tourists who so inconsiderately photo-bombed every snap of the camera.  Darn tourists!!

Sydney Harbor Bridge.  We're climbing this tomorrow.

We continued to walk the streets of Sydney and stumbled across the shop where I found the most hilarious birthday cards last year.  (Some of you may have received one.  Some of you wouldn't have appreciated the humor, sorry.)  But the shop no longer carried the off color cards.  Probably because of the crazy American tourists, who last year laughed so hard while reading the cards, we were asked to leave.

Rockpool Bar and Grill.  

After consulting "Yelp", thank you Jacqueline, we found a great spot for lunch.  Jess's children introduced me to the food photo section of Yelp.  Perhaps nothing helps tantalize the taste buds more than a photo of a juicy burger.  We honed in on a spot called Rockpool Bar and Grill.  I immediately recognized it as a spot where Stevie and I had dinner last year.  Great food at an even greater price.  Forgot that part.  But I do remember the thousands of wine glasses hanging over the bar creating a beautiful chandelier.

Jet lag must have caught up with us at that point.  So we went back to the Shangri-La and crashed for the rest of the day.