G'day

Wow. It seems I only blog when I travel - maybe I should have just made a travel blog... Nope, I just checked, I've blogged about other things. Whew.

Anywho, I am now finishing day 12 in Sydney (I had to open my calendar app to figure that out). Where in the world does the time go? Unbelievable.

OK, highlights... I went to see Wicked last week. It was just as fantastic the second time. I liked the London production better (oh dear, does that make me sound pretentious?), but I'm not complaining.

Saturday
I booked a bus tour to Port Stephens:
Reptile Park
Dolphin Watching
Sandboarding
It was a lot of fun, not quite what I expected, but fun.
The reptile park was kind of a let down. Here I go again, I'm going to sound pretentious... First item on the agenda: pet a koala bear (yup, at a REPTILE park). Now, koala's are adorable, and who wouldn't want to pet one? But, this wasn't my first time petting a koala. Second item on the agenda: hand feed kangaroos. Again, so adorable, etc. but also again, not my first time. And don't even get me started on the enclosed alligators. I've canoed in alligator-infested waters. Not that my friend and I knew that when we started canoeing. The park ranger who helped us put our canoe in the water casually mentioned "oh yeah, watch for alligators, oh, and don't grab any overhanging branches as there might be Water Moccasins." NICE - but I digress.
The dolphin watching was neat. I thought there was supposed to be swimming with the dolphins - I even bought a swim suit (since I forgot to pack mine), but what it turned out to be was "OK, now we've seen the dolphins, you can go ride on the boom net for 5 minutes." Well, I wasn't going to change clothes for 5-10 minutes in/on a boom net when it wasn't even while we were dolphin watching.
After the dolphin watching, we drove to the sand dunes near by and went sandboarding. It was AWESOME!! I'll admit, I was a little nervous at first - not that I'd get hurt, but that I'd look stupid - but it was so much fun. This was, really, the highlight of my day. I learned, though, that I prefer smaller tour groups - this tour was an entire bus load, and it seemed less personal and a little rushed.

Just because I've fed kangaroos before doesn't mean I'm not going to do it again...

Entrance to Port Stephens

Dolphins

Sand dunes (from the bottom)

Sand dunes (from the top)

My sandboard and me

Sunday
Sunday was ANZAC Day.

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries.

Even though it was raining in the morning, I went out and watched the parade near my hotel. I got all choked up (yup, I spelled that chocked up at first) seeing the older men march by. It was really touching.
After the rain cleared up, I took the ferry across Sydney Harbour to the Taronga Zoo. Great views of the city!! I highly recommend it. Oh yeah, and there were animals (including a brand new baby elephant). He was so cute!! As I was leaving the zoo, the weather started acting up again (good timing), so I called it a day.

Baby elephant (so cute!)

Sydney Harbour from the zoo

ANZAC parade

Giraffe with the city view

Monday
Because Sunday was ANZAC Day, Monday was a public holiday, which meant that no one would be working at the Sydney office, so I got the day off, too. I took a bus tour to Canberra (pronounced Can' bur uh NOT Can bear' a - oh yeah, make fun of the silly American), the national capital. It was quite fitting, I thought, for the ANZAC Day holiday, right? One of the guys in my office here described Canberra as an interesting "non-place."

The site of Canberra was selected for the location of the nation's capital in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two largest cities. It is unusual among Australian cities, being an entirely planned city. Following an international contest for the city's design, a design by the Chicago architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected and construction commenced in 1913.

We visited the National Museum, Parliament, and the War Memorial. I must have been having an emotional weekend, because I got all choked up... again (and yup, spelled that chocked up... again). I learned that, sometimes, I really don't like the constraints of being on a guided tour. There was a street of war monuments (kind of like the U.S. National Mall) that I would have liked to walk up at my leisure, but, oh no, we had to stay on the bus as we quickly drove past them with the driver saying "On the left is the Vietnam Memorial," "Oh, on the right is the..." I couldn't even focus my camera before it was out of my view. Very frustrating.

Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial

Parliament House

Lake Burley Griffin

Wow, I hope this entry doesn't make me sound too negative. I really did have a great weekend. I know that I'm quite blessed to have this kind of experience!