April 2 - "Flight attendants, prepare for take off."

After a two-hour flight to San Francisco, followed by a 14.5-hour flight across the Pacific, we finally made it to Sydney,
Stasha and me.

Tuesday April 4,
6:25am, Eastern Standard Time.

And what's the first thing we do?

Catch a ride, of course. Thanks to Doug Fox Travel, our Red Hat man was there to take us (and a few others) to our hotels, despite the fact that he was looking for us at another gate.

At The Grace Hotel in downtown Sydney, one of the first things I notice is a sign by the check-in counter. English is different here.

After checking in, Max called to tell us she's moving over.

Max had flown in a couple days earlier and was staying at another hotel near Chinatown. We planned to meet at 11:00am.

In the meantime, Stasha and I strolled down York Street to find brekkie (breakfast)... only to land ourselves at Starbucks for a cup'o'joe.

Starbucks there serve coffee in a mug, but we had ours take away (to-go) so we got the standard paper cups. My latte tasted a bit different. Stasha thought her mocha tasted the same.

We ended up sitting in front of the shop, chillin' under the morning sun... in the shade.

Max was our tour guide for the day. I was of no use as my brain's been in a daze since we landed.

Max took us through the streets of downtown, towards the Sydney Tower.

Similar to our Space Needle in Seattle, the Sydney Tower had a restaurant and an observation deck, though the observation deck is inside. (We could've done the SkyWalk, where they chain you to the outside at the top, but we passed on the opportunity.)

What better way to start our tour than with one glance at an entire city, eh?
Check out the view from the top...

Back down the Tower and through the city again.

It was already past noon, and we thought it'd be best to grab lunch on our way to wherever.

Meat pies!
(Dan and LeAnn told us about them. So did Bill at work.)

But where?!

We stopped at a small Hermes where a nicely suited French man was kind enough to give Max directions to the nearest pie shop:

To Myers, down the steps and to the right, around the corner.

"Take away," please.
(to-go)

In front of the Cathedral, we found a
bench to feast upon our pies...

Stasha had a Chunky Beef Pie;
Max had a Beef & Mushroom Pie;
and I had a Brocolli, Cheese & Corn Pie.

A$4.75 each ($3.56 US)

Yummmmmmmm.
And not cuz I hadn't eaten in 6 hours.

On our pie bag, it says:

Ya think we could get them to deliver?

We see here a pigeon, gulls and a couple of ibis. (Or is that ibisses?)

As the birds watched our food,
I watched the people.
Quite a few joggers durring lunch time.

Fig trees, by the way, aren't native to Oz. They were planted by British settlers about 200 years ago.

Admission: A$10 ($7.50 US)

This could be the best museum I've ever been to....

At the entrance to the door, a huge skeletal structure suspends from the ceiling.

Check out that boomerang.
(Sorry Jeff, it ain't for sale.)

He showed us lots of bugs and creatures. See those cases below the stuffed mammals? --- more bugs, bugs & bugs. Australian spiders, butterflies... just about everything.

Presented us his stickbug collection in a 2' x 2' x 4' tank. He pulled one critter out (looked like a poofed-up praying mantis) that started to sway back and forth - gettin' jiggy wid it.

.

Not very big in this picture, but he is about 5 feet behind the door. He's about the same height as me... err... his back is the same height as me. No longer around in Aussie; too bad since he wasn't even a carnivore.

Short-faced kangaroo... nope, can't see these guys either.

Up, down, or next door --
somewhere in the middle -- there was a great musuem of crustaceans, more insects, and 4-foot long worm exhibits, surrounded by hundreds of stuffed birds.

Just below this level, a museum of skeletons...

...purchased a Day Pass....

We took the right, down some escalators, and found a little "homebar" at the bay to rest our feet.

Peach Schnapps for me. A$8 ($6 US)

Not bad.

Snacked on some mango licorice that we picked up along the way.

Different at first, but it grows on ya.

Couple of them.

Admission cost???... was included with our Sydney Tower pass.

...crustaceons...

lungfish above; sea cucumbers below.

...reptiles...

...and bigger reptiles...

...seriously.... bigger.
Compare man to 'dile below.

Two things we learned about this lizard:

1 - only crocodiles live in Australia. No alligators.

2 - When the jaw is shut, both upper and lower teeth are visible on the crocodile. On the alligator, only the top teeth are visible.

Really; not roadkill.

The little guy swam too fast in the dark for camera to get a good shot.

And my favorites of the aquarium -

the walk-through tanks, two of which were about 75 feet long,

and the giant sting ray (above).

I've never seen a ray quite that huge.

Pretty cool.

We walked up and back, checking out all the cafes and restaurants. Some were hot, some not.

As rude as it sounds, we wanted 'roo for dinner.

And only the Caledonian had the kangaroo pizza.

appetizer: BBQ chips in a bamboo basket
dinner: Beef & Guiness Pie A$17.50, and
Lime & Black Pepper Kangaroo Pizza with Sweet Potato
we ordered a large (A$19.50)
but they gave us a small, A$14.50.

Pie was a bit salty, but probably cuz I was too slow in getting some crust.

Few of the roo pieces were chewy; otherwise, not bad.

Afterwards, we strolled along the dock...

...and back to Grace.