Saying Good Bye to Connie

After what seemed like a very short trip, it was time to say Good Bye to Connie. The Hypno-Toad helped us escort Connie to the plane.

Don and Connie 2

Here are a few more pictures from our travels with Connie and Don. Don and TV are pictured at University of Sydney in a doorway. A few more photos from the Blue/Foggy Mountains. KT petting a tree in Hyde Park. Connie and KT posing in front of the nativity scene at St. Andrews Cathedral. There is a night view from the Sydney Tower which we believe is the highest building in the Southern Hemisphere. You can see the Harbour Bridge and part of North Sydney. We all had a very nice meal at the top of the tower with a lovely glass of wine. The last two photos are of Town Hall lit up at night for Christmas. There are several different patterns that are projected onto the building and it really changes the look of the building. A very nice effect.

Connie and Don

The Don and Connie have arrived. We have taken them all over Sydney and the surroundings. Here are some of the places we have been. A series of photos at Echo Point look out where we hoped to see the Three Sisters rock formation, and as it turned out in vain. Those photos show the amount of composure it takes to get a good photo due to the huge fly presence, especially when they try to get in the mouth and nose.
There are some photos from Bondi Beach and our walk to the Red Hands Cave to look at aboriginal cave painting. There are some nice photos of the Sydney harbor and Opera House, including Circular Quay.
There were also some minor issues with the dishwasher. Mental note, only use dishwasher designed soap. There is also a photo from when we went to see Handel's Messiah at the Opera House. We are all having a good time so far.

Poll

In this poll we want to know what everyone else likes. You can select more than one answer so feel free to pick one out of each pair of similar choices.

Kt's parents flew into town on Monday morning and have been exploring Sydney since. We will be posting some of their photos soon, so stay tuned for those.

Poll Question Answer

After careful consideration and much ado, we determined the name of the song. It is of course Europe's Final Countdown, made all the more popular by Arrested Development's Gob. If you don't know what we are talking about, and you like to laugh, you should watch Arrested Development.

Spring Rain

Here is some spring rain, Sydney style. We were under the impression that Sydney was in a drought. This was followed about 30 minutes by sunny skies and a warm day.

Sydney Christmas Parade

Let us be the first ones to wish everyone a Happy Christmas! Last weekend we went to the first annual Sydney Christmas Parade. It has been three years in the making according to the website, but was in reality barely better than the Picnic Day Parade in Davis. Here are some of the highlights from the parade. There are some interesting "floats" that are Australian for sure. One of our favorites was the heart with legs and the bee on the float. Although just like the UCD parade there were Double-Deck buses in this parade as well, but this parade also had multiple kilt wearing bands. There were many more memorable entries, the bouncing kangaroos, the Australian space shuttle?, the platypus, and the square covered wagon. I don't know if anyone noticed, but the lion is wearing a purple Kings uniform just like Slamson in Sac. Apparently we moved from one Kings basketball town to another.




Here in OZ every parade must have a beer sponsored vehicle in it, and Miss Australia walks alone, no float for her. At least Santa was wearing red, yelling Ho Ho Ho, and riding in a sleigh.