Touring Sydney!

I'm debating how much I want to blog and how often. There are so many incredible things and so many fun things I'm discovering these first few days and I definitely want to share them. But I don't want to lose sight of this trip being for me. But I keep thinking, I want to write that in my blog ~ so, here I am.

I just had some delicious Greek yogurt for breakfast (best yogurt I've ever had.) And Steph is cooking and Ben is reading the paper. He just had me taste passion-fruit/lilikoi that we picked up at the market ~it's quite tart and fragrant like perfume! I guess the point is life here is just as normal as anywhere else but I'M IN AUSTRALIA!! Steph and I are having a conversation about Albany Ca.. it's nice to initially have someone who can relate to our life in the US. The australian dollars are made with a plastic, similar to the material used for certain envelopes or Indestructibles~ which are a line of baby books that are chew proof! And it's color and size coordinated. ATMs spit out yellow $50s or "pineapples."

The creatures here are certainly fun and beautiful to look at. Lots of incredible birds just wandering around! We saw some really sweet new babies following their parents around in a pond and Ben got some great pictures of coccatoos in the trees at the Sydney Botanical gardens. There are also seagulls and pigeons. The spiders are amazing! We saw a possum (which here is spelled without an "o") wandering around in broad daylight, which isn't normal apparently but it was really cute. The Gardens are really beautiful, especially the trees in my opinion! (I'm a sucker for trees though.) Lots of the trees here have roots reaching from the upper branches trying to get to the ground and then they form another trunk, sometimes connected to the original trunk and other times not. Really fascinating! We also saw a walking tree!

We had to walk under the Sydney Opera House to get to the Gardens and passing by that was incredible. (We plan to do a tour another day.) We looked at the Opera House from all angles though, up close, from the Gardens, from across the harbor, from Harbor Bridge and from under Harbor bridge after we crossed over it and ate delicious dark chocolate and melted white and milk chocolate drinks. We had a lovely lunch on the grass overlooking the harbor under a tree and played frisbee for a bit before our trek through The Rocks toward the Harbor Bridge walk. When on the bridge
I fell in love with an awesome pirate ship in the water! I plan to be on that ship at one point or another! Although, I'm not sure I want the touristy version. I was considering being a ferry docker for a job while I'm here! We went by this crazy amusement park under the bridge which had a clown face for an entrance! The lights turned on just as we were leaving the city and we got to see the city begin to light up from the train station. I led Ben in a mini tango dance on the platform while we waited and noticed after there was a girl in the departing train who was videoing our dance on her phone ~ I smiled and waved!

We walked home and made a delicious (though very simple) pumpkin soup: boiled pumpkin, (all squash is called pumpkin), carrots and potatoes pureed with some coconut cream and cinnamon over rice. YUM! I glanced through their living room library and found myself very attracted to many of the books ~ I'm always amazed at how much is available to me and how little I will every get to, "There is more to see, than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done," thank you Lion King. Ben and I have been researching and trying to figure out what we want to do for our week of travel. There are so many exciting options. Looks like we'll be on a plane again and possibly renting a car or van from a company called Wicked.

Off to do some laundry now. Life is Good.