Sydney

Mia
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Hanging out with everyone in San Francisco and seeing the family in Taos made getting back on the road hard.  We really had a great time back in the states, and were actually a bit bummed as we were getting ready to leave.

Fortunately the feeling of sadness was alleviated by the feeling of distress the night before leaving as we realized that we were flying out of LA instead of SF like we had thought.  Thanks again to Dave, Apollo, Alan, Shosty, and Anna for helping us get down to LA in time to catch our flight...we really appreciated your help!

The Best Picture We've Ever Taken
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After fifteen hours of flying we were in Sydney and greeted by 75 degree weather and a very excited Joan (Suz's grandma).  We spent a few slow days catching up with Joan, time, sleep, and kicking around the city.  Sydney is a beautiful!  The harbor, modern architecture, and vibe is very reminiscent of San Fran.  The food is delicious (as well as outrageously expensive), and the beer is the strongest and coldest that we have ever tried; every tap in the pubs is covered with ice, Aussies really know how to enjoy beer.

Suz Looking Funny
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In the first few days of touring around we caught the obvious tourist attractions of the city: The Opera House, the Botanical Gardens, the ocean side town of Manly, ect.  But our trip really picked up speed when went down to Brad and Leahs' house (Suz's cousins) for a BBQ and Footy game (Rugby) on TV.  Next thing we knew we had moved into Brad and Leahs' and our time in Australia started taking shape.  Brad and Leah provided us with great food, endless beer and wine, and incredible company...they are great!  Brad ended up getting tickets for the Saturday Footy game for their local teem the Cronola Sharks.  It was awesome!  We were sitting right on the field, and since they live five minutes walking from the stadium we were able to BBQ and pregame for the entire day, which inadvertently led to a very drunken night of Footy.  Susannah, realizing she was the only girl in the pack of ten guys, wisely left the game at halftime to join Leah for a mellower evening.  Peter, along with everyone else, proceeded to drink way too much, and was fortunately taken home by Brad right about the time he started yelling at strangers in the casino after the game.  A big thanks to Brad for saving Peter from an immanent ass kicking... The following day, after Peter had finished paying his dues from the night before, we decided to head out on a boat trip with "Fish"and Brett, friends of Dean's (Suz's other cousin, Brad's brother).  We don't know if we should have taken hints from the fact that Dean wasn't joining us, or that Fish had broken his arm the night before by doing back flips off of his couch and had literally broken through the floor boards, but we decided to go anyway...and now have one of the most memorable experiences of the trip.

These People
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With a broken arm, unchecked by any doctor, and in a 12 foot long aluminum boat Fish took the three of us on the royal tour of waterways of south Sydney.  We probably should have headed home after three hours of touring and some cliff jumping, we definitly should have headed home after Fish fell over drunk while changing the fuel tanks, and we definitly should not have headed out to open sea in an attempt to head up the Australia coast line (100' cliffs the entire way) to another harbor where we were going to suprise Dean at a friends house where he was enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon party...but we did.  There was a look of surprise, to say the least, when the four of us and Fish's dog rolled up to the beautiful waterside house (in fact we were videotaped by the family).  Luckily enough for us, there was no where to get the necessary gas to head back to our starting point, so Fish was forced to dock his boat and catch a ride home.  It was a very long day, with some hysterical parts that are not blog material, but we are glad that it is over and we survived it.  Oh, and a fun fact about Fish, his is a cop.  Great times!

Us in the Opera House
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We decided to catch a ride up the east coast with Dean and his wife Tracey for a stay at their house in Coffs Harbor.  We have heard it is a beautiful place, so we'll make sure to jot down a blog for it after it is all said and done.