I know that sounds harsh, but arriving in Sydney has really made us question some of our strong convictions for declaring SF to be our favorite city on earth. Now we’re certainly not abandoning that claim by any means at this point, since it’s just too early in our relationship with Sydney to make that claim. However, Sydney is really an amazing town and making us think long and hard about things.

Maybe it’s just the novelty of being in a new city, or the relief of having a solid internet connection in the place we’re staying, but something about Sydney is truly fascinating. For one, the weather couldn’t be better. It’s probably 80 F, and absolutely gorgeous which can always put the perspective of a city in much “lighter” terms. The restaurant scene here is really out of this world. We keep having freak out moments that we’re just barely going to be able to skim the surface of the foods this town has to offer. The harbors surrounding the city are sparkling and the town itself is very clean with little homelessness. There are tons of cool neighborhoods to explore, and the area we’re staying in is really hip.

When we first arrived here late two nights ago, it was quite difficult to assess where it was we were actually staying. At night time things tend to look a little “shady”. We actually are in somewhat of a shared accommodation style joint. Okay, it’s so not what you may be thinking. It’s basically a really nice house that everyone has their own rooms and bathrooms, and then a huge shared living area downstairs with kitchen, washer/dryer, plasma, etc. Jason doesn’t like the whole concept, so I think this may be our last night “slumming it”.

We spent our first day here wandering the streets from 9am to 10pm. Jason makes fun of how map obsessed I am – I guess I just like to know where I’m going. So here’s what we did in a nutshell. We checked out Darling Harbor and Jason had an ice coffee there (more like a milkshake) – we headed over to the Star Casino and Jason got a haircut - then walked to the Fish Market and had lunch - headed back to Darling Harbor - over to Paddies Market - meandered through China Town - headed down Oxford Terrace – Jason bought an Icebreakers shirt in a shop – we grabbed a beer at the Beer Garden Bar in Darlinghurst – came home for a bit – headed out to Stanley Street for an appetizer and drink at Vaigo Restaurant – walked to the Circular Quay – over to The Rocks – grabbed another beer at the Lush Inn – finally called it a night with a lean-burger at McDonalds and a cab ride home.

This city ROCKS . . .

It can be tough when traveling to have a Big Night Out since you're constantly in different places and don't know the "scene".  That's why it's important to talk to the locals and find out what's up.  One of the best ways to do this is to start the evening out at a hip bar to grab a drink and talk to the bartenders/owners.  This usually starts you down the path of where to have dinner, where more talking with the wait staff leads you to your next destination, etc.

Our evening started out at Ginger, what beyond any doubt was the best cocktail bar we have ever been to.  The drink menu was nearly 50 pages, and each one looked amazing.  Here we met Alex, the owner, and managed to sample 6 of her wonderful concoctions.  She told us all the best hidden bars and clubs, and even drew us a map!

After the drinks we wandered up and down the rest of Brunswick Street, which is eerily similar to the Mission in SF.  A very eclectic mix of upscale restaurants, cool bars, and low income housing.  Definitely a hot area (literally, since it was 95 degrees that night).

A few more drinks, a few more bars and we were back out wandering the street.  That's when we saw a weird little stairway up to the second floor of a building simply called "Rust".  When we got up there only a few people were sitting around on couches so we turned around to check out the next place.  That's when somebody called out "what are you afraid of?".  Naturally, we turned right back around and headed in.

We ended up hanging out with Anton the owner, and Ash one of his friends.  As well as a host of others, as by the end of the night the place was completely packed.  It was a blast, and we finally felt like we had a group of friends again.  We're really missing that!  Towards the end of our evening  the 3 Minute Angel that we met at Ginger even came in!  We wrapped it up with what is apparently a Brunswick Street tradition of a doner kebab at 3am.  Just like having a burrito in the Mission.  Delicious!

This town is such an easy and great place to walk around and we've spent hour upon hour getting lost amongst the streets.  We've filled most of the past 4 days just wandering - that's what we wandering walkers do best.  The contrast of modern/contemporary architecture and classic Georgian and Victorian structures are wonderful, and gives the city quite an eclectic feel.  This truly reminds me of the contrast between the Victorians of SF and the contemporary style of 1600 Webster (our home)!

The Melbourne Aquarium was a wonderful way to spend the morning yesterday, as I am a true lover of sea-life.  We were even lucky enough to catch the sting ray and shark feeding.  Although the place was filled with mom's and their 3-year-old toddlers, I was just as amused as them watching and absorbing all the wonderful exhibits.

We strolled along the Yarra River Walkway in the South Bank to the Crown Casino, which was seriously Las Vegas style in size and granduer.  From there we crossed the Queens Bridge and headed towards Chinatown.  When a street merchant handed us a fortune cookie we were inspired to dine on dim sum (smart sales tactic), which we thought was a perfect way to celebrate Chinese New Year.  I even had my first taste of a shark fin dumpling that of course was similar to chicken.

Today we took the tram to St. Kilda, an area that has great beaches, tons of restaurants and cafes, and is esepcially known for the cake shops.  Once Jason found out about the notoriety of this area for sweets we were sold and on the next tram out there.  We couldn't forgo trying at least one little cake delight so we indulged on a vanilla cream pastry thingy.  We needed to work off our splurge, which a walk to St. Kilda beach, out to the pier, and up Fitzroy hopefully took care of.

We've enjoyed everything about Melbourne, particularly the "homey" feeling of being close to SF as this town is earily similar to our dear city by the bay. We only have one last night to live it up in this remarkable place.  Next we're jetsetting to Brisbane where we begin an exciting two week stint along the Queensland East Coast.

Melbourne has an intersting transit system consisting primarily of trams which run along tracks that get you around town.  Now Jason had taken note that when people were getting on the tram there was noone checking their tickets, so he summised there was probably no need to actually even purchase a ticket.  Anyone who knows me understands my level of anxiety around things like this which challenge the legal system, so I convinced him to buy at least one day tram ticket. 

By the end of the day we had  bundled so much change that on our way back from St. Kilda beach we decided (more like I pleaded) we'd buy a second ticket just to be safe-- BUT, we we were literally 5 cents short only having $6.05, and not $6.10 to purchase a second day pass.  We were braving it with a single ticket. 

At this point on the tram ride I had taken note of a sign in my nervous state, that read it was a crime to ride without a ticket and punishment could result in a fine or jail.  Okay that's when my sweat factor shot through the roof.  That ride felt like forever, but we arrived back to out destination no problem, no worries, we were free as birds.

Then came our evening excursion to dinner, which we decided to take the tram to.  At this point I was feeling brave, since we'd gotten away with it several times throughout the day.  Again we boarded the tram no problem, we had a pleasant ride, and then came time to depart.  I don't know why but stupidly I chose to depart the front of the tram, when every other time we had departed the middle door of the tram.  As I was climbing down the stairs, a uniformed tram police guy asked to see my ticket.  All I could do was point to Jason and let him take over.

Lets just say they take traveling without a tram ticket very seriously.  Jason managed to convince them we thought we only needed one day pass for the both of us.  That's when they started to question how long we've been in Melbourne, to which Jason replied one day (when really it had been 4).  Then they wanted to know which hotel we were staying at so they could call the hotel to confirm that we had only been here one day.  Next, they wanted to know specifically who's tram ticket it actually was, since the one without it was the culprit.  Jason considered throwing me under the bus, but he stuck by my side.

They were seriously on to us like white on rice, but my clever little husband maneauvered his way throughout the whole ordeal.  Anyway, we got off somehow after a 30 minute drill by both the tram police and his supervisor. 

We were very lucky this time, but I promise you there will be no tram rides without two tickets from here on out even if Jason tries to convince me of it!

We heard from many people that Fraser Island was a must see, so we opted to do it as a day trip instead of a whole camping out thing.  It's described by many as an all sand island, which of course conjures many images in ones mind.  We were expecting paradise on earth, and we certainly were not met by that. Lets just say the whole day trip to the island was something we could have done without.

The nightmare of the day began at 6:45am at the transit center where we all waited around for someone to pick us up.  Finally, this wiley looking guy pulls up in a 4 x 4 that looks like it could maybe hold 4 comfortably and we're informed that all 8 of us are squeezing in to this sardine can for what would be a 12 hour day of driving.  That's the first time Jason and I looked at each other and questioned whether we should bail on the whole thing.  Then we remembered the $400 we paid between the two of us to be on this trip and thought we'd tough it out (I know, we're troopers!)

Okay, lets just say the lack of leg room in the back of this jeep caused much headache and we were all upset about it.  It took 3.5 hours just to get to the island, and we all had to constantly switch around seats so we could get some circulation through our legs.  It was soooooo uncomfortable, especially for my knees that have tendinitius in them.

We took a barge over to the island, which was actually only 10 minutes away (kind of anti-climatic when the island is that close).  When we arrived we were kind of disappointed to see that the island was actually all sand as the base, but had lots of forests, and rivers, not the "all sand" island we were picturing.  The scenery although beautiful was not that unique from many things we had experienced in New Zealand. 

Again, not to get stuck on the leg room issue, but it was definitely a problem and made it difficult to enjoy some of the experience. The fresh picnic lunch that was advertised in the brochure was actually a sloppy mesh-hall buffet, which was disgusting. 

The one highlight of the day was visiting Mckenzie Lake, which had the most gorgeous beach we've ever seen.  The water was warm as a bath, and the sand was 98% silicate making it the silkiest, softest sand we've ever touched. We gave each other exfoliations on our backs with the sand it was that soft, and also cleaned our jewelry by rubbing the sand on it.

Another high point of the day was finally getting to see kangaroos on the side of the road.  They are the cutest thing ever and it was amazing how close we could get to them.  All Jason could think about it how tasty they looked, although that was the furthest thing from my mind. 

By far arriving back home and being able to stretch our legs was the biggest relief of the day. In hindsight it's easy to say I'm glad we got to experience Fraser Island, but I certainly would not rush back especially with the tour company we were with.  You can check out all the highlights in the video clip.

So I have an Australian aunt (Diane, my dad's brother's wife) who has a first cousin named Len Lotz that lives in Brisbane.  What better way to see the area than to get him to take a day off of work to show us around?  Australians are extremely hospitable, and Len wouldn't hear otherwise about spending the entire day during a very busy period to drive us up and down the coast.  He picked us up at our place in the city and took us south about 40 miles for our tour of the Gold Coast.  It's a very cool area, reminiscent of Miami Beach.  Lots of high rises, tons of development going on, and of course beautiful beaches.

We spent the day slowing making our way up the coast, seeing all there was to see.  It was perfect since we only had 3 days in Brisbane and really wanted to see the Gold Coast.  We stopped back at our place for a quick freshening up, and then we were right off to a BBQ dinner with Len's daughter and son-in-law Jason and Danielle.

If I ever moved to Australia, I would have a best friend all ready to go.  Jason and I (in addition to sharing a name) were like two peas in a pod.  Straight down to finishing the evening with a bottle of fine Scotch.  We dined on bugs, a weird cross between a crayfish and a prawn that only exists in this area.  Good stuff!!  The only flaw in the evening was when Joy saw a ginormous spider on the wall and flipped her lid.

I'll just preface this by saying both Jason and I think we're having withdrawal symptoms from our amazing 3 day/3 night sail around the Whitsundays Islands.  We are grateful that so many people talked us into the "sail" experience, since it was something we were initially questioning doing at all.

One of the most difficult things for us was choosing just the right boat to sail around the 74 island chain of the Whitsundays since there are literally dozens to pick from.  Thanks to the guidance of a helpful tour operater who steered us away from the "backpacker" scene and more in the direction of a boutique cruise ship experience on-board the Pacific Sunrise, we sailed the Whitsundays in style.  Basically this meant more comfortable accomodations (having our own private room and bathroom), less people on the boat, fully catered meals prepared by the ships chef and served to us by the crew, and a gorgeous and spacious ship to move around on.  This certainly made the experience even more enjoyable.

We both agree the greatest part of the sail was the lack of decision making we had to do.  There was no thinking involved in any part of it, just complete and total relaxation.  Each day was filled with gourmet meals, champagne toasts, laying out on the ships decks, snorkeling sessions on the Great Barrier Reef, walking along and sunning on Whitehaven Beach, playing cards, reading our books, viewing the beautiful islands, and making new friends with our fellow shipmates who were all so much fun.  This was definitely paradise for us both.

Although we had heard so much about how amazing the Great Barrier Reef was, nothing could prepare us for how vibrant that world truly was.  The coral literally took on a life of it's own, quite different from what we had ever viewed or experienced in Hawaii.  The array of brightly colored fish were so much fun to watch, and Jason actually ended up quite far out getting stuck following the same fish.  At this point we are quite revved up to do some scuba diving once we arrive in Cairns in a couple days, since the snorkeling definitely wet our palettes for more.

Now, we're back to the grind of actually having to think about what we do each moment of the day, where we go, what we eat, where we stay, etc.  We will certainly never forget our time on-board the Pacific Sunrise and how majestic the Whitsundays were.

Then the Daintree Rainforest is the place for you.  Located about an hour north of Port Douglas, where we're staying, the Daintree is the oldest living rainforests on earth.  And it has a ton of things that love to either bite you or eat you entirely.  We decided to go on a day tour so we would actually be with somebody that could tell us what the heck we were looking at, and save us from doing anything too stupid.  We really picked the right one this time, helping make up for our Fraser Island mistake.

Grant, from Daintree Discovery Tours, picked us up promptly at 7:50.  It was just us and one other couple from Ireland, Eddy and Bernadette, who we got along with famously.  We headed up to Cape Tribulation, got into sea kayaks, and paddled our way to some amazing sights.  From there we headed to the rainforest itself and got to swim in a truly beautiful watering hole.  Very refreshing since it's hot, humid, and pretty much uncomfortable all around.  And combined, we probably have about 40 different bites on our bodies. But we got them back - there's a strange ant with a green butt, and if you lick it, it tastes like lemon sherbert.  Check out Joy giving it a try - Delicious!

We had a picnic lunch at a nice spot in the forest, hiked around for about an hour, took another dip to cool off in the swimming hole, and then headed out for some ice cream made from the fruits of the local groves.  Waddleseed ice cream tastes a lot better than it sounds, mysteriously like cookies 'n cream...  We ended the tour with a cruise down the Daintree river to look for crocs.  We did see 3, but they were all pretty small.  But not so small that I would want to go swimming in the river.

It's hard to determine whether we love this place so much b/c of the great town, beautiful rainforest, and gorgeous beaches, or if it's the AMAZING 5 star resort we're staying at.  I think it's probably a combination of both.  Either way, we switched our plans of staying 3 nights Port Douglas/3 nights Cairns to 5 nights in PD/1 night in Cairns, so that says a lot right there.

The Sea Temple Resort where we're staying is one of the nicest places we've ever been.  The thing that makes this place so great primarily has to do with the wonderful, insanely large pool and wrap-around lagoon that circles the entire resort.  This place is so trpoical and lush, and the swim out pool from our unit is fabulous.  The service and staff at the resort leave's nothing to be desired, but the spectacular setting makes up for that.

Our time in PD has been a combo of a lot of things including some exploration, relaxation, fun and frustration.  Jason pretty much summed up a lot of our adventures in the previous journal entry, which is where we did the most of our exploration. 

Relaxation just seems to come naturally in tropical, resorty places, and we've probably spent more time in the pool then anywhere else these past 5 days.  The intense heat and humidity also has made us kind of lazy, leading naturally to lots of lounging around and hanging out.

Fun is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about our wild night on the town with Eddie and Benrnadette, our new Irish friends who we met on the Daintree trip.  Although Port Douglas is not the most happening town, we managed to have a blast with these two -- from dinner and lots of wine at Mango Jam, to introducing us to Magners Irish Cider at Paddy's Irish pub, to ending the night at Fluid night club (even though we were the only people in the bumping place!)  This was definitely a night to remember.  We just hope they managed to catch their 5am flight out of Cairns the next day.

The frustration part comes in about this time yesterday when Jason realized his wallet was gone.  Now part of the reason we had extended our time here in PD was Jason needed to do a re-install on his computer and figured a nice comfortable resort was a great place to do it (considering how much time it could take.)  That plan went out the door since his 4 gig USB drive was in his wallet and that was MIA.  Although we could have both freaked out over this situation, I think we handled it very calmy - Jason got on the phone and cancelled all his CC's and then tried to figure out another plan for the reinstall.  We've actually just chalked it up at this point to a good life lesson of learning how to stay cool, calm and collected in stressfull situations. 

We have just one night left here in Port Douglas, since we're taking off for Cairns in the morning.  There's no doubt we'll miss this place, but know we still have a lot more adventure ahead of us.

We arrived yesterday afternoon back to Sydney after our 2 week journey up the coast of Queensland.  What a shock coming back to a big, bustling city after being in small towns for a period of time.  We spent the afternoon wandering around trying to figure out a plan for the evening.  Oh yeah, Jason bought his 4 gig USB drive and I got a haircut.

When we got back to the room Jason checked his e-mail and there was a note that read: "Hi Jason, Franco has said that you and Joy will be in Sydney this weekend.  I don't know what your itinerary is like but if you have some free time I would be very happy to spend some time with you and Joy over breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner/drinks - what ever suits you. Julie" 

We had no idea who this person was, but if she was game to hang out with us we were down to hang out with her.  Jason wrote right back and we made a plan to meet her on The Opera House steps that evening.  Now there are a ton of people around the Opera House steps but her clue of 5'8'', blond hair and black pant suit helped narrow it down.  We saw what we thought was her to be approaching from far, but b/c we weren't sure if it was her we didn't want to pull that stupid wave, and the person not acknowledge us.  Anyway, it was her and right on time.

Julie Marcus turned out to be the nicest, sweetest person ever.  She was insistent on treating us to drinks and dinner at the Opera Bar, a lovely place to sit outside, view the Harbour Bridge and have great conversation.  The place was lively and bustling with tons and tons of people.  It was the perfect place to reacquaint ourselves with Sydney, especially since we would be climbing the Harbour bridge the following day, which we were staring out upon.

It was such a nice feeling having a total stranger welcome us to their city with such warm and open arms.  How did she know we weren't total freaks, and that the evening wouldn't be completely awkward?  I guess maybe it could have been any of those things for her, but we had a really nice time getting to know Julie. 

We certainly hope to reciprocate when our new found 26-year-old, very hard-working lawyer friend Julie, takes her retirement trip to SF (hopefully sooner then later!)

The Harbour Bridge Climb is one of those quintisential things everyone told us we must do when in Sydney.  We certainly had our doubts about the whole experience, since it really seemed like quite the tourisy thing.  But wait, we are tourists.  As it turns out, lots of locals do the climb as well since it truly is spectacular and give you such an amazing vantage point of the city.

The deal with the climb is you make your non-changeable/non-refundable reservation (we made ours the day before).  They have this whole process down to a science.  From the time you check in to the time you leave the building everything is choreographed beautifully (total of a 3.5 hour process).  They have groups of 12 climbers begin the climb every 10 minutes, and our group was at1:45pm.  This really funny, I'll just say quite overweight guy dressed in the really tight climb suit, was the one who gave us the initialy spiel on everything we needed to know.  He even took breathalizer tests on us all, since you clearly can't be annebriated for climbing a 167 meter bridge. 

Then we're passed along to another room where we're all given out climb suits.  Definitely not the most stylish thing, but they'll do.  Unfortunately, after Jason and I were all suited up, had our harnesses on, and all our clips, I majorly had to go pee (probably just the anxiety of knowing I couldn't go for the next 2 hours) and Jason decided he'd try as well.  Once again, although we make fun of "those people" in groups, we were "those people" that held everyone up while we went to the bathroom.

Anyway, next thing they do is give you a little test run up some ladders, just to make sure you can actually climb.  We passed no problem.  Our climb began through the large pylons.  We walked under the bridge on some kind of precarious looking mesh stuff, climbed some ladders and we were on the main support that took us up. 

The climb wasn't very difficult, and at quite a leisurely pace so you have time to really absorb the magnificent views.  Apparently the total number of stairs and steps for the whole climb is around 1,300 and the total climb time on the bridge is 2 hours.  We were so lucky to have blue skies that day, with few clouds, epecially since it was pouring rain the night before (and tours go out even in the rain--the only exception is lightening).  The Opera House looked truly amazing from up there, and you could see everything in a 360 range.

Jason's totally into the idea of creating a bridge climb on the Golden Gate, although apparently those rights have already been sold to the same guy who created it on the Harbour bridge.  At $169/person,12 people per climb, departing every ten minutes from 7:30 am -9pm, you do the math on what they're raking in.  That aside, the experience is so worth it especially because you can get a cheesy picture taken at the top with the Opera House in the background -- definitely worth the extra $25 for that single image on a disk (not allowed to bring own cameras on the climb, since that could be bad news if it fell!)

One of the great daytrips from Sydney is taking the ferry over to Manley Beach.  Great shops, fun area, and as promised another gorgeous beach.  We went on a Saturday so it was a little bit crowded, but the beach is so big there's plenty of room for everybody.  We spent the day soaking up the rays and playing around in the huge waves.  Then it was time to take the ferry back (about a half an hour ride) so we could get ready for dinner wtih Pat and his girlfiend Jess.

When Joy's brother Jacob moved to Sydney for a few months back in '04 he made friends with a super cool bloke named Pat.  When Pat visited SF a bit back we all hung out and had a big evening on the town.  Now it was Pat returning the favor.  He took us to a killer restaurant set on the water directly between the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.  We followed that with a trip to a German bar that played 70's American music.  It was tough to believe we were still in Sydney!  As is the tradiion, we wrapped up at about 2am with a doner kebab.