The day tour of the blue mountains was amazing. We had a private guide (with Jon and Charles). Saw lots of Kangaroos in the wild. They are amazingly graceful creatures and have a face a bit like a black lab (ok - I'm projecting there a bit...I miss our dog) - but seriously it's cute. The tail swings up when they are in motion to provide balance and they just kind of glide through the air. They are also quite abundant - and a food source for the area. Apparently they are a bit like deer in the midwest. Due to the way the people have changed the land, they are overpopulating.
The other really interesting thing is that the blue mountains go from rain forest to mountain top (pine tree type) in a matter of a few feet. The blue hue, btw, is caused by a mix of the oil from the Eucalyptus tree and the dust in the air somehow refracting the light to give it the blue shade. The town (Katoomba) is kind of a resort town with lots of cute little restaurants and shops.
That evening we went to one of the restaurants and I had a mixed grill which included 'roo. Actually, it was quite tasty - not gamey at all.
The drive back to Sydney was a bit of an adventure. The GPS that we were using was always about 5 seconds late telling us to turn. Plus it turns out the car rental return place isn't technically in Sydney, but in a suburban town. Both Sydney and the suburb have the same street (williams street) - so we ended up in front of some bloke's house who clearly wasn't in the business of returning rental cars. We finally made it back (thanks to Charles who did all of the driving...on the left) and celebrated with a pitcher of Sangria and some lovely snacks at an outdoor cafe near our hotel.
Last night we went to see Spring Awakening at the Sydney Theatre. The theatre looks to be almost brand new and was built in an old warehouse adjacent to the harbour. The venue was fabulous. Spring Awakening won a bunch of Tony awards last year (or the year before) so I was looking forward to it. I was ready to leave after the first act, but others seemed to enjoy it so we stayed for the whole thing. It included stories about physical and sexual abuse, one suicide, one death due to a botched abortion, really BAD choreography (mostly in the first act), a plot which did not become clear until 2/3 of the way through the first act, and music that almost all sounded the same. I will say the lighting design was cool, as was he set design. However, if this was the "best of show" so to speak for that year, perhaps some years they should just not award Tony awards!
Today is our last day in Sydney and tomorrow we head home. I told Ray last night I'm not ready to go home. Except for one little matter I had to take care of (CDC released a request for qualifications that we needed to respond to), I've totally unplugged from the office and that's been really good. I also really like Australia. It has a lot of sophistication of the big cities, a very European flavor, and I LOVE the accent and wish I could learn to speak like that! While they don't have gay marriage they are actively pushing for it and some of the states do already have it. Certainly being a gay couple over here is no problem at all. Ray and I keep looking for retirement locations - I'd certainly consider Melbourne or Sydney and I suspect we'll come back and spend more time in both of those cities. Plus I'm thinking we'll do a tour of some of the wine country over here.
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