Photos, Photos & More Photos!

Below are many photographs from Sydney--I'll do another posting with more photos from Perth and another one with photos from Alice Springs/Uluru. I'm not going to actually write much in this posting--just captions for the photos. I'm just trying to get caught up with all of our photos and descriptions!

The Shangri-la Hotel in Sydney. We stayed here our first 2 nights in the country and we also stayed here on our honeymoon. We'd live here if we could--we could see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from our hotel room window. It was a nice place to recover from jetlag! If you look closely at the picture you'll be able to see a large block of windows near the top--our room was located just left of the top left corner of these windows.



Me at Target! It's so comforting to know I can go to Target here! It is a little different than at home and not nearly as large, but hey, it's still Target and they still have cute shoes and clothes for cheap!


The Sydney Aquarium--I'm happy to see many of these animals behind the glass!


Duckbill Platypus! They remind me of the penguins at the zoo--they pop up on land, dive in and streamline as fast as they can around their pool. They also chase each other, knock each other off the rocks, etc. I was surprised at how small they were though---they're only about 18 inches long and maybe 8 inches wide.




We found Nemo & Marlin!




And Dory too!




Jellyfish (not Box Jellyfish though)! Don't worry Dad, they were behind thick glass. . .we'll take you to see them, you'll be safe, promise!



Cool Stingray, huh? This is an eagle ray, the largest in the ray family--their wingspan can be as large as 8 feet, pretty impressive!




Shhhh--ark! (This is what one of my students used to call them as he was learning to read the word shark!) As scary as he may look, Jaws does not, in reality like humans for food. They are some of the tamest sharks in the sea. Have yet to see a great white, but am looking forward to it!




My birthday on a Sydney Harbor Dinner Cruise! I realize I look a little like I'm forcing a smile. Trust me, I'm not--I was just really drugged that day, trying to get over a really bad cold (Meredith, I totally understand what your birthday was like!) It took everything in me to be sitting upright, but I had a ball--who wouldn't with a sparkler in her cake?!




My last visit with the cats before we headed off for our 3 weeks of travel. Lily warmed up right away (I think it was the Vegemite treat that did it!) She sat next to me and took a little nap and was happy to have her chin scratched, then wanted to play and by the end was ready for another nap! Bastet took a little while--she spent the majority of my time there inside the hut, but by the end, she was ready to cuddle!











More photos to come shortly!