Sydney Highlights - Round One

Before I get rolling on the highlights of our trip to Sydney, I first have to shout "Go Cougars!" BYU won their season opener against Northern Iowa this evening, 41 - 17. It wasn't pretty for the Cougars (some unpleasant mistakes were made), but they won, and NI's QB, Pat Grace, deserves some kind of medal for the punishment he took in the game.

Enough of that...let's get it out there right now...Sydney now ranks as one of my favorite cities in the world. There, I've said it. In short, we had a fantastic trip - a wonderful week-long getaway for Shari and me.

I won't bore you with the details of the flights, other than to say that they were long; I slept for most of the long legs to Sydney, even in Mother United's old Business Class seats; Shari watched several chick flicks and all the flights were on time. Except for the flight to Sydney - delayed so that they could hand each of us a bottle of water as there was no potable drinking water on the airplane and then there weren't enough meals loaded for the folks in Economy. Oh and I'd also like to point out that Shari's run of not flying Economy internationally remains unbroken.

We arrived in Sydney last Sunday morning, bright and early, and were met by the director of NBTA Asia Pacific, Karen Davies, and her husband, Bruce. They were so cool to meet us and take us on a drive around Sydney. They were great - especially when you consider we went straight from twenty hours of flying to their car - we had a serious case of the "Boeing stink," I'm sure, but they were wonderful to us. We got to see Sydney from the local's point of view. I'll let pictures do the talking now:

We'd been off the plane about an hour when we took the above picture, with Sydney in the background.

Above is a view from the bluff we were on.

Then we headed over to Manly Beach for breakfast. Take a look at the following pictures and tell me what season it is:


WINTER! This is winter in Sydney. Umm...after two heinous winters in Chicagoland, sign me up for this kind of winter any day of the week!

We then wound up in Sydney itself and took in our first close-up views of the famed Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In a word, breathtaking:

We capped our tour of Sydney with our friends by going to Harry's for a meat pie. I'd liken it to the Australian version of In-n-Out. I could not have been more delighted that we were there.

Shari got an original, including a mash of peas on top:

Harry's was outstanding. Loved it. I got a curry meat pie and it was all kinds of excellent. After getting a taste of Sydney, it was off to the hotel - the Four Seasons Sydney. Can I just tell you that we LOVE that hotel?! As we poured out of Karen's car, the bellman greeted us by name. Now, that was pretty cool. Although when you think about it...these guys are so well-versed in guest relations, and they knew that these two Americans were going to be checking in after a wicked long flight, but man are they good. So when we got out of the car, looking like refugees out of some B-grade disaster movie, it probably didn't take a genius to guess who we were, but just the same, it was a sweet move. The entire staff made us feel welcome the entire time we were there. Our room had stunning views of the Opera House and the Bridge. We were most lucky to be there for the week. If ever you stay there, make sure you stay in one of the Executive rooms, so you can meet Jane, the manager of the Executive Club. She is an absolute delight. The concierge, Jorge, and Luke, from his team, are awesome as well. We felt at home the entire week - and that sums up Sydney. It felt like home, and I don't mean that in the sense that it felt like the US. It just felt comfortable and like somewhere you'd like to be.

More pictures to come -