Sydney

I've really been slacking on the Australia posts, but I finally made it to the last one - Sydney!  Drew & I absolutely loved Sydney and both felt like we could live there so easily.  It is in some ways similar to San Francisco because the whole city is built up around the bay.  It is very picturesque.   There are so many interesting & varied neighborhoods.  You could definitely spend years exploring it all.

While in Sydney we stayed in Chinatown for four nights.  We were right by the monorail, which I didn't know they had & was so cool.  It was like we entered the future!  On our first day, we went to the National Maritime Museum, had a guided tour of the city, got to see a lot of great sights, and had a delicious lunch at a little teahouse.

Beautiful Bondi Beach

On our second day, we narrowed in on the areas that we wanted to explore the most & took a walking tour of The Rocks.  The Rocks is the oldest part of Sydney & was where all of England's convicts were let off the ship and settled.  It is aptly named The Rocks because the whole neighborhood is built on limestone.  It was a great tour!  Drew & I decided that we would definitely live in The Rocks if we ever moved to Sydney.  It has a very British feel to it & there are endless nooks and crannies to discover.  After the walking tour, we walked across the Harbour bridge & walked around the Opera House.  The three girls took a detour on the way back to our hotel to peruse the opal jewelry.  We each ended up with our own beautiful necklace!

Up close at the Opera House

On our last day in Sydney we were lucky enough to have a wine tasting tour of Hunter Valley.  It is about a two hour drive from Sydney, but it was well worth it.  We stopped at a little dam overlook to have tea & cake on our way out to the valley.  We tried Australia's national cake - Lamington cake - and it was SO tasty.  It is squares of plain cake, dipped in melted chocolate and sugar and coated with desiccated coconut.  Delicious!  I could have just stayed there & ate Lamington cakes all day.  But, there was wine to be tasted!  We went to four different wineries & had a delicious lunch with wine pairings.  The weather was absolutely fabulous for our day in the valley & we had such a great time.  On our way back to Sydney, we even got to see kangaroos & wallabies grazing by the side of the road.

Overall, it was a magnificent trip in the magical land down under.  I would highly recommend going to Australia.  Now, do it!  And stop by Guam on your way!!!