Opera House

Yesterday we started off really late and didn't get breakfast until 11am.  It took time for everyone to get up and moving but eventually we made it to a café where we were served some brekkie wraps and bagels.  Afterwards we strolled along George Ave and found ourselves in and out of various souvenir shops.  Even though most of the shops have similar items, it's still fun to look around.  One of the most random and rather disgusting things we found for sale were kangaroo scrotums.  I really don't know why anyone would want one or what they would do with it should they purchase one, but to each his own I guess.  There were some fun items like a big stuffed kangaroo, a whole line of UGG items, t-shirts, opal jewelry, etc.  I didn't end up buying anything but I started making a list in my head of things I might want to bring back for certain people :)

After some shopping we decided to head out to the Opera House.  Our hotel is actually in a prime location and it doesn't take much time at all to get there.  We first walked around the perimeter on our own before heading inside to have a look around.  The show currently playing in the concert hall is "Angelina Ballerina," so there were a bunch of little girls prancing around in their tutus.  They were so cute and jumping up and down with excitement.  We finally decided that we wanted to take a guided tour and it turned out to be a great move.  Not only did we get to see inside many of the theaters (no pictures allowed, unfortunately) but we learned a lot about the history of the building along the way.  I found all of the engineering to be quite interesting and felt myself nodding along with the explanations, thinking "yeah, that makes sense."  I like those moments where I kind of know/understand something that sounds complicated :)

The tour lasted for some time and afterwards my parents decided that they wanted to head up to and walk across the Harbour Bridge.  While they did that, Kenny and I went back to the hotel room and tried to nail down some of the details of our Europe trip.  Just as I found when I was back home and trying to work out stuff for Australia, it was very difficult to navigate websites and get things done.  We didn't really accomplish much before our parents came back and we went off to dinner.  We dined in The Rocks which is the same suburb where our hotel is located and it was fun to sit outside and watch everything that was going on.  There were a lot of people out for a Thursday night, though that's not too surprising given the nice weather and the fact that the Christmas season is upon us.

We took our time eating but then came back to the hotel where Kenny and I stayed up late and planned out specific destinations and routes based on travel times.  We actually accomplished a lot in this second go-round and I feel better about things.  There are still other details to sort out but I'm sure that'll get done eventually.