Having ridden on camels through the Outback, snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, cuddled a koala, walked on the beach with sea lions and toured a brewery in Melbourne, we already had had a fantastic stay in Australia before arriving at our final Australian destination for this trip: Sydney. But there was still one thing on my Life List that we had yet to cross off, and this was the city in which to do it! Unfortunately, our stay got off to an awkward start - as I was unlocking the door to our hotel room, I first saw that the lights were already on, and then I saw her. A middle-aged, less-than-attractive European woman standing in her britches in the middle of my hotel room! I quickly apologized and shut the door, not knowing exactly what had happened.
But this woman opened the door and proceeded to have an extended conversation with us, still wearing nothing but her underwear, about how her key didn't work very well but my key seemed to work quite well for her room. We finally escaped by saying we'd let the front desk know that we needed a different room, and went back downstairs to the lobby. Sure enough, there had been a mix up (duh) and they had given her the wrong room. They 
gave me her room instead, which was right next door - oh goody, we'd get to run in to her again! For our first full day in Sydney, we walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens on our way to the
Sydney Opera House area to see what we could see. It was quite a walk, but made for some excellent pictures! After walking around a bit, we grabbed a bit at a brewhouse with excellent food and a great selection of beer. On our way back to our hotel, we stopped at a giant department store in
search of the Sydney Opera House Nanoblock set. We found this fun "Wonderland" store that was set up as a Christmas toy store - reminisce
nt of the store in the movie Elf. It was spectacular! Our second day, we did some more walking around, but kept it more local and a little easier going. That night, we got to check off #132 from my Life List - seeing a show at the Sydney Opera House! I had
bought tickets back in April to see Postmodern Jukebox, and we had great seats! It was an awesome show, but the whole experience was just magical, knowing we were in such an iconic venue. 
The next morning we took it easy again, grabbing some donuts for breakfast and Danish ice cream a bit later. Sometimes in travel, I am tempted to just go, go, go, but it was nice to catch up on my reading and emails, etc. For dinner, Jaiman found a Riclette burger place, and we just had to try it out! 
Our final full day in Australia was unplanned, but we decided on a Blue Mountains tour, not really knowing a whole lot about it. The Blue Mountains, as it turns out, is a lot like the Grand Canyon, except covered in blue-looking trees because of the eucalyptus in 
the air, and we had quite an adventure on our tour - including breath-taking views, a skyway, the steepest railway in the world, and another Aboriginee show. I think the highlight for me,though, was the wildlife park at the end, where we not only got to see our favorite Australian animals one more time, but they had joeys!! The babies had me cooing and shooting pictures non-stop. The wildlife park
also had a little stamp passport to complete, and Jaiman and I were determined to complete
it in the limited time we had, so we rushed around trying to find the remaining stamps while stopping to take pictures as I saw the joeys being cute again. 
The tour would wrap up with a ferry boat ride back to Sydney Harbor, but our bus driver took a quick detour to show us around the Olympic Park. The boat ride was nice, and afforded us great evening views of the Sydney Opera House one more time. 
As our airplane departed for LA, I was able to snap a few photos of Sydney Opera House from the air, and reflected on what a magical trip this had been - just the right combination of adventure, food and beer, nature, experiences, and relaxation. We would definitely be back, but we felt we had sufficiently experienced an amazing Aussie Adventure!
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