Darling Day

In case you can't tell, Kevin's job for the blog is to make up titles for the day ... today's is because we went to Darling Harbour today, and for those of you confused by last night's title, that was a song from South Pacific (which Kev thinks he can sing ... I mean, he can sing ... better than the actor).

Anyway, today started out like most - some coffee and relaxation in the room, followed by a great run (on the water for Kev, over Sydney Harbour Bridge for me). We headed out for lunch to an "upscale food court," where Kev got a chicken burrito and I got a combo of 3 salads - California, Asian Green Vegetable, and Pumpkin and Chickpea. We then headed outside to a really neat outdoor festival for Orange, another city in Australia. Apparently, they had free wine tastings, food giveaways, etc., just to entice people to travel to the region!

We headed out to explore more of Sydney by foot, following along part of the Hop-On-Hop-Off Tour route. We walked through Queen Victoria Building again, saw the Town Hall (which was under construction), and passed by St. Andrew's Cathedral (which was closed on Fridays).

We then got to Tumbalong Park and the Chinese Gardens. Both were well-kept, and we continue to be amazed by how many nice public spaces there are in Australia. There were tons of people out in Tumbalong Park enjoying the sunny (but slightly cold) day. By Tumbalong Park, we spotted Paddy's Market, a giant market of mostly clothing/ jewelry/ wallets/ stuffed animals/ Uggs, with a small amount of produce (got some strawberries and oranges!).

On somewhat of a whim, we ended up at Darling Harbour, which turned out to be fantastic! Great views of the city, tons of outdoor restaurants and shops, and lots of people enjoying the day. We had our Kindles with us, so we sat outside and read for a while (until a rather large, KFC-eating man, who just must have been an American, started throwing chicken bits to the pigeons, who surrounded us).

We explored a bit more of Sydney by foot before returning to relax for a few hours around the hotel. We headed out to The Rocks for drinks and dinner. We started in a place which Kevin convinced me to walk in since they had chicken parm ... and only until we were sitting there did we realize how strange this place was! Terrible red carpeting, burgundy bar stools, a random disco ball, 80s music videos playing, a large "Bistro" sign with a cafeteria-style cafe, random slot machines, fold-down tables ... we were very confused and just couldn't eat there. We switched to a cute Italian place, where we split some cheesy garlic bread (I was soo excited), I had a "prawn and rocket" salad, and Kev had beef lasagna.

Man, The Rocks and all the surrounding areas were hopping tonight! Staying up late to party has really not been our thing on this trip (one, because we're old; two, because 27 days in a row of that would be pretty tough; three, because we want to see so much of each city and want to get up early enough to actually enjoy the days!), but we kind of laughed when realizing that we were walking home at the time some people our age would be just heading out. C'est la vie! Another fun day tomorrow ...
-Megan and Kevin