We went back to Moline, Illinois (2 hours from Chicago) for Mike's Dad's funeral. His Dad was in very poor health, and is resting in a better place now. While it was an emotional weekend, it was also a rare opportunity for Mike and his 9 sibilings to get together. Ten fine people raised by mighty fine parents.
Here they are in birth order. From the top: Rosemary (Illinois), Mike (Washington), Cookie (Illinois), Rolly (Illinois), Dan (Illinois), Kathy (Arizona), Charlie (Florida), Mary Ann (Colorado), Tom (Texas) and Steve (Illinois).
Balancing out the cuteness factor of the set of photos below, we have the truly stunning statistics here on venemous snakes. 18 of the top 21 venemous snakes are found in Australia. The rattlesnake from North America is only number 22. Gee...I think it might almost be time to head home...
Take a close look at the kangaroo I'm feeding. Do you see the baby joey? We saw him scamper into the pouch from nearby Mom. How cute is that? Next, we have fairy penguins, which are blue and only 9 inches tall. Last but not least is a kookabura, sitting in an old gum tree, of course.
We took a ride in on an old mining railway car in the Blue Mountains that is the steepest in the world, at an amazing 52 degrees (almost a vertical drop). They play the Indiana Jones theme as they drop you down the hill. Perfect!
The Blue Mountains are about 4 hours east of Sydney, and a favorite weekend vacation spot for locals. It's called the BLUE Mountains because of the color of the eucalyptus trees that make up the forest. We hit it on a particularly spectacular clear day. Outstanding!
I guess you could say we're pretty comfortable with the kangaroos at this point, huh? These fellows were particularly mellow...apparently they hadn't had their morning coffee yet.
Manly Beach is a favorite spot for swimming and surfing. We stumbled on a competitive swim amateur swim meet where the contestants were swimming 2.5 kilometers through the surf...pretty tough duty! The winner finished just over 30 minutes. Impressive!
At about 4 million people, Sydney is bigger than Los Angeles. The inlet from the ocean winds all through the city, so there are 600 miles of coastline. We lost track of all the marinas - there are boats everywhere. It's lively, cosmopolitan, has great transit, good diversity, food and culture. What an impressive city!
We did a tour of the Opera House, which is amazing in and of itself. Over a million tiles cover the roof, and there are 5 performance venues inside. Just for yuks, I stopped by the box office to see if there were any tickets left to Madama Butterfly. Turns out it was the LAST performance of any opera for 3 months, and I got the LAST ticket...main floor back, not bad! Mike was relieved that he didn't have to go, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. What a beautiful production.
See those little tiny figures on top of the bridge? That's us climbing up...they have you on a safety line, and it takes about 2 hours to climb up to the center point. They are extra careful about climbers, so you can't take a camera or anything you might drop. They even give you a breathalyzer test prior to climbing! The view from the top was spectacular.
Here is Mike with a Sea Cucumber (not a vegetable), a Lionfish (those are poisonous spines) and my personal favorite, the Unicorn Fish. We both ended up with jellyfish stings, which weren't too bad once they were doused with vinegar, which is always handy on dive boats for just that reason.
