Day 1 & 2 in Australia

G'day mates!

At SFO:
We all arrived at SFO ready to depart. After clearing our passports, it was time for a group shot.Once through customs, the delegates sat around and played cards, listened to their iPods, made some new friends, and walked around the airport as our plane kept being delayed in leaving.
We made it safe and sound to Sydney and through customs. In customs, we all lined up with our luggage (after we found Daniel and Peters!) and a cute little dog came through and sniffed everyone's luggage. We had declared everything we needed to and more, so we all were fine!

We met up with Tim Robins, our delegation manager. He is WONDERFUL! We met our coach driver, Brett, who is also wonderful! I had told the delegates earlier that these two people could make or break our trip - or at least contribute to it...and we are very fortunate with the two we were matched up with. (I think they also feel fortunate!)

We arrived in Sydney at 6:15 a.m....but by the time we went through customs, it was about 8 a.m. Our first stop was the Olympic center. We toured Telstra Stadium - where the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2000 Olympics were held. The stadium is phenomenal....it holds 110,000 people! We took lots of photos - of course. We sat in the stadium and had our lunch.




From there, we went to the Aquatic center - WOW! We swam there for about an hour and a half or so. This woke us up and tired us out at the same time.

We came and checked into our hotel - stayed about an hour and took back off for dinner and the Sydney aquarium. We all saw the DUCK BILLED PLATYPUS...plus lots of sharks, stingrays....it was great.

We came back to the hotel and CRASHED....Lynne, Dustin and I were doing room checks at 9:30 p.m. and while we were knocking on doors, the FIRE ALARM started going off...so many of our delegates were SO tired, they slept through it...and it was LOUD and LONG!Ironically, the delegates had been asking earlier what firetrucks looked like in Australia...we were informed they were called fire engines...and then while they all slept, two came to the hotel!

Day 2...........
After breakfast, we went to Mrs. Macquires chair - a place along the harbor which you'll hear about later. We had a photo taken...and we took a lot of photos...we took a little walk along the waterfront before taking off to downtown Sydney for a presentation on opals. I didn't realize how important opals were to Australia...we didn't leave empty handed - that's for sure!






We then took a long walk through downtown and through an area called 'the Rocks'... We took a harbor cruise which was wonderful - and a bit breezy...well, maybe a LOT breezy. We all loved it. By now we were starved, so the Hard Rock Cafe - Sydney was next on the agenda. We ate, we shopped, and we also met Tim's daughter, Julia.




Before going to the Opera House, we went to the Hyde Park Barracks, where they use to keep
convicts. They slept in rooms full of hammocks. We even got to try these out, trying to imagine what it would have been like to sleep in these with so many in a room.




From there, we went walking through the botanical gardens to the Opera House. What a beautiful place. We met Neville...who gave us our tour. We saw the smallest hall and the next to the largest one. We couldn't go into the largest because Burt Bacharach was practicing and he didn't want our company - he just doesn't know what he was missing! Oh well....we saw a remarkable stage being set up for tonights opera.
This is the inside of the ladies bathroom in the Sydney Opera House. There were NO SINKS...there were just indentions in the counter...it was awesome.
From the Opera House, we hopped on our coach and headed to Darling Harbor. We had an hour of SHOPPING which made many of our group EXTREMELY happy....before we had dinner. After dinner, we were informed a little more shopping time was needed...so after anothere 20 minutes, we headed back to our hotel.



We've had 2 jam-packed, very exciting, fun, and memory filled days in Sydney. Tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. we take off for Vision Valley. That's where we'll probably be doing something like the zip line, or other exciting events to STRETCH us out of our 'comfort zone'! Oh boy!

Parents, you're young people are extraordinary! We're having a remarkable time...I'll try to update again.

~Judy