Okay, they leave tomorrow.
It's getting very crowded around here, with D's parents having been here visiting for two weeks now. And, Chad and D are tired of sleeping on the camp mattress.1 On the road and at home, there have been more than a few moments of flaring tempers, which is understandable with almost no private time or space.
Still, we all knew to expect this, and the individuals involved have such strength of personality that it's still been a very good visit overall. After a fabulous day of whale-watching on Brisbane's Moreton Bay2 during which we saw over a dozen Southern Pacific humpback whales (a few right next to the boat, even!), we drove down the coast road back home to Sydney. Our choices of accommodation improved the last few days of the trip, in part because we were a little wiser, but in reality because we were on the heavily travelled coast, so there was more to choose from and more competition between them.
We got in Thursday evening and Friday morning (after negotiating an emergency refill of insulin from the Australian Health Care industry) sent Mom & Dad off to Paddy's Market (again) and to the Powerhouse Museum on Darling Harbour.3 Saturday Chad had some much-needed time to himself while D and her parents checked out the weekend market on the Rocks, and then we all met up at Bondi Beach for dinner and gelato.
And, finally, Sunday morning, we headed out towards the Blue Mtns, a sheer cliff drop of wilderness around the Sydney basin that took the first settlers almost thirty years to find a path through to the rest of Australia. Our first stop was at Featherdale Wildlife Park, the highlight of D's first trip to Sydney in 2003 with her sister. Featherdale is an animal orphanage for injured, orphaned, or captive-bred native Australian animals... and you can "pat" the kangaroos, the wallabies, and the koalas, and get up close to wombats, Tasmanian devils, fruit bats, and even cassowaries.4 After a lovely afternoon with the animals (including a two-headed koala, much like the two-headed wallaby we saw last week), we continued the drive up to Katoomba, one of the major "gateways" to the Blue Mtns region.
Monday morning we embarked on our two-hour hike down the cliff face near Katoomba along the trail known as the Furber Stairs, most likely named for a guy called Furber who either built them or fell down them. Although our whole trip was down, we could definitely feel the effects of all those steps at such a steep grade.5 Of course, what goes down must come back up, so we paid our AUS$8.00/person to ride the "Scenic Railway" back up the cliff face. Built on the old coal mine hauling line, the 4-minute ride on the Scenic Railway runs up the cliff wall at the steepest grade of a railway line in the world.
Back at the top, we drove up the road to the town of Blackheath to enjoy some more vistas of the ancient landscapes, and then headed back for Sydney in time to get cleaned up for our dinner reservations at Forty-One.
Forty-One is one of Sydney's premier restaurants, world-class fine dining with the price to match. We knew that both the expense and the experience would be a stretch for D's parents, but we also felt that if they were interested it would be a uniquely Sydney experience. The restaurant is located on the forty-third level6 and has views out to the harbour and the city, even from the bathrooms! Forty-five minutes into our meal, we had the best view in the city of an unexpected fireworks display on Sydney Harbour, which added a special touch. D and her Mom had three-course meals, while her Dad and Chad had one of the six-course "degustation" menu. Highlights were the (unordered) asparagus reduction meant to be drunk from a teacup,7 the duck breast consomme with crab meat pastries to dip, the slow-cooked ocean trout on a bed of peas with prosciutto and parmeggiano, and the rhubarb crumble for dessert-- at least until D got the hiccups, the discomfort of which put a damper on the last ten minutes of the meal.
Stuffed full to the point of discomfort and exhausted from our morning in the mountains, we waddled home to get some sleep before getting up early this morning: Mom & Dad had reservations to climb the Harbour Bridge at 9am, Chad had to return the rental car by 10am, and D had to be at class at 10 as well. Though still sore from the Furber Stairs yesterday, Mom & Dad reported (as expected) that the BridgeClimb was a fabulous experience. This afternoon they went to Sydney's Aquarium, a little reluctantly since they had been to other aquariums and didn't quite understand what Sydney had that they hadn't seen elsewhere. Of course, they didn't count on the walk-through underwater shark room8 and huge exhibits of the Great Barrier Reef.9
And so ended D's parents' first visit to Australia, during which they saw sharks in a tank and two-headed wallabies in the wild, travelled to whales in the ocean and a few of the stunning landscapes of this ancient continent, woke up in hostel-style "budget accommodation" to the sounds of Australia's unbelievably loud birds, toured the Sydney Opera House and attended a show there, climbed the Harbour Bridge and dined both in world-class style and at Pizza Hut. Tomorrow they leave for their thirteen hour flight back to LA, with another thirteen hours of travelling after that before they get home.
This morning, D's sister Angela called with the sad news that her cat Henry had run
away while in the care of a friend. Of course, she and Henry have been on our minds
all day, but there is little we can do or even say. Moments like that make you feel
just how far away this place is from the rest of the world, especially the parts where
our friends and family are. Yes, Australia is in my blood now and it will always be a
part of me, and even of us and our relationship-- but so much of our lives (separately
and together) are on the other side of the world... you can't help but be drawn back
there.
;)
- D
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NOTES
1We gave up our bed to D's parents, you see. But, we at
least kept the good sheets.
2Moreton Bay, incidentally, is also the location of the
infamous "bugs" that D was brave enough to eat in Cairns a few weeks ago. It was, if
you'll remember, a risk well worth taking, as Moreton Bay Bugs are smallish
lobster-like shellfish with indescribably succulent white meat. Yummy!
3We haven't actually been there, but we had free passes
for them to go because we bought memberships six months ago on the theory that we'd go
there sometime, and hey, we got free passes for guests. We did go, once, to the
Lord of the Rings Motion Picture exhibition, but we haven't actually seen the
permanent exhibits yet. We hear (from Mom & Dad) that they're rather good.
4It seems that the infamous cassowaries do indeed exist
and are not an elaborate hoax played on us during our tropical vacation in far north
Queensland. The attentive reader will remember that at the time we were convinced that
they were, in fact, imaginary ugly birds.
5As we say when backpacking: "Uphill is tiring, but
downhill is painful."
6Huh??? In Australia, the ground floor of any building
is called the "ground floor" and the numbering starts at "1" on the second floor. So,
the second floor is "level one," the third floor "level two," and so on. But the
restaurant named "Forty-One" is on level forty-two of the building, which
means it's on the forty-third floor...
7It was this that caused D's Mom to say, unprovoked: "Oh
my god, this is wonderful" for the only time during the whole meal.
8They had been briefed, of course, to look for Whitetip
and Blacktip reef sharks, so they at least were prepared for that.
9Of course, we had to point out that the exhibits of the
Great Barrier Reef at Sydney Aquarium, wondrous as they are, pale in comparison with
the actual Great Barrier Reef we visited a few weeks ago.
Back to the GAA page!