Day Twenty-Nine of Adventures in Paradise!

Our flight from Honolulu to Seattle went smooth as we left from a clear, 80 degree weather to a rainy, 50 degree weather. We got to Seattle at 6:10 am and had a layover of four hours in the airport. To pass the time, we walked around and went to the Delta Skyclub Lounge, where we had two free guest passes to use there. At 11:40 am, we went on our flight from Seattle to Nashville using Southwest and landed around 6:00 pm. By 7:00 pm we were back at the Marriott and drove to Romano's Macaroni Grill for dinner. After our dinner, we drove back to Hanceville, Alabama and arrived there at 10:45 pm.  Finally we were back home and awaiting at our doorstep was a large parcel from USPS composed of hundreds of mail items that we still have to go through later. Well, at last our long trip is over, thus signifying the end of this blog. Hope you enjoyed reading over and following our amazing Adventures in Paradise!

Inside the Hub of the Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) Airport

Lots of Washington Stuff in Here!

Today was a pretty lousy day (weather-wise) in Seattle

At the Romano's Macaroni Grill Restaurant near Nashville

Day Twenty-Eight of Adventures in Paradise!

Surprisingly, the 9 hour 45 minute plane ride to Honolulu went very fast. We were served a pasta dinner on the flight and I had plenty of POG (Passion, Orange and Guava Juice). We took Hawaiian Airlines to get to Honolulu and we landed at 10:00 am. After spending an hour through customs, passport control, and of course, the agricultural check, we left with Ann to get a nice Seafood Lunch at Uncle's Restaurant, right next to the Honolulu Fish Market. We had fried snapper with fries. Afterwards, we headed back to Ann's house to rest and relax for our upcoming flight to Seattle. At 4:30 pm, Ann took us around the Pearl Harbor military base to see all the different ships and submarines by car. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit the USS Missouri, Pacific Aviation Museum, and Downtown Honolulu/Waikiki Beach; but we'll just visit that on our future visit to Hawaii! After our tour, Ann dropped us back off at the airport at 7:00 pm to get checked in for our flight on Delta.  By 9:40 pm, our flight was in the air en route to Seattle. Stay tuned tomorrow for the last and final day of our twenty-nine day adventure as we head back home to Alabama!

Breakfast on our Flight

Looking out on the Pacific Ocean

Here's O'ahu again!

A Beautiful Beach at O'ahu

Downtown Honolulu and Diamond Head from the Plane

Sunset on a Hawaiian Beach

Goodbye Honolulu!

Day Twenty-Seven of Adventures in Paradise!

Alas, our long trip of Twenty-Nine days is coming to end! Today was our last and final day in Sydney. We decided to once again sleep in late until 10:30 am to recuperate from the previous days of walking (we were averaging around 8 miles a day). After our breakfast, we decided to go back to Darling Harbour to go to the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife Sydney. The aquarium had your usual offering of fish, sharks, crabs, and one unique animal, the mermaid/manatee like Dulong. At Wildlife Sydney, they had animals native to Australia like the Kangaroo, Koala, Wallaby, etc. behind glass cages for you to see. It wasn't as nice as Featherdale, but enjoyable nonetheless. We then headed to an Italian restaurant called Lucetta for lunch. There we both had Margarita Pizzas and an appetizer platter for two. After our lunch, we headed to the Westfield Mall for one final treat, Macaroons. The macaroons in Sydney are much different than the ones in America. The macaroons in Sydney are Oreo-like confections made of an almond-meringue crust with a buttercream/jam filling. They come in all sorts of colors and flavors like strawberry, blueberry, chocolate, etc. With our dessert finished, we headed back to the Radisson to pack up and leave via taxi to the Kingsford Smith International Airport at 6:00 pm. The fare for this 20 minute, 8 mile ride was $46, so Cab rides can be VERY expensive here. At the airport, we were promptly checked in and by 9:30 pm, we were in the air heading to Honolulu. Our days in Sydney were over, well at least until our next visit (no, I don't know when that will be). Anyways, stay tuned tomorrow as we REPEAT a whole day due to our crossing of the International Date Line, and we have another day to spend on O'ahu!

Our Last Breakfast in Sydney

Having a Vegemite Sandwich just like in the song "Down Under"

The Pool at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel

Look at all the Wraps (picture taken inside a local mall's food court)

Pitt Street Mall

The Sydney Aquarium

The Dulong (rumored to be the source of the creature known as a mermaid)

Look at the Tail and you can see how the Mermaid legend got started

A Shark!

Tropical Fishes found in the Great Barrier Reef

Long-Nosed Fish

Pyrmont Bridge at Darling Harbour

Baby Emus enjoying their feed

Sleepy Kangaroos at Sydney Wildlife Park

Our Half-eaten appetizer platter at Lucetta's

Our Delicious Margarita Pizza

One Last Look at the Radisson

Pizza Hut in Australia!

Pitt Street Mall Again

Macarons!

Looking inside a Blueberry Macaron

Fancy Gelato Desserts

Onboard our Hawaiian Airlines Flight back to Honolulu

Goodbye Sydney!

Day Twenty-Six of Adventures in Paradise!

Wow, only two days left to go for our times in Sydney... they went so fast! Anyways, today was the day for our next big nature tour of Australia, the Blue Mountains! We had to wake up extra early at 6:30 am to eat breakfast and catch our tour guide at 7:25 am. We were then escorted by bus from our hotel to the terminal to board our official bus for the tour. After crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we took a 30 minute drive to our first stop, the Featherdale Wildlife Park. At Featherdale, we got to see all sorts of Australian animals and we even got to pet a Koala bear as well as hand feed a Kangaroo! After this, we headed towards the beautiful Blue Mountains. The mountains are called this because they always have a blue haze surrounding them caused by the sunlight refracting through the oil emitted from the numerous Eucalyptus trees. At the Blue Mountains, we had a nice buffet lunch, and took a ride on a very steep railroad (50 degree decline) to the bottom of the mountain. At the bottom, we took a 1 mile walkway through the rainforest and saw all sorts of trees in the process. Next, we ascended back up onto the mountain via cable car and left the Blue Mountains for the town of Leura. Leura was a very scenic garden town, and we even looked around in a local grocery store and bought chocolates before going back on the bus back to Sydney. When we were back at the city one hour later, we headed to Westfield Mall for a delicious Italian Dinner at Ragu. We ordered Seafood Pasta Marinara, Bruschetta, Salad and finally Tiramisu for dessert. After that, we took a long walk to Haymarket to see Mary Poppins (the Broadway Disney Version) at the Sydney Capitol Theater. It was a great show featuring all the hit songs from the Movie. After our show, we departed back to the Radisson for our last night there. Stay Tuned tomorrow for our FINAL day in Sydney and our flight back to Honolulu.

Pictures of the Continental Breakfast in our Hotel

Look at all the good food!

There's your cold cuts

Delicious Pastries

Our first stop... Featherdale Wildlife Park

Koala eating his Eucalyptus

What a cute bear!

Mom petting a Koala

Myself petting a Koala

Wallaby Play Fight

Kookaburra

Feeding Time for the Kangaroos

Kangaroo Close-Up

He got all shy all of a sudden!

Myself Feeding a Kangaroo

Mom Feeding a Kangaroo

They sure do get lots of food

Peacock

Peacock displaying his plumage

Peacock

Here's another one... in case you didn't know, these males are trying to impress the female Peahen

Dingo (Australia's wild dog)

Blue Mountains Panorama

The Three Sisters (Rock Formation at the Blue Mountains)

Aboriginal Didgeridoo Player

BIG Lollypop

Sodas for Sale

Expensive Cigarettes

Rest Stop at the Blue Mountains

Our Tour Bus

Katoomba Falls

Our Cable Car had a Transparent Floor

Blue Mountains

Three Sisters

Blue Mountains

In the Rainforest

Looking up into the Canopy

Leaving the Rainforest in the Cable Car

Megalong Valley

Doritos at the Woolworth's Grocery Store

Fresh Chicken

What they call Rice Krispies in Australia

What they call Cantaloupe in Australia

Walking through the shops of Leura

Leura Sign

Pretty Flower at Leura

Flower Vine near a Leura Hosue

Another View of the Flower Vine

Sydney Olympic Park to your right (Home of the 2000 Olympic Games)

Rush Hour near Sydney

Our Italian Dinner at Ragu

Our Mineral Water - Acqua Panna

Tiramisu for Dessert

Time to see Mary Poppins

Lots of Umbrellas at the Capitol Theater

It's Just about Show Time

View of the Theater

It was a Great Show!

Exterior of the Sydney Capitol Theater at Night

The Pedestrian Signs are interesting, when red they make a slow beeping sound

When they turn green, they turn to a rapid beeping sound for about 10 seconds, this is possibly done to aid the blind.  It's pretty ingenious, if I do say so myself!

Local McDonald's

What the Australians call a Pharmacy

Looking inside the Chemist (aka Pharmacy)

Sydney Tower at Night

Our last night at the Radisson Blu

Looking Back on our last Night in Sydney!