Wildlife and one quilt shop

After another great breakfast at the hotel we left Sydney behind and drove west toward the Blue Mountains to visit Featherdale Wildlife Park in Doonside, NSW, actually a suburb of Sydney (Remember, I said Sydney is huge, 690 sq mi.).

Most of what follows will be some of the wonderful creatures of Australia.

Met at the entrance by a baby pademelon

A wombat who liked his/her stomach scratched

A kangaroo with her joey

A koala doing what he does best, sleeping

A Tawny Frogmouth, not an owl,
look closely-it is really a bird                                            

Little Penguin, no, really,
that's what they're called

Double barred finch

For Sienna, a Splendid or Magnificent Tree Frog
That's a poison sac on top of its head

Yellow-footed rock wallaby

Dingo

Masked Lapwing

Short-beaked echidna
These are egg-laying mammals

Western cassowary--great colors

Black-necked stork

Cattle Egret

I hope you have enjoyed this small selection of the many, many creatures in the park.  There were so many wonderful birds that it is hard to choose what to put in this blog.

Overcoming quilt shop withdrawal

After leaving the park we drove to another suburb of Sydney, Balmain.   There we visited a small quilt shop called Calico and Ivy.  Best selection of Liberty prints I have ever seen at a shop for Au$53 per meter!  A little high for my taste.  We walked around the very picturesque main street, had something to drink, and then back of the road to the hotel.

Frangi pangi (plumeria) everywhere in Balmain

For dinner, Tanis and I ate at a pub under the hotel.  Our drinks of choice were Monteith's Crushed Apple Cider from New Zealand...Tanis had it only because Monteith was her maiden name, and the cider was excellent, and I had a wheat beer Redback (named after a spider) by Matilda Bay Brewing.  Tanis had a huge hamburger and I, Tiger Shrimp and rice noodle salad.  Both were tasty.

Eight hours nonstop...a marathon

An embarrassment of riches as far as pictures and things done today.  My eyes are squinted with tiredness as I do this blog tonight.  We started at 9:15 after a really nice buffet breakfast at the hotel.  Had Vegemite---can't say I'm impressed...think of it as a partially dissolved bullion cube. 

First on the list was a bus tour of Sydney and environs, and believe me when I say Sydney is a very large city.  One of our first sights was "The Rocks," which is the site of the first settlement of Sydney in 1787.  One of the things that we saw was this public art, but the really interesting aspect is the rock behind it: sandstone, which is all over the place.  Most public buildings are made of it, and it underlies Sydney.  Not many useful large trees in this area, so sandstone became the building material of choice.

Check out the gull eye

Tanis admiring the skyline

Our next stop was Darling Bay (Sydney Harbor is bay after bay after bay.), where we stopped to admire the Center Quay area across the water, which happens to be where our hotel is located.  Lots of birds in the area, some rather fearless.  This gull's cry is much softer than the gulls I am used to in California.

After leaving the Darling Bay area we drove through the central part of Sydney.  A few of the sights follow:

Paddington area "lace"
Wrought iron brought over in the form
of pig iron as ballast

Queen Victoria Market

The obelisk from which
all distances are measured.

We next walked through the Royal Botanical Garden.  Many of the plants here were plants that I am used to, but we saw many that were very different.  This bunya pine is not really a pine, but comes close.  It has lethal nuts that can kill you if they fall on you.

Our tour guide, Lyndal

Leaves of the bunya pine

Tanis and an unknown tree with really great bark.

Mynah bird, native to India

A sacred ibis, not native, but everywhere

Rainbow lorikeets, a native

We left the central area of Sydney and drove south.  We stopped to look at "The Gap", which is the area where Sydney Bay opens into the ocean, and where we will be passing out in our cruise ship in two days.  After this stop it was on the Boondi Beach for a lunch stop.  Windy but warm, with the most incredible fine white sand.

The Gap

Breakers at Bondi Beach

A wattle, the native acacia of Australia

Playing a didgeridoo

Back to Circular Quay, a tour of Sydney Harbor by boat...very enjoyable, then a walk along the waterfront to the Sydney Opera House.
 Many sights along the waterfront, with entertainers of many types.  This one was very interesting, and I remembered hearing the didgeridoo in one of the Crocodile Dundee films.









The Sydney Opera House is a fascinating building.  To begin with, it is not white, but a creamy beige, with many shades of tiles making up the surface.  It is also not one building, but three separate ones, with three small and one large theater in one and the main concert hall in the other, the third being a restaurant.  We had a tour throughout the building, which is the youngest World Heritage Site.  A truly iconic building, you cannot look at it and not think of Sydney.

Up close and personal

"The Cleavage" between the two buildings
which make up the Sydney Opera House

Concrete supports for the roof

Totally exhausted, Tanis and I had to eat.  Off we went to a nearby restaurant called Selah.  What a good recommendation!  We had fish and chips, but what fish and chips:  flathead fillets in spiced batter, hand cut chips & sauce gribiche.  The veggies were broccoli, sugar peas and green beans with lemon butter and toasted macadamia nuts!!!  That plus a glass of Australian wine finished off the day in a satisfactory manner.

Only one glass each :-)

Sydney in the heat

OMG what a flight.  I think if they took one more inch off the distance between seating rows you could not move at all.  I actually did sleep though, but woke with painful arms and legs.  There is just no room for moving on a plane.  We did, however, get dinner at about 12 M our time, and then breakfast at about 6 AM Sydney time.  Airplane food, what can I say ‽

I never realized how much water there is around Sydney (but why would I even have thought about it?)  The runway is just like San Francisco, in that you come in over the water.  QANTAS is interesting in that they have a camera on the tail of the plane so you can see what the plane is doing.  Very interesting seeing what the pilot sees, and watching your landing from that vantage point.

Sydney Opera House from the back

It is HOT here in Sydney (41 ˚ If you don't know metric, look it up.), not an enjoyable thing when going through Customs and Immigration.  Had to find the bus service for the trip, and, as usual, there seems to be a million people getting in your way. Tanis and I succeeded in all this, and ended up at the Sydney Harbour Marriott.  We are on the 23rd floor, and this is the view from our window.

Opalized mollusks

After a shower and nap, Tanis and I set out in the heat to exchange money.  We looked at some opal at an opal museum (Of course, silly, what else would you look at in an opal museum?) and then back to the hotel.

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

We met with the rest of the group from the US and Canada for a very nice get acquainted dinner.  A very nice group which will be joined by some more from Australia and New Zealand.  Food was very good, and nicely presented, but the best was Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta, which had a wonderful mixed berry sauce on the top.  So good I had to take a picture of it.  Boy, was it good.

On the way!

Sitting at LAX waiting for my flight.  So far so good: got to Sacramento in great time, then it's just waiting in one line after another.  I did take a picture of the red rabbit at the SWA terminal this time.  Iconic for Sacramento, I guess, although I also liked the pile of "left luggage" that was in the old terminal.  Wonder what was done with that, hope it wasn't destroyed.

This is the rabbit hole

This is a really deserted type terminal...no place to eat, no close bathroom, not even a water fountain.  After I post this I will go looking for all of these.

Australia -1

DC and me

All packed and ready to go tomorrow...my big adventure, flying to Australia, a quilting cruise including  parts of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and a week in New Zealand with my brother Jim and his wife Randi. I will first spend four days in Sydney, then board the Diamond Princess for the cruise.  I will end up in Auckland, spend the night, and take a train to Wellington to meet Jim and Randi.  I'm very excited :-)  I will post every day, so stay tuned!

South Lake Tahoe in September

I'm on a quilting retreat with nine other like-minded ladies.  A very productive time is being had by all, but the interesting thing is the visitors we had today.

Baby One

Mama Bear

Baby Two

 We all stood at the railing of the deck and watched the cubs in the trees for a good long time.  There were actually two other bears here this morning.

Some scenes of the retreat.  

Last Days---a little late

Nothing but trouble with the net for two days...Super 8 in Crescent City was so slow that I could not post, and then at my daughter's the wireless was down!  Got home and got busy.  All of this is not an excuse, but a sorta reason.

Drive from Yachats was beautiful.  I do love the Oregon coast.  Sienna and I stopped at a little quilt shop in Brookings.  Crossed into California, where there is apparently not an agricultural check station any more.  And so on the Crescent City.

 I had decided to stay in Crescent City because I wanted to see the place where the tsunami of 2011 hit land so disastrously.  I remember seeing on TV scenes of the boats being destroyed by the waves.  There doesn't seem to be any evidence of the tsunami now, and all was peaceful and scenic.

Leaving Crescent City after a wonderful breakfast at the Northwoods Restaurant, we were off down 101 toward Santa Rosa.  We soon came upon a whole bunch of cars on the side of the road. We saw why, a herd of elk calmly grazing next to the road.  They looked fat and healthy, and were certainly a sight to see.

My favorite jewelry factory

The Plaza in the center of Arcata

              We stopped in Arcata to visit the Holly Yashi jewelry factory (think Christmas presents) and then walked around downtown Arcata.  A strange place, no doubt...although there is a nice quilt shop called Fabric Temptations.  Sorry, Sienna, but that was the last quilt shop.








A common sight along the Oregon and California are tsunami warning signs, with evacuation routes posted!  My question is, "How would you know?" although I did see some warning sirens like the old air attack sirens I remember as a kid in Los Angeles.




Stopped in Ukiah for coffee at Schat's Bakery, then finally made it to Santa Rosa.  My daughter Surani took us on a tour of her house, which is being "deconstructed" and redone.  Down to the bare studs, as you can see.