Steve woke me up early, since he is driving part of the way into Sydney. He dropped me off at Waterfall Station, and from there I rode the train the rest of the way into the city.
Miss Kageyama met me at Central Station. We had pulled a bit of an “end around” from Mr. Hayashi – both of us had said that we were busy today. There is a BBQ being held in Manly, and all the students and teachers were going to be there – both Miss Kageyama and I were invited, but since we’re not getting paid for the trip, it was optional. We both opted out, and decided to do some exploring of Sydney together.
We started off by swinging by the Hard Rock Café in Sydney. Mr. Yamamoto, the third year English teacher, had asked me to pick up a pin from the store… I guess he collects them. Miss Kageyama had two maps, and they had different addresses to the same restaurant. Unfortunately, we walked to the wrong address, so it took a while to find the right one.
After the Hard Rock, we headed north along Crown St. to the Domain – a grassy park area that encompassed the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Admission was free, so we explored the fairly large gallery. Steve and Brenda had recommended the gallery, and it was really impressive. Miss Kageyama and I really enjoyed the Aboriginal artwork floor – but we rarely agreed on our favorite pieces of art.
After the art gallery, we walked north along a wooded park area until we reached the northern tip of Sydney’s port area. From here we had great views of the bridge, the opera house, and the spectacular downtown area.
We took a bit of a break in the park and planned our next move. We went into downtown and rode the elevator to the top of Sydney Tower, which affords an amazing view of downtown Sydney and beyond. Afterwards, Miss Kageyama bought me lunch in the café, and so we had a long, slow lunch while enjoying the view.
Finally, we wrapped up lunch and walked north until we reached “The Rocks” – a trendy restaurant-centered neighborhood similar to Kitano in Kobe and South of Market in San Francisco. The restaurants there were right next to the main Sydney Harbor, so we could walk along the wharf and enjoy some great views.
After another break under the bridge, we finally decided to throw in the towel – we headed back to the train station, and went our separate ways. Miss Kageyama will be in a homestay until we fly out on Saturday, so hopefully she will enjoy her Christmas.
I took the train back to Wollongong. The ride was pretty nice. The train seemed to move pretty slowly, though. The air conditioning on the lead car died, so all the people on that car had to move back into the other three cars, making it a bit crowded and warm the rest of the way.
Once I got back to Wollongong, I called in for a ride home, and Brenda picked me up. Back at the Coursey homestead there was some serious cooking going on. Christmas preparations were in high gear, and so I did a little wrapping of my own.
In the evening a big group of people came over for drinks, and I helped Steve by selecting some red wines to drink while they were here. There were tons of snacks and we had a good time eating and drinking. Julia and Alyssa were starting to get excited about Christmas the next day, and so they each opened up a present to whet their appetites a bit.
Well, I’m off to bed myself before Santa makes an appearance. Tomorrow should be an early start and a nice relaxing day. There’s a lot of food – we’ll be eating a lot tomorrow.
