More Day 3 and Dinner Cruise

After the temple we stopped by Paddy's Market - a huge tourist trap and souvenior shop. The thing that makes me laugh is the place was ENORMOUS (if it weren't for Jared I seriously would have never found my way out!), but every vendor was pretty much selling the same thing :) We hadn't planned ahead to go, but the other couples wanted to stop since it was right on the way home. After getting a feel for what they had, we took off and headed down to Darling Harbor. Darling Harbor was just that - darling. Just a cute, family-friendly area with lots of parks, water fountains, a maritime museum, and aquarium. It was really hot (especially since we were still in church clothes!), but we enjoyed just walking around the area.


Here were are enjoying a McDonald's cone (the only cheap thing in Sydney). Isn't it like a rule that you have to find a McDonald's when in a different country?!...and lucky for us, apparently Australians really like McDonald's...or Maccers, as they called it. There was one every 1/4 mile on the road! Then we took a ferry back to Circular Quay (pronounced key) - the main transit area by our hotel. From there you could catch a ferry, bus, or train. I really enjoyed taking the ferries all over. Just an enjoyable and relaxing way to travel and enjoy the beautiful weather and surrounding area all at once!

Going under the Sydney Harbor Bridge while on our ferry ride

That evening Auto-Owners took us on a dinner cruise around Sydney Harbor. It was a perfect evening, just a bit windy!As soon as we got aboard, we all went to the upper deck where they served us some delicious appetizers (a bruschetta of types and these YUMMY chicken skewers). And of course the drinks started coming. Any of the dinners that Auto-Owners put on come with an open bar. This group we were with seemed to be pretty mild, but our group from Portugal last year took FULL advantage of this! We were laughing about the bad combination of too much alcohol and a rocking boat and taking bets on how many people would go overboard by evening's end :) Luckily, no one did!

Jason & Colleen Gubler with Jared & I

They also had a professional photographer take each couples picture with this amazing view behind us and then printed an 8x10 for each of us. This one is with our own camera and obviously the quality and lighting is better with the professional one, but Jared and I both look better in this one - bummer! And that's not saying I look great in this pic...just better than the other! Jared looks super hot though :)

For dinner we had a prawn salad (again, I passed along my prawns to Jared), a green salad, potatoes, rolls and an excellent steak. It was soooo good.

Jason & Jared enjoying the prawns

After dinner and dessert we enjoyed visiting with others, listening to the REALLY loud band, and then went back up to the upper deck to enjoy the perfect evening and beautiful harbor all lit up.

My camera really sucks at taking night-time shots, but these were some of my favoritesThe skylineThe Opera House

Funny thing about the Opera House...In every picture I've ever seen of the Opera House at night, it is beautifully lit up, and almost glows. I kind of compare it to a temple at night. Not so in real life! The first night we were in Sydney we didn't even think to look out our window because we were so tired. And since they had "turn downed" our room before we were in for the night, the curtains were already drawn. So on our second day, I made Jared promise that when we got home for the night we would remember to look out our hotel window. So around midnight on day 2 we arrived back, opened our curtains and...major disappointment. There were lights and it was lit up, but definitely NOT glowing.

Hmm, maybe they just really light it up for the weekends?

Looked out the window on Friday night aaand...NO.

It doesn't glow. Ever. Apparently all the photographers like photoshop.

*As for the above picture, my original hardly even showed up because of my lame camera. So a little photoshop and ta-da! Like I said, not great, but at least you can see the darn thing!