Hello, Sydney

My apologizes again for not updating you yesterday.  I sometimes get so busy I just don't even have time to check email...or even update the blog.   Totally joking - I check email numerous times a day....but we did stay busy.  I just had a full day so didn't want to take away from spending time with my hard working husband.  Well, anyway...  he was done with the job yesterday so we took a City Cat, as they call their "ferry", up and down the river yesterday afternoon.  It cool to just relax and see the city (like I work SO hard during the day, ha!).  The running/biking trail goes pretty much the entire length of the river that we could see..  We also decided that if they would ever need anyone here for a year or two at a time, we'd gladly accept.  Brisbane was a very neat town.

One thing we found out (thanks to the operators at the refinery) is that their homeless population is up to 250.  Yes, you read that right.  The THIRD largest city in Australia only has about 250 homeless people.  That says something about their economy.  It just seems like a city this large would have more homeless people - I'm just used to the US, I guess.  I have no idea how many Chicago has but I know it's a lot more than that.  Everyone here seems about equal - no one stands out as having a lot of money or vise versa.  They all wear black.  No no one wears jeans or tennis shoes.  I'm guilty of both.  I do try to wear my flats daily, but sometimes I just want to wear tennis shoes if I'll be out for a long walk.  That's okay..I know I scream, "I'm American!"  ...but at least I'm not wearing a fanny pack.


Although the food here is expensive and everything is over the top - no just plain sandwich...you're getting the works which includes things I can't even pronounce, let alone type.  So to sum things up, we enjoyed our trip to Brisbane.  If all of his jobs were this cool, I'm not sure we'd ever come off the road.

      

Today we flew over to Sydney and are taking a few days here prior to making the journey to Chile.  I'm not complaining.  Above is a picture of Darling Harbor where we walked around today.  A certain restaurant named Pontoon Bar was recommended to us for good burgers.  It's sad when we are excited about a burger and fries that is normal and only costs $10...but it was pretty good.  There is also a FIFA Festival going on for all those soccer fans that are reading.  Darling Harbor seems like the place to be on Friday and Saturday evenings.  I can only imagine what it would have been like during the Olympics.  Holy Cow.

Talk to you later, mate.