Flipping through our blog one could probably surmise that when Jean and I aren't hiking around somewhere there's a good chance we're in a museum. One of our Sydney favorites is the maritime museum in Darling Harbor. In addition to a multitude of interesting exhibitions covering all things nautical and Australian the museum hosts a fleet of historic ships that are open to the public to explore. Parked in the harbor there's a replica of Captain Cook's ship the Endeavor, 1768, the barque James Craig, 1874 , the destroy HMAS Vampire, 1956, and the diesel-electric submarine HMAS Onslow. Not a hobbit hole It's a lot fun to poke around, look through periscopes, climb through portholes, curl up in tiny little compartment bunks and recreate scenes from your favorite submarine/naval/war movies and books but what really makes the trip worthwhile is the crew of volunteer guides. These are mostly guys, average age of 68 I'd say. There are a handful on board in

A couple of weeks ago, cousin Vicky had us over and some other friends over for Christmas dinner. As northern hemispherers we thought it seemed pretty natural having a Christmas celebration with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and all the other fixings during the cold (relatively) winter season in Sydney. The two Australians in the party thought it was a little weird but they were massively outnumbered. Vicky with assistance from Sunita and Kitty put together quite a spread and then went on to defeat her guests quite resoundingly in a pitched game of Kerplunk. First Acquire , then Kerplunk. I must be losing my edge. Anyway... M e r r y C h r i s t m a s (in July)! The spread I guess was I was just too relaxed. That was probably my problem.   Making my contribution to the feast, pecan pie.

View Larger Map Back in June we did a cycle from Epping to Sydney's Olympic stadium with Ben and Vicky. Neither Jean nor I had seen the stadium yet and a cycle on crisp, clear Saturday seemed opportune. 

A couple of cockatoos decided to drop by our flat one Sunday afternoon just to remind us that we're in Australia.