boxing day part two

when I finish this post I am declaring the Sydney and New Zealand stuff done- it may not actually be done but I have let the time get away from me and have been doing other things that I WOULD like to write about in these last six weeks while I have gone through this process...

finally we catch a break in the weather on the afternoon of Boxing Day- and I go for a walk under the Bridge and around the old area of The Rocks-

I walked up into the neighborhood on top of "The Rocks"... and found a lovely community of cute row houses-

a naturally "camo" tree- pretty cool!

the day was hot- I stopped for a ginger beer in a garden along the rock wall-

so we found that locating an open place for dinner was even harder on Boxing Day than others (who knew?) after walking around the port and perusing the menus of a couple of places we ended up back at Peter Doyle for some more fabulous sea food-

and our time drew to a close on the 27th of December - with an afternoon flight to SFO - but I did get one more chance to visit my little doggie buddy before we got our cab for the airport.

we took off on time and arrived on time- went through double security after passport control and headed to our respective gates--- we were back in Chicago "three hours" after our flight left Sydney thanks to the miracle of the international date line!

we started laundry right away because we were due to leave again January 1st for the winter and had to repack our summer clothes and get organized for three months away.  so I am well and truly done with the recitation of our trip down under... and sooo ready to get on to our next stage of fun in the sun!