Sydney has come to an end..

Tomorrow we leave Sydney and fly up the coast to Brisbane (pronounced Bris-bin). If I had to plan this trip all over again, I would have flown into Melbourne and spent a week, then come to Sydney for a week. I guess you can't plan what you don't know.

Momma Dukes is in Brisbane for about 2 days then she takes the plane-ride of death home on the 19th. The day she leaves I am traveling down to the Gold Coast to meet my friend Phil from New Zealand. I am staying at his house for a night then we area heading to Byron Bay, which is apparently this great and spectacular place. Everyone I have met who has already traveled Oz has said to hit up Byron Bay. I'm not really sure what Phil has planned but I am excited to have someone who already knows the ins and outs of where we're going.

Yesterday Mom and I went to Bondi Beach (sounds like bond-eye) for the day. It was an awesome beach, but she and I both like Manly better. What is funny with the beaches here is that they have shark nets out on the water to prevent sharks from coming into the swimming areas and eating people... actually, I'm not sure that's so funny. Anyway, they had a scare the first day here and called everyone out of the water. They blow this siren and everyone but the surfers clears the water. They actually have helicopters that patrol the waters for sharks... take that New Jersey!

Last night we went for a great dinner on the harbor. Mom had this huge plate of meat (that sounds gross) it came out and we were like oh-my-god how are you going to eat all that... ribs, lamb, sausage, fillet, and kangaroo... hahaha... yeah KANGAROO. Oh my poor little buddy that I punched the other day... yeah I ate one of his friends last night. He/she was quite good. I was sketchy about eating it, but figured, hell when am I going to get the chance to try kangaroo ever again? I didn't like it so much that you're hear about me on the news raiding the kangaroo cage at the Philadelphia Zoo, but it was very tasty. Reminded me a little of venison.

Today we visited Paddy's Market (aka Zerns) again for one last time, then we hit up Manly Beach for the day. We didn't get to go swimming because the currents and the rips were so bad. Here in Oz, when the rips are bad, they are really bad and hardly anyone is in the water. There is a lifeguard constantly on microphone telling people to be careful and stay in between the flags. So we ate dinner down by the beach and now we're going to pack for tomorrow's flight. I hate packing. If there is one thing I will not miss from this trip, it will be packing and unpacking. For me, packing is the equivalent to sitting in rush hour traffic, it sucks. And I can't ever get anything to fit in my bag the way I had it in there before... it feels like I am carrying a dead guy on my back. Thank god mom is taking alot of stuff home for me. Although, I do think her bag will be overweight when she gets to the airport.

Anyway, I've got to run... one quick thing that I forgot to write... Mom met a guy from Constellation Energy in the lift and has been chatting with him all week. Seems as the company here in Oz he is working for is paying him 200,000 a year to live and work here... Hey Grids, time to move the family!

Oh and speaking of... Grids and Mark, my mom almost peed her pants about both your blog comments. Thanks for the laughs!