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Best. Day. Ever. Thanks, Syd.

The title to this blog says it all. Today was our last day in Sydney, but today was deemed, by mutual decision, the winner of The Most Awesome Day Award for Excellence in Awesomeness. Here’s what made it so great:

The architectural masterpiece

We started out the day with a self-guided tour of the Sydney Opera House, which is one of Sydney’s most recognizable historic landmarks. Definitely one of the coolest buildings ever constructed, and its even cooler up close. It located next to the Royal Botanical Gardens and across the harbor from the Sydney Harbour Bridge – right in the middle of the action, and close walking distance from our hotel. The photos below don’t do it justice… It is truly a work of exceptional art and beautiful modern architecture.

You love this, huh Dad?

Side note from Samantha – (Mike completely forgot to talk about a very important part of our day… The Sydney Police and Justice Museum)… After many hours of pleading Mike agreed to go to the Museum with me. I completely understand that most human beings wouldn’t be interested in such a thing. I, on the other hand, think it’s brilliant and the most fascinating subject on earth. We walked through the old courts and read about crime and punishment in the 1800’s in Australia and ASIO, which is Australia’s National Security Service. Mike even cracked a smile once or twice in the Weapon Room!

Anyway, it was a blast. Now, here’s Mike’s version of the remainder of our day…

Yep.

Next we walked down to the IMAX Theater on Cockle Bay (*insert Beevis laugh here*), to see Born to be Wild in 3D. “But Mike, why would take time out of your trip around the world to see a 3D IMAX movie about orphaned elephants and orangoutangs?” Well, I’m glad you asked… only because this particular IMAX theater is the biggest in the entire WORLD! So yes, this was an IMAX experience that we simply could not pass up. And it still holds the title of “Biggest IMAX In The World” (at least for now, until Dubai builds one in a football stadium or something).

After watching a movie about animals, we suddenly had an urge to see some REAL animals. Lucky for us, the Sydney Aquarium is located 5 minutes from the theater.

Shark Attack

With only an hour before it closed, we had to tour quickly. We saw Little Penguins, weird-looking sea horses, massive sea crabs, gigantic sea turtles, sting rays, and big, fat dugongs (also known as the Sea Cow). But my favorite was the shark tank. We watched sharks from inside a big glass viewing tube. They swam all around us and right up to the glass. Some of the sharks were HUGE, and since we were inside their tank, they looked close enough to reach out and touch.

That’s it for our Best. Day. Ever. Tomorrow morning we leave for Port Douglas, Australia, where we’ll swim the Great Barrier Reef have a chance to see some of the wildlife from the aquarium up close and personal (no viewing tubes this time). And yep, you guessed it: I’m going to try to ride a giant sea turtle (Samantha just rolled her eyes)… Good night!