Australia 2005 - Ready to Cry

Friday night we unofficially added one more steak house to the Steak House Tour of Australia: The Prime, which is a cozy restaurant nestled in the lower level of the GPO Building. Unfortunately, Saturday was our last day in Sydney. We woke up earlier than needed because I misread the departure time, which was four hours earlier than our actual flight time. So, we took one more short walk down to Circular Quay and had a cappucino. It was an absolutely beautiful day, which allowed us to leave Sydney on a high note. On the way to the airport we did a pit stop by the W to drop-off a copy of Where is Joe Merchant? by Jimmy Buffett for Prashant. Having read some of Prashant's writing, I think they share a kinship for eccentric characters and amusing plot lines. The flight out gave us a terrific aerial tour of Sydney and a chance to fill up what remained of the digital camera's memory card. My last shot of Australia was of North Head after we passed over Manly Beach. Our flight to San Francisco was as "fun" as the flight to Australia two weeks earlier, which is to say that we were happy to get off that plane. We arrived in San Francisco with about an hour to clear Immigration, collect our bags, clear Customs, re-check the checked bags, go back through security and race to our connecting flight. We made it with a few minutes but no breath to spare. Landing in Seattle (a couple hours before leaving Sydney) it was cold (38F) and damp. At home, the house and driveway still had snow and ice. A mere 24 hours ago we were basking in the sun and feeling the breeze coming off Sydney Harbour. Welcome back to reality.