A final view

We had dinner last night in an apartment overlooking Sydney Harbour. Martine's friend Lou (Louise) is visiting Sydney from San Francisco and she's staying with a friend who has this amazing view. I'm usually not impressed by city skyline views, as I'm more inclined toward a natural view...an ocean or a mountain, but this view of Sydney was impressive. I was pining for my tripod as the light started to fade. It's too hard to hold the camera still enough to capture a non-blurry image. This one is pretty close. Wow....I'm still marveling in the beauty of it, in spite of it being mostly steel, brick and mortar. If only it hadn't been overcast. Imagine the sunset photos to be had from here. Sydney really is a beautiful city, albeit too busy and expensive for me.

We leave Australia today. I am happy to be going home. We get married in a month, and then we pack up our California belongings and head across the country to move into our new house. We're both very excited about all of that. (As soon as I figure out what I'm WEARING in the wedding, I'll be even more excited.) However, there is still a part of me that is sad to be leaving this amazing country. It's way too expensive to live here right now, but I will miss a lot of things about being here. I'll miss all of the wonderful people I have met, especially Martine's family. I know we will be back in a year, but I also know how hard it is for her to say goodbye for that long. I'm sad that none of them will be at our wedding. I'll miss hearing expressions like "good on ya" and "heaps good" and "wally-head" and "cheers" and I could go on...lol. I'll miss the Indian and Southern Oceans of Western Australia. I'm spoiled forever in terms of beaches and the saltwater tides that ebb and flow on their pristine shores. I have yet to see anything else in the world that even comes close. I'll miss COOPERS Pale Ale.......mmmmmmm, mmmm good. Out of all the Australian beers I've tried, it's my favorite. I'll miss Tim Tams (even though I have two packages in my bag), Mint Slice, meat pies, and hopefully we have enough Vegemite coming back with us to last for the next year. It's too expensive to buy in the states, but if it comes down to that, I'll do what I have to do. :-)

I have a bazillion photos of everything I've seen and I'll be preparing some of them for my photography show at Bjava in May/June. If you're local to Indy, the opening is May 1st. Come out and see some of the views I've captured of this beautiful country. See you soon.

Peace on ya.