Getting Serious

It's time to get serious about planning our Sydney trip in September. I bought these two books for us to get some ideas. The one on the left is by Eyewitness Travel and it's just a "down and dirty" reference with lists of restaurants, hotels, sights, etc, grouped my neighborhood. I thought it would be good to take with us when we are out and about. The one on the right is the Lonely Planet book which is more in depth. I liked it because it includes info about some good day trips outside the city as well as within the city.

We've decided that we're going to head straight for Tasmania upon arrival in Australia. I haven't booked our tickets yet, but we should be able to fly to and from Tas for about $200 each round-trip. While in Tassie, we'll visit the cyber-famous Mike and Christine as well as Pablo's devoted human staff members Kate and Nick. They've suggested that we go to the Salamanca Market on Saturday. We'll also likely visit some acquaintances in the city of Launceston which is just 2 hours north of Hobart.

Once we return to Sydney, Ruth has very sweetly offered to help plan our itinerary to maximize the time and what we can see and do. Here is our list of planned stuff so far:

1. Meet and have some sort of party/mixer with as many of the following people as possible: Ruth and family, Nixter, Craig, Ian (Rodeoclown) and family and Erin.
2. Attend church and hear AB preach.
   
3. Go to Toronga Zoo with Ruth and the kids
4. Take the ferry to Manly Beach (this ferry goes under the harbor bridge and past the opera house) and perhaps a ferry that goes deep into the bay.
5. See the Blue Mountains area
6. Visit "The Rocks" historic neighborhood
7. Wine tasting in the Hunter Valley

I hope that won't be too much to fit into 8 days. It is amazing how quickly a 2 week vacation can just disappear when you start planning all you want to do.