June 2025July 2025 August 2025

07/31 - Bondi Towards Coogee

Whenever we are in Sydney we try to take the walk from Bondi to Coogee or sometimes the other way around. The weather looked good in the morning, but much grayer at the coast when we arrived in Bondi. We had raincoats. We had rain hats. We weren't going to let a chance of rain stop us.

We began the walk south. The ocean was wild, but the rain was light. There were waterfalls pouring down the cliffs visible at various points along the trail. The rain picked up a bit. Depending on exactly which way the trail was heading, the rain seemed to slow or pick up.

We made it past the graveyard, but as we headed down towards Clovelly Beach the rain picked up in earnest. Our pants were soaked. We had rain pants back at the hotel, but, overconfident, we had forgotten to wear them. Drenched, we made our way down to a bus stop. The driver apologized, he wasn't heading towards central Sydney. We ordered a car using an online app and settled into the bus station shelter to wait for our ride.

All told, we made it about 3/4 of the way to Coogee which given the weather was better than we might have hoped.


The weather looks good in Sydney Harbor.

Not so good at Bondi Beach.

A bit damp




















Keywords: australia

07/30 - Sydney Gardens

We decided to do a gentler hike the next day, so we set out from our hotel to explore the gardens beyond the Opera House. The weather looked good, and unlike the weather the previous day it stayed dry for our walk. The high point was probably the ducklings. We saw an ibis and a heron, but there is really nothing like ducklings.



















Note the puddles


That evening

Keywords: australia

07/29 - Sydney Harbor at Night

Here's the harbor at night.

Keywords: australia

07/28 - Just A Few More Sydney Harbor Photos

Given that there was a constant stream of ferries going to and fro in the harbor, it was surprisingly peaceful.





Keywords: australia

07/27 - Rain and More Rain in Sydney

If our final stay in Sydney had a theme, it would be rain. Our last day was wet. We mainly stayed in our hotel room and avoided the rain.







Even the chair on our terrace had a puddle.

Keywords: australia

07/26 - Flying Home or At Least to Los Angeles

We flew home first class. There had been a run on flights to North America thanks to the Air Canada strike. Imagine the temerity of flight attendants who wanted to get paid for their work. Our original flight and a good number of others had been canceled. We had planned to fly business class, but Qantas was running low on seats and adjusting prices to match. It didn't cost much more to book first class. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.

First class was very nice. They ask for the license plate info of your taxi so they can greet you and check your bags at the curb. There's a very nice first class club with good first class food. It's hard to capture this kind of thing without proper staging, but we took a few photos.

As for the flight. We all made it across the Pacific, even the folks who couldn't spring for premium economy. The plane was an Airbus 380, a monster of a plane that is no longer being manufactured. It was gigantic, so flying it was like crossing the Atlantic on Bruce McCall's HMS Tyrannic with its indoor 18 hole golf course. There wasn't actually a golf course on board, but there was an upstairs lounge that photographed horribly, excellent service and a big lie flat seat with an amazingly complex control mechanism.

We wicked slept well, at least until we neared Los Angeles and they served breakfast. We went through the same customs and immigration as everyone else. We just had a head start. We could go on about how Los Angeles International Airport is a madhouse, but others have done it before us and probably better.

We considered taking a taxi to our airport hotel or perhaps using an app, but that would have meant taking a shuttle bus to the pick up area. We just waited for our hotel's shuttle bus to come and were just minutes to our hotel, gratis.






Keywords: australia

07/25 - One More Flight

We had one more flight, an Alaska Air flight from Los Angeles to Seattle. We steeled ourselves. This is exactly why we didn't want to fly out of Los Angeles in the first place, but here we were.

As you probably suspect, our flight went well. We were in Seattle at a decent hour and able to get a ride back to Fairchild Airport where we had parked our car. You'd think we'd learn, but, even now, we're plotting our next adventure and another journey to Australia is likely.


The view from our Los Angeles hotel window. Please, do not try and compare it with the views from our hotels earlier in our trip. This was an airport hotel, and any port in a storm.

Take a good look at that control tower.

Is that a dour look or what?

Keywords: australia

June 2025July 2025 August 2025