Australia Day 1

We arrived to Australia on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009. Yes, during our travels we did lose a day. The flight was 4 hours to LAX, 2 hour LAX layover, and 14.5 hours from LAX to Sydney. Ian and Emily were there to meet us at the airport. It was sooooo good to see them. I hadn't seen Emily in about 3 months and it was so great to give her a hug. We traveled here with some of Emily's friends Marit and Justin. Once we got to Emily and Ian's place we all took a much needed shower and then headed, with our tour guides, to downtown Sydney. Our first stop was the Sydney Harbour bridge. The bridge is massively huge and a good walk. We were able to walk across the bridge and see the Opera house. It is unbelievable the views. You have no idea how cool it is to see this stuff. It seriously took my breath away. I feel so glad that I have had the opportunity to see this beautiful city in person. After the bridge we walked down to Circular Quay Harbour. They have a bunch of little restaurants and cafes. Circular Quay is the main harbor that houses cruise ships and ferries. We walked toward the opera house and were able to see it up close. It is very majestic looking. We all had lunch at this little place called the Australian Hotel. We had some authentic Australian beer (pure blonde ale), Kangaroo pizza and potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce (all very yummy!). We then walked to the botanical gardens which is a huge, gorgeous garden right next to the city. For dinner we went to this place called Stir Crazy which serves Thai food. It was so amazingly good!!!! All the placed to eat are very tiny. The whole place probably serves total 25 people and half of the restaurant is outside on the sidewalk/patio. You also don't tip here which is weird. The first day was so neat, but we were all beat from the plane ride and walking (we walked a long way!!!) that we laid our heads down and were out!!!