Day 17: Broken Record

It’s our last full day of this itinerary.  It’s so hard to believe how fast time flies when you’re having fun!!

Yesterday’s calmer sea was in reality the calm before the storm.  Holy cow – we’ve really had some weather today.  It’s been raining since noon and the wind is howling again.  So of course we’re pitching about once more.  It’s really cold, too.  I packed a couple of “just in case it gets cool” clothes, but not really anything warm enough for this ick.  It's starting to be like a broken record.

My cold really got ahold of me today.  I’ve been coughing all the way from my toes and have all the other usual symptoms.  In spite of it, we had a busy day.  In the morning we attended a lecture/slide show about Sydney.  It was really well done and I can’t wait to see it.  We’ll be pulling into the harbor at about 5:30 AM.  I sure hope we run out of this weather and have a nice morning going in.

We attended a luncheon for those of us continuing on.  They gave us the whole run-down and answered all our questions.  We’ve already cleared customs and have our key cards for the next leg.  We can walk off the ship any time and return back by 4:30. 

After lunch we went to a talk about the Great Barrier Reef.  Wow – what a day that will be!  I’m super excited and might even try snorkeling for the first time. 

The thing I’m the very most excited about of all is getting to interact with the native animals – especially koalas and kangaroos.  We’re going to the Sydney Wildlife Park, the aquatic park, and then catch the Queen Victoria Building on the way back to the ship.  I’ve waited my whole life to pet a koala and a roo! 

On our next visit we’ll head the other direction to the Opera House and stuff that way.  And on our last visit we’ll either go to Manly Beach or the Koala Sanctuary on the way to the airport.

Being the die-hard cruisers that we are – we bought our next cruise today.  We just did the open-ended option since we can’t really commit to anything yet.  If anyone’s interested in cruising with us next year, we can extend some of our benefits to you if we book at the same time.  We’re thinking about Alaska in late July or early August, and probably something in the Caribbean in the spring depending on filming schedules. 

Tomorrow’s post will be soooo much more exciting and hopefully I’ll have some awesome pix to share.  I’ll put it up just as soon as I can.