We seem to end up in Sydney Harbor a lot...

Yesterday the whole Moen (my mom's sister's side) family met up for a lunch cruise around the Harbor. The day started off fairly rainy but cleared up just as the boat took off. It was a good way to get to see around the entirety of the Harbor - lots of beautiful homes and boats... it's really amazing how pretty that harbor is. It was nice having the whole family together. My aunt took pictures, so hopefully I'll have copies to post later.

The rest of the day was pretty low key. We hung out at home, caught up on Grey's Anatomy (the past two episodes have been kinda crazy!), and watched Ocean's 12 with my cousins.

Today we had to be up early for our appointment to climb the Harbor Bridge. They only starting doing it a couple of years back and my aunt thought it would be a good thing for Rachel and I to try. Even though the forecasts were pretty gloomy for our entire stay, it ended up being sunny most days. That luck changed today. We made it to the office at 8:15 and knew we'd be in for a wet climb. Apparently they do the climbs in all weather conditions, unless lightning or extreme wind makes it impossible. After about an hour of getting instructions about how the climb would proceed, plus getting geared up, we headed off to the bridge.

Now, I have a mild fear of heights. Well, more like falling. Regardless, for some reason, I wasn't all that nervous about the climb. Ha. That was until we got to the first pylon and had to climb on this catwalk thing out to the actual bridge. The thing kinda wobbles as the cars and trains rush by overhead. You look down and see the water and roadway below. Kinda freaky. Then you climb up these five vertical ladders (thankfully you are connected to a cable), which is also a bit scary. After that though, it's an easy walk up and over the arch. If you ever go to Sydney, I highly recommend the Bridge Climb. It's such a fantastic way to see the city! You have some awesome views from the top. You can see all of the harbor, including the Opera House, from an angle that not that many people have a chance to view. The rain passed intermittently throughout the 1.5 hour climb (they gave us some fab rain outfits), and our leader gave us a great history of the bridge. We weren't allowed to bring our own cameras, but our leader took some, so I'll be able to show them later.

Afterwards, Rachel and I walked around downtown. We were able to have some Subway for lunch (that nows makes 4 countries and 3 different continents... about as good as Starbucks, which is up to 5 countries and 3 continents... fyi, Japan appears to be winning the contest for best caramel macchiato outside of the US). We managed to avoid the rain by shopping (such a sacrifice, I know) and we picked up some stuff we'd both been looking for.

That's it for now. I can't believe we only have one full day left of this trip! I don't know that I'm ready to go back to Japan!