Sydney final weekend

How is it already Monday?! Long story short, on Saturday the travel crud took us down. We both tested negative for Covid thankfully after getting tests from a nearby pharmacy. My symptoms were much worse than Kevin but it was very clear that I shouldn’t attend the final. The stadium is an hour away from our hotel and it’s been incredibly cold at night. We made the tough call to sell our tickets. It was hard to do but we didn’t want to get worse and then have to delay coming home. Our tickets sold within minutes of being posted as expected. It was the right call to make as we’re both starting to feel better this morning.

As Kevin wrote, before the crud took hold we decided to visit the Taronga Zoo on Friday to get a ferry ride in and see some local wildlife. The weather was perfect for a ferry ride. The Sydney transit card, the Opal card works on all the ferries. We hopped on, got a seat outside and took in the amazing views all around us.

It was just a 15 minute ride across the bay to the base of the hill for the zoo. Once inside the first animal we saw was a Red Panda! So very plush. We moved on heading up the steep hill climb towards the Australian section. The giraffes were on the way and they clearly had the best view in the whole park. We met our first Scrub Turkey which are as prolific around the zoo as the Bin Chicken Ibis are around the city.

We reached the top of the hill and found some sleepy Koalas tucked into their tree. Koala chill is such a mood.

Marching on we found an adorable platypus swimming. He had a huge crowd so I couldn’t get a good pic. Nearby the Capybara and Kangaroos were even more chill. A curious Kookaburra and a shy Tasmanian Devil rounded out our adventure.

The wind was picking up fast as the sun descended. The ferry ride back was packed full so we sat inside. The lovely choppy water gave us a show as we hit some waves and soaked some of the people at the front of the boat. Not that they seemed to mind too much.

Saturday and Sunday I slept a lot in between coughing fits. Kevin sweetly found plenty of meds and cough drops. We took our tests to verify this was just a cold and not Covid. We watched the third place game and final in bed.

This morning the cough was still lingering for us both but much improved than the weekend. We ventured out to explore a bit more of downtown and snag some discounted jerseys. We’re now packed up again and ready for an extra long day tomorrow. We leave Sydney at 10:20am on Tuesday and through the magic of traveling back in time we’ll arrive in Seattle at 12:35pm, still on Tuesday. Fingers crossed the Hurrica-nado-quakes happening in Southern California will be over long enough for us to change planes at LAX.

Another big thank you to our family and friends who have been taking care of Hal and Yuki for us. We’re so ready to be home and hear them meowing and purring while we recover from jet lag. The shire of Shoreline will be a welcome sight.