Today, our wanderings were Darling Harbour-centric. This area sports the National Maritime Museum (which also includes a replica of Cook's HMS Endeavor, HMAS Vampire destroyer and a lighthouse), the IMAX theatre, a ton of Cockle Bay Wharf-side shops, restaurants and bars, as well as both the Sydney Convention Centre and the Exhibition Centre... which is where the Sun Microsystems "Tech Days" were happening. So, we headed down Sussex Street toward the Exhibition Centre and Chris made an appearance, said "howdy" to her boss' boss and sat in on the Solaris track of talks, while I slummed it and got my blog up and running and my email checked at the internet cafe set up in the exhibitors' pavilion.
Sun provided us mid-morning tea and a very nice lunch before we took to wandering around the nearby shops in search of a couple of items that somehow never made it into our suitcases. These items were not found, but we did stroll through the Maritime Museum (entrance to the museum proper was free). Interesting that the Australian Navy includes what we would call the Coast Guard. We then walked over the pedestrian bridge and along the expressway up and around to King Street to get back to the hotel. We're still not quite over our jet lag and needed a rest... and for Chris to divest herself of her laptop which she'd been using to write her Sun blog.
Chris determined that she required protein and thought a steak would do it. So, we decided to try one of the restaurants on Darling Harbour and walked out the front door to the hotel... and smack into a little pub called the Dundee Arms. It's actually part of the Sheraton, but since the $20 special was a chicken marsala dish that included a beer, I voted that we walk no further. Besides, the bartender was cute. The food was fabulous; the moistest, tastiest chicken I think I've ever had. I even liked the Golden Ale (a James Squire brew) and I'm not much of a beer drinker. Success.
Suitably revived -- and having just there discovered a "secret" passage alongside the hotel leading directly down to the wharf -- Chris and I paid a visit to the Aquarium. Hey, it was open until 10pm and we had the whole place to ourselves for more than an hour! Aside from the seals being asleep and having to miss the Great Barrier Reef section due to closing time, it was terrific.
We returned to the hotel room and poured ourselves a vodka and cranberry juice. Life ain't all that bad. Steps taken: 12,403.