After a circuitous route we eventually made it to the Aquarium. A new attraction is opening next to the Aquarium in September called “The Sydney Wildlife Experience.” It looked like they had a little bit of work ahead of them, but who doesn’t like furry little marsupials? Oh, and they might have had some butterflies too... maybe we won’t bring Mom on our next trip...
The Aquarium was fun to explore again. We got to see a Platypus, but it wasn’t in the same playful mood as the last time. They are exceptionally strange creatures... definitely designed by a committee. I learned a new fact at the exhibit though. I knew that Platypuses had venomous spines on their back feet, but I didn’t know that females shed theirs after one year. It explained some of the pictures under the “research” heading, where scientists were cavalierly holding up a poor Platypus by its tail.
The Aquarium had replaced an exhibit of harbor seals with an under water exhibit of Dugongs (aka Manatees). They also had an impressive collection of sharks, including several of the highly endangered Grey Nurse Sharks, which, too me, did not look anything like the nurse sharks at SeaWorld. These sharks were big, brooding, hunchbacked monstrosities, with rows of jagged teeth. Let us just say they did not look cuddly. While these poor sharks are in imminent danger of extinction there were no cute signs up at the exit urging guests to “Adopt a Grey Nurse Shark Today!” as there were at the Dugong exhibit.
After the Aquarium, it was lunchtime and Dad and I were startled to find that we were actually a little bit hungry (I suppose we should have expected that, since we did eat breakfast at 4am). We decided to forgo the touristy waterfront restaurants and head back into the business/shopping districts.
We ended up in a mall in Westerfeld and on the street we spied the door to where one of our dinner reservations later in the week was. We decided to check it out, and took an incredibly long escalator up to the fifth floor of the mall. Bécasse looks nice, but even better, we found ourselves surrounded by restaurants open for lunch!
We wandered around for a while, eyeing our options. I voted for skipping lunch and just ordering one of everything at the absolutely delectable looking Bécasse bakery, but after going up another floor I found a place called Chat Thai, that looked amazing. There was already a line a little before noon. We decided to see if they could seat us, and amazingly they could (even though they had their plate full with reservations).
It was a neat place, there were two kitchens, on in the back doing the heavy lifting, and one in the front, visible to the mall, where it seemed like a lot of prep work (and perhaps dessert) happened. The inside was trendy brick, cool lights, and lots of tables.
Our lunch selections:
To start:
Fresh spring rolls (unlike any we’d had before)
Chicken satay skewers
Pork skewers (to die for)
For main course:
Dad: Spicy chili fried rice, with pork and a fried egg
Me: Wide rice noodles, chicken, and Chinese kale, in a dark soy sauce (absolutely the
best thing ever. We almost cleaned the plate)
After lunch we headed back to the hotel. The highlight of the afternoon was receiving a telephone call from our friend Pamela, telling us she would see us the next morning! It was so good to hear her voice again. She is coming to visit us several times this week. Tomorrow she’ll come in and spend the afternoon with us and then join us for dinner at Becasse. She has made reservations at our hotel for the evening so that she can join us tomorrow for a tour of the Hunter Valley wine country. I cannot wait!
After that, I managed to keep myself busy for a couple of hours checking my e-mail/facebook and reading a Stephanie Plum mystery on the iPad.
But we were kind of fading. Ultimately we both ended up taking naps.
I slept a little longer than I intended but woke up in time to seek the sun set (at around 6pm) so I felt like I was still marginally on schedule.
We made 7:30 dinner reservations in the hotel to use up our $90 credit from American Express and were pleasantly surprised by a delightful restaurant. The menu is designed to be small tasting portions so everyone can enjoy between three and four small plates. The bread was fantastic, the sparking water (rain water from Tasmania) was even better.
We returned to the room a little after 9:00 and were again ready for bed.
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