Day 13: ZOO DAY

ZOO DAY!!

Okay kids, so there are a LOT of pictures on this one. I had a hard time discriminating because they're all so good!! (If I don't say so myself). Anyway, Tanya was adamant that we visit Taronga Zoo, and I'm going to be totally honest, I was kind with my dad when he said "The Zoo? The Zoo is just a zoo." Let me tell you friends, this place is SO much more than "just a zoo". I'm SO glad Tanya took me. Not only did we enjoy a peaceful day with the animals, but the views were breathtaking. I'm not kidding, I could not stop taking pictures I was so stunned.

I honestly can't remember Tanya mentioning many details about the zoo. I'm quite convinced she wanted it to be a surprise. Basically, This is the first thing you see as you enter the zoo. (As you can see from the sign clearly marked ENTRY). At this point I was thinking to myself, wow, that is a very lovely view...but come along for a ride dearests for it only gets better from here.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day. Here, we have a majestic giraffe...with the Sydney Opera House in the background...no big deal. We walked around the zoo for a few hours and enjoying hanging with the animals (of which I have a billion pictures, but I think there is a point where a blog has too many pictures so I held back on posted all of them this time). Then we made our way over the elephants.

There were a few shows that Tanya insisted we MUST see before we left the zoo that day, and the Elephant training one was one such show. We went and paid far too much for a less than spectacular hamburger that had some weird orange sauce on it, and found a spot on a rock just outside the Elephant play area. Here I must pause to mention that Tanya is a zoo expert. She knows how to work the system. The rock we found to sit on was prime real estate because we were able to sit there and eat, but when the show started we could stand on it and laugh at all the people in front of of us who had been standing for the last 20 minutes to ensure a good spot :)

So the show started, and it was really cute. My little brother Brady, the elephant connoisseur, would have loved it. The trainers played all sorts of games with the elephants like soccer and football, plus the guy commentating on the whole thing had a beautiful accent, which I cannot complain about, AND there were baby elephants (need I say more?). Now fully nourished and refreshed, we continued.

So I'm realizing now that my pictures are a bit out of order, because we went to the bird show before the elephant show, but that is okay. One of the first shows of the day was the bird show, and it was located in a little amphitheater. As we rounded the corner to enter said amphitheater, we encountered this stunning vision. I remember turning to Tanya at this point with a look like "You live here?" "You have a pass to this zoo, and you can come ANY TIME YOU WANT?" And then a small amount of jealous rage swept over me, but then I looked over the harbor again and I was over it. It's hard to describe just how beautiful this place is. I wish there were words, or pictures that could do it justice, but there just aren't. So basically y'all will just have to go before you die and experience it for yourselves. I'm not kidding. If visiting Australia is not on your bucket list, or if you don't have a bucket list, pull out a piece of paper and WRITE IT DOWN, dang it!

So here's me just before the bird show started in front of the Harbor. I like to think of it as my "Sydney in Sydney" shot, thanks to a lovely comment by one beautiful Samantha Bertoni on my Facebook page :) I'm pretty much really jealous of the girl in that picture right now. I would go back in a heartbeat.

This is my artsy bona fide photographer shot. My dad didn't understand when I showed him. "Why did you take a picture of a tree?" said he. BECAUSE, Dad, it's a cockatoo, and the Harbour Bridge is in the background. It's artsy and bona fide, don't you know.

Once again, I love this shot because it's like mixing wildlife and a city skyline, and it's just so cool! I'm not sure, because I haven't been to every zoo in the world, but I'd bet this is one of the only places on the planet where you can see something like this.

This cute little gullah took the money from my hand and put it into the box. Pretty much a highlight of my day.

Next up was the seal show. This was really fun. The seals did all sorts of tricks, and were quite successful in drenching a few kids in the front row, which was entertaining. There's something about the zoo, I guess that just makes you feel like a little kid again. I'm a lucky lucky girl that I had such a great friend to show me around, because she knew exactly where I needed to, and exactly what I would love. We are pretty much the same person in a lot of ways...so that's good.

Here's another one of them artsy shots. I just couldn't help myself. I'm sure I wore Tanya out. I seriously had to stop like every five steps...oh wait! I see another picture! If I were her, I'd be thinking, "Sydney, you just took a picture of that, but from five steps back." And she'd be right. Mostly, I think I was afraid that if I didn't keep taking pictures that I would forget something, and I didn't want to miss out on reliving a single second of this day.

I know I have a million Koala pictures, but this guy cracks me up. Who do you think you are? King of the eucalyptus tree?

Same thing with this picture. This poor guy is obviously not totally sold on the idea of living in a caged-in area where a bunch a strangers come and gawk at him all day.

So here it is, one of my very favorite shots of the entire trip. It was kind of cool because there was this globe down by the seals, but it wasn't like one you might see at Hogle Zoo, for it was of the southern hemisphere, which is where I was. First time crossing the equator baby :). We spent nearly the entire day at the zoo, and boy was it a day well spent. I was awed and amazed at the beauty that was there. It was relaxing, and pretty much perfect. We were pretty spent after that, but the day didn't end there. Tanya had something else in mind...

Take a moment, friends, and bask in the awesome and magical place that is McMahon's Point. Here is where Tanya brought me after the zoo. We spend a while here. I couldn't bring myself to walk away from it, frankly. We sat and just watched, and laughed a bit at the fact that the very next day I would atop that bridge...above that large body of water...the Pacific Ocean, and we listened for a big to Hugh Jackman sing his heart out about how he still calls Australia home. I can understand why, Hugh. I left a piece of my heart there I think.

At the bottom there is a picture of me at McMahon's point, and for your viewing pleasure, the strange couple taking pictures by the water. They were there before we got there and stayed until after we left...we were trying to figure out their story, but they were just really strange and quite unreadable.

The view was just unbelievable. I mean seriously. You cannot buy that. After a beautiful afternoon/evening at McMahon's point, Tanya took me to this great little Thai restaurant just up the road (however, it was uphill the entire way, and it seemed a lot farther than it was, but the food was totally worth it). We took it back to the car, and it began to rain a bit, so Tanya decided to take me to another place wherest I might enjoy another phenomenal view and experience Thai food for the first time. Unfortunately, we got stuck in some serious traffic, but-Christmas Miracle-our food was still hot a delicious by the time we reached the little hill in the town Tanya grew up in to eat our food. Traffic wasn't all bad, anyway because we ended up driving across the Harbour Bridge which was definitely worth waiting in a bit of traffic.

It began to rain, but we managed to find a closed restaurant that had closed for the day and had a little overhang that we could sit under. The food was amazing, and the view was priceless, but the best part was just being in that moment with Tanya, one of my very best friends in this entire world. By far, this was one of my favorite days of the entire trip. It seriously was as near to perfect as you could get, and a lot of it was dumb luck and spur of the moment decisions that made for one simply amazing day. I don't know if any of you have made it through the forever long ramblings of this post, but Tanya, if you're reading, just want you to know that I love you, and I will always remember this day, and of course the lovely time I had on the bridge ;) That's all for zoo day. Tune in tomorrow when I climb the bridge (!)