It seemed so simple at the time

In which Carrie and Manford have further adventures - the last shall be first . . .We had gotten to airport parking just fine, making some right turns then three in a row left but when we got back from Sydney (more in a moment) failure to turn left led us to unknown territory going, it turned out, away from Hamilton rather than toward it but with some exciting interchanges between husband and wife managed after not too much time to get turned around and on the right road. Whew! Our flight to Sydney was fine - we even got a movie and some not too bad chow on Air New Zealand. Customs went rapidly, and we were solicited by a guy in a cowboy hat to let him take us to the ferry terminal for only ten bucks a head - cheapest airport transportation by far - and since he had corraled others we felt no fear - at least until he started driving - then I think his insanity took control, or perhaps memories of his experiences when taking the New York City school of cab driving course kicked in, and I closed my eyes from time to time and Carrie uttered expressions of wonderment that we did not crash, run over anybody or become mated to vehicles in front or behind us as he smoothly zipped in and out of traffic lanes and got so close to those in front of him that were he any closer he would be in their back pocket. But we survived, and probably got our heart rate up for the day with no exercise. We were actually booked for Carrie's conference in Manly, a Sydney suburb - about 30 minutes away via a ferry - a lovely ride with great views of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge (Harbour?). We settled in for the night and for the next three days Manford explored while Carrie conventioned - learning a lot - each of us did (per Yoda talk). In my time I had a tour of the Opera House - it had the most beautiful and best sounding concert hall I had ever been in! I then went to the Australian museum and enjoyed a wonderful collection of Aboriginal art - and had a lunch of something soft with potatoes in it, and some cheese, I think. At some point I bravely took a train to Newtown, a really cool shopping area on King street - reminded me of Berkley California. I had purchased a 3 day Sydney pass that allowed me to ride on city busses, trains, monorail, ferries, and two different Explorer bus lines you can get off and on at any time and they cover a large part of the city. Went to Bondi (pronounced Bondeye) beach, a big beach with quite a few people flying kites (there was, nearby, a nude beach, I believe but I didn't scope it our or participate for I had no wish to depress people as would have happened when they gazed upon my beautiful body) and the beach right across the road from our hotel in Manly was much cooler anyway but like some other things in life I felt I should see it once, and now I have. Just a funny karma there - I guess it, like much else, was taken from the Aborigonal tribes at some point. Sunday Carrie and I visited the really nice maratime museum - they had a fascinating exhibit of several hundreds of French, mostly, toy boats (can you say toy boat four times in a row real fast?) that ranged in size from a few inches (centimeters) to five or six feet (nearly a couple of meters?) - well displayed. And we saw a sailboat made of beer cans - apparently there is a race in some town anually for boats made like that. And some other interesting displays related to sailing. We went to an area called The Rocks, and they had a large outdoor market where we purchased this and that - including something special for Carrie's mom and some other gifts. We agreed that Aussies like their coffee for there were approximately a bazillion coffe shops - and ditto for ice cream (around five bucks a pop) and gelato joints, plus a plethora of good restaurants - all kinds of neat names, such as Thai me up and eat me Sushi - some serving kangaroo which we did not eat. I found a couple of neat used book stores and a great tea store on my King street adventure. The weather was good while Carrie was conferencing and rain came a little on Sunday but we did not get caught in any of the several downpoors. There was a gent all painted up like an Aboriginy (spell) playing a digaderoo (I am sure that is spelled wrong) the tube thing that makes interesting sounds and I bought a CD from him for only ten bucks. Sydney must have really strict noise laws - we never heard a horn honk, and for some reason (my excellent driving skills could not be the cause) I often hear horns close by in Hamilton. Overall, a great trip, except for the little bump related to finding our way home at the end. Perhaps a GPS would obviate that difficulty in the future? We were glad to be home - the children were happy to get away from their slave labor camps and Charlie seemed happy to escape his prison. Well, take care and thanks. Manford