Stop Valve to Tap Room

Up at 06:30 this morning for showers and prep for our day... not a lot planned at this point except for a 13:00 tour of the Sydney Opera House. The weather was a bit iffy with rain showers and breaks to sunshine every now & then. We took rain gear and head out for coffee and breakfast. Kris told us about a great little eatery just down the street that had great coffee.

It's called the Stop Valve and he was right. Great coffee and the French Toast was fantastic! Check another one off the list of his "spots" he likes to frequent when he is here.

We walked down towards Cook & Phillip Park looking for a geocache which we managed to find pretty quick. Next it was over to the Dominion Car Park were we rode the longest moving sidewalk we have been on. It took us up near the Hyde Park Barracks Museum but it didn't open until 10 am. We continued our walk towards the downtown core and found a pedestrian walkway (Martin Place) with upscale shops etc.   Kelly paid her requisite stop into Lululemon and I had my hand waxed by a guy selling skin care products.... nice guy but no sale.

We found the Tesla store and stopped in to see the cars. No Model 3's as they are not expected here in Australia until 2019 but we had a good look through a Model S and the X... very nice. Just as we finished up the fire alarm went off for a practice drill and everyone had to leave the entire block of shops and muster at a street corner. It was rather funny as they all scrambled to get everyone out and lock up the store. No sale here either. :-)

We slowly worked our way back to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum and did a walking tour through the building. Very interesting history.

Next was a nice long stroll down around the Botanical Gardens and out to Mrs Macquarie's Chair. A very interesting rock formation. We also managed a couple more geocaches along the way as we walked by the outdoor opera and botanical gardens. Very clean and beautiful with amazing rock formations. 

Amazing rock formations

Next up was our tour of the famous Sidney Opera House. We met up at a special place and had about 25 people in our tour. One notable person was Pamela Martin of TV News fame back in BC. (She was actually on our flight to SYD).  The tour explained the design and construction of the facility and it's history. We toured through the two main halls and several smaller side rooms and at the end of the tour Kelly got a pic with Pamela! She was very nice... as we already thought.

Ceiling shot

Construction detail of the Opera House

Pamela Martin & Kelly.

Opera Selfie

 A quick bite to eat and we continued our walk up to the Rocks area just up from the ship port. Lots of neat shops and of course a local brewery called the Tap Room that we tried out. Met a new friend in an Ibis that hung around looking for food.

Mr Ibis

 Our walk continued around the point and under the Sydney Harbor Bridge and yet another geocache.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

We headed back to the train station and after exiting at Museum Station, we hit the local IGA for some supplies. Back at the room at 17:45 and we enjoyed a relaxing hour of not walking! Pedometer said 16.4 KM's today... no wonder we are tired! A quick bite of dinner and we are pretty much done.

Bondi Beach is our plans for tomorrow.