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| This cockatoo stopped by for a visit, alighting atop Bob’s medicinal Papaw tree in the yard. |
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate. Today, March 17th in the US is also eldest son Richard’s 50th birthday. Happy birthday, Richard! It’s hard to believe you’re 50! Richard is a highly successful real estate agent in Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada with nothing but five star reviews in Zillow. (See here for details). We wish you continued success and much happiness and look forward to seeing you in July!
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| Evening walk through a portion of the shopping area near the Manly Ferry. |
Today around 3:00 pm, we’re off to the Sydney Opera House in this outragous weather; windy, rainy and cold. Bob will drive us to the Manly Ferry which will bring us within a 20 minute walk to the venue.
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| Fish Cafe in Manly where we dined this week. |
The only part of the trip that concerns us is that 20-minute walk from the wharf to the opera house in the event the pouring rain continues. We’re not concerned about getting soaked on the return walk to the ferry. It won’t be fun to be soaking wet while sitting in the theatre during the performance.
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| Daily specials posted outside the restaurant where we dined with Bob this week. The highest-priced items on this menu at AU 36.90 is equal to US $28.42. |
Bob has supplied us with an large umbrella which along with our hooded parkas we hope to stay dry. Unfortunately, our parkas aren’t necessarily stylish for the opera but we have nothing else to wear. Plus, the only shoes I have that are appropriate for my outfit and the long walk are black sandals. So it goes.
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| We were early and the rush of diners had yet to arrive at the popular local restaurant. |
This is a reality of our lives of world travel…if we chose to partake in a more dressy affair, we don’t necessarily have the appropriate clothing. As always, we’ll make the best of that which we have on hand. It’s worked on formal nights on cruises and will certainly be sufficient for the Sydney Opera House.
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| My plate of grilled barramundi, vegetables and a side of sour cream. |
According to the theatre’s website smart casual is acceptable although they say many attend wearing formal attire while others may be dressing more casually. It was a relief to read this comment. Overall, Australians tend to dress casually for most events although they certainly can “dress to the nines” when they so desire.
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| Tom, with little interest in grilled fish, ordered the fish and chips. |
Although no photos will be allowed during the performance, we’ll bring the camera in a waterproof bag and take as many photos as possible of the exterior and interior of the world renowned theatre which we’ll share in tomorrow’s post.
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| Bob dined on the grilled swordfish and salad. |
Today’s photos are from a night out to dinner with Bob at a popular seafood restaurant in Manly. The beachfront area is rife with shops and restaurants which we look forward to browsing when the weather improves. Since our arrival five days ago, its been raining each day.
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| Aquarium in the Fish Shop Restaurant where we dined with Bob earlier in the week. |
A week from Monday, we have a scheduled appointment at the Australian Immigration office in Sydney, after which we’ll know what we have to do in order to be able to board the cruise to the US on April 22nd. We’ll keep you updated on how this rolls out.
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| Manly Beach across the road from the restaurant. |
For those who celebrate, have a safe and fun-filled St. Patrick’s Day. While in Ireland in September, 2014, we didn’t kiss the Blarney Stone after we heard dreadful stories about it.
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| Us, in front of the Blarney Castle in Ireland in September, 2014. Click here for this link. |
Instead, we kissed one another with Irish on our minds although Tom kissed it twice on previous visits to Ireland (before I came on the scene). According to Ancestry.com DNA test results Tom is 99% Irish, certainly sufficient to warrant celebration on this special day.
Happy green beer day!
Photo from one year ago today, March 17, 2016:
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| For a heartwarming and equally heartbreaking story of a favorite alpaca we so much loved, Mont Blanc, please check our year ago post. Please click here for the details. |