However, during July we went to Sydney, Australia for the first time! Zac had a conference, and visited some laboratories in the Sydney area for about a week and a half then Cassie came over after the conference was finished up. So now you know the 'official' reason for the trip...
So here are a bunch of the pics that we took over there, of course there are a bunch more, but this should give you all a good idea of what we did!
The conference Zac went to was at a resort in the Blue Mountains (to the west of Sydney). He had some time to kill before the conference so he did the touristy walks (or bush walks as they say around here). Interesting fact... they are called the Blue Mountains because of the Eucalyptus trees that make up the forest. These trees emit some chemical (no clue what) which reflects light from the sun (or something like that) in a blue-ish haze. You can sort of see it here in this picture.To be quite honest, while the Blue Mountains were cool... I don't know if I would really classify them as mountains...
This is a picture of the Laurel Cascades which were along the trails in the Blue Mountains...
This is Witches Leap... you can sort of see why it is referred to as witch... you can see the profile of a witch.
This is a pic of the most famous landmark in the Blue Mountains... the Three Sisters... they are the three peaks...
So Zac had finished all of the walks in one day except one... it turned out to be the Giant Stairway that he missed, nothing like saving the best for last... really it wasn't too bad though. This is comprised of 900 steps (and the word step is used loosely)... I thought this sign was sort of funny... careful there are many steps down the GIANT stairway... isn't that what makes it giant?
Of course... the world famous Sydney Opera House...
Not sure what we thought it would be covered it, but it is covered in ivory and white tiles...
This is the Sydney Harbor Bridge... it is the longest single span bridge in the world (if I remember correctly)... We actually climbed to the top (see the flags on top!)... however they wouldn't let us bring a camera so we don't have any pics from up there... it was an awesome experience, but a bit scary at certain parts though!
This is what was known during the 2000 Summer Olympics as Stadium Australia (aka. Olympic Stadium). However, now it obviously has a new name. The whole Olympic park and this stadium was pretty cool... pictures don't really do it much justice...
This was part of a pretty cool sculpture in Olympic Park... That is a textbook free throw... not sure if she made it though...
We also visited the zoo in Sydney (no not the zoo that the Crocodile Hunter was at... that's in Brisbane and we will go in the near future!). It was pretty sweet... there was a big emphasis on Australian animals (obviously) but also Asian animals, which was really sweet. This is a pic of some monkeys just chillin'.
That's right... Zac is the exact height of a new born giraffe!
Cassie's foot is between the foot size of the smallest bear in the world and the largest...
For the first time ever... Zac is shorter than the world's tallest bear!
This is the wing span of the condor (the biggest span)... oh yeah and that's Cassie's wingspan as well...
You can't really see it here, but this cat looks a lot like Divi! So we had to post it... I don't know, but I think Divi may have met her match with this cat!
Of course... last but not least here are the kangaroos and wallabies (which look very similar to kangaroos)!
