September - Less sailing, more sight seeing

We took a break from sailing in September and did some traveling. Since President Bush and friends came in for the APEC forum, the folks in Sydney were so scared about traffic issues, they gave everyone in Sydney a free day off on Friday and even encouraged people to get out of town. Security was amazing, and many say overblown. I challenge to say if you have the leaders of the US, China, Russia, Australia, etc all in the same building, how can you have too much security?

Here's a patrol boat scoping things out while we ate breakfast on our balcony

Some 9 feet high fences stretched > 3 miles



We took advantage of the 3 day weekend and went to Canberra, the capital of Australia. In doing so, we met someone from Davenport, Iowa where Polly used to live, as well as a couple from Stowe, Ohio where Polly went to high school. How bizarre!

Canberra has an interesting history. In the old days, Sydney and Melbourne used to fight over which should be the capital. So, instead, they picked a spot in between, designed a beautiful little story-book city (with a ridiculous number of roundabouts), built a lake, made it it's own state (ACT - Australian Capital Territory), and made it the capital. It's very quaint and reminds us a bit of Cary. It is very planned out, there are no obnoxious signs, and it has lots of green. It was a great weekend, and visited some of the many museums and exhibits. The war memorial & museum was my highlight.

View over the lake towards Parliament House


View from War Memorial to Parliament House


And from Parliament House to the War Memorial


Polly reliving her past?


We've been "boatless" for 9 months now, and I just couldn't stand it any longer. Despite sailing about as much as we have wanted, we bought a kayak and a Laser 2 - a little 14' sailboat with a spinnaker. We plan to get another kayak, and now that daylight saving time is just around the corner, we hope to do some sailing and kayaking around the harbor on our own.

The last weekend of September was another 3 day weekend (Australian Labor Day), and we took advantage of it and rented a house with 6 other people in Jervis Bay a little over 3 hours South. It was a beautiful place, with a huge protected bay that had some of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen. It's soft white sand, and shallow bay areas give it that beautiful blue hue. Most of the area is National & Marine Park and many areas and beaches are only accessible via walking paths. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but lucky enought to have Roger along who is an amazing photographer and he kindly shared these pics:

Beautiful beach near Vincentia

The water really looked this blue! This one was at Cave Beach

And near Huskisson:




Gotta tell you a funny story. One sunny and breezy Wednesday afternoon, Polly emails me to let me know she her boss is making her do the Wednesday afternoon sailboat race. Just to rub it in, she also called me to make sure I knew. :) To top it off, she just today told me she has to be on the Volvo 60 this Thursday for an all day race. Not a bad perk at all - good for her!

Miss you all! Please leave comments so I know someone is reading this. :)