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| Day 19: | Sunday, 22 September 2002 | ||
| New Thing: | A rush of final gift shopping without breaking the bank | ||
| Weather: | Clear and sunny, slight morning haze, low 60s | ||
| Money Spent: | $252.75 AUS | $139.39 USD | |
| 8:04am | We both got up, a few minutes after the alarm sounded. Apparently, while I can get 20 hours of sleep a day (you'd think I was a Basset Hound), it messes up Baldie -- particularly on a day where the time zone change will occur, and we'll fall back 17 hours from the current time of our watches.
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| 8:19am | Gathered up a wallet, a camera, and the boy to address the last of the gift and trinket shopping and one last wander by the Opera House. |
| 8:32am | We peered over the sea wall and saw a wave breaking just above the shallow, tan surface of the sea floor below. |
| 8:37am | One of the more creative vendors along this section of the Quay - a pink car (Benz?) with a green plastic astro-turf-looking greens. |
| 9:24am | It's hard to believe that for a place hoping to suck in tourists, they're still not open yet. |
| 9:26am | We wandered about The Rocks a bit, known for some fine shops, and a few that just sell touristy stuff. I needed a bit of both. |
| 9:29am | We arrived at The Rocks Hatters, where I was determined to address the issue of too much sun on my head, once and for all. |
| 9:31am | The sales clerk (I suspect he owns the store) helped me to try on a few different hats in all. |
| 9:35am | I managed to select two (couldn't decide on just one), and took a stroll back to Circular Quay wearing my new hat. |
| 9:40am | I figured there's no time like the present, and before we got bogged down with bags, we stopped to get our one-way ticket to the airport while passing by Circular Quay. |
| 9:47am | Returning to the hotel, we encountered the two Americans we've been hanging out with this week, and the addition of two more. (Country's getting full... must be time to check out.) We lounged about the lounge with them for a bit. |
| 10:19am | Back in the room to do the final packing of stuff. |
| 10:24am | 10:24am - We left the room and headed to the train station. With all that stuff. Lots of stuff - three bags and the computer tote. |
| 11:34am | This is the place you'd either get a refund on taxes paid on merchandise, or turn in tax-exempt declarations received at time of purchase. Strangely enough, I thought the name of the place was appropriate. |
| 11:38am | We cleared all of the formalities, and wandered around a bit, including surfing on one of the no-cost Samsung internet cafes, and wandering past some of the fun little bits of artsy pieces here and there. |
| 12:22pm | We went through the final security checkpoint before settling down in the waiting area (for all of perhaps 30 minutes). From here, we could see one distant air traffic control tower that appeared to have childrens' slides attached to it. |
| 12:54pm | The plan began boarding; we were on board and seated within 10 minutes. |
| 1:39pm | We managed to take off 16 minutes ahead of the scheduled 1:55pm departure. Woo-hoo! |
| 1:41pm | I regret that this flight was a bit more crowded, with more folks generally, and a college-aged women's soccer team from Australia in particular, gobbling up a good chunk of space toward the back. This, sadly, meant I didn't get my own seat, and to that end, I was left in the bag throught the journey. (Which wouldn't have been so bad, had Baldie not been so restless, and continuously stretching his legs and kicking me as I traveled within the tote bag.) |
| 2:39am Monday | ... or 9:39am Sunday Pacific Time - We touched down at San Francisco International Airport, and therein ends the journey. (Immigration, Baggage Claim and Customs went quite smoothly, thus ending this latest escapade.) |