What can I say about my trip to Australia? It was amazing! My hosts Julian, Dave, and Daniel were incredibly generous with their time and my travel mate Dietmar was a great sport and a lot of fun. We worked hard (really, I swear) and packed as much sight-seeing in as possible. I arrived on the 30th of December and left January 7th. It is hard to believe how much I saw while there. Here is a summary:
 
Dec 30th: plane ride to Australia, Heath Ledger sits one row in front of me, arrive in Sydney, take a nap, go shopping
 
Dec 31: tour around Darling Harbor, visit the Chinese Garden, first look at Bondi beach, fantastic BBQ on Julian's deck overlooking the beach, fireworks, and a little Texas Holdem poker, we really did talk about work (I promise)
 
Jan 1 (the hottest day on record in Australia): ferry ride to Manly, lunch overlooking Manly, quick dip in the water, 15 min walk from Manly beach to Shelly beach, ferry ride back to Sydney, recover from heatstroke in hotel
 
Jan 2: head out West to the Blue Mountains, survive Dietmar's driving, stop at Featherdale Wildlife Park, pet some koalas, feed a kangaroo, make our way out make our way out to see the Three Sisters rock formation, hike down and then back up the 841 step Giant Staircase, sweat a lot
 
Jan 3: meet 3H group at their offices in Bondi Junction, dinner at Mu Shu (very yummy) and drinks at Icebergs overlooking Bondi beach, drank a couple Scarpinas my new very favorite drink (it's like a lemon sorbet that will kick your ass)
 
Jan 4: Dietmar and the boys go play golf, I walked around the Botanical Gardens taking lots of pictures of the enormous bats for Dietmar, 3 and a half hour climb to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge
 
Jan 5: more meetings with 3H, checkout the incredible view from Daniel's penthouse apartment in Bondi Junction, a couple more Scarpinas, trip to Star City Casino for a little blackjack, taught the boys to play craps, win a respectable amount of Australian dollars
 
Jan 6: Julian and Dave promise to teach me to surf, we visit Whale Beach and Palm Beach (both beautiful), I pick out my new house overlooking Whale Beach, beaches are closed to swimming and surfing because the wind it too choppy, head back to the city to catch the afternoon session of cricket, Dave explains the basic rules of cricket, Julian taunts the opposing team, Australian captain, Ricky Ponting scores over 100 points to lead Australia to victory
 
Jan 7: plane ride back home