Sydney Australia, Part 2

Yesterday was our 28th wedding anniversary. JJ Hubby surprised me with this beautiful bouquet - he picked out the vase as well. I love getting flowers more and more with each passing year. Believe it or not, there was a time that I considered fresh flowers to be a complete waste of money - but I've slowly begun to appreciate them in a whole new way - they are fragile, beautiful works of art to be enjoyed - like our lives.

The afternoon portion of our Sydney tour took us to more lookouts, the famous Bondi and Manly Beaches and through a number of very posh neighbourhoods. The above bluff (which I had as my header pic a few days last week) is a popular site where many have unfortunately chosen to end their lives. In fact, an emergency Help Line has been installed along the main walking path in case some lost soul is having second thoughts. Finding this out certainly took away some of it's raw beauty for me.

 When we first arrived at Bondi Beach, this adorable couple immediately caught my eye! 

Totally mesmerizing. I could have stood at the water's edge for hours just taking pics. 

(All of these are definitely worth expanding :)

 Each scene is so transitory and unique.

 Love the layers :)

 Needless to say, I took a ton of shots!

This is Bondi Pavilion, which we had to walk through to get to the beach. It's a very interesting building with a colourful history dating back to the early 1900's when it was known as the "Playground of the Pacific". People bathed in the Turkish and 'Hot Sea Water Baths', danced in the ballroom and it was even used as an officer's club at one point. Nowadays, with a theatre, a gallery, music, art and pottery studios to name a few, it is the cultural hub of Bondi.

 Back on the bus, we headed over to Manly Beach.

The Macquarie Lighthouse was Australia's first lighthouse. First erected in 1818, by Francis Greenway (the famous convict architect, responsible for many significant buildings in early Sydney), the tower soon began to deteriorate and several large stones fell away as early as 1823. When it was commissioned, Greenway had correctly predicted the poor quality of the sandstone being used would result in rapid deterioration - and the tower had to be rebuilt in 1883!

 As we passed by, our tour guide pointed out a neighbourhood with a definite New Orleans flair to it.

 Not great pics, but I think you can get the idea :)

This is what's known as 'Federation' architecture and prevalent from around 1890 - 1915.

 A quick pit stop. We were pretty parched by the time we arrived at Manly Beach...!

There are over 200 stores concentrated in this area, from eclectic to high-end and everything in between; I sure wish we'd had more time there to explore them.

 The clouds that had hung around off and on all day now mysteriously vaporized.

The perfect end to a fabulous day.

 This beach seemed to have a colder, wilder feel to it.

 A last look...

Well, that was our nine hour tour - I hope you enjoyed it! I apologize for the heavy picture load... but if it's any consolation, I've only shown you a fraction of the pics I took :)