I suppose "DUW" could be "dial up warning" like always, which is true, or, "down under warning!" 
Anyway, finally went through the 2000 pictures we took and picked a few (more like 100 or so) to share with you all.
This was a PHENOMENAL vacation and I'm not sure I can ever take another to top it. In total, we spent just over 11 days in Sydney. Everything was as perfect as it ever could have been. The flights were decent (as much as a 20 hour trip on a plane can be anyway), the food was amazing (they're LIGHT years ahead of American food), the sightseeing was top notch, the weather was GREAT (their winter and their second wettest month of the year but it was mild and dry the whole time!) and the kicker... Stefanie accepted my marriage proposal!!!!
So the trip basically went like this...
We left Orlando on Friday the 19th on a flight to LA. We left LA headed to Sydney and arrived in Sydney (after crossing the international date line and losing a day) on Sunday morning, the 21st at about 610am (local time). It rained for the first 10 minutes of our trip to the hotel and only rained for about 10 more minutes of our entire trip.
We arrived at the hotel about an hour and a half later and the hotel let us check in early at no charge! Stefanie walked into the room at 8am and went straight to the window and gasped! Our room looked directly at the Opera House and harbour with the Sydney Harbour bridge off to the left. It was a fantastic view to have for the next 11 days.
We dropped our bags and immediately set off on our first activity. We had a breakfast cruise on the Sydney Harbour. I figured after 24 hours of airplane and airport food, we could use a nice sit down meal, and it was GREAT!
This was the view of our hotel from the harbour while waiting for the cruise ship:
This was the view of the sky clearing up from the blah clouds while on the cruise ship. Bonus was the view of the bridge and opera house!
As we go under the bridge...
My trusty telephoto lens allowed me to zoom in on the Sydney Tower. This is 360 degree lookout point in the center of the city. It's the tallest building in the southern hemisphere!
After our breakfast cruise, we decided to do some exploring in "the rocks" district. So named because the early settlers used the naturally occuring sandstone to make most of their buildings. Is it easier to accept being arrested and taken to the police station if it's as beautiful as this?
On Saturday and Sunday, The Rocks has a market where the local artists and craftsmen come to sell their products. It's great! We spent a few hours exploring and walking off our breakfast
We arrived back to the hotel in the late afternoon and unpacked. We rested for a few hours as we were EXHAUSTED! Grabbed some dinner and crashed for the night.
Monday, the day I had been planning to propose for MONTHS! I wake up, concerned about the weather, look out the window and see this:
Uhhh ohhh... Not good outdoor-proposal weather!! So anyway, off to breakfast we go to a local diner named "brew". I don't drink coffee, but Stef does and swears she can never go back to her beloved Starbucks after Brew! Breakfast was great, again!
After that, we were off to the Sydney Aquarium. Lots of cool indegenous animals (and non-indegenous too) there, for sure!
Platypus
ENORMOUS CRABS!
The worlds smallest penguins, indegenous to Australia. One of Stefs favorite animals - if not her favorite.
A little turtle love!
That's just a sampling of all of the pics. So, after the aquarium, it's time for my "surprise" for Stefanie. I've told her I have 2 surprises for her on this trip, and today is one of them. We head back towards the hotel, but instead, I have the cab driver drop us off at the Opera House. I tell Stef that I wanted to spend a few hours walking on the Royal Botanic Gardens (which border the Opera House). Unfortunately it's winter so there are very few flowers, but the ENORMOUS trees haven't dropped their leaves. Probably because it only gets down to about 50 degrees at night in the winter and hits mid 60's to 70 during the day. So, I think it's GORGEOUS in the gardens but Stef isn't nearly as impressed due to the lack of flowers. But she's a good sport and indulges me. At this point, she thinks the surprise is the walk through the gardens so she's a little disappointed.
A picture of the bridge (I took it to show the sky was clearing up and that it was a sign I was supposed to propose on that day).
The first plants by the entrance to the gardens
I had Stefanie stop along the path at this point so I could take her picture because you can actually see the point where I'm going to propose. It's on a lookout platform just above the water taxi.
You can tell by her body language that she's a little let down with my "surprise" at this point.
Very "central park" like:
Stef got VERY excited when we spotted these cockatoo's up in a tree.
They were cleaning and loving on each other and again, I took this as a good sign!
The first (and possibly only) tree Stefanie got excited about:
We were getting closer and closer to the point I planned to propose to her and I was getting MORE AND MORE NERVOUS! I had to take a lot of pictures to calm my nerves and give myself a chance to collect my thoughts and go over what I planned to say. A willing tourist snapped a pic of us about 1/10th of a mile from the point.
There was no turning back now! It was time to start telling Stef the history of the area and why I'd really brought her here. At the end of the natural peninsula of the gardens, there is a place known as "Mrs Macquaries chair". The history is this: back in the early 1800's, Mr. Macquarie was the Governor and his wife loved nothing more than to stroll to the end of the peninsula and sit and watch the ships come in and out of the harbour. The Governor, as a demonstration of his love for his wife, had a "chair" carved into the natural sandstone at the end of the point. I told Stefanie that I wanted to bring her there so that we could experience those same views that Mrs Macquarie enjoyed over 200 years ago. She enjoyed that part, even though I was uncharacteristicly nervous and stammering during the story. A picture of us at Mrs Macquaries chair (not in the actual chair though, just at the top of the stairs sitting on a ledge).
Do I look like I'm going to crap my pants or what?? lol!!!
So from there we go up to the lookout point, called Mrs Macquaries point. When we get there, there are about 25+ tourists snapping pictures of the harbour, the opera house, and the bridge. It's BY FAR the very best view of all three in the entire city. Within, literally, 5 seconds of arriving at the point, the tourist crowd scatters and it's just Stefanie and I. ANOTHER SIGN!!! At this point, my stomach is cutting back flips and turning inside out. I take Stefanie to the end of the point and both of us feel like our breath has been taken away. It's ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!
So, I turn Stefanie to me and begin to tell her why I truly brought her here today. I told her that I felt this point truly represented what our relationship was about. I told her that in my mind, the leisurely walk through the gardens represented the first 2.5 years of our relationship. It was beautiful, and immense, and breathtaking. And that the view in front of us, the harbour, opera house, bridge and city represented our future. Built on a solid foundation and something that other people could look at and agree that it's beautiful, and amazing. At this point, I start tearing up because if you couldn't tell, I'm a bit of a romantic guy.
Then, I asked Stefanie to recall a conversation we had early in our relationship in which we both had talked about how we were both "givers" and had both been taken advantage of in the past and that our recipe for success would be to always give to the other person to the point that we made them feel like they weren't doing their part. We figured that if we both treated the other so well that they felt like they needed to do something to catch up, we could last forever. She remembered that conversation. So, I then told her that she had the unique opportunity, in that moment, to make me feel like I could NEVER do enough for her, and all she had to do was say "just one word". Then I dropped down on my knee, whipped out the ring and asked her to marry me.
Stefanie used to always laugh at the girls on TV or in stories who just lost it and couldn't stop crying when their boyfriends proposed to them and forgot to say yes. Stefanie became one of those girls! All she could do was shake her head because she couldn't talk. I was so excited I forgot to put the ring on her finger and jumped up to hug her. Then I remembered and I slipped the ring on her finger and for the next 10 minutes, a bomb could have blown up beside us and we never would have known. We were so consumed with each other and the beautiful view that nothing could interupt us. Eventually, we walked away from the point to a bench on the side to just look out over the water at the city. On the way, I managed to get this picture, which she objected to vehemently!
She hated the fact that I had a picture of her all "splotchy" from crying. But to me, it's the most beautiful picture I've ever taken
After sitting on the bench, we walked back down to the waterside path and started to head back to the hotel. We stopped on the way to get our picture taken under a cliff.
When we got back to the other side of the water (still in the gardens), I snapped a picture of the view looking at us where I proposed.
The exact point is where the "X" is:
That night, after eating, we decided to just take a walk in the city and I managed to snap this pic from the harbour.
Night pictures are NOT easy to take!
The next morning, I of course, couldn't sleep and dragged Stefanie out of bed at about 5:30 to take her back to Mrs Macquaries point because in all of the excitement the day before, I forgot to take pics! I wanted some of the sun rising from that point. This is the view we had during my proposal (only, in the morning - not in the late afternoon):
A few minutes later as the sun was actually lighting up the city:
The same place, just looking at where the sun was rising:
Oh, after proposing, I told Stefanie what surprise number 2 was. I told her I contacted a photographer in Sydney who was going to take our engagement photos right there in the city. Before meeting Stefanie, I didn't even know what photos were, but after learning about them, and knowing they were a HUGE deal to Stef, I just knew we had to do it. So, we spent the next 2 days shopping for outfits for Stefanie and I to wear in the pictures. If you want to see them, click here and scroll down a bit. We like 'em
Just like this post, those pictures are just a small sample of all of the pics
After doing all of our shopping, we decided it was time for more animals and we took off for the Taronga Zoo. It was a short ferry ride across the harbour and we were there! This is BY FAR, the BEST zoo I've ever been to. On top of that, it has the most amazing view of any zoo in the world (just a guess).
Here are a few pics from the day!
I don't remember what this was called and couldn't get a decent picture of it because it kept hiding, but it was COOL!
Red Panda - can I have one? Or twelve??!!
These make our ducks look so ugly!
Time for one of the cooler moments on the trip. We saw this wallaby in an enclosue that you're allowed to walk into and interact with the kangaroos and wallabys. Notice anything special?
How about now?
HOW FRIGGIN COOL IS THAT??!! A little joey sticking out of her pouch and she just let me come right up and pet her! WOW!
It was time for us to go and catch a ferry back to the hotel. It looked like it was going to rain, but it never did. But we did get to see this...
Neat huh?!
We also went sand boarding while we were there. VERY cool! 100ft sand dunes with sand like snow powder! You sit down on what looks like a long skate board with a front lip and lean back and just GO! The only thing that sucked was walking back up the hill! lol We went on a dolphin watching cruise after that which was decent as well. But living in Orlando, we can see dolphins whenever we want so it wasn't too big of a deal. Still fun though.
Our final animal adventure (Stef loves animals as much as I do) was the Featherdale wildlife park. A very different experience from the Taronga Zoo. Not nearly as large or diverse, but very hands on! Definitely worth the trip. This was the first thing we did when we walked in...
Did you notice it's licking Stef? HOW COOL!!
Wallaby's, kangaroo's, and emu's as soon as you walk in! Everywhere!
Oh yeah, and koalas! We had our picture taken with a koala at the Taronga zoo, but you couldn't touch them there. At featherdale, you could. They're SO soft!!!
Emu's are pretty aggressive when they eat ice cream cones full of feed!
The littlest wallaby we saw!
A southern hairy-nosed wombat!
An echidna
Man! These things look like they COULD be dangerous!
Peregrin falcon
File snake
My favorite python!
Maybe a dingo ate your baby!
Dingo pup!
Waaaay too friggin cute!
Albino wallaby!
A cassowary. Apparently, they're quite dangerous due to the HUGE talons they have on their feet!
This was REALLY cool. We were walking from one exhibit to another and I thought I saw a monitor basking in the sun. As we got closer, I saw it was a piece of wood!
The wallaby's will lick you!!! Their tongues feel almost as rough as a cats tongue
Bob really liked Stef
The last day, literally a few hours before we had to be at the airport, I realized we hadn't walked on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. So I dragged Stef up there for a few pictures. This was one of my favorites!
That's pretty much it. Like I said, the vacation of a lifetime with the pictures to prove it
Thanks for looking and I'll be SHOCKED if you've read this far
jb
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Jonathan Brady
My best advice I can give you for your marriage is always remember Stefanie is not just your wife she is also your best friend. We all know we can tell are best friend anything and they will always be there for you. I wish you two a long and happy life together. Thanks for posting the pictures I really enjoyed looking at them as I have never been to Australia. I always knew you like red heads after you first posted pictures of Rose. Now that you have the best looking red head in Florida I will take Rose off your hands. LOL
