Mellow, Maritime Monday

Mark and I went out walking this morning for exercise, and also so that he could scope out the place where his Apiales meetings are going to be this week.  They are meeting at the herbarium in the Royal Botanical Gardens.  The humans were very peaceful in the garden.  The birds, the names of which we have yet to learn, were making a racket, and it was not a friendly racket.  I commented that a recording of this group would be appropriate for the scary moments in a movie.

When we returned to the apartment to rouse the boys, we decided to head out to Sydney Harbour Bridge.  This bridge was built in the 1930's and has a pathway for pedestrians, as well as cars, and railway cars.  They are not apparent in the photo, but some people do the very popular bridge climb up and out of the archways of the bridge while wearing rock climbing harnesses.

The walk gave us beautiful views, and after walking around North Sydney a bit aimlessly, we decided to return to Darling Harbour via a water ferry.  This gave us a nice water view of "The Rocks," the oldest part of European settled Sydney.  It may be too simplistic to say that this is where they dropped off the convicts in 1788, but that is more or less the original British oriented start of this historic district.  The aboriginal peoples lived there for thousands of years before this.

We made the return trip to Darling Harbor for two reasons.  First, Alan had been talking about gelato non stop.  Next to the IMAX there was a gelateria that sold 16 types of chocolate gelato (along with an equal number of non chocolate flavors.)  Alan was so on message about gelato that we all decided that would make lunch.  Once we got to the gelateria, though, Alan smelled Subway and moved in a different direction.  The remaining three family members, who had been thoroughly brainwashed to desire gelato, kept on mission.  We tried a chili chocolate gelato--I liked it, Mark will likely not have it again.  It's good though--cold temperature with a warm after glow in the mouth.

Our second mission was the National Maritime Museum.  We walked through the door and Mark especially wanted to see the replica of HMS Endeavor, Captain Cook's ship that also carried wealthy amateur botanist Sir Joseph Banks and Linnaeus' student Solander.  "She's in Darwin," we were told, apparently going around Australia this year.  But a reconstructed 1608 Dutch trading ship called the Duyfken was in port.  The other attractions were the submarine  HMAS Onslow and the destroyer HMAS Vampire.  All those sub movies do a good job giving the sense of little space, but still, being in the space itself caused me to give a lot of admiration to anyone who chooses this line of service.  John Roy is standing near three bunks, above.  Yes, that is three bunks:  top middle and very bottom.

The seamen's galley on the Vampire.  One breakfast item: 'yippy beans.'

The destroyer had more space, of course.  Vampire had a peaceful service, and was used for training near the end of her commission.  One of the best parts of this museum was that the ships were staffed with volunteers, and without even asking, you could tell they were all ex-service men.  The last volunteer, on the sub, found out that John Roy was going to begin a welding program.  He hailed JR over, sat him down, and talked to him for a good ten minutes about how he needs to get his welding "ticket," and then continue to do a program for pressure welding, a higher skill area of use in maritime manufacturing.

I have to admit, that left to my own, I never would have gone near this particular attraction.  Goes to show you though, learning from enthusiasts is interesting, almost no matter what.  I ended up really liking our time on the three ships. Good thing, since we didn't have time to see the inside museum displays, and the boys have asked me to take them back!

Mark's meeting began this evening with an opening reception of about 30 scientists.  The boys and I stopped at a grocer and cooked.  Alan got ready made chicken schnitzel and chips.  He was delighted that the chicken was in the shape of a heart.  JR and I were more healthy and cooked veggies, salad and meat.  It was nice to not to have a restaurant meal and maybe ameliorate the gelato lunch.  Maybe.