Today was the day of climbing. I was so thankful for my new tennis shoes for the hike, and the fact that it was a beautiful week of summer. There was this adorable breakfast spot (Angelo Pascucci) that we saw the day before and went in for our scrumptious pancakes with blueberries and ice-cream melting on top. They didn’t have the traditional cheese grits or french toast, but we were going to make due. Something we noticed was that there were people from all around the world, from all different ethnicities, but they all spoke English with an Aussie accent. Once we were full, we made our way to the bus stop and rode to the harbor. Sometimes, events can’t be planned and must be spontaneous. We noticed everyone getting off at the Sydney Museum, so be followed the crowd. Inside we found the history of this place we flew around to the world to see.

                 Apparently, Sydney started off as a convict colony. They rode in on ships and ran into the aboriginals. This scenario reminded me of the story of Native Americans. As we walked through the museum, we saw the various grains and materials that were distributed around the world, as well as a description of each ship that crossed in Australia originally. Each display went into the hardships and details of the construction of both the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. I don’t know how people from the 20’s could create such a substantial structure in the bridge and would love the listen to the mindset behind the construction of the opera house in the 60’s. We left the museum and made our way to the harbor.

                We had reserved to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge through the “Bridgeclimb” company located under one of it’s pillars.  When we went to sign in, they asked if we had eaten in the last several hours. This climb would be about 3 and a half hours from start to finish. That prompted us to walk down the street to “The Australian ” restaurant. I was hoping for pizza, but forgot who I was married to. One fact about Jordan is that he is the source of trying new things and going outside my comfort zone. I wanted a pepperoni pizza, and he ordered a crocodile meat pizza. “The Australian” was a pizza with crocodile, mushroom, olives and eggplant. Let’s just say that it tasted like chicken and cheese makes everything better. We walked back to the BridgeClimb and proceeded to sign our lives away on all the liability procedures. 

                They put us in fashionable, gray jumpsuits and attached strings to our “sunnies” (sunglasses), our hat, headphones and towels. They encouraged us to get “suncream” (sunscreen) and then showed us a mini climb within the building. We walked on a catwalk for a few minutes before reaching the first pillar. The most exhilarating part was climbing steep stairs and coming eye to eye with the cars crossing over the bridge. The best part was that I am completely out of shape, but they stopped several times for water and to talk about the history of the bridge through our headphones. The arch seemed easier to me as we walked across it. The water misters and sprayers probably helped with that. They stopped halfway to take a picture with the opera house in the background, and then walked to the top. That is where you saw one of the best views of the harbor, sailboats and city. They took a short video and snapped a few shots before turning around to go back. Jordan said that was where he took a mental snapshot to look back on later. 

                They wouldn’t allow us to bring cameras or phones onto the bridge (on fear of it dropping on a windshield below), so we ordered a couple pictures. Long story short, there was a hole in our bag and we lost the USB of pictures. We had stopped at a German restaurant    , walked around the left side of the bridge and had no idea where to find it. We walked back to the BridgeClimb and they ended up giving us all the pictures! After all of this, we chose to find a building that was closed by the time we got there and decided to lay on the grass overlooking the sunset and the bridge we had just climbed.