20231211 AAAA Trip - Sydney, Australia Day 7 - Sea Life Sydney Aquarium - a fitting end to a great stay

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 86/105 - Sydney, Australia, Day 7, Sea Life Sydney Aquarium

Today is our last day in Sydney. We planned to make it a low-key day because tomorrow will come early...too early. Some idiot booked our flight to Dubai at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Who would make such a stupid booking? (That would be me) The taxi will pick us up tomorrow morning at 3 a.m. for the roughly half-hour ride to Sydney Airport.

For today's adventure, we decided on the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. Breakfast called first and we tried a place just down the road called Binge Kitchen. We ate outside just off the sidewalk and watched the workday start in Sydney.

I had the tasty breakfast BLT (just like a regular BLT)

Arlona had a breakfast wrap with eggs, bacon, and aioli

We booked the 10:30 a.m. entry slot at the aquarium so we headed west toward Darling Harbor and the aquarium after we ate.

The W Hotel on the right

The aquarium

Just hanging out near the water

Since we were early, we had to wait about ten minutes before entering. They sell a fixed number of tickets for each time slot to help with traffic control. There is a single path through the aquarium so sending in masses of folks would create logjams. Here are some of the aquatic creatures we saw.

The first thing you see when entering is a turtle, because who doesn't like turtles?

then you move past a variety of tanks featuring a variety of sea creatures.

Those eyes...

If you look closely, you can see a pair of black and white clownfish hiding in there

Lip filler?

Hey! You lookin' at me?

You lookin' at me???

That non-descript blob is an octopus

I need a vat of drawn butter, please

This was a highlight - two tunnels under the water where you are completely immersed in the action

This was so cool - the tip of its head was translucent

This is a dugong - a marine mammal and relative of the manatee

Like all mammals, they breathe air

The shape of their tail resembles a whale fluke whereas a manatee has a more fan-shaped tail

In the wild, they eat seagrass but in captivity, they eat lettuce - this one eats $AU18,000 worth per month

That equals 40kg or about 88 pounds of lettuce per day

It was also cool looking at the rays from up top

We continued to the next set of tunnels - this one featured sharks!

They also had a huge ray in this tank

It looks like a face, but this is the ray's mouth

Next up was the penguin area. They have gentoos and kings. They were fun to see, but nothing like seeing them in the wild.

This one was fascinated by a woman standing near the glass

It wouldn't leave and just kept staring at her

They had an entire room filled with columns of jellies

These sawfish are the craziest-looking things

Remora look like a cross between a shark and an eel

One more tunnel - with tortoises!

Our ticket also included free digital download photos. They're pretty cheese so I won't bore you with them, but here's a sample.

We really enjoyed the aquarium. We will be getting another dose on Wednesday as we're hitting up the Dubai Aquarium.

One thing we've noticed is that Aussies like their cars. We've seen several high-end vehicles. This one was stopped at a light as we walked back.

McLaren 720s

They run around $AU500,000, or around $US330,000

We headed back to the hotel to get our bags in order. Emirates has a 35kg (77lbs) checked luggage weight limit. The number of bags doesn't matter. The total weight does. The only restriction is that no single bag can weigh more than 32kg. Arlona's one, really stuffed bag comes in well under. My two bags are about 38kg, forcing me to pay for an additional 5kg at the rate of $100. It would be $200 if I waited until I got to the airport.

We were hungry and checked out a local chain called Betty's Burgers and Concrete Co. They have burgers, chicken sandwiches, and such plus ice cream blended desserts - that's the concrete part. We both had tasty burgers and split fries and onion rings. Like breakfast, we were on the street - this time at a table right on the sidewalk. It was good food and great people-watching. We walked the block back to the hotel.

We got showered and mostly packed. Before we turn in tonight, nearly everything will be packed except for the last-minute items like toothbrushes, deodorants, and so on. I will be setting the alarm for 2:30 a.m. (idiot) and the last mad dash will begin to catch the cab at 3.

Tomorrow is farewell to Sydney and Australia - it's been great, and hello to the United Arab Emirates and Dubai - we're looking forward to meeting you.