Wine, Beach, Harbor and Wine

If there was a theme to the weekend in Sydney it would have to be wine and sun.

We woke up Saturday morning to find clear skies without a cloud in sight so we decided we need to take advantage of the great weather by heading to Manly Beach. Before heading to the beach we made a quick photo stop at the North Head where the ocean meets Sydney Harbor. The North Head is a former military base to keep unwanteds out of Sydney but now is a nice national park with some spectacular views of the various bays of Sydney.

After snapping our pics, we headed back down the hill into Manly. There was quite a bit of traffic and after we parked we found out why. We happened upon the Manly Wine and Food Festival. Most impressive, it turns out Australians have solved the problem with trying to eat while holding a wine glass by devising a way to hang the glass around your neck. Brilliant, these Aussies.

The food queues (that's a line for you Americans) were quite long so after one we decided to sit down at a roof top bar for some pub food. Fortunately, the bar did not object to us bringing our own wine from the festival below (BYO is quite popular and acceptable in Australia). What better way to enjoy a rare, sunny day in Sydney in June than with glass of wine at the beach.

After another glass or two, a bit of shopping we headed to Balmoral Beach. The sun had gone down and it was getting a bit chilly so I switched from wine to hot chocolate. After a day of drinking we were too beat to do much so we went to the movies. Since we're in Australia, we decided to see an Australian flick called Sampson & Delilah. The film was sad and thought-prevoking and possibly not the based choice when tired since there is very little dialog or even sound but I would highly recommend it to anyone that is interested in the current state of affairs of the Aborigines in Australia.

Sunday started off looking overcast and cold but by the time we motivated to leave Paul's flat, the fog burned off and left us with another spectacular day. Today we decided to head to Darling Harbour to check out the Sydney Jazz & Blues Festival. As is turns out, the best way to listen to jazz is with a glass of wine so we continued where we left off Saturday.

We decided to listen to the main show over dinner at an adjacent restaurant with patio seating. I've been wanting to try Australian food since I arrived and decided that I would just get it over with and order the kangaroo. Angie ordered magyu, an Australian (and Japanese) beef and we split the two dishes. Kangaroo, while not bad, was like a chewy steak and not nearly as tasty as the magyu dish. In the future if I'm craving a steak I'll just order a steak (or ostrich) and leave the kanga to the Aussies.

Tomorrow we're off to the zoo so I can check out what my dinner looked like while it was still hopping around in the outback.