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What a great day! We took our time getting through breakfast and eventually headed out in the rain to get on a hop-on, hop-off bus for a tour of central Sydney. The only open seats were upstairs (no roof for protection from the rain), but Mary suggested we go for it, so we did. Great decision! We had umbrellas and the rain soon became a sprinkle and then completely stopped within about 30 minutes into our journey. We took photos from the bus and got off at only one stop – the Sydney Aquarium. We saw King penguins, a dugong, sharks, a demo of the Great Barrier Reef, etc.

A dugong is a mammal, much like a large dolphin. It feeds on seagrass, which is becoming much more difficult to find, do to expansion of commercial ports, sediment runoff and dredging in coastal areas, Thus, the dugong is close to extinction. The dugong we saw in the aquarium (named “Pig”) is 21 years old and is the same one we saw when we were here in 2010.

More hop-on, hop-off tomorrow, including a second route that we skipped today.

At the end of the bus trip, we saw a pub that we have often talked about returning to if “we ever come to Sydney again.” Well, here we are, so we went in, sat down at the bar and ordered: a Guiness for me and an XXX Gold lager for Mary. A great prelude to a relaxing dinner.

St. Mary’s Cathedral, where we will go for vigil Mass on Saturday. Other masses we go to will be at a church about three blocks from our hotel.
The Dugong at the aquarium
This photo of King penguins at the aquarium is for our friends on board the ship who missed seeing penguins in the Falkland Islands because the weather was too rough for us to go ashore there.
As the sign says, it’s the oldest pub in Sydney…
…and here we are inside the small pub

tSDavem