Day 23 was slated to be a cultural day of sorts. Colleen and I wanted to visit a couple of the museums in town, and decided we'd try two. The first of the day was the Australian Museum. It had a special display on animatronics and special effects in movies, which was interesting. We paid to get in, and the extra fee for the animatronics section, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the museum. Not large, and mostly dedicated to Natural History, but it did have an incredible display on Indigenous Australians and gems and rock formations from around the world. One of the volunteers at the museum worked for IBM Australia at one time, and had worked on the split of Lexmark and IBM in Australia. He wanted to gab quite a bit, but we managed to beg off and move to another room. One thing he did tell us was that this month (February) was the most humid of the year for Sydney, which of course figures. Still, we move to cooler climes soon enough.

Our second stop was Art Gallery of New South Wales.. It was more fine art, paintings from around the world and Australian artists around the period of the settlement of the continent. They are featuring a Pissaro exhibit, but wanted $15 to view that portion, and neither of us are significant enough fans of his work to merit that fee. Otherwise, the museum was free. We did donate $5 for our visit. It was a nice museum, but large portions of it were closed. We had a light lunch there and then trudged back through the sweltering heat to the hotel.

The evening offered a dinner cruise on Captain Cook Cruises. We opted for the starlight cruise, though departure at 7PM in the summer still means it is daylight out. It is a 2.5 hour cruise that will offer some night shots of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It wasn't a bad deal all things considered. I was a bit annoyed that the service could have been better, and the cruise itself doesn't mention a cash bar, but we got a good picture taken by the cruise photographer, and potentially some decent pictures of the city line and the harbor and opera house at night. We'll see. I seem to struggle at night shots with this camera. I did have my first smoked salmon, and found it to be mostly like salmon. I am not sure why I thought otherwise, but smoked versus grilled or otherwise cooked salmon just struck me as potentially tasting different. Yeah, I am an idiot, sue me!

We took a cab home. The cab out was $20, mostly due to traffic issues. The cab home was $10. Same distance, just less traffic. I hate that about cabs. They charge me for sitting still. But, it meant we were back at the hotel before 10PM. That's nice. We stopped in at a bottle shop near the hotel, and bought a 6-pack of beer. Somehow, the prices are just stunning. I mean, beer is good, but paying more than $14 USD for a 6 pack is horrible. Oh well.

Cheers!