Day 1 - Sydney - WOW!

So, we made it. With a plethora of movies, TV programs, games and ambien sleeping pills to choose from, the 14 hour flight flew by (pun intended). We landed at 6:15am and by 7:30am we were at our hotel in Kings Cross (one of the four main areas of Sydney).

After getting settled, we took a half-day trip to Manly Beach, which is a 20 minute ferry ride through the harbor. The views of the Sydney skyline, Harbor Bridge and famous Opera House are spectacular from the ferry.

Greg, Dave and Mo with Sydney's Harbor Bridge in the background

Dave and Matt with the iconic Opera House as a backdrop.

Sydney skyline from the ferry to Manly beach

Mo and Dave enjoying the scenery from the Manly Beach ferry

Manly was a delight - great beach town with fun restaurants, beautiful beach esplanade and what looked like solid surf.

The boys gettin their feet in the sand for the first time this trip.

When we returned from Manly, we strolled the streets of Sydney including the city's main thoroughfare, George Street (think Michigan Ave in Chicago), stopping and enjoying beers and cocktails along the way. After some beverages, grub and what felt like miles of walking, we made it back to our hotel to shower and change for the night.

Travel In Sandals crew getting ready to hit the town in Sydney...yeah, that's a bunk bed.


Greg and his bag of 5-hr energy...when you're up for 24hrs you need it...five to be exact.

We did happy hour with our new friend Kelly who we met earlier in the day on the subway. Her and her co-workers - Ben, Amanda, Paula, Maria and others - showed us a good time at CARGO in Darling Harbor...or we should say, we showed them a good time.

From Left: Kelly, Mo, Dave, Matt, Greg, Paula, Ben and Amanda

Casual beers and cocktails turned into sake bombs and shots. So much so that we got other patrons in on the action...so much so, the restaurant implemented the city's SCA law on us - Sales and Consumption of Alcohol act. Yep, we got cut off at the restaurant...at 8:45pm!

Matt and Greg recruiting other patrons to join in on the sake bomb debauchery.

No matter, after our grub we were back on track making friends with the beautiful girls at the table next us - Michaela, Jo, Jennifer and Cassie (aka Jenny Bangs the architect).

The Travel In Sandals crew with our new friends in tow did a Sydney club-crawl hitting The Ivy, The Establishment, a place we can't remember and a final stop at Retro, where 80's pop was the music genre of choice - Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" was a crowd favorite.

From left: Cassie, Jo, Greg, Jennifer, Dave, Matt, Mo and Michaela

After a 4am gyro, we called it a night. Solid start to say the least. Curious and excited to see what day two has in store - Bondi Beach!