First of all, 35hrs of travel from Florida to Sydney, Australia is a LONG trip… even longer when you only nap periodically for a total of 4-5hrs on a 14hr flight from Los Angeles to Sydney. But it’s worth it… Sydney is beautiful.
The trip over wasn’t so bad, except for the LAX layover. I have a card to get into the Delta Crown Room which is very comfortable (who we flew from Jacksonville, FL -> Los Angeles), but because it was in a different terminal than our Qantas flight, we couldn’t get to it. So we were stuck huddling around one of the few power outlets charging our laptops, Zune, iPod, and phone with only Burger King & Starbucks for 9+ hours. Oh well… least I got some work done on my talks.
The flight over wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. Then again, Meredith my beg to differ as she went to sleep for a few hours, only to wake up and see we had 10+ hours remaining. Got some more work done and watched a few movies. What struck me was how long we were in darkness. Sun set in Los Angeles around 7p-8p or so. We boarded the flight around midnight and few in darkness until the final 1.5hrs remaining in the trip. Just weird… anyway. I did meet up with Joel Olson who was on the same flight over.
Upon landing, clearing customs, renting a local mobile phone (my OOF message has my local number in it if you’re trying to link up), Joel picked up his rental car and we headed to the hotel (for some much needed hot showers). Joel was inadvertently kind enough to keep the windshield very clean the whole way (inside joke :)). Met up with Angus, Fitz and others and toured the SPC conference facilities. Meredith, Joel, and I then headed down to King Street Wharf on Darling Harbour for lunch.
Meredith and I then headed over to the Botanical Gardens… wow… absolutely beautiful! Walking around, we had to see the Sydney Opera House & Sydney Harbour Bridge… duh! Both are very impressive to see in person… pictures really don’t do them much justice. After nursing two cappuccinos each (remember, 4hrs of sleep in 35hrs of travel, plus we’ve been up all day), we headed back to the hotel and grabbed a quick bite.
Unfortunately today I’ll have to focus on my slides and demos for the conference, but I’m sure we’ll slip away for some additional sightseeing.
Oh… the SharePoint spinner doesn’t spin counter clockwise in Australia. Oh well… :)
