Today is our last day in Sydney before heading out to sea. We had dinner with everybody on Wednesday night at Caffe Roma in Kings Cross. It was real nice to get reconnected to everybody.

Jean and Renetta took the 2 1/2 train ride out to the Blue Mountains north of Sydney for the day. The girls had a little excitement on the return trip. Apparently they were in a "quiet car" and there was a young couple that got extremely agitated because a couple of people were talking a little too loud. It got to the point where there was yelling and screaming along with treats, so one of the passengers contacted the conductor and an hour later eight policeman arrived in the car and hauled off the man. Memories of Holland eh Jamie.

We were able to secure a "maxi-cab" to take the four of us to the port which was $60.00 AU and it accommodated the four of us including all of Renetta's luggage. The check-in process was very slick and we got our stateroom assignments without any delay. Unfortunately because of all of the check-in excitement I ended up missing the last presidential debate (telecast here at noon) so I'm not sure exactly what transpired. I'm a bit of a new hound, particularly in light of the 2016 presidential election process, but unfortunately the one real disadvantage that I have here onboard ship is that I feel somewhat isolated. All I have on the TV is FOX News, so that's very little news of any substance.

We're out and about today in and around Sydney as we don't push off until 4:30 p.m. today. The plan is to head out to Darling Harbour to some of the touristy shops and see if I can find four good bottles of Australian Shiraz (I'm allowed one bottle per person - and the good thing is the other three don't drink wine) so I'm going to take advantage of this while I'm on shore.

This is my first blog entry using my new SkyRoam server. I'm actually here in my cabin with 4G internet. The speed is amazing, even posting my photographs shot in RAW. This is an amazing deal at $10.00US for 24 hour use with a total of 5 devices. Those who travel and need the internet, you should have a look at this very portable internet access device.

This afternoon we all headed over to Darling Harbour on the "free" HAL shuttle. It was a nice touch that they added this for their customers. Darling Harbour is a very touristy area on the water with lots of neat museums and attractions. A quick walk along the boardwalk, a few shots and we headed back to make sure that we made Happy Hour. Thankfully, the casino opens tonight, then I'll have something to do.