Happy 2013!

 Now that the rest of the world has caught up; Happy New Year!

We took a cruise out in Sydney Harbor to watch the fireworks from the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  It was a pretty good deal, we got to bring our own food and drink while they positioned us in the water to see the fireworks, which were pretty amazing. Unfortunately, since we were in a boat and moving most of the time, almost all of our pictures were pretty blurry.

Here is a picture of the sun setting over by Rose Bay where we docked for awhile.

I’m glad we didn’t stay there since the Royal Caribbean cruise ship would have been blocking our entire view of the bridge. It would be like going to the movies or a sporting event and getting to your seats only to find some 7 footer sitting in front of you. With a ginormous head. And an Abraham Lincoln hat. And an umbrella. And he’s surrounded by his entire family who are also all seven footers w/ huge heads, hats, and umbrellas.

We spent New Years day testing out our new wet suits:

Best Worst cure for a hangover: Snorkeling

As part of improving our blog in the new year, we are incorporating a new feature – a running tally of things that are better/worse/different (good +bad) in Australia/US.

Item #1: Chicken Salt

Maybe we have this in the US, but I never knew what Chicken Salt was before I got here. They put this on chips (fries) and other things. Turns out it is kind of like a granulated bouillon cube (not dehydrated chicken tears as I first thought). Chicken salt explains why they have chicken flavored crisps (chips) and crackers. Because how many times have you been eating a cracker and thought to yourself, “Hey, you know what would go great with this Ritz? Chicken flavoring!”

And if you guessed that the barbecue chicken flavored shapes are disgusting, give yourself a point

Chicken Salt? Negative 1 point for Australia.

(Looks like Australia may have already totally redeemed themselves as we discovered this morning that they are airing Mere’s favorite short-lived, prematurely cancelled NBC sitcom Perfect Couples. + 1 billion points for Australia)

Scoreboard:

Australia: 999,999,999

US: 0