Beach with the Fosters

Today I met up with the Fosters (close family friends through baseball) to see the Westfield Tower and check out the awesome views of the city. 

A look out the window from the tower

Afterwards we caught a ferry over to Manly Beach to hang out before some cooler weather came in. With overcast cloudy conditions and mild temperatures, we went over to check out the view from Manly's beach walk and saw tons of crabs along the rocks washed up from crashing waves.

Manly pool overlooking the ocean

From there we wrapped up our trip to Manly and caught the ferry back to Circular Quay (near the Opera House and their hotel) to regroup before grabbing some dinner. With the Melbourne Cup Race taking place earlier in the afternoon (the equivalent to the Kentucky Derby), restaurants and pubs around the Rocks area of Sydney were all quite busy, so we grabbed some takeout pizzas from a nice old Italian restaurant and ate in what was a calm and quiet Circular Quay. It looked something like this...

Circular Quay at night

We then got to take advantage of some delicious gelato and continued enjoying our view and catching up.

Unfortunately over the next couple days our schedules will diverge and next time I run into the Fosters we will be back the US. I had a blast getting to see them and it was certainly an awesome experience to take in this side of the world with some familiar faces.

Nate and I the other day at the Opera House (no idea who the randoms are on the stairs)