Lee - wish we had been there for the matches. Instead, you kindly arranged for the most spectacular weather for our sail in this morning to Sydney Harbor. Most appreciated! We hit the jackpot, as our suite faces the Opera House rather than the passenger terminal tonight.

Before I go any further, will someone write tomorrow to tell me the final score for the Cowboys vs. the Vikings football game? Thanks very much!

We finished off our sea day with saying farewell to friends and crew members. Our Nataliya sends her best to all of our CAMEL friends. Suzanne, she's very pleased to learn she inspired you to name your cat in her honor.

We test drove the 'white robe' evening with dinner in the suite last night. It was OK, but I think we messed up by ordering both courses at once. We jumped into our formal wear to say farewell to the crew and to play 'wheel of fortune'. We knew two of the answers just by looking at the word spacing. It was one of those awful cruise director moments: speechless. One answer was Harry potter with an unprounceable prisoner. We held fire on that answer, as team after team lost points for misspelling. That secured our second place finish. More points .. but no time to redeem them. Gary's got the Silversea visor for the low, low price of 85 points. Top prize was the luggage scale for 100 points.

We enjoyed a walk around The Rocks neighborhood in Sydney and the area near the Opera House. The Sydney Festival is on this weekend, so we took in the Ballet de Rua's matinee performance. It was super energetic and well received by the audience. We were in the Sherpa section of the auditorium, as it was sold out. The building does resemble a ship, so one could also think of it as sitting on the poop deck. No matter; we scrambled those steps with the best of 'em.

The sun gave way to clouds, so we headed in for showers and a taxi to our friends' home outside of Sydney. Last time we saw them both was their wedding day. We met their lovely six year old daughter. They also have a 1-1/2 year old puppy who was most welcoming.

I've got the boarding passes printed for tomorrow's flight and Gary's finishing the packing required for our onward flight. Time to sign off for now ... tennis to follow

Cheers, Anne