December 14

We were off and running early this morning. We were to meet Kyle & Deb at the Powerhouse Museum at 9:00 a.m. The museum is hosting a touring Star Wars exhibit and the guys were anxious to see it. The exhibit was educational, as they had a lot of videos explaining how they went about doing various parts of the movies (sets, models, filming, actors, special effects, etc.). They also had hands-on experiments for kids to keep them entertained and not pushing the video buttons on every display while the adults were trying to watch the videos :) (ask Jeff how much he enjoyed the kids). The museum housed other interesting exhibits that we visited after a walk down to Darling Harbor for lunch.

For dinner, we found a nice restaurant near our hotel. We have learned a lot about dining in Australia. You don't tip here. That's an odd custom for us to get used to. The restaurants we visited in our first week here loved us, as we did not know that the "tip" is built into the price and tax (10% general sales tax on everything). You also have to ask for your bill in all restaurants. Dining here is very casual and they don't mind how long you sit at a table, as long as you leave when they are ready to close. It is really nice to be able to sit and visit for as long as you want!