Saturday walk in the park

Last Saturday was a lovely day, if a little bit cold in the morning. T had found a cool sculpture while I was away in SF, so we decided to go out for a morning walk and check it out. We headed down the hill toward Woolloomooloo. That big gray mass looks like a weird building, but it's the tower of a naval ship docked along the wharf in the navy base.

The pie shop wasn't open yet, but the birds were hanging out there by habit I guess. 

 

  We continued our way around the water to the sculpture. I've been that way before, but reading about it, I learned that it's placed in such a way that it's mostly submerged at high tide, which is maybe why I didn't notice it before. T noticed it because it also has sounds! They don't play continuously, but if you stick around, it plays parts of key speeches in Australian history as well as mechanical sounds to represent the influence of industry on the area. 

The sculpture from the path above

 

 

 

We sat by the water for a while and listened to the clips. It was just us and a fisherman down there, and it was so peaceful. 

  After our statue visit, we decided to walk into the Botanic Gardens and find a new building I'd read about. When we got into the main part of the garden, we saw something I'd never seen before: people were sticking their arms out to the cockatoos and letting the birds land on their arms and shoulders! It was crazy!

  At first I thought it was a tour group, but then we across a lone guy and he was doing the same. It was so strange, like we'd entered some alternate Disney universe where wild animals have no fear of you. The guy we came across was clearly a tourist (with some kind of Slavic accent maybe?) and asked us to take pictures of him while he got the birds to land on him. We did it, but the whole time I was thinking "I hope they don't come land on me!" I tried to look as uninviting as possible - those guys are big! And loud!

This is where I like my cockatoo - in a tree

We did eventually leave the birds behind and found the new Calyx building. It really is a striking building.

 

 

 

The Calyx hosts different exhibits, and right now there is one on about chocolate, and its journey from a plant to a commercial product. But you have to pay to go in the building and it was such a gorgeous morning, we decided to just carry on with our fun walk.

  We headed on down the hill toward Circulay Quay. There's always something going on or something to see down there, and this morning didn't disappoint: it was the Oreo Olympics!! You could sign a waiver and then "compete" in these goofy activities, but at the end you got to be rigged up and boosted up in the air! And you got some Oreos. I decided this was a worthwhile activity.

 

The best part!

And just to make sure T got equal picture time, I took his picture in front of these big ole plants.

It was a great way to spend a sunny, cool, winter morning!