We’re in New Orleans for the first time since Jeff moved to Boston eight years ago; it’s the departure point for our cruise on the Lower Mississippi, starting Wednesday.

We got to San Jose Airport earlier than we needed, so, as usual, we walked almost the entire length of the terminal to burn off some calories. In the process, we discovered an extension at the north end (gates 30-36) that we’d never seen before this trip – I looked it up later, and it’s been open for more than four years!

Our flights were mostly boring (which I think is the best kind of flight). We had nearly two hours to kill between flights and took advantage of Priority Pass to go to “The Club at DFW” – it’s in two or three disconnected rooms and makes The Club at SJC look like a palace. When we boarded the flight to New Orleans, they said that they expected a rough flight and that there wouldn’t be any beverage service; the seatbelt sign stayed on the entire time, but the flight was mostly smooth anyway.

This was our first encounter with the new New Orleans Airport; it’s a 21st Century airport (unlike the old terminal building, which left nearly everything to be desired). It still has a little personality, but it was mostly Yet Another Airport, at least for the short time we were there.

We took a Lyft into the city; the driver apologized for the car, telling us that it was a short-term rental. He’d been carjacked two weeks ago on St. Charles Avenue near Lee Circle, and was waiting for the police to declare that his car was gone so that insurance would pay for a replacement!

Now we’re comfortably ensconced in the Intercontinental Hote just outside the French Quarter, enjoying watching the lightning and listening to the thunder. My phone just told me the area is under a flood warning, but I think we’ll be OK here on the 9th floor.

When we awoke for our final morning on Celebrity Edge, the ship was docked at the Overseas Passenger Terminal. We had breakfast, complete with a stunning view of the Opera House, and then it was time to disembark.

The process was smooth (carrying our luggage ourselves saved a lot of time). We took the five-minute walk to the Circular Quay Railroad Terminal, bought our tickets, and were at the International Terminal about twenty minutes later.

We did a little last-minute shopping before going to the lounges. United doesn’t have a lounge in Sydney, so we had our choice between Singapore or Air New Zealand – we tried both. Singapore had much faster wifi and someone making coffee drinks to order (the mocha was great); Air New Zealand was a bit more open and modern and appeared to have a better bar. Both lounges were quite busy, probably because of Taylor Swift.

Our flight home arrived at SFO 30 minutes early, which was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, seven other flights arrived at about the same time, and it took about an hour before we got our bag. After that, it was a quick ride home, followed by a trip to the Farmers’ Market and Lunardi’s to restock the fridge for the next week.

We were supposed to arrive in Sydney at about 8am, but that hour found us about 30 miles offshore. The weather and waves were above the limit for a ship of our size, so they basically put us in a holding pattern until conditions improved; we finally entered the harbour a few minutes before 10.

We were on a tender not long afterwards, and in front of the Opera House at 10:30.

We walked over to the Sir Stamford Hotel to meet our guide for the day, Terry Rogan of Picture Me Sydney, who was taking us to the Blue Mountains to enjoy the wildlife and scenery. Our first stop was Calmsley Hill City Farm, where we had a date with a koala!

The farm had lots of other wildlife, including wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, and emu.

We left the farm and drove into the Blue Mountains National Park, stopping at Wentworth Falls. The fog and mist were pretty thick, but we enjoyed walking through the area.

We left the Falls and drove further into the Blue Mountains, stopping at an area where kangaroo roam freely.

We stopped at the Three Sisters, but the fog was too dense to see them.

We got back to Sydney just in time to catch the last tender to the ship so we could do our final packing.

Another day at sea, as promised. We kept busy with lectures, walking, anxiety packing, and eating.

Captain Costas gave a fascinating talk about the ship, how it works, some of its innovations, navigation, the ship’s org chart, and much more; it was booked for 45 minutes but he ran for nearly 90…and no one told him to stop. :-)

After that, Celia Garland gave us her last talk for the cruise, this one on Wild Australia (not everything there is out to kill you, but quite a lot is!).

In the afternoon, we went to the Senior Officers’ Cocktail Party in the Eden Lounge; the corridor leading to the lounge is…umm…interesting.

And then it was our last dinner in Luminae, followed by a show (“Colors of Life”) in the main theatre, which I enjoyed; the music was mostly recent rock songs, and the cast did a good job with it. The acrobats were good, too.

We anchor in Sydney tomorrow; we had intended to leave the ship with our luggage and stay at an airport hotel overnight, but the logistics started to get very complicated, so we’re going to come back to the ship after our tour and leave on Sunday morning for our flight home. I think I successfully cancelled the airport hotel. I hope so, because it was more than double what we paid there last year – Taylor Swift is here with the Eras Tour this weekend, boosting the local economy.

Today was the first of our two scheduled Days at Sea. It’s been cloudy, cool, and windy, but that didn’t stop us from going to the gym, doing many laps on the track, and getting in the hot tub. It also didn’t stop us from eating. :-)

We attended another terrific lecture from Celia Garland, this time on Seals and Sea Lions (among the things we learned was how to tell seals and sea lions apart: if the animal has visible ears, it’s a seal; if not, it’s a sea lion).

The ship brought some Australian Border Force officers on board to clear everyone through immigration today; I suspect that this is a prime assignment for the Border Force officers!