Sydney 2000 Memories...

(I doubt my work memories will interest anyone but me... but I just wanted to document these experiences a little bit and its fun for me to reminisce).
The company I used to work for brought performance groups (dancers) over to Sydney, Australia to perform at Olympic Venues for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. I was lucky enough to travel to Sydney twice - once for a pre-trip to go check it out and plan the trip for our groups and once during the Olympics. These pics are all from our pre-trip. I wish I could find photos from our trip during the Olympics. If I do, I'll post them here. But for now...
This is a pic of the Botanical Gardens in Sydney. We went running every morning (at like 4 AM b/c our time clocks were so screwy) through the botanical gardens and along the coastline. This is one of my most vivid memories of Sydney. It was spectacular.

We stayed in the city for the pre-trip, but when we brought our performance groups we actually stayed north of Sydney on an island. We took a small boat to/from the island everyday. It was beautiful and remote.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbor Bridge. I actually climbed this bridge with a group of our performers during the Olympics trip. It was super fun.

The stage our groups performed on in Olympic park. (Among others, they also performed in town squares, an amusement park, etc.)

Sydney Harbor fountains. The Sydney Harbor is soooo spectacular, especially at night. Sydney is my favorite city that I've ever been.

Some Australian associates that I became friends with who helped us plan our trip. Whoa... I'm remembering some crazy stories right now about these guys. They were gay and they REALLY partied and told us some stories that made our sheltered Utah heads spin. But, good people that we enjoyed working with.

Auckland, New Zealand. We took just one day off work on the way to Australia and spent a day in New Zealand. All we had time for was a tour of Auckland. I would LOVE to go back there someday and explore the southern end, it is a beautiful place.

It's easy to see why SueAnn and I became such great friends. We had so many awesome experiences together. She is now the mother to 6 kids age 5 and under. Twin girls, triplet boys and a single boy. We don't see each other like we used to (her life is a crazy whirlwind), but she is still one of my favorite people and dearest friends. She doesn't blog, so she'll probably never see this post, but I love ya, SueAnn.