For our last dinner together with Maddy, we took Gene Ulm's advice and went to Phillip's Foote in the Rocks. It's a grill your own meat (they have the meat) place with lots of courtyards. It was a pretty male-dominated place, but we still enjoyed it.
Lots of businessmen boozing and steaking it up. Carol and I each had the Sydney cut -- commonly called a New York strip in the States, while Maddy had a marinated kebab. I handled the grilling duties, and finally had my first beer in Australia since 1989. A lot has changed -- I'm not sure Foster's is even brewed anymore, as I did not see it for sale anywhere, or advertised anywhere.
I googled Foster's, but the only information alluded to a massive failure late last decade, before it was bought in 2011. Weird.
After dinner, we cabbed over to Darling Harbour to walk around and get dessert. It's quite the lively spot as well. After that, we grabbed another cab, dropped Maddy off by the Town Hall train station after saying our goodbyes. We won't see her again until December 1st, when she returns from her great adventure.
It was tough to say goodbye. One minute we were exploring New Zealand together, or seeing her favorite city (Sydney) through her eyes, and then she's off. Like Julia in South Africa, it was great being with her. There was never a sense of "I'd rather be with my friends than my parents" -- partly because we had such great adventures in NZ, partly because she's no dummy -- we were footing the bill for meals, stays, and activities, and partly, I assume, because she did miss us.
After she got out of the cab, our driver inexplicably tuned from classic rock to rap. He sorely misjudged his riders. After a few irritating moments of that crap, I punch the off button to stop the caterwauling. It cut into his tip.
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