Okay.  I will not bury my head in the sand.  This day started out great and ended in grief.  Hearing that Donald Trump had been elected President of the United States has been devastating.  When I left for Australia on September 19th, I joked that if this election went badly, I would just hide out in Australia and not come home for the next four years.  Well, obviously, that is not going to happen.  I am going to breathe in and breath out and breathe in and breathe out.  I am going to finish my wonderful vacation; return to my home; connect with the people I love; try to understand how we got to this horrific place; and do whatever I can to work towards a better world. I know I don’t have the answers, but I believe we have to start listening to each other.  I believe we need to end this polarization and find a way to work together.

I can’t seem to fall asleep so I will distract myself by writing this post, uploading the photos from today, and hope that I get tired enough to close my eyes and go to sleep.

This morning we went to the fish market which also included a vegetable market today.  The vegetables looked beautiful but were very expensive.  Here are some of the photos.

We thought the oysters in the loser right were pretty huge.

There was a poster outside of the market that listed the men who were involved with the local fishing fleet.  They were all Italians.

After you accumulate $15 worth of rides on the Opal pass, you ride for free.  Since we had passes, we decided that we would take ferry rides and bus rides today to places that we wanted to walk.  We started to make our way to Darling Harbour.

I think this is cool bridge  is called ANZAC bridge.

We started to walk towards the ferry at Darling Harbor and decided to walk over the Piedmont Bridge which is a pedestrian bridge.  It got more crowded as we reached the other side.

We took the ferry from Darling Harbour to Circle Quay where we had been yesterday.  It was close to 10:00 and coffee time for Jan and Rose.  So we stopped and had coffee and tea along with delicious rolls that were served with chocolate dip – a bit decadent.

We took the ferry to Watson’s Bay in the Eastern Suburbs. From there we took a lovely walk along the South Head.  I loved the houses with porches

Here is a view of the city from South Head.

This man was fishing and told Jan and I that it was possible to catch large fish from where he was standing.

A couple more views from South Head Trail.

We passed the Hornby Lighthouse.

We also walked by an old cannon and several places where canons had been before.  There was a note on one of the explanation boards that said that some of the early canons had been to protect the harbour against Americans.

There were old tunnels near where the canons had been.

You can see the city in the background and the lighthouse through the mast of this sailboat.

I love the color of the trunk on this gum tree.

When we reached the Gap which is an ocean cliff on the South Head peninsula.  This area faces the Tasman Sea. Although the cliff is a popular visitor destination, it has gained infamy for suicides.

It was time for lunch and we found a fabulous health food restaurant.  My potato pancake and salad roll were delicious.  I even bought an extra salad roll to take for later in the day.

Then we took a bus to Bondi through Dover Heights.  Time for another walk along the cliffs from Bondi beach to Coogee Beach.  Between the beaches are cliffs.

This saltwater pool looks very inviting

We stopped to watch some people surfing.

Jan took my photo above Bondi Beach.

I loved watching the waves hitting the cliffs.  I was wishing I could be here on a really stormy day.

As we walked we passed cliffs, beaches, cliffs and more beaches.  We did not know who created this sculpture design on one of the cliffs or even what it meant.

This is Tamara Beach.  The lifeguards put up flags designating the area where it would be safe for people to swim that day.  The flags are not easy to see, but at this beach the area was very narrow.

In a couple of places there were sculptures.  Some of them had already been removed and were being taken to Perth.

This one had not been removed yet.

At one point they were doing repair work along the cliffs and we were diverted through Waverly Cemetery.   It is a very, very large cemetery and there are some famous people buried here.

The other beaches we passed before getting to our goal at Coogee Beach were Bronta Beach and Closely Beach.

At Coogee Beach there is a memorial for people killed in the Bali Bombing that happened in 2012.

I am a bit stunned right now posting this last photo of the day.

In Coogee we stopped for tea and talked with a young, American woman who has been living in Australia for the past 5 years.  We were watching the news updates about the election on our phones and not believing what was happening.  Then we got on the bus heading back to Central Station.  We went food shopping for our dinner and headed back to our apartment.  We had been trying to avoid  TV and any election news this entire holiday. Now we had to turn on the news.

It is at least 5 or 6 hours since we received the election results.  It is after 1:00 am in Sydney. The people I love back in the United States have either woken up or will be waking up soon.  We have not had just a nightmare.  This is our reality and we will move on from here.  I know there are many of us who will be working together.  Our children and grandchildren are counting on us.  We can do this. For now I must sleep  – if I can.