The Young and the Restless

Bondi and beyond

We let the sun shining through the slits of the blacked out windows wake us up. Instead of becoming short order cooks buttering toast, cutting off crusts and pouring juice, we lay in bed scrolling through instagram feeds and watching YouTube clips. Breakfast of yogurt, muesli and fresh fruit was on tap with Good Morning America updating us on the latest Hollywood gossip in the background. It was such a slow and relaxing way to start our morning before hitting the streets hard. The famous Bondi Beach was on today's agenda.

To tell you the truth, it looked an awful lot like all the other beaches. Excpet with topless women. I'm thinking we'll skip this one when we bring the kids back in June. But a warm day at the beach is something I never take for granted. We dipped our toes in the water, skimmed a few magazines, facetimed some of our girlfriends in the states, told them we wished they were here, then headed out on the beautiful Bondi to Bronte cliff walk.

I have to admit that these ocean side pools that get filled with the tide are pretty dang cool. The kids would love this.

And they would love splashing in these tide pools. No matter how much I enjoy having a few days to myself, my kids are always in my thoughts. And I like that.

The walk was just gorgeous, spectacular views around every corner

We passed by Tamarama beach, otherwise known as "Glamarama" the "gay-orgeous" beach. Then made our way to Bronte where we, you guessed it, laid on the beach, flipped through some more magazines and took a nap as the sun soaked into our pasty white sunscreen slathered skin. It never gets old. Eventually we caught a bus and the subway back to the city where we freshened up for a night out.

I really wanted to see the Opera House at sunset and Melissa was so kind to oblige. First we strolled through the Royal Botanic Gardens and found some cool trees. So of course we had to take pictures with them. We tried different poses and different angles trying to avoid the sun casting shadows, only to have Melissa catch a glimpse of two teens in the background totally making fun of the old ladies taking pictures with trees. We used to be the ones laughing at nerdy old people, and now we were the nerdy old people. After the harsh reality check, we scooted along our way.

And after all that humiliation we didn't even get a decent picture

I love that golden hour when the sun slants just so and world turns a hazy golden hue. And no better place to experience it than at such an iconic landmark. We sat and watched all the brides and grooms strolling around, reminisced about our own weddings then sat in silence like a couple of old married people who had ran out of things to talk about. Which we decided was okay, we were perfectly content just sitting in silence soaking it all in. And taking pictures of the Opera House from every possible angle.

We then walked over to Observation Hill to watch the last of the sun slip below the horizon before heading back.

On the first day we were all gung-ho about the walking. Like yeah, let's pound that pavement! Let's experience the true grit of the city! Let's explore every nook and cranny! Let's go wherever our feet take us! Right about this time we were a few herkies short of a pep rally. We decided to take the bus back to our hotel, but could not for the life of us figure out which stop we needed to be at and which bus we needed to take. After being passed by the 5th bus and walking to our 4th stop only to find that Melissa had lost her transportation card, she had reached her breaking point, "holy $%#@!". All we could do was sit and laugh. I don't think I've ever heard her swear, but at that moment with her poor foot cracked and bleeding, hair matted to her head from the humidity, a pretty righteous sweat mark developing under my armpits and mascara smeared under my eyes, it was all too appropriate. We finally found a bus driver that took pity on us and let her ride for free. Carrying her home on my back was the back up plan. We stopped at a convenience store for some superglue to take care of her cracked foot needs, and some peanut butter & chocolate ice cream bars to take care of the rest of our needs. Gosh, I love this girl. Mild situational potty mouth and all.