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.

Sydney. Where dreams come true. Or something like that.

You know when you're younger you always get asked the same question. Besides, "what do you want to be when you grow up?", or "when was the last time you changed your underwear?", it seems like everyone is always interested in, "if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?". Australia. Always and forever it has been Australia. Except for a short stint in third grade where I thought an African safari would be pretty rad. And then I figured I would probably get eaten by a lion. So it was back to Australia by default. And then Finding Nemo came out and it sealed the deal. So pretty much that first step off the plane was when all of my wildest childhood dreams came true (except the dream where we won the Disneyland contest we entered in at Hardees). And Sydney sure did not disappoint. With her endless blue skies, golden sand beaches, New York City vibe and the ever photogenic Opera House. I love my kids, but I loved the chance to just wander the streets without complaints of tired legs, or searching for a potty, or lugging around a pantry full of food in my purse. Melissa and I just drank up the sights, inhaled the smells and ate our way through the city. We pounded that pavement until our feet were blistered and bleeding and then fell exhausted at the end of the day into the crisp white sheets or our luxury downtown hotel in the heart of it all. It was fabulous. Every single bit of it. Except there were no wild kangaroos hopping around like they did in my childhood fantasies. I guess you just can't win 'em all. 

We took the ferry over to Manly Beach. It was a gorgeous ride through the harbor, admiring the coastal mansions and nudist beaches. Thankfully those were just out of eyesight. We just so happened to be there during the big Gay Pride festival and met some new friends on the ferry boat who assumed we were there together celebrating the festival. We got asked that a lot. We also saw some people parasailing and considered it for a hot second until our friends casually commented on Manly harbor being one of the most popular shark hang outs. Instead we opted to just lay out and soak up the sun then lazily stroll through the charming streets before grabbing some lunch at a streetside cafe. If that sounds perfect, it's because it was.

We debated whether to do the Sydney Harbor Bridge climb, but at $200 a pop we decided that money could be better spent on things like gelato and overpriced souvenirs. We did the pylon lookout which was only $13 and still produced the same spectacular views. And we didn't even have to climb 1,437 stairs. Our glutes thanked us.

See that middle climber. He looks like he's about to kill over. That would have been me.

We strolled (because "strolled" sounds much more fabulous than "walked") through the Rocks district. It had me at hello with it's cobblestone streets, brightly painted doors and charming cafes.

We hit the Chinese night market. I was all guns blazing ready to see some scorpions on a stick and fried spiders, just like one would expect a decent Chinese night market to have. Instead it was all bejeweled iphone cases, Hello Kitty footwear and knock off designer sunglasses. La-aaame. But there was a cool vibe and a warm glow in the air.

And then we (meaning me) had our (my) heart set on this homemade noodle shop that I was certain would be just like THE best homemade noodle shop in New York's chinatown with it's hand pulled and hand shaved noodles that we craved all day errry day while we were there. We spent more time than I'd like to admit weaving through dark alleys and keeping our heads down while speed walking past the drunk lunatics, but we eventually found it. We were immediately ushered into the closet sized restaurant and seated at the same table next to strangers. We ordered our food then waited while we went through our second set of tablemates who got served long after we had ordered our food. I finally went up to the register a little annoyed to ask about our order, which she said was the next one up. Only then did I see the sign saying "cash only". Which we didn't have cash. And so we hid our tails between our legs as we did the scurry of shame out of there with a trail of Chinese curse words following closely behind. Ahhhh....such fond memories. And the party was only beginning.

Just killing time

I was giddy as a little kid on Christmas Eve when Melissa came. I just loved having her as a part of my daily life, even if it was only for a week. Helping me chop veggies in the kitchen, sitting shotgun while we do the carpool runs and staying up late at night feeding our nacho and chick flick craving. I loved it all. We had a few days to kill in between our west coast trip and our big Sydney escape, so we filled it with lunch dates with Jason (that was his idea, and I thought it was so cute that he wanted to dine with his sister wives)

A rowdy match at the Cricket World Cup. We had no idea how the game was actually played, but it was the world cup and I got free tickets through the kid's school so quite naturally we brought our game faces and made a morning of it.

The kids introduced her to the flying fox and mega slides that are a part of every playground when you live in a country without lawsuits.

And then we made total dorks of ourselves at the Spectrum Street Art Festival

Sexy pose fail

And we'll call this one the Steven Tyler

And of course we had to fit in a beach day with all the sunshine. And introduce her to sushi for the first time. Just chicken california rolls, but that's about as adventurous as we both get. Ryder joined us for this outing and I love how Melissa loves my kids like her own. I read somewhere that the best thing you can do for a friend is to love her kids. It is so true. Friends don't come much better than this girl right here, so grateful to have her in my life.