This weekend we got in the car and drove an hour to the northern beaches. There are about 15 different beaches total and they run in a long chain. They are only divided from each other due to these steep cliffs which start and end each beach. The sand up north is red and really really soft, this is different from many of the beaches in Sydney. Because it is fall, the water is particularly warm, and ideal for surfing. These beaches are also known for their large waves (not really for kids) so there were lots of surfers out on Saturday when we came.
The water was so warm, Mary took off her pants to jump in but wouldn't take off her coat b/c the air was colder than the water.
See the cliff starting the beach? I am standing on the other side off the cliff...this is about beach #4...not sure which one but here are all the ones we hit: Palm beach, wale beach, Avalone, Bilgola, Newport, Bungan, Mona vale, Warriewood,Turimetta & last of all Narabeen, so 10 of them!
The entry way into Narabeen beach.
Avalone beach, on the other side of this road there is a bay of fresh water where all the boaters and water skiers go. So you really can have the best of both water worlds!
Narrabeen beach
Mary Bear at wale beach
Thomas is pretty excited to be out of the tent, we just finished our picnic!
Mary ready to jump in!!
Thomas and finally some hair...see it?
When the kids are a little bit older they can take surfing classes (starting at 8), this teaches them ocean safety etc... then we can take weekend trips up here as a family...which would be so much fun!!
Mary Bear, 3 years old. Mary's middle name is Adelle. She hates her middle name. If we call her Mary Adelle she screams that it is not her name. Her name is Mary A Swinton (not A like the letter, A like "uh") Mary...uh Swinton is what she says her name is :-)
We had to wear these funny suits (which you can't see b/c we have a rain coat over us) and lots of other climbing equipment. When we were doing the vertical part of the climb it started to rain pretty hard. I was a nervous about slipping and falling. We were harnessed to a metal wire so it wasn't that bad... I just didn't want to be dangling over the 6 lanes of traffic below. I was also worried about lightning since the whole bridge is metal. It turns out I was just paranoid because the leader has a radio and a weather report, so if lighting were to happen we would descend asap. Once the vertical part was over the rain stopped (of course). This was cool because we got to see three rainbows while climbing the rest of the way up (the archy part of the bridge). When we got to the top the sun started to set and it finished setting the whole way down and was dark when we got out. I wish I had better pictures but we couldn't bring our camera because it could fall (if we dropped it) onto a car below! Instead I had to settle for these pictures taken by our lead climber.
After the bridge climb we grabbed a cab and had dinner at Cafe Sydney (probably one of the nicest restaurants in the city). One of Stan's co-workers had connections and got us a reservation the day before. It was at the top floor of this tall building right it the middle of the harbor. You could see the opera house on the right and the harbor bridge on the left. It was cool to see the whole city lit up. About half way through dinner a lighting storm started, which just added to the magic of all the lights. The food was AMAZING! I have to admit that I have some biases when it comes to certain kinds of sea food and ingredients I am not too familiar with, but I am now a big fan of some new foods. (Don't ask me what they are...I don't think I could spell them let alone pronounce them). This restaurant was a performance from start to finish and I cannot say enough good things about it. It was a wonderful birthday!!
