36 hours in Sydney

As far as cities go, Sydney will always be my first love. We weren't able to spend much time there on our most recent trip back - more of a bookend to the two weeks - but we made sure that we stayed in a hotel in the heart of the city for our first two nights back.

Experience has taught us that the best way to adjust to the time zones is to force ourselves right into the swing of things and forget about naps - no matter how exhausted we are, no matter how early our flight arrived (6.30am!). We keep the whip cracking, run the kids ragged all day, and then we tend to all fall into a heap for a solid twelve-hour sleep that first heavenly night.

After arriving, we caught a taxi to our hotel in the CBD and were lucky enough to be able to check into our room super early. After refreshing ourselves, and before the girls had a chance to fall asleep, we made our way to Circular Quay. The plan was to catch a ferry to Manly so that we could spend the afternoon with a couple of close friends. Manly holds a special place in my heart, as it was the school holiday destination of choice when I was a child. My grandma would take me on the ferry, we'd buy hot chips and ice cream, and sit on the beach. I've wanted to take my own kids there since forever but ran out of time during our visit last year, so we made sure it was top of the list this time.

After a hot (40ºC) afternoon, we returned to the city and wound up at Hyde Park - just a short stroll from our hotel. There was an incredible public art installation with over three hundred mirrors. It was getting dark, and we were knackered but we found it hard to leave. We eventually dragged ourselves back to the hotel, fell into bed, closed our eyes, and suddenly it was morning. I love those kinds of deep sleeps.

After that huge sleep, we needed to get some bureaucratic stuff sorted (US visas renewed) and once that was tackled, we wandered around with some good old Sydney coffee. See all that sandstone on those buildings below? I miss seeing that. I used to work only a block away, and always loved walking around these parts.

On a whim, we took the girls to the Sydney Aquarium. We were lucky enough to see a platypus swimming around (as opposed to the usual hiding out they do) and to this day, the Faery has not stopped talking about it. The girls were also pretty enamoured with this dugong.

After a bit of a late afternoon rest in our hotel room, we headed back to Hyde Park for some dinner at the Night Noodle Markets (Lobster Pad Thai for me!), and another visit to the mirror installation.

We briefly met up at the park with an old friend, and during the crazy sunset light, I took myself off for a little time out and photo-taking mission. I'm not eloquent to express it properly, but the hustle and bustle of Sydney - especially on a spring evening - is one of my happy places. Having said that... Sydney? I don't miss your traffic. It's gnarly, and not in a cool way. Near the end of our trip, we needed to drive from my best friend's home to my brother's home, and what should have been a forty-five minute drive turned into two hours. Not cool, Sydney. Not cool.

I'm so glad we were able to have this time together - just us as a unit of four - before the busy family obligations kicked in. Also, we weren't to know it then, but a massively stressful shadow would soon hang over our trip when Miss Pie's passport's location became unknown for a week (courtesy of the US Consulate). We could have done without that!

After our quick break in Sydney, our next stop was Canberra for my sister-in-law's wedding... but more on that some other time.

Tourist hats

So, a crazy thing... tomorrow, we'll have been in L.A. for exactly three years.

J recently finished up his job here, and - coinciding with the school spring break - we switched our resident hats for tourist ones. We either checked out parts of L.A. we've been meaning to for so long, or revisited other parts that we just happen to be mad about. We squeezed in as much as we could in a short space of time, before he left for a speedy trip to Australia (visa-related)... and now my tourist hat has been replaced (temporarily) with a "single parent" hat. Wish me luck.

(Details below photos)

1. A favourite place of ours is the Huntington Botanical Gardens, especially in spring.

2. For some reason, we tend to end up at our favourite ice cream shop late on Sunday afternoons, when most of the other shops on that street are closed - including this lolly shop that the girls are yet to set foot in. They dream of being let loose in there.

3. Downtown, making our way home after an advance family & friends screening of The Croods, courtesy of DreamWorks - and officially the last time we'll be going to one of these (PS. It's good - go see it).

4. Last chance date night for quite some time (not that we do this often). I had one too many cocktails at an amazing mixology bar that's stumbling distance from home. It has an average of 4.5 stars on Yelp, which I'm told is unheard of. Probably a good thing we didn't know about this bar sooner...

5. & 6. The girls and I first visited Universal Studios nearly two years ago, when my brother (and sister-in-law) were in town, but J had to work that day and missed out. Being in hostess mode, wrangling both kids, and unaware of their child-switch passes for the rides, I managed the grand total of one ride. This time round, J came along and - happily - I got to experience my money's worth.

7. Venice Beach. Ever since my teen obsession with Jim Morrison, I've been keen to check out this area. Can't believe it took so long to get around to it - probably because, in all honesty, L.A's beaches underwhelm me. The coast south of L.A? Beautiful. North of L.A? Stunning. But L.A. beaches themselves? Meh.

(I'd heard how wacky the Venice Boardwalk was, but it was nothing I hadn't seen before. The shops - toting marijuana paraphernalia and touristy T-shirts with photoshopped images of Marilyn Monroe and Bob Marley - were no different from markets in any other Western city, but it was fun to watch the Faery's eyes pop from some of the people-watching she did.)

8. Although I never followed Baywatch, as far as pop cultural references go, my mind will forever  associate these lifeguard stations with the Hoff (seriously - if in need of a giggle, click the link).

9. Filming on Venice Beach. As for which movie or TV show, I have no idea. Apparently each year in March, all the networks go ahead and begin production on new TV pilots, and there are currently about 75 pilots being filmed in LA. No business like show business...

10. I'm a sucker for North American style fire escapes, and don't see many around in my neighbourhood. This one was in Venice.

11. I've wandered around canals in London, Amsterdam and (the original) Venice. All have their own distinct look, and these ones in Venice were no exception. If I go back to Venice, it would be purely to explore this little network of residential canals - so lovely and not what I expected.

12. As well as admiring retro 50s and 60s style buildings, I also have a thing for art deco. This was my favourite house in the Venice Canals, and I love how the canal lent the home more of a Miami vibe than L.A.

The elephant seals

Being the Christmas break and all, we decided on a whim that we should get out of L.A. for a day or two, and see some Californian sights we hadn't seen before. What to do? Those nearby snow-capped peaks were calling, but we don't have proper snow gear yet - this needed to be a road trip on a budget. We've been to San Diego several times, and also seen the Mojave Desert.

Hearst Castle, in San Simeon, has been on our wish list for a while so we decided to head north, mostly along the coast.

San Simeon is on the central Californian coast, pretty much half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles. From either city, it takes about 4 - 4.5 hours to drive, so this sleepy little town actually does a mean business in tourism from both cities. We arrived in San Simeon on Thursday afternoon, and the hotel manager recommended seeing the castle the following morning, when it would be less windy on the hill. No problem, because we discovered that the same stretch of coast also happens to be home to an elephant seal rookery and we knew that the girls - the Faery in particular - would dig that.

We dumped our things in our little hotel room, rubbing hands with glee that the ocean was just a one-minute walk outside our door (the Faery was most anxious about the waves engulfing us overnight), and anticipated a cosy night in with the sound of the waves crashing in the background. After letting the girls burn off steam after such a long drive, we jumped back in the car and - five minutes later - were admiring the elephant seals.

By this time, the sun was getting low and the light was incredible. It hadn't even occurred to me until then that we'd be able to watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean - my mind is still a little skewed from growing up on the East Coast of Australia, where the sun rises over the Pacific. Anyhow, the light was incredible, so between my DSLR and iPhone, I took a ridiculous amount of photos.

In between happy-snapping, we giggled a great deal over these animals. I'll admit I knew next to nothing about elephant seals but after observing them as the sun went down, I made it my mission to read up on them that night, once the girls were tucked up in bed and sleeping (the cosy budget accommodation meant that watching TV in bed wasn't really an option if we wanted them to sleep).

At the rookery, there was a long (fenced-off) path for people to view the elephant seals down on the beach. I couldn't believe how many were on the sand, and there was a section with about a dozen mumma elephant seals and pups, sucking. The beach stretched as far as the eye could see, and dotted with elephant seals the entire length. The section closest to the viewing path seemed to be where the females and their young stayed, along with several males (seriously ugly dudes, by the way). In the distance, there were mostly males, often sparring and fighting. The sounds that emitted from these animals had to be heard to be believed. I thought that were doing a lot of belching and farting, but since learned that much of their vocalisations sound like one long series of massively reverberating burps.

In other words, comedy gold.

Once the sun had well and truly dipped behind the horizon, any lingering traces of warmth disappeared so we huddled back to the car. As we were leaving, the (large, round) moon began to peek over the hills on the other side of the road, to the east. It felt magical.

That night, as the girls slept, I devoured the pamphlets we'd collected and was somewhat in awe of what I learned about these huge creatures. In a nutshell:

- They spend 9-10 months of the year in the ocean, up in Alaska.

- From late November until March, they set up rookery on this particular stretch of Californian beach. They began coming about twenty years ago, and each year the numbers increase. Current stats show that around 17, 000 elephant seals come to this particular rookery.

- The males often weigh over two tonnes. The females clock in at around 640 kg.

- Starting from mid-December, the females give birth on the beach. The peak time for births is in January, but we spotted over at least a dozen newborn pups on the beach already (and incredibly adorable, at that).

- Giving birth only takes half an hour! Then the pups are weaned when they're only a month old. At that point, the females are ready to mate again. Because the elephant seals are fasting during this period of birthing and nursing, they lose a massive amount of weight. When they mate again, implantation delays until about May, when the females have bulked up again to sustain pregnancy.

- The mother seals spend a lot of time 'vocalising' to their pups, so that the pups will recognise their voices if they get separated.

- An alpha male essentially has a harem, and can impregnate up to fifty females in one season.

- During the peak season in January, the beach becomes so packed that the elephant seals are lying on top of one another, jostling for sand and packed in like sardines.

... and that's about all the facts that my brain was able to absorb, but it was rather interesting to read up on. You've got to love learning new things, right?

The next morning we went for a stroll on the beach by the hotel, lingered over breakfast, checked out, then headed to Hearst Castle. The smart thing for us would have been to reserve our tour tickets online beforehand, but being a spontaneous trip, we weren't that smart organised. A shame, because tours for the next three hours were sold out. There was no way we could hang around that long to wait, but rather than get all pissy and moaning about it, we simply made our way back for a second visit to the elephant seals. San Simeon is a long drive when there are two young kids strapped in the back, but I have a feeling we'll get back there one day. We fantasise about driving all the way up to the Pacific Northwest some day (friends to visit in both Portland and Seattle now), and if we do, San Simeon will be our first stop.

It's a beautiful corner of the world.

She sells sea shells

About seven years ago, my parents moved to a beautiful seaside town, three hours south of Sydney. It's the same town where I spent many a childhood holiday, so it's always been familiar. A retreat. It's also where my own mother came for family holidays as a child.

The Faery was ten weeks old the first time she was brought there and we made sure to take her there whenever our work schedules allowed it. Miss Pie was also ten weeks old the first time she visited - it's where we spent our last few days before moving to Los Angeles.

Jervis Bay is renowned for its clean, white sand and turquoise water. It's not unusual to spot pods of dolphins out for a swim, and whale watching tours do a mean business during migration. Depending on the beach, it's possible to collect hundreds of beautifully intact seashells in one outing - no exaggeration. The water is pretty cold, but the waves are gentle and rock pools abound - perfect for small kids.

Even though our August trip meant it was winter, most mornings in the bay were warm and full of sunshine. The girls had the time of their lives, and there was something humbling about watching them explore the exact same rock pools that I had as a child, and jumping the small incoming waves.

Three generations, enjoying the same beaches. I wonder if the girls will seek out these beaches in decades to come?



PS - All of the above photos were taken with my iPhone. Most have had the Instagram treatment... except for a couple. I'm especially proud of the third photo from the top, which is unedited (apart from my watermark). It's one for the wall, right? My other favourite is the second last shot.

Malibu

Having a swimming pool in our apartment complex has made us rather lazy when it comes to seeking out the beach. That, and the fact that I have issues with sand. Knowing we have to drive through about an hour of LA's finest traffic to hit the coast doesn't help, either.

Hailing from the east coast of Australia, it's not like beaches are novel to me. Our beaches are pretty spectacular - meaning even though I'm not really one for the beach, my standards are high nonetheless. I've been spoilt over the years.

Over the weekend, I surprised myself by suggesting we go for a drive, have a little adventure, and check out one of the beaches in Malibu.

I'm so glad we did. The weather was glorious, and we arrived nice and early before the serious stress of finding somewhere to park would have been an issue. Within ten minutes of arrival, we spotted dolphins out for a swim. That alone is hard to beat.

The water was still wintery cold, but that didn't stop the Faery (and eventually, Miss Pie) from running in and out of the pint-sized dumping waves... and for some reason, the sand didn't seem to bother me as much as usual. A sign, perhaps, that we should do this more often.

Happily, I had a great excuse to get serious with my 'real' camera again. That hasn't been the case much this year (I'm sure my camera is jealous of my iPhone) and is something I need to work on. I couldn't be happier with the shots I took yesterday.

At any rate, I have a feeling that the (northern) summer of 2012 is going to be a fantastic one.