Tracy Carolyn Photography

I’ve sunburned many, many times in my life.  I burned my cleavage in Hawaii, scorched a strip of my midsection in St. Thomas, fried my entire back on a mountaintop in Vail, and created an odd red and white stripe pattern down the back of my legs in Mexico.  The worst sunburn of my life came from surfing in Panama, where, despite slathering myself in SPF 70, I sustained a horrific burn up the back of both legs and my bum.  And those are just the more memorable instances.

Because of these sunburns, I’m not much for laying around in the sun.  It’s taken years for me to learn that I don’t tan – I scorch.  So the beach has little interest for me these days, since I spend most of the time there trying to manufacture shade or keep myself immersed in the water to avoid the sun.  Fortunately, John is equally prone to sunburn and just as averse to spending hours at the beach.  It works for us.

Why, then, did we spend an afternoon at Bondi Beach?  Because the beaches in Australia are famously wonderful, with soft white sand, consistent rolling waves, and clear blue water.  I wanted to see an Australian beach, and with its proximity to the city Bondi seemed like the best one to visit.

Fortunately, the day we visited there was quite a bit of cloud cover to provide a little relief from the sun.  But the water was freezing cold, and honestly, terrifying.  The ocean at Bondi Beach is full of blue bottle jellyfish and blue octopus (both of which can and do sting), the tide is so strong they designate only a small area as safe to swim in (though heavily patrolled by lifeguards), and there are helicopters occasionally flying overhead to check for sharks (because, yes, they do show up here.)  All of those factors were enough to keep me out of the water and on dry land.

Terrifying sea creatures and sunburns aside, Bondi is an exquisite beach.  On hot summer days, the sand is full of bikini clad sunbathers, and the water is full of surfers.  If I was a sun worshipping beach lover, Bondi would be an excellent place to go.  As it was, after just an hour or so sitting on the beach (fully clothed and coated in sunblock, mind you) we still ended up with minor sunburns on our faces.

No matter how alluring it sounds (and I do still convince myself it’s alluring from time to time), a day sitting on the beach is no longer my idea of a relaxing time.  Maybe its a shift that comes with age, or the accumulative effect of too many sunburns, but I much prefer the shade and serenity of a mountain lake.   All in all this is a good thing for me, seeing as I live in a landlocked state full of mountains and lakes.  But until we return to Colorado, I’ll hope to enjoy our occasional beach visits from a well shaded balcony, where I can enjoy the sound of the ocean and keep my pasty white skin sunburn free.

If John and I had been given the option, we wouldn’t have toured the Sydney Opera House.  We would have looked at one another, thought for a bit, and decided that seeing it from the outside was as good as going in.  We would have been wrong.

So its a good thing Tatiana didn’t ask us if we wanted to tour the opera house, she just took us there.  We arrived at the Sydney Opera House sweaty and out of breath, having just run across the harbor to catch our scheduled tour.

John and I didn’t know this was why we were running, actually.  We just followed Tatiana when she told us we had to go faster and ran after her down the tourist filled sidewalk. I’ve never run more like a girl – wearing a skirt, trying not to trip over my flip flops, and carrying my blue bag in front of me with one hand so the weight of my SLR camera wouldn’t slam into me with every step.  John said he felt like a crazy man chasing after two women in the street, and worried that the people we passed would think we were running away from him.  From all angles, it was probably an odd sight.  At least no one tackled John to save us poor, girly runners.You can see a much of the beauty of the opera house from the outside, this is true.  And it is pretty beautiful, in all of it’s blindingly white glory.But the inside is far more interesting than I thought it would be.  Architecturally, it feels like you are stepping back into the 1970s when you enter the building.  Which is fair, since it was built in the 70s.You cannot photograph the insides of the theaters themselves for a number of reasons, which is a shame because they were the coolest part.  The seats look like the 1970s version of space age chairs, complete with bright orange foam cushions.  The cushions make sitting in the theater incredibly comfortable, but they also aid the acoustics.  The cushions absorb as much sound as a human body would, meaning that an orchestra playing to a crowd of two people will sound the same acoustically to one playing to a full house.
The copious leg room between rows was impressive, too.  John could easily sit through hours of ballet in one of those rows (unlike most theaters, in which his knees are pressed into the seat back in front of him.)
Speaking of hours of ballet, we missed seeing The Nutcracker ballet this year with my family.  It was showing at the opera house, but we missed it by two days.  Bummer.  I bet it would have been cool to see a performance there.I found it almost hard to stop taking photos of the opera house.  It’s such an iconic building that I know someone has gotten 50 better shots of it than I ever could…and yet…just one more…

I’m very glad Tatiana had the foresight to take us on the tour.  It was worth the quick jog, for sure.  Forgive me for the excessive imagery, but it’s a gorgeous building.

Or on the flip side – if you’re never planning to visit Sydney and are living vicariously through photos – you’re welcome for the tour.

Tatiana, Mustard’s owner, makes an excellent tour guide.

When we set up our housesitting arrangement with Tatiana back in October/November, we told her we’d be arriving in Sydney a few days early just to ensure nothing went wrong with missed flights from New Zealand etc.  She graciously invited us to stay at her house for the two days, and we graciously accepting, thinking it would be a nice way to get Mustard used to having us around and their house would make a nice base for us to explore Sydney before settling in.  We had no expectation that Tatiana would do what she did next – which was plan (and accompany us on) an entire day tour of her city.

Tatiana is from Brazil but has been living in Sydney for the last 8 years, and she is very proud of her new hometown.  Apparently she’s toured several family members around Sydney before, so she knew exactly where to take us.  For the first time in months we didn’t have to think about what we wanted to do – we just followed Tatiana around and enjoyed ourselves.  It was awesome.

The first stop on our tour was a cruise of Sydney Harbor.  Tatiana works for one of the cruise companies, so we got to toodle around on one of the morning harbor cruises for free (thanks Tate!)

Most of our days in Sydney have been cloudy and drizzly, and this day was no exception.  Off and on we’d see slivers of sunshine that made the entire harbor sparkle, bet they were too few and far between to catch through the lens.
Luna Park, an old amusement park, is considered a preserved historic site, and it cannot be altered in any way.  I think it’s kinda cool, but I’d bet there are a few people out there that wish it wasn’t such a prominent feature on the harbor.Fun fact about this beach: that’s a shark net.  Like, to keep the sharks out.  It seems like it’s probably more for show than anything else, but it kinda makes you think twice about wanting to swim at that beach.Beyond the lighthouse is the Tasman Sea.  We saw the Tasman Sea from the other side in Milford Sound.The sun began to come out in full force just after we hopped off the boat.  We didn’t have much time to enjoy it, though.  Tatiana had made a date for us to tour the Sydney Opera House, a date we’d have to literally run through the waterfront park in order to make.  (Totally worth it.)

You can’t deny the Sydney Harbor is a beautiful place (even in the drizzle.)  It’s not quite as clean and vibrant as, say, Auckland, but the Opera House and Harbor Bridge are startlingly unique fixtures that tip the scales back in its favor.  The Kiwis and Aussies have a bit of a rivalry that I wouldn’t want to fuel, so for now I’ll just say they are both lovely cities.

And for those readers at home who are members of my family, I will once again confirm that we are not relocating to either one.  So stop worrying.

This was the first year I’ve missed Christmas with my family.  It was definitely a little sad, but I brought it upon myself.  Some things just get sacrificed when you are traveling for a year.  Instead of having a family holiday in Denver, we celebrated Christmas just the two of us in Sydney, Australia.

Despite the drizzly day here in Sydney, we spent our Christmas sitting in the back yard, playing card games we learned at camp and throwing the ball with the dog.  Then we made a festive dinner and ate holiday cookies I made on Christmas Eve (Peanut Butter Blossoms are my favorite, but they don’t sell Hershey’s Kisses in Sydney.  We had to substitute Cadbury Chocolate Buttons, which turned out to be a bit of an upgrade.)  After our feast, we had what I dubbed as a “30Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree Marathon.”  (Exactly what it sounds like – a marathon of 30Rock episodes we’ve never seen.) It was nothing like the Christmas celebrations we would have had at home, but it was still nice.

We’ll try to be more exciting for New Year’s :)  Merry Christmas!