There is way too much I could say about my family’s holiday visit to
Manly, so instead I am going to only highlight a few great things and let the
pictures tell the rest!
12/21/11 – Manly, Australia
We transformed our apartment into winter wonderland by adding last
minute decorations to make it a fun surprise when my family lands. Our
apartment looks like the North Pole!
12/24/11 – Manly, Australia
MY FAMILY IS HERE!!!
I must be the happiest girl in the world today. Tommy laughed as I
half skipped, half ran to the hotel to greet my family with the biggest smile
plastered on my face. Reunited and it feels so good!
We had a big BBQ at our house for dinner to celebrate their arrival and
Christmas Eve. Tommy was welcomed into one of the Segal Family Christmas
Eve traditions of the Elves. Yes I said Elves… Since we were three
little girls the elves have been visiting the Segal household all throughout
December leaving little Christmas teaser gifts, and we always received one
final gift the night of Christmas Eve. This present has always been a
pair of matching PJs that the three of us would wear to bed so that when we
woke up on Christmas morning, all of our cute Christmas opening pictures would
be taken in our matching jammies. At ages 24, 22 and 19, the elves still
come…guilty! Well Tommy was thrilled to be included in my family’s
tradition as he humorously tried on his PJ outfit with “Nice Package” written
on his bum.
12/25/11 – Manly, Australia
MERRY CHRISTMAS! Santa Visits Down Under.
Tommy and I celebrated our first Christmas together early this morning.
Before meeting up with my family we opened our stockings we had stuffed for
each other with fun little gifts, and exchanged our big XMAS gifts for each
other.
We Skyped with his family so that Tommy could in a sense still celebrate
with them, and we opened all of our great presents from them so that they could
watch us and feel part of the great day.
We met my family for a big Christmas breakfast at the hotel before
dragging them back to our “Winter Wonderland” where we had set up all of the
presents under our two fake trees, one a blow up tree and one a plastic tree.
I think the winning present of the day was the Kindle from my parents
mainly because we finally found a way to keep Tommy quiet! He is used to
having his two brothers to rough around with and keep him entertained on
vacation, and I think he was a bit at a loss when no one would play with him
because all of us girls just wanted to tan, relax and read our books.
Well thank gosh for the Kindle because we finally got some peace and quiet as
he became immersed in his new gadget!
We spent Christmas day at the beach and had our first volleyball
competition of the trip. Kirsten and I proudly defeated Tommy and Molly.
Christmas ended with a big BBQ at our house with our famous ribs, and as
always, they were a hit!
12/26/11 – Manly, Australia
The day after Christmas in Australia is also a public holiday called
Boxing Day. Every year on Boxing Day there is the annual Sydney to Hobart
race, a race consisting of many huge sailboats sailing to Hobart (in Tasmania).
This takes a little under 2 days for the fastest boats, but many must turn back
or are lost out at sea due to the rough Tasman Sea conditions. We
experienced these rough seas during our crossing to New Zealand, resulting in
our itinerary change, missing out on Fjordland National Park, so I can
understand why this is such a tough race on the smaller sailboats! We
hiked up to the top of North Head to get the best view of the sailboats racing
out of the harbor, and had a great picnic lunch while waiting for the race to
start. It really is a neat sight to see.
12/27 – 12/30/11 – Manly, Australia
Our next few days were filled with many long walks along the beach,
relaxing in the sun, and delicious dinners every night. Our volleyball competitions
continued and Kirsten and I are happily still in the lead!
(Tommy and my match against Jan and Lukas)
We had another home cooked meal at our house to share our incredible
wings, and had our good friend Gina over to meet the family.
BEER PONG COMPETITION: Molly + Tommy vs. Kirsten + Kaitlin
Visiting the Sydney Fish Market with Molly, Tommy and my dad:
12/31/11 – 1/1/12 – Sydney, Australia
Our New Year's Eve was spent on a sailboat out on Sydney Harbour.
I have viewed the “bucket list” firework display standing below the bridge in
Circular Quay, up in a hotel room with a view of the entire Harbour Bridge and
Opera House, but neither compared to NYE out on the sailboat. On the
ferry ride into the city from Manly we saw thousands of people packed into the
optimal viewing spaces in the parks. Surrounding the Opera House there
were tents of people who had camped overnight for those prime viewing areas.
It was incredible to see hundreds of thousands of people along the banks of the
harbour.
As our sailboat pulled up to the Aquarium Wharf in Darling Harbour, I of
course, made my way to the very front of the line of people waiting to board
with the intention of reserving the very best seats for my family. I am
proud to say that I was very successful in doing so and claimed the 6 chairs
along the side at the front of the sailboat. Not only were these some of
the few seats to actually sit in on the sailboat, but also just happened to be
the side of the yacht that faced the Opera House and Harbour Bridge for the
best view of the famous firework display. The night was magical out on
the water amongst many other boats, with our boat positioned in the very front
of all the other boats anchored in the harbour and we truly had prime view.
With the Harbour Bridge centered directly in front of us, and a barge out in
the water that would simultaneously shoot of fireworks 50 feet away and off to
the left, we could not ask for more. A thrilling but at times scary stunt
plane flying around the bridge, the pixie dust shoot off, the teasers up to the
fireworks, the 9pm firework show, and the dancing that lead up to the much
anticipated midnight New Year's firework show made the night an incredible
performance. We caught the 2:20am ferry home and finally made it back to
our apartment at 3am! It was a crazy, fun night! HAPPY 2012!
1/4/12 – Manly, Australia
Today I was so sad as I said goodbye to my mom and sisters, but my dad
was smart in setting up a very busy day to keep me distracted and my eyes dry!
Astrid, the manager my dad befriended at one of our favorite restaurants in
Manly, The Pantry, offered to take us on a tour from Manly to Palm Beach.
This was a tour we had been planning to take by bus, which just would not have
done it justice. Instead Astrid took us through her memory lane drive
because she actually grew up down by Palm Beach and had great little stories
about all the places we stopped. She stopped off at 10 beautiful beaches
along the way: Manly, Freshwater, Curl Curl, Dee Why, Narrabeen, Mona Vale,
Newport, Avalon, Whale Beach, and finally Palm Beach. We had an
incredible lunch in Whale Beach at the famous Jonah’s restaurant high above on
a cliff overlooking the splendid blue ocean. The day ended with a long
walk through the sand at Palm Beach before heading back to Manly.
Although it had already been a long, busy day, it was not over yet.
Tommy, my dad and I quickly showered, changed and jumped into a taxi to drive
us out to Bondi Beach to watch the USA vs. Australia water polo game in which
our friend Peter Hudnut was playing. It was awesome to see the water polo
match being played in a ocean bath, which is basically a swimming pool built
into the rocks at the end of the beach filled with the ocean water. Not
only were the USA players not used to playing in salt water, but they also were
not used to playing with a full on ocean current creating waves in the pool.
Although USA is the better team, given the conditions including the jetlag, I
was not surprised when the Aussie boys won. It was such a unique
experience!
1/6/12 – Hunter Valley, Australia
Today was my dad’s last day in Australia, so we planned a fun private
tour to Hunter Valley for some wine tasting. We lucked out with a bit of
overcast weather, cooling the temperature down compared to the 108 degree day
Hunter Valley had experienced two days earlier. Our favorite winery was
actually the very first vineyard we visited, Iron Gate. To my great
surprise, I enjoyed all but one of the wines we tasted! We had a great
time visiting a handful of the wineries, as well as making stops at the cheese
shop, the champagne and chocolate shop, and a great brew pub that reminded us
of the Selin’s Grove Brew Pub we used to go to at Bucknell. It was a
great adventure to do with my daddy!
To create the perfect ending to an incredible trip, we had dinner at The
Pavillion. The Pavillion is a restaurant that sits right on the harbor
with a beautiful view of the city as well as the harbor entrance. We
enjoyed incredible food and wine as we watched the sun set over the harbor.
1/7/12 – Manly, Australia
It was not easy saying goodbye to my Daddy, but I am so lucky that my
whole family was able to come visit me over Christmas. I have been to
Australia three times with my family, but this was by far my very favorite
trip. I was thrilled that my family fell in love with Manly just as I
had! The highlights of my trip were being on the sailboat for NYE,
playing volleyball with my sisters, taking walks with my mommy along the beach
boardwalk in the mornings, and my two great days with my daddy touring all the
beaches between Manly and Palm Beach as well as Hunter Valley. I am so
happy Tommy got to share our family vacation with us!
Our last weeks in Sydney were
spent making the most of our beach backyard in Manly, one last great day in the
city, and a big moving out BBQ/Beer Pong Tournament.
We truly went out with a bang for our last day in the
city. I’d say it was pretty jam-packed… After taking our much loved ferry ride
from Manly to Circular Quay, taking in the colossal Harbour Bridge and the
iconic Opera House, we set off walking towards Darling Harbour. Darling Harbour possesses the biggest
Imax theatre in the world that Tommy had been set on going to since the very
first time we walked by it. To his
great luck, he received two movie tickets to the Imax from our good friend Gina
for his birthday. We caught the
10:30am showing of Happy Feet 2, and enjoyed the spectacular size and
atmosphere of the theatre. When
the movie got out we walked back towards Circular Quay and over to the Rocks
for lunch at a favorite Italian pizzeria of ours. The highlight of the day was seeing The Illusionist, a magic
show, in the Sydney Opera House.
That was on Tommy’s checklist of things to do in Sydney, and it worked
out perfectly! Our day did not end
here, but instead we met up with our good friend Gina for a fun night out in
the city! We caught the last ferry
back to Manly to end a perfect day.
Our Beer Pong Tourney/BBQ was the best going away
party EVER! USA vs. Australia vs.
England! We had a bunch of our
different friends over to our apartment, some American, some Australian, and
one couple from the UK. We brought
everyone together to say goodbye and leave them with a bit of our American
pride, and that meant teaching the Aussie’s how to play beer pong. What a success it was! The 12 of us feasted on our wings to
coat our stomachs before splitting up into 6 teams to compete in a
bracket. It was hilarious watching
the Aussie’s and the couple from the UK trying to understand this crazy US
drinking game, but they absolutely loved it. To keep everyone busy we started a game of flip cup off to
the side, blowing everyone’s minds with the games we Americans play in
college. Of course the Beer Pong
finals came down to the two American teams playing each other, no surprise! I could go on about the fun we had, but
I think we’ll just have to leave that up to your imaginations, and the empty
bottles of alcohol lying around our apartment…
