March 12-19 Manly, Australia by Cathy

The start of our stay in Manly coincided with Mick’s 14^th birthday. And since Australia is 18 hours ahead of California, he worked this angle in order to celebrate two days in a row! We told Mick he could have what he calls a “yes” day (his friends Cooper and Dylan get one each year). A yes day is basically what it sounds like – Mick makes a request (“within reason”) and we say yes.

In the late morning, we took an Uber to the wharf and then the fast ferry to Manly, a quick, incredibly scenic cruise.

Manly is in an incredibly picturesque location, situated where the ocean meets the bay. We hopped off the ferry, walked through the myriad cool shops and restaurants that make up the ferry building, and touched base with Pete Wheale, our dear friend from San Francisco, who, along with Sarah, his wife, and their kids, John and Ashley (now 4 and 18 months respectively) moved to Manley with his company, NEXTracker, so he could grow and manage their overseas operations. I knew Pete worked in  “solar,” but he explained that what his company sells is the solar panel trackers for large solar farms – not the panels themselves. The trackers direct the panels or modules toward the sun and change their orientation to follow the sun’s path, which maximizes the amount of energy captured. Cool stuff.

Pete told us repeatedly that Manly was “epic” and that we’d love it. And that was true from the moment we spotted it from the ferry. After disembarking the ferry, we hung out at the ferry landing for a while, awaiting word from our Airbnb host as to whether we could check in early or leave our bags.

We gave Mick some birthday money (in AUD, which worked in our favor) and his first purchase was a new pair of sunglasses at a convenience store in the ferry complex. The rest of the money, he decided, would be spent on a Sphero 2.0, a remote control sphere that turned out to be somewhat hard to find. (Luckily – for everyone involved – we found one at JB HiFi in Warringah, near where we would be picking up our rental car before leaving for the Blue Mountains.)

Pete had just returned from a business trip to California and was on his way to the office, but met up with us at the beach at Manly Cove (adjacent to the ferry wharf) for a quick welcome. It’s been a long time since we spent time with friends from home, so Pete was greeted with long, strong hugs and much enthusiasm from all three Jordans. After a quick visit and a plan for meeting up later, we parted ways and walked the Fairlight Walk (along the water) to our Airbnb in the Fairlight area, our luck in choosing a neighborhood becoming evident along the way.

We were met by our lovely Airbnb host, who was just finishing getting the place ready for us, and enjoyed talking with her about our travels and her family’s past travels as Mick entertained her 4-year-old son.

Mick was quick to discover that our neighborhood is full of the cutest, tiniest lizards (“common garden skinks”), that are pretty easy to catch.

At the time we booked our place, we didn’t know exactly where Pete & Sarah lived, but as luck would have it we were just a couple of blocks away, making it easy to visit. Later in the afternoon, we walked down to Pete’s office, met some of his team and then were joined by Sarah, John and Ashley, all full of life and extremely entertaining.

Sarah, who’d had her hands full while Pete was traveling, managed to “throw together” a delicious dinner that we savored almost as much as just being with friends from home, laughing (particularly when Pete modeled the “Budgy Smuggler” that he’d received from his boss for Christmas), and watching the kids do the same.

Budgie Smugglers
NOUN
Any item of male bathing costume or underwear that encloses the wearer’s genitalia in a manner that resembles the concealment of a budgerigar. Australian for banana hammock.

This is a budgie or budgerigar (aka parakeet)

Over the course of our week in Manl, we did lots of walking – one, because it’s the best way to see this ocean- and beach-view paradise, and two, because we didn’t have a car. One day Jeff, Mick and I walked the aptly named Manley Scenic Walkway from Fairlight Beach (just down the street from us) all the way to the Spit Bridge in Mosman. With gorgeous views, beautiful beaches, aboriginal rock carvings, and entertaining lizards called Eastern Water Dragons, there was something for everyone.

After the “Spit Bridge” hike, we met up with the Wheales in Manly and walked to the super-cool Manly Skiff Club for drinks.

Another day, Jeff did a hike with Pete to North Head, getting a different perspective of Manley and seeing yet more beaches.

That evening, we all met up at the Manly Cove beach for wine and pizza that we picked up from Criniti’s. We also spent a lot of time walking “The Corso,” the once-boardwalk-now-pedestrian-mall connecting Manly Cove (ferry wharf) to Manley Beach.

Here, we found a good takeout kebab place, a frozen yogurt shop, and Cotton On, whose 2-for-1 T-shirts will refresh my wardrobe. I even bought a bikini – kudos to my salesperson at Baku for her patience and determination in this endeavor.

We did some swimming and sun-blocked sunbathing at Fairlight Beach (my favorite) and Mick spent many hours happily riding his boogie board and bodysurfing the waves at Manley Beach (even in the rain).

On our last full day, we walked out to Shelly Beach (tons of cool shells), but found it much more crowded on a Sunday than it had been during the week. We all swam, enjoyed people-watching (excellent place for it), but couldn’t stay in one place for long because, as we found out later, it was 101 degrees and even with strong afternoon wind, it was HOT.

Mick did some boogie-boarding and body-surfing at Manley before we headed home to our oven-like apartment. Luckily, the Wheales offered to have us for dinner again, and, as I told Sarah before we arrived, we were really “looking forward to it – and not just because they have air conditioning!” Again, we had a delicious dinner and lots and lots of laughs.

Saying goodbye was hard for all of us, but Johnny literally did not want to let Jeff (who he’d started calling Grampa) go.

Back home, it wasn’t quite as hot, so we got started on our packing, getting ready to head off to the Blue Mountains for a few days.