Bondi Beach

Looking at these pictures it's hard to remember that our day did not start well. For one thing I woke up at 5am (again) too stressed to sleep and the girls woke up shortly after saying they'd both had nightmares. I climbed into bed with them and talked about our plan for the day - Luna Park! I took a quick peak onto the Internet to see what time the park opened and realized that the park closes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in the winter. The girls were heart broken. Tess sobbed and sobbed. I think a lot of her general sadness poured out into this one issue and I felt like a seriously inept Mom for making such a specific suggestion and then not following through on it. 

I threw on a saved episode of Bondi Rescue for the ten thousanth time and started looking for Plan B. I considered going up the Sydney Tower but the kids don't appreciate great views and they didn't seem particularly interested. And then, watching the show it struck me that we could go to Bondi and try to see some of the locations and maybe even glimpse a lifeguard in real life. The girls decided they wanted to get a photograph with their favorite Lifeguard - Maxi. I felt reluctant to be too specific but I confirmed that the tower would be manned and I suggested we make some cards for Maxi and then drop them off.

The girls got out their art supplies and set to work. Emily even labeled some "dangerous rips" making me think that maybe she has picked up a little about surf safety by watching the show. 

Outside of Tess's card

Inside of Tess's card

Outside of Emily's card

Inside of Emily's card

We packed our bags and headed off to Bondi. Two buses and a train ride later we arrived and saw the area with whole new eyes. We spotted the tower right away and stopped for a few pictures. We recognized littles spots from various scenes in the show.

We also remembered just how lovely the sand can be all soft, white and sugary. We listened to the surf, watched the surfers and played for a bit. 

At one point we saw the surf lifesavers drive by and I thought this might be as close as we'd get to them. But then they parked and walked up to the tower and I figured this was our chance.

Emily immediately felt nervous and begged me to steer clear of the area and just let her mail her card instead. Tess forged right ahead. I took note of the sign saying only knock in case of emergency or serious concerns and began to think we should give up. But then we saw someone come out. I quickly blurted out that we had a card for Maxi and could he pass it along. He couldn't have been nicer and said he'd definitely do it. And then I looked up and it took me a minute to realize that The Real Maxi had walked right over. 

 

So we posed for a few pictures, told him where we were from and thanked him and his colleagues for doing an important job. He ran inside and brought out some Bondi Rescue Australia bracelets for the girls. He seemed really down to earth and kind. It turns out we caught him on his day off but he'd just come in for a training.

We walked on all flushed with excitement over our brush with celebrity and then someone asked if we'd seen the whale. We looked out and saw some splashing in the distance. 

Here's the zoomed in version where you can clearly see a white fin.

We stopped at a cafe for lunch and the kids showed off their new bracelets and talked about how nice Maxi was - and how cute. Little do they know he's Cleo's Bachelor of the Year for 2013.

When we came out we saw the whale splash around a few more times and headed back towards Balmain. I'm not sure Tess has totally forgiven me for my Luna Park blunder but I think we had a pretty amazing and memorable day.