#reverb10: Moment

Ali Edwards

Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

I was in Australia and had just finished walking through the Royal Botanic Gardens. Following the path to the left, I realized I had stumbled upon the best view in the city. My camera had run out of batteries and my global phone didn't have a camera, so I had to do my best to imprint the scenery in my memory. I sat on a rock with the waves of the Pacific Ocean splashing at my feet and looked at the view of the Harbor Bridge and Sydney Opera House. The sun was shining, warming my face as the cool breeze of the ocean tickled my neck. There were some high school age kids nearby by posing for pictures and a couple with their cute little girl watching her play. Once in a while a jogger would go by and I envied them as they probably got to see this amazing view daily. The ocean became bluer the farther out I looked and I was tempted to just dive in a go for a swim to taste the salt of the sea. Later, I told my husband that day was the best day I had on the trip. Now I realize it may have been the best day of the year. I was truly at peace.

Moving On

I didn't really finish the Australia re-caps, but I'm over it. In the two days that were left, I ate a whole lotta fish, including some cheap, but delicious sushi, and bought a travel pillow for the airplane ride home. I probably slept a total of one hour on that 14 hour plane ride home, but oh well. I watched a bunch of movies!

Sooooo... I saw this post today in my reader and decided to write my own "things I don't want people to know" post.

Deep breath. Here we go...

1. I used to hate tomatoes. In the last few years, I have convinced myself to like them. I now realize I only hated them because my mom did. My dad used to say that to me when I was little and I denied it, but now I know it was probably true.

2. If nobody ever came over to my house, I would never clean it. I only clean for people coming over, not for myself (or my husband).

3. I am probably the laziest person I know. I would rather lay in bed all day than do just about anything. The only time I feel like I really want to go DO something is when I am allowed to be lazy (like on Sundays) and I feel a need to rebel.

4. Yes, I want a baby and all the love that brings, but another reason I want to get pregnant is so I can have an excuse to be fat.

5. I am seriously cheap, but I can't save money if my life depended on it. I wouldn't spend more than $20 on a single item (think shirt, purse, housewares), but I will easily spend $100 at Target on a bunch of random crap.

6. I have OCD tendencies. I might have piles of  laundry all over the floor, but if someone moves a vase or picture frame, I have to move it back.

7. I failed at the wedding coordinating business. I don't love it and I'm not that good at it.

8. I am completely addicted to my crackberry. I check facebook and twitter at least every half hour. I check my google reader at least 10 times a day.

9. My mom still pays for my cellphone. If she ever stops, I don't know if I will be able to afford the crackberry and then I'll have to deal with that addiction.

10. I don't shower everyday. I usually shower every other day, but sometimes every three days. I rarely smell bad, though. I swear.

So there you have it! I'm already embarrassed...

Down Under: Day 12, Part 2

After Featherdale, it was time to head up to the beautiful blue mountains.

This was the first lookout we stopped by. The rock formation in the foreground was like nothing I've ever seen.

Then, we drove by this wild emu. He's just hanging out (the fence isn't keeping him in, it is keeping us out).

Wild kangaroos!! Don't see them? Click on the picture and it will open bigger. See them now? Cool, right? That's just on the side of the road!

At another lookout we saw this pretty waterfall, though it is hard to be impressed by this after spending much of my childhood at Yosemite.

Beautiful blue mountains! The blue haze is a result of the eucalyptus oil from the trees reflecting the light from the sky.

They call this formation the Three Sisters.

Another waterfall... small, but pretty.

Cockatoos are everywhere!

A couple other passengers and I chose to walk down the 700+ stairs to the bottom of the forrest instead of taking the thingamajig that can take you down there. My legs were very shaky!

Enchanted forrest.

Do faeries live here?

Treetops! Feels like a rain forrest!

There was no way we were hiking back up those (extremely steep) 700+ steps, so we took the steepest train in the world back to the top.

I have no pictures after this because I was so terrified and made one of the travelers hold me. I'm completely serious. This older woman linked arms with me and we went backwards up this very steep incline. We weren't strapped in and were being lifted with a counterweight that we saw creaking back and forth a few minutes earlier. It was terrifying.

The tour guide dropped us off at the ferry which took us back into the city.

The view was gorgeous at night with all the lights, but we were moving too fast for me to take a decent picture. This was the best I could do.

After the ferry ride, I took the subway by myself (at night!!) and went straight to bed. I was tired!

Up next: Our last few days down under!

Down Under: Day 12, Part 1

This was the day I had been waiting for: koala and kangaroo day!!

Since my husband wanted to spend his weekend relaxing instead of a tour bus, I decided to go on a tour of the blue mountains by myself. The main reason I wanted to go on this tour was because I wanted to go to a wildlife park where I could feed and interact with the animals. I've been to zoos and they're not for me, even though everyone told us how beautiful the Taronga Zoo in Sydney was (I guess the giraffe enclosure looks over onto the harbour, where the bridge and opera house are).

I met my tour guide in the lobby of our hotel at 7am. It was pretty cold out and it would be even colder where we were going, so I bundled up and hopping in the very small (and nice) bus. This wasn't one of those huge tours with 50 people on it and a tour guide over a loudspeaker. The bus sat maybe 15, but I think we only had like 9 people on our tour. I got to sit up front since I was alone and got a really awesome view.

Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park, about 45 minutes outside of the city.

The first animal we saw when we walked in was the wombat. It was just like a puppy and loved to be scratched on it's rock hard backside.

These wallabies were hopping around everywhere!

This dinosaur-looking bird was totally freaking me out, but I held it anyway.

Here I am cuddling a koala! They were so chill, they just hung out on these branches and ate eucalyptus leaves while people pet and posed with them.

Ok, for some reason I was looking super horrible that day, so I had to cut myself out of this picture. The koala, however, was making this adorable face while sticking his tongue out.

See? I told you I looked hell-ish.

This Emu got hold of one of the cones of food.

I really wanted to get a kangaroo hopping and I did! Please excuse my obnoxious voice (don't you hate listening to your own voice on video?).


Kangaroo! from Amy Carter on Vimeo.

They were so cute!

I saw many more animals at Featherdale...

like penguins,

this beautiful turkey,

a very vibrant rooster,

an albino peacock (stunning),

albino kangaroos (dirty),

some type of lizard (maybe Gila monster?),

very cute and cuddly dingos,

and a crocodile! Crikey!

While some of my husband's coworkers said that Featherdale was "ghetto," I completely disagree. It was well-maintained and the animals had plenty of room to roam. I would have preferred to see them in the wild, but this was good enough (and I DID get to see some wild 'roos and emus - coming up next!).

Down Under: Days 10 and 11

The only neighborhood I had heard and read about that I had not yet visited in Sydney was Paddignton. It wasn't exactly walking-distance from our hotel, but at this point I was sick of trying to figure out the bus (train didn't go there), so I decided I would put on some comfy shoes and make the trek over to this area.

To get there, first I had to walk through the other part of Sydney that reminds me of San Francisco: the gay district. Literally every other business is a sex shop and all the cafes have very suggestive names like Spicy Affair (Indian) and Thai Me Up (duh). It was cool to see that side of town and definitely made me feel like I was back in CA.

Once I got to Paddington, I realized that this area was probably too rich for my blood. The street is filled with fancy boutiques that I wouldn't dare enter. How do I know if the merch is too expensive for me? If there is space between the clothes on the racks, I probably can't afford it. That's how all these stores were. They were very nicely styled with cool window displays, but I could tell by the sparse look of each place that these were fancy-pants boutiques. Not for me. There were some cool places where I found some reasonably priced things, though.

No, I didn't take this picture (how embarrassing if I was like, hey, can I take your picture? I'm not a tourist... or a stalker... I swear!), it is from Ariel Books' facebook page. Now, this place wasn't cheap, but it was cute and quirky and the shelves were stocked. I found an awesome children's book by an Australian author and bought it for... a kid myself.

The cover is sparkly and it has my favorite animal from our trip to Sydney: flying foxes! I am going to save this book for... well, you know.

Another shop I loved was called Bison.

They have the most beautiful pottery in all of the most amazing colors. I wanted to get a piece for my mother-in-law because she loves pottery, but I picked up the tiniest vase and it was $35. Seriously, it was as tall as my pointer finger and not much wider. Instead, I bought her some cute (and reasonably priced) tea towels.

I had an amazing vegetarian sandwich and a latte (it started to rain) at a little cafe and headed back to the hotel. The next day? I went back to the same neighborhood to pick up a birthday present for a friend and more tea towels for my mom and myself. I was running out of places to go and liked that I could walk there.

At this point in the trip, I was ready to go home, but I still had to see my koalas and kangaroos! Stay tuned!!

Down Under: Days 8 and 9

Yay, the weekend! I was so happy that my husband was off for a couple of days so we could enjoy Sydney together. I really wanted to see some animals (I still hadn't seen a koala or kangaroo), but left the weekend itinerary up to my husband as these were his last two days off in Australia.

On Saturday, we to the Manly Ferry to Manly Beach.

The best part of going to Manly beach is taking the Manly Ferry and getting a piece of this view.

From this side of the bridge, you can get the bridge, opera house, and city skyline all in one shot. Well, you can if you're a professional photographer with a wide-angle lens. We're don't have those tools, so we did the best we could.

The little town at Manly is quite touristy, though I did have the best meal of the trip at Manly Grill (I think?). It was a salad with grilled chicken and goat cheese and roasted pumpkin. The pumpkin was ah.ma.zing.

Even though it was winter, the weather was amazing. It probably got to about 70 at its warmest. The surfers were enjoying the waves and we were enjoying the scenery.

While it was warm on the beach, it was chilly on the ferry, hence the huge coat I'm carrying.

This is my husband's attempt at an artsy shot (can you see the reflection in my glasses? our shadows and the beach?).

On the way back, we enjoyed the beautiful sunset behind the harbour bridge...

and saw these crazy people climbing it.

See those ant-looking things on top? Crazy people who paid over $200 to climb to the top of this huge bridge and freeze and it shakes and sways.

Sunday, my husband wanted to check out the most popular beach in Sydney, Bondi (pronounced Bond-eye). No need to take a ferry, we drive about 10 minutes to get here.

While the beach was smaller, I liked it better than Manly. The town was far less tourist-y and reminded me a lot of Santa Monica.

The walls behind the beach are all painted with beautiful murals. This one says, "Keep Australia Colorful."

There was a little skating competition going on that day as well. We watched the youngest age group for a bit and were in awe of their abilities.

We had sandwiches for lunch up on a grassy hill over-looking the beach and enjoyed the amazing weather.

After lunch, we sat on the sand and admired the scenery. This hotel pool is filled with sea water that splashes up into it every few minutes.

Plenty of surfers at Bondi, many of which wear speedos. This guy was showing his Aussie pride. Be grateful we don't have a picture of him from the front...

After Bondi, my husband got to see the bats!

Up next: I want to go home, then I finally get to see my koalas and kangaroos! Stay Tuned!