Manly Island, Sydney, October 19, 2025

Once on the island, we walked the half-kilometer distance from the wharf to the wide, sandy beach along Corso Street which has a lot of old art deco buildings. 

There were people in the water, but it was too choppy for most people. There were thousands of people walking and enjoying the start of summer. We did the same.

Art deco buildings along Corso Street

We spotted some birds we have never seen before - silver gulls, Southern cassowaries, Australian white ibises and sulphur crested cockatoos.

We ate at "Mongers" a fish restaurant. Mark had fish and chips, the fish being hoke or hokey. Barbara had a fish taco. Afterwards we got frozen yogurt.

Manly Island seashore

Then we took the ferry back to the city and took the tram home.

After a bit of a rest, we went back out to walk around some more and got some little buns in China Town - they are about the size of a quarter and filled with cream, but a light, not very sweet cream.

Today we walked close to five miles.

We read about the No Kings Protest in the States and were proud of Americans rallying around democracy and thankful that the protests were peaceful. 

bird of paradise

Silver Gull

A Week Without a Friday! October 18 - First Day in Australia!

No Friday!

We had a wonderful breakfast and lunch at White Sands with Frank and Linda. We said a fond farewell to them. Being with them is always full of great conversation.

 After lunch Mark drove our rental car back to the airport very easily. We had about an hour's delay - our 2nd plane delay on our trip.

 

Los Angeles from the air

 But, we arrived at LAX easily and were met, for our first time, by a wheelchair to make it easier for Mark. We spent a few hours in the Sky Lounge, mostly reading. But, we also met two friendly men from The Commodores who were off to a gig in Auckland and then onto Sydney. They made Barbara feel more assured of the length of the time in the plane as they do long trips fairly often.

    We had good seats on an AirBus 350-900 with extra leg room. We left about 45 minutes late because two seats in First Class had broken.  So, we left around 11:00 p.m. on Thursday - and arrived 15+ hours later on Saturday! (Crossed the International Dateline)

     The flight was definitely long. There were meals after take-off and before landing with a snack at hour #7.  And, the food was pretty good. Barbara had leg cramps and did a fair amount of walking in place by the bathrooms as well as yoga stretches. She thinks it was because her feet did not touch the floor in the seat. However, she did sleep around 5 -6 hours. Mark slept more like 6-8 hours. 

   We had a wheelchair on landing and insisted that Barbara ride, too. That made going through Customs incredibly easy and the wheelchair people recommended an Uber over a taxi and we took their advice taking an Uber to 38 Harbour Street. The number to call for housekeeping did not answer, so we were standing outside wondering what to do. But, 2 lovely men let us in and showed us where the mailbox to our flat is where we knew there was a key inside. Whew.

Chinese Friendship Garden in Sydney

38 Harbour Drive, Sydney

   

Dinner at LiLong

We are in a modest flat in a great location in China Town. We went out fairly immediately to a grocery store and got some provisions. Then- a rest before we explored our neighborhood. It is great - many pedestrianized areas and fantastic food. We are walked to the Tumbalong Park near the Chinese Garden of Friendship. We ate at LiLong - dumplings, scallion pancakes and Mongolian lamb. So good!

Underpass of highway

Sydney skyline

      We think the jet lag will be less because we kept busy all day in the daylight.

Preparing to go to. Australia and New Zealand - October 2025

Getting Ready to Go!

It was a busy week or two before leaving the island on October 11.

For one, the Clarity was off island at the auto body shop and we didn't know until a few days beforehand, that it would be ready. But, that turned out to be great as we were able to walk on a fast ferry and pick up the car. That was fortunate as there was a nor-easter and we risked being stuck on the island for several days.

We managed to get both the flu shot and a Covid booster before we left. Mark also managed one day of scalloping with Jim S. on a lovely day.

On the 9th, Alec, JuliAnn, Cam (2 1/2) and Letty (dog) arrived. That definitely kept us busy and distracted as we got ready to go. 

Both of us had been packing/unpacking for days and I think we are as lightly packed as we've ever been with travel pants, light clothes etc.

We stayed 3 nights in Concord; Jecca and Willy had joined Tyler to hike the long weekend on the Long Trail in Vermont. Tyler had been hiking for 3 weeks by then and was super fit. They all seemed to have a good time. It was Jec and Willy's 28th wedding anniversary. 

We flew from Boston to San Diego on October 14. The plane was delayed more than once and we had a long wait in Concord and then at the airport which was heaving with crowds due to the many cancelled flights - weather and the government shutdown were mostly responsible. We even had to wait 20 minutes to get into the Sky Lounge which was to its capacity. Our 5:15 flight took off around 9:00. We got into San Diego after midnight and were lucky that we were able to get the rental car that late. We drove to White Sands in La Jolla and got to bed at 2:30 a.m. which was 5:30 a.m. to us.

We spent two nights at White Sands as guests of Linda and Frank Morral and had a lovely time with them. We never left the complex. We ate and chatted and chatted and ate. It was wonderful to be with them.