To (in)Sydney and Beyond!

April 24, 2025

Greetings Friends, Family, and Fellow Travelers,

Sara’s Thoughts and Recap

It is our final day in Australia, and tomorrow, we take the longest flight of our entire trip as we fly halfway around the world, departing Sydney at 11:30am on April 25^th and magically traveling backwards in time, arriving at 10:05am on April 25^th in Santiago. We’ve spent nearly six weeks in Australia, and have had such an incredible time here. Today, Calla and Simon are enrolled in a full-day gymnastics camp while we use the unprecedented downtime to purge, pack, and write.

Darlington Beach Holiday Park, Coffs Harbor  

We left Byron Bay and continued our East Coast road trip, first spending two nights at a holiday resort alongside dozens of vacationing Aussie families. I thought this would be a fun place to stop for a couple of days, as there was a small pool with several water slides, as well as a bunch of on-site activities. We checked into our cabin, and were immediately greeted by a half dozen kangaroos hopping around outside our deck. The kids sat outside and watched them as we unpacked our things. It continues to be wild to me that kangaroos just…. exist here, kind of like squirrels (which, incidentally, do not seem to exist here).

Our first evening at the resort, we signed up to play musical bingo. The concept of musical bingo was a total revelation to me. Why is this not a thing elsewhere?! I would delight in the opportunity to play more musical bingo any time, any place. After grabbing food from the restaurant on site, we picked up our bingo cards for the first of three rounds. By round three, we still hadn’t won, and never have I felt like such a foreigner in an English-speaking country as I did during Aussie Pub Rock bingo, where the entire room was loudly singing along to all the songs while the five of us just stared at one another in confusion. Fortunately, the woman next to us let us know what songs were playing, Because bingo is a game of luck, miraculously Justin actually won, netting us free pizza, garlic bread, and soda the following evening. Calla also won a free go kart ride for her smooth Aussie Pub Rock dance moves. I was still smarting because I had Sara Bareilles’ “Brave” on my first bingo card, but it was never played, thus depriving Calla and me of a chance to really go to town with our two-person girl group. Ah, well.

The following day, Jonah and Justin went to archery while Calla, Simon, and I attempted to work the aforementioned go kart. We also attended “Family Trivia” afternoon, where my competitive spirit was taken down a notch by my non-Australianism. I did not know where the Big Prawn is located (Ballina) or who Banjo Patterson is (Australian poet and journalist). Mind you, by this point I was wholly uninterested in more free go kart vouchers. I just wanted the glory, but alas, there was no glory to be found. Nevertheless, it was a chill, relaxing day spent hanging out on site, enjoying arts and crafts, movies in the park, and reading by the pool.

Newcastle

We checked out early the next morning and drove the four hours south to Newcastle, where we were greeted by my lovely DBT colleague and friend, Carla Walton, who so generously opened her home to my noisy crew for the weekend and left five pieces of chocolate on our pillows. Here in Australia, “Carla” and “Calla” are essentially pronounced the exact same way, so any time one of us yelled “Calla” it sounded like we were affecting an Aussie accent and calling out “Carla.”

We lucked out with the most incredible weather during our visit, and spent our days lounging on the beach, visiting Blackbutt Reserve, where we saw more koalas and kangaroos, and eating very delicious ice cream. One evening, Carla and I went out to dinner, where we discovered we have similar taste in food, thereby resulting in ordering far too many items off the delicious-sounding menu. The second evening, Justin cooked for us, happy as we were to have access to a real pantry for the first time in months. On our final morning in Newcastle, I accompanied Carla to an outdoor 6:15am exercise class, where I ran along the beach and up and down stairs for 30 minutes as the sun rose higher in the sky. While this was approximately 30 more minutes of running than I have done in a year, if the views and the breeze were always this perfect, I’d certainly be up for doing more of it. I was also delighted to have the opportunity to speak to Carla’s DBT team in Newcastle, who had prepared a list of questions for me beforehand. As I’ve written about several times, I really miss using the “DBT consultant” portion of my brain, and learning more about the stellar work the team is doing in Australia and getting to play even a small role in helping to enhance their skills was extremely rewarding.

At this point in our trip, we were also starting to worry about Calla, who had developed a persistent cough over a week earlier and was acting sluggish. I took her to a local urgent care and subsequently learned that she tested positive for mycoplasma pneumonia. The doctor – sensing my mounting panic – quickly explained that this didn’t mean Calla had pneumonia, just that she had an infection that could result in pneumonia. We immediately got her onto antibiotics, and the cough - while still present – improved dramatically and she is more or less back to her regular feisty self.

Sydney

We arrived in the city that is not Australia’s capital (that’s Canberra) but many people think is Australia’s capital around lunchtime and immediately managed to get ourselves lost trying to navigate the ever-changing Apple Maps directions. After two of hours of watching Justin drive, I required a nap, so we settled into our hotel room to recuperate. With a week and a half in Sydney, we were able to do a nice mix of day trips, sight seeing, and exploration, enjoying time to shop, get pedicures (Calla and me), and just wander around with no clear destination in mind. We are staying at Sebel West Circular Quay in a two bedroom apartment with views of the Sydney Harbour. The location is central to many of the big tourist attractions, and the kitchen and laundry room are a huge plus.

Some highlights from our time in Sydney:

April 15^th: Blue Mountains

We held onto our car through the end of the week so that we could take a couple of day trips outside the city. The first was to the Blue Mountains, a world heritage-listed site with beautiful scenery and stunning viewpoints. Our plan was to go for a hike around the Canyon Track, stopping at Three Sisters rock formation, and maybe make a visit to Scenic World to ride the trams. However, Calla was still feeling out of sorts, too exhausted to do more than a small part of the hike, and Justin ended up carrying her for much of the way. Thus, we scrapped plans for Scenic World and instead, opted to head back to Sydney around lunchtime so that Calla could nap while Simon and I further explored the city. We made it to Three Sisters, though, and as promised the views were absolutely spectacular.

April 16^th and April 18^th: Museum Visits

Our family visited both the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was small but contained some nice exhibits by both female and Aboriginal artist, as well as the Australia Museum. We were specifically interested in seeing the exhibit on Machu Picchu, as we’ll be traveling to Peru in June and exploring Machu Picchu the first week of July. The exhibit was beautiful curated, with stories written on the walls accompanying various video displays. We enjoyed seeing many of the centuries’ old golden artifacts, as well as learning about some of the cultural mythology. The museum also contained exhibits on minerals, dinosaurs, and animals. As she is wont to do, Calla played tour guide, telling us about several of the famous Australians whose photos were on display. (“This is a candle maker. He makes candles out of every kind of thing,” – on a photo Lord Howard Florey preparing penicillin in 1943.) Afterwords, we stopped for onigiri and ice cream. We also had big plans to linger in Dymocks bookstore, but were surprised to find it – along with many other retail stores – closed in anticipation of Easter. (Additionally, we learned that all dining establishments charge a 10-15% holiday surcharge over the long Easter weekend, which was a concept new to us.)

April 16^th: Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

Without a doubt, the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb was the highlight of my time here in Sydney. As the climb is limited to guests ages eight and older, Justin and I decided to split up, each of us taking one of the boys on a 1:1 climb, followed by a special dinner. Simon and I visited first, and then Justin and Jonah climbed two evenings later.

After visiting the Contemporary Art museum, Simon and I headed back to the apartment for naps so that we’d be prepared to venture out for our evening in the city. Since I’d booked the climb several months ago, we were able to snag a coveted twilight time slot. I’d selected the Summit climb, which includes 1,332 steps ascending the upper arch of the bridge. We arrived at our climb on time, and were taken through a safety briefing, which included a breathalyzer. The entire group laughed as young Simon, aged 9, blew into a breathalyzer and was deemed sufficiently sober to climb. We were given suits to change into, and then directed through security to ensure we did not have any prohibited items on our person such as watches, cell phones, or loose change. After clearing security, we were further outfitted with a harness, a flashlight, and a headset. We completed a pre-climb “ladder simulator” until finally – nearly an hour after our check in time – we were deemed ready to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We were hooked onto cables the entire time, with the first portion of the bridge being the narrowest. Eventually, we reached the four ladders leading to the upper arch of the bridge. After climbing the ladders, we continued on an incline just in time to catch the sunset. We continued on the right side of the bridge with exceptional views of the Opera House. There were several photo ops, and at one point, our guide had us all pause to scream off the top of the bridge. (Amazing.) The views were exceptional. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city in quite so much illuminated glory as I saw Sydney on this evening. We came back down the west side of the bridge. At one point, Simon and I stood under the train tracks and we could actually see the trains speeding above our heads. Truly, this was such a memorable adventure, and I’m so grateful to have been able to experience it with my favorite younger son.

I know I’ve referenced this in previous newsletters, but Simon was deathly afraid of heights for years. Friends who joined us at Great Wolf Lodge last winter can attest that he was initially scared just climbing up the steps to a waterslide. The fact that this kid – with zero hesitation – climbed to 134 meters above sea level is a testament to how much he’s grown over the last year. Afterwords, I treated him to dinner at Luna Lu, where we feasted on dumplings, fried chicken, and seafood rice.

April 17^th: Sydney Opera House

We had a leisurely morning before heading to the world-famous Sydney Opera House for a 1:30pm tour. I’d really hoped to see a show here, but the only one that seemed kid-friendly was Dog Man the Musical, which the boys already saw back in Seattle a couple of years ago. At any rate, we managed to lose our tour group immediately after going through security, and had to track down an employee to help us find our group again. Upon being reunited, we learned about the history of the building’s construction, and visited both the studio space and the opera hall. The kids tolerated the tour as well as could be expected. We weren’t allowed to take photos in the opera hall due to set copyright, but please know that the room was incredible. I deeply regret that we weren’t able to see a performance there.

April 19^th: Girls Day

I won’t say much about the Zambi Wildlife Retreat as Justin and the boys will write about their experience there other than to say I was over the moon to discover that it existed and could provide Jonah and Simon with an ethical animal feeding experience. While the Schmidt men partied with real wildlife, Calla and I enjoyed the tamer, stuffed version of wildlife, as I treated her to a “Teddy Bear High Tea” buffet at The Gallery, part of the Sheraton Grand Sydney Hotel. We got dressed up, and as it was Easter weekend, “Teddy Bear High Tea” was re-dubbed “Bunny Rabbit High Tea,” and all the young guests were given a stuffed bunny rabbit in a Sheraton x Build-A-Bear collaboration. For reasons unknown, Calla named the bunny rabbit Tom (after initially declaring the name to be “Nothing”) and then proceeded to only eat gluten-free pita chips, chicken nuggets, and smoked salmon for lunch before moving on to hot chocolate and the chocolate fountain for dessert. Because I am a grown up, I put some salad on my plate before delighting in the cheese platter, salmon blinis, mini sandwiches, and scones, sipping wattleseed tea, and only then moving on to the adorable bunny-themed petit fours. After lunch, we walked around, poking into shops and picking up some new sneakers for Calla before heading back to our apartment to rest. With all of the family togetherness on our world trip, Calla is very interested in the idea of “girls time,” so I’ve tried to carve out special 1:1 experiences in which her brothers would be less interested. This was definitely one of those days, and it was really special to have the time with her.

April 20^th: Alice in Wonderland and Easter

I bought us tickets to see the Australian Shakespeare Company perform Alice in Wonderland at the Royal Botanic Garden. We set up our towels in the shade, and over the next hour and a half, I managed to undue 100% of my built-up goodwill from Jonah (He fed a tiger! Did I mention I sat through the Minecraft movie?!) as he watched the show. So, yeah… was the show 9- and almost 13-year-old boy friendly? Not really. Did Jonah need to make fun of it quite as much as he did? Also, not really. But Calla enjoyed the show and Justin put on a giant card costume, so net win?

Later that afternoon, our hotel put on an egg hunt, which was harder than we anticipated. I managed to find two eggs while assisting Simon and Calla, which was good because it meant they each won a giant chocolate rabbit and no one needed to engage in the futile task of trying to break a hollow chocolate rabbit into two equal halves.

April 21st: Catmosphere & Sydney Fish Market

One of the nice things about having extra time in a city is that it allows us to explore places we’d likely not visit otherwise. To that end, we took our first ride on the Sydney light rail to visit Catmosphere, a local cat cafe. As all three kids continue to petition for a pet cat when we get home, Justin and I continue to look for compromise options like “pet cute kittens for 45 minutes at this random cafe in Australia.” So, that is what we did. Justin and the boys visited the “chill” room for cats, while I took Calla into the kitten room, where she dangled a jangly toy while the tiny kittens jumped and batted in delight. I sat on the floor and allowed a tiny black kitten to climb on my lap. It was all very adorable. It did not make me want to own a pet cat. Justin spent the remainder of the day battling his allergies.

Afterwards, we took the light rail to the Sydney Fish Market, which the internet says is the largest market of its kind in the entire Southern Hemisphere. It was a really cool place, with a working wharf, a half dozen seafood retailers, and several cafes and restaurants. We ordered food from a few different places, trying a lobster roll (delicious — not New England style, which is my favorite, but with more smokiness and, inexplicably, cheese sauce), sushi, and fresh oysters. While it would have been nice to bring seafood back to our apartment to cook later, we thought cooking fish in a hotel room was bad juju, and thus passed.

April 23rd: Girls Day, redux

It’s spring break here in Sydney, which means that we were able to find some fun programs for the kids. This morning, I dropped Calla off for a three hour children’s music camp at Sydney Conservatorium, which she greatly enjoyed, though she refuses to tell me what she actually did. (She was, however, disappointed that the final two song “performance” did not include an actual stage.) While waiting outside the door, I started chatting with another mother, who was telling me that she was thinking of going to the huge playground in Darling Harbour with her kids in the afternoon. I cannot believe I almost left Sydney without visiting this place! While rain was predicted for the entire day, the actual weather apparently missed the memo and we enjoyed hours of sunshine this afternoon. After Calla’s class, we made a quick pit stop back at the hotel before heading to Fishbowl for lunch followed by Darling Harbour for the afternoon. As promised, the playground was massive — rope climbs and a zipline, swings, slides, water play. As we were winding down with a plan to find ice cream and head back to the apartment, we discovered yet another part of the playground with still more giant climbing structures and slides. Naturally, Calla suddenly was no longer ready to go home, and played for a while before enjoying a ride on the carousel and some bubble tea.

We returned to Sebel West around 4pm, and I got ready to head back out again. When we first arrived at our hotel, I’d noticed that the bar next door - “Maybe Sammy” - was on the official “World’s 50 Best Bars” list (#26), and thus my interest was piqued. I finally got a chance to visit this evening. Since children are understandably not allowed in bars, I wandered over during their happy hour solo and ordered a mini tequila, mezcal, and mango margarita. Justin briefly came to meet me, and I ordered two of what I thought would be oyster shooters but were actually small martinis made with oyster shell gin. They were surprisingly delicious. I’d intended to read my book and sip another cocktail, but since I am me, I ended up instead chatting with Scott and Angie, a couple from Victoria, Australia sitting next to me. In that time, I tried the Buffet (miso and cocoa butter, fords gin, passionfruit, amaro lucano, tomato, black tea) and the Aromatherapy (Glenfiddich 14 years, noilly prat, amaro, dark cacao, jasmine and pear almond milk). I texted Justin to ask him to return to hang out and help me finish my last drink, and he happily obliged. The bartenders were friendly, I enjoyed the casual ambiance, and the drinks were complex and delicious. I can see why Maybe Sammy is considered one of the best bars in the world. It is also quite the milestone that Jonah is old enough to watch his siblings for brief periods of time if we are a) both next door and b) distracting the younger children with screens. When I returned an hour and a half later, Calla thought I had only been gone “one minute,” and had not even realized Justin left for a short period of time.

Various Days: Ice Kirin and Dymocks

Ice Kirin is a small ice cream café located in Regent Place, a Japanese market about a mile from our hotel. I visited three times during the first week we were in Sydney, twice with just Simon and once with the entire family. Ice Kirin makes tea-infused gelatos, which you can get wrapped in house-made mochi. On all three occasions, I ordered brown sugar boba Assam gelato with a mochi wrap, and on all three occasions, it was one of the best things I’ve eaten on our entire trip. This is not a paid ad for Ice Kirin, but it probably could be.

Each time we visited Ice Kirin, we subsequently headed over to Dymocks, a three-story bookstore. It’s been interesting to me to see which books from the US make it to Australia and which do not. For example, I was surprised to see they did not have Jennifer Weiner’s latest novel on their shelves, but they did have the new books from Abby Jimenez and Charmaine Wilkerson, both of which I’d already read. There are also so many Australian authors I’ve never heard of and I bemoaned the fact that I no longer read paper books. (I mean, I suppose I could, but they are heavy to carry, and I’m attached to my free Libby app and Kindle Paperwhite.) As always, the kids were thrilled to plop down and devour new books.

Final Thoughts

We barely scratched the surface of Australia - which is as big as the United States without Alaska - and I would eagerly return many times over to explore the parts of the country for which we did not have time (Melbourne, Tasmania, Kangaroo Island, Uluru, the entirety of Western Australia). I cannot believe we leave for Chile tomorrow. I admit, I’m a bit apprehensive after 12 weeks of traveling through English speaking countries to bust out my rusty high school Spanish. At the same time, we have so many cool adventures planned between now and when we return home, and I’m looking forward to exploring our sixth and final continent.

It really feels like we’re in the home stretch now. Yesterday, Calla thanked me for giving birth to her, and made a comment about how being a parent is hard. This turned into a longer conversation about how things that are hard can also provide some of the most rewarding experiences in life. Parenting, yes, but taking a year off to travel the world with your kids. Learning how to read, as Calla is doing now. Suddenly this year, which initially felt so long and so daunting, doesn’t quite feel long enough.

Justin’s Soapbox

Another regrettably abbreviated Soapbox this time, in part due to too much last-minute packing and also in part due to the generally serene vibe that I’ve managed to enjoy in Australia. This isn’t to say that our time here hasn’t been thought-provoking in multiple ways, but our trip here has involved a lot of great outdoors and wildlife experiences which in many ways speak for themselves, as related by Sara and the kids. I find myself in more of a role of admiring Jonah’s excitement for animals, Simon’s enthusiasm for exploring the outdoors, Calla’s irrepressible sense of joy at meeting new people and finding new places for play, and Sara’s gusto for finding special experiences along the way. I’m just soaking it in here, folks.

As the biggest country we’re visiting, we could only do so much here, but I do feel like we covered a lot of ground. It’s wonderful to see how much the kids enjoyed it here and to keep Australia in mind for a return trip. My personal favorite thing of this second half of the trip might have been the bridge climb. It was extremely peaceful and didn’t really trigger my continually emerging vertigo, and felt like being in a postcard or the opening credits of a movie. Just a continually spectacular 360 view of the city from a perch that felt very special. Following it up with a dinner alone with Jonah made it a real highlight.

The fact that we’re on our way to our final leg of the trip is a bit mind-blowing. Yes, this has largely flown by for me even as I knew it would. Things will be very different in South America and the pace of the trip will pick back up with more exotic locales and unfamiliar surroundings, and of course the return of the language barrier (though Sara and I have been telling ourselves to brush up on our Spanish, so we’ll all find out how well that goes soon enough!)

Cheers!

Jonah’s Musings

In all my life, I have never seen a view this good before! Last week, we walked the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The preparation before the bridge walk was very long and quite stressful. There was even a simulator to see if you could climb a ladder.

When we finally got to the top, the sun was setting and me and my dad got beautiful photos with the city in the background. We could see our hotel, and the opera theater which was a place that we had done a tour on.

After we did the bridge climb, me and dad went to a steakhouse to get some big juicy meat. The steak that we had was some of the best I had ever had. It was cooked perfectly, and it had just the right amount of spices on it as well.

But the day after might have been even better, though. When we woke up we went to [Zambi], a wildlife rescue center. It had been a surprise, so when we got there I couldn't contain my excitement. It was amazing, we got to see many of my favorite animals. We got to see a Sri Lankan leopard, an African lion, a Sumatran tiger, and even a Siberian tiger - the largest of the big cats. We also saw baboons, and a type of small monkey called a marmoset which looked like Albert Einstein. There were also parrots, which we got to feed peanuts. 

Feeding the big cats though was definitely the best part of the experience though. The first wild cat I fed was a 460 pound African lion. I fed this big boy two chicken legs and he absolutely loved them. I even got him to stand on his hind legs, though when he did that a lot of his main hair flew through the bars. I also fed a tiger, as well. Though it ate the chicken legs much faster and crushed the bone very quickly.

Dad, Simon, and I also went to the Taronga Zoo. At this zoo I finally got to see an echidna, a type of egg laying mammal in the marsupial family. They look a lot like a large hedgehog. Here’s us looking at a gorilla:

Australia has definitely been my favorite continent on this trip so far, but maybe South America has a shot at getting number 1. But for that to happen it will have to be real special.

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Simon’s Reflection

This is my last blog in Australia! I’m going to start with when my family went to my mom’s friend, Carla’s, and stayed at her house. She has two cats. It was fun because she had a lot of plums and I love plums! And so does Calla! After we left, went to Sydney. We are actually still here. The hotel is really nice. On Easter, there was an egg hunt. We only got two [eggs], and Calla and I each got a giant chocolate bunny. Mom and me also went on this really nice bridge climb called the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was really fun. We got to the top of it and got a great view of the city.

I also went to two zoos, just Jonah, me, and Dad. The first place was a wildlife rescue. A girl was there who was like, “Are you ready for your tour?” and she wasn’t that good on animals even though her dad owned the place. She said tigers don’t have barbs on their tongues, but they do. She also said animals in circuses are good. Jonah and me thought she must have been a ghost! Anyways, Jonah and I fed a tiger and a lion. It was really fun. We also went to the Taronga Zoo where we went on a ferry to get there. And when we got there Jonah was in charge of what animals we were going to see, so if we passed by one animal that wasn’t on Jonah’s schedule yet, he said we couldn’t look at it. We finally saw the echidnas, but that’s not the most exciting thing. So, at the tigers, there was a van, and on top of the van was a sleeping tiger and you could go inside the van so the tiger was right above it. If it woke up, it could have easily broken the glass and, well, you know. We also saw Asian elephants, and one of them was really smart. There was a container, and the elephant started to push it because it knew there was food in there. We also saw a really tall giraffe and Jonah and me found these mice what have giant eyeballs and were so cute; Jonah and me wanted to keep one! So far, Australia has been 9 out of 10! I’m glad we went here. It was such a fun experience.

Calla’s Corner

Mommy: Today we are writing our last newsletter about Australia. What do you want to talk about?

Calla: So, ok! So, everyone today I am writing about lots of things. Let’s start with this one. I went out on a girls’ fun trip. I went to high tea with my mom. She’s gorgeous! And I also got a lot of dessert. I got some cake. I got a tiny gingerbread man. I got gummy worms with a chocolate fountain and plain gummy bears. So now let’s move onto this part. Today I went to a beautiful big park [Darling Harbour Playground]. I went on a carousal. Can I tell you the sad and boring part?

Mommy: Sure, honey. You can write about whatever you would like.

Calla: Okay, so guys. Tuck up your children if you want to hear this part. So, can you please not laugh at this part? Once I was going down the slide, I was trying to go down the slide. A boy pushed me. I cried when I got to the bottom. I couldn’t find my Mommy. Everyone was not making fun of me, they were all trying to help me. Everyone around the park and everything, even the coaches. [Ed note: I need to emphatically communicate to you all that I was sitting on a bench in the middle of the play structure. It was just a very large, sprawling play structure. I suggested she may want to tell our readers that she found me, but she declined.] Thank you for letting me talk to you today.

Mommy: Is there anything else you want to talk about?

Calla: Um, oh let me think. Nope!

See you in South America!!

xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla