Hang Ten

Although I may have failed at sky diving, surfing was an adventure I like to think I accomplished. Perhaps not very well, but after many days of surfing down under, I caught a few good waves.

I started off at surf school to learn the basics. I woke up early and still hungover from partying the night before, but there's nothing like a dip in the ocean to kill a hangover (something I’ve learned all to well from Fire Island). The class was filled with 15 tourists wanting to fit in with the locals that made surfing look so easy. None of us looked natural or at ease, and our yellow boards and bright blue rash shirts didn't help much either. But like all other activities we did in Australia, it was about experiencing and trying new things and most importantly meeting new people from all over the world.

We spent the first half of the lesson on the beach on our boards, learning fundamentals. Over and over we laid on the board and then would jump up repeatedly. But the impatient NY born and raised sisters just wanted to get in the water and begin surfing. When it was finally time to get in the ocean and attempt to ride the waves most of the class crashed and were continuously running into eachother like a bad traffic jam on the FDR.

A few days later, Melissa and I decided to ditch the group and take a private lesson and get serious about surfing. But serious, was anything but what happened during that lesson. My witty, inappropriate, and flirtatious personality was out in full force and the combination of trying to learn to surf made for a great segment that I wish was documented for a reality television show (Snooki step aside).

Our Aussie surf instructor kept yelling at us you gotta face the beach, but with his Aussie accent all I heard was "you gotta face the bitch" -- I mean how could anyone take that seriously in the water?? After a few hours of surfing and many twin jokes later, I found my “sweet spot” (let the jokes pour in.. Gd only knows I had a field day with this one)

We left that lesson and our instructor didn’t know what to think about us New Yawkas. I'm still getting emails from him with remarks that he can't take his lessons seriously without cracking a smile and thinking of michigas when teaching other students about their sweet spot.

With the snowstorm approaching and the holiday weekend around the corner, everyone’s talking about skiing and snowboarding, but I can’t help but think about surfing! I guess my surfing days are over until summer… so for now I’ll put my bikini away and pull out my long underwear, but hopefully the pictures will warm you up...

Skipper, Gilligan, and Maryanne too

My sister and I spent a few days living on a sailboat called "The Hammer" and cruising around the Whitsunday Islands. The boat consisted of 22 twenty-something year olds from all over the world ranging from England, Germany, France, Holland, Poland, Israel to Taiwan. It was very intriguing to share everyone’s experiences, backgrounds, cultures and stories. There were such vast differences in everyone and their lifestyles, but we were all sharing a common ground, Australia, this boat, and our desire to travel the world and enjoy this same very moment in life.

Having slept on the boat, we arrived very early on our 2nd day to Whitehaven beach; ahead on the rest of the tourists who sail out to visit this beach later in the day. Our boat dropped us off on the bay side of the island, so we had to take a short hike to the beach. There were a few trails, one in particular leading you to a lookout point. The view from the lookout was spectacular, and everyone was taking picture after picture, and of course I took a few but really Melissa and I were just itching to get to the beach!

The beach was practically empty, and for that short time, it was as if we were on a secluded island with no worries....able to soak up every moment and ounce of its beauty. The sand is almost as white and soft as flour and the water was a beautiful turquoise and as crystal clear as running water from a faucet. The sun beaming down made this magnificent turquoise ocean shine bright against the white beach. I truly believe this was heaven and if this is, I’m okay with leaving this earth tomorrow…

You know the saying. pictures speak 1,000 words, well I think these pictures speak many more then that.

The Whitsunday Islands are on the beginning stretch of the Great Barrier Reef, and I began to understand why this was part of the Seven Wonders of the World… Our next excursion was to travel farther north, to Cairns to see more of the Great Barrier Reef and the Rainforest (or Bush as the Aussie’s refer to it) Stay tuned…

You know you're not in America when...

So I've arrived safely in Aussie!! After a long few flights and trekking our oversized luggage thru a few airports and across the world.. I made it down under...



My first day in Brisbane, we spent walking around the city shopping and exploring. Brisbane is a beautiful city with a river running thru it. We took a tour on this boat which is almost similar to the red bus tours around nyc



I'm staying in the suburbs southwest of Brisbane in a really nice house in a gated community.. its out of a movie here with all the couples and kids centered around this man made lake! There's a little food market, a bakery, and a liquor store in the center (what else do u need in life but sweets booze and carbs) Jet lag kicked in and we were up before 5am.. My sister and I went for a run around the lake and then to the market to get some breakfast. We went into the bakery ordered some coffee and the women LOVED our accents (you have to remember that Americans coming to the burbs here are VERY rare) so the women were giving us treats to go "halvsies" on. Melissa bites into this chocolate ganache ball and her reaction is "Oh My God. this is delicious" The women lost it and made her repeat that line 5 times and trying to copy "OH MY GOD" themselves.. it was classic, they couldn't believe people actually said that outside of movies!!!! Melissa asks what shes eating and they tell her Murray's balls. So as we were leaving Melissa says to them "tell Murray his balls were delicious" You can't make this stuff up! Part 1, stayed tuned....