Manly Adventures & Rugby Match

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On Saturday we made plans to meet up with Brian's cousin Dan and his two kids, Kobi and Ella, at Manly beach. How do I put this....the trip was...interesting! Haha, no, we had fun. I was a little put off by the vehicle that looked like the Scooby Doo van and, as Ella put it, "smelled strongly of petrol," and the fact that Dan took us on a hike that was definitely off the beaten path and started at the sewage dump! BUT the end result was definitely worth it. After essentially hiking through the Australian bush - we found ourselves on a cliff overlooking EVERYTHING. It was gorgeous - we even saw some whales from up there! THEN, we made our way down the cliff face....yes...we scaled a cliff face that had nothing but a ratty rope and some holes carved into the rock by fishermen over the past 50 years. At the bottom of the cliffs we found pools of water FILLED with sea urchins, starfish and even an octopus! Kobi and Ella were having a blast picking up all the creatures. I held a sea urchin very briefly - but after a few seconds of feeling its spikes move around on my plam - I was anxious for Ella to take it back! It was very cool. After we made our way back up the cliffs and through the bush - we hiked down to the beach were we found a little touristy cafe and enjoyed some lunch while the kids played on the beach. It was quite nice!

After taking the ferry from Manly back to Circular Quay, we hopped in a cab and rushed off to a Sydney Roosters Rugby match! It was so fun! We had awesome seats (maybe 20 rows up and right at mid field) and the crowd was really into it - despite the stadium only being half full. In the end, we bought some gear to fit in with the crowd - we asked some Aussie's for clarification on the rules - we saw some really big men hit each other really hard - and we saw the Sydney Roosters beat the Bulldogs in a close match - 32 to 28 (which is a 1 goal difference)!

Once the match ended, we grabbed a bite to eat at a cool little bar and made our way back to the hotel. FINALLY, we were able to stay up all the way 'til 10 PM!!!

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