A great birthday

I had a wonderful birthday in the land Down Under!
I woke up to some happy birthday emails and texts from some loving friends & family. These folks have mastered the time difference and remembered A WHOLE DAY before my U.S. birthday to wish me a happy one! Now that's some talent!
Since I haven't yet started my own company where everyone gets their birthday off, I had to go into work. Luckily, though, I work with really nice people. My manager brought in cupcakes in honor of my birthday, which was so sweet! Also, it's hard to have a bad day when you get cupcakes as a second breakfast!
I also got the honor of wearing the virtual birthday hat during our Google Hangout with the San Francisco team. Here's a super flattering screengrab to prove it.

For my birthday dinner, I ate at my favorite spot in Sydney, Toby's kitchen. It's quite exclusive!

Chef Toby

What an amazing dinner!

I also made a Nutella Cheesecake for my bday dessert.

If you're thinking that these two things seem like a bad pre-cursor to going out in a bathing suit the next day, you'd be right. But that didn't stop us!!!
One of the great sadnesses of my life is that it's always cold on my birthday. Which means when I was little I could never have a pool or lake party for my birthday. Since it was going to be about 100 degrees on my birthday this year, I decided it was a perfect opportunity to have a beach birthday!

We decided to go to Cronulla Beach, which is about 50 minutes south on the train. Cronulla is a huge beach (it's actually made up of 3 separate beaches which are collectively called Cronulla).

Got our beach faces on!

Cronulla beach

Our beach day was pretty low-key, as you might expect. There was lots of reading and snacks, and a walk on the beach. There might have been a nap thrown in too. We didn't get in the water though - it was freezing cold!
After a while, we headed up to the beach village for some lunch. We found a burger place with great veggie burgers, which was a perfect lunch.

After refueling, we decided to walk down the south side of the beach. This area was less beachy, but really beautiful with rock pools and a cliff-side walk.

This walk provided us with lots of sights.

Then we headed back to the city: tired, sweaty, and sandy, just as you should be after a day at the beach!

We took some time to clean up and rest, then we headed out for a late evening snack. We caught the ferry over to Cockle Bay Wharf and found a rooftop bar where we got some tapas and wine.

The sun was setting while we waited for our ferry

It was a perfect end to a wonderful birthday! A big thank you to all my loved ones that made time to remember my birthday and make it so special, even from far away. I have had an incredibly wonderful, blessed 29 years because of you.

And for the record, here's how being warm on my birthday makes me feel:

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