On my last day in Sydney, Australia, I woke up to a beautiful blessing. Outside, for the first time since I arrived, the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue! It didn't take long to put a plan in action, shower, eat, put on some shorts and a pair of sneakers and head downstairs to hail a cab. 20 minutes later (and after my cabbie was nearly ticketed by a motorcycle cop for not wearing his seatbelt), I was at Bondi beach.

The famous beach was everything one would expect to see there in Australia. The sand was soft and white and the water was gloriously blue. But I had been informed that it was the hike from Bondi beach to Bronte beach that was really the site to see. The cabbie had been kind enough to tell me I had chosen well by wearing sneakers for this excursion, and he was very right.

The hike consisted of a curving path up and down steep stairs, around and into the rocky shoreline and along tall ocean cliffs. In a word, it was stunning. I stopped for a bottle of water at a beachside cafe at Tamarama Beach, a smaller cove and the halfway point between the other two beaches. I finished the hike to Bronte, dipped my toes into the ocean, enjoyed watching the surfers for a bit and then took my time hiking back.

I had lunch and finished up the last of my gift shopping in the shops along Bondi Beach. I was nearly attacked while eating frozen yogurt by a particularly bold one-legged seagull who clearly had nothing left to lose (see his menacing picture in the gallery below). It was a perfect morning with perfect weather, and it was just as I was getting into a cab back to my hotel that the darker clouds started to roll in. It was truly a blessing to have this amazing experience on my last day in Sydney.