San Francisco, Montauk June July 2011

Summer came to New York and the heat is intense. The parks have the water features turned on, and girls are happy running wild and playing with the many other kids around. The garden at the new office is a beautiful sanctuary and an in demand meeting room when not too hot. Granted the  garden is a little wild!

The end of year Blue School show put on by Trinity's 2nd grade class was a treat, with them pulling out all the stops with vaudeville style skits and entertainment.

David had a week of delivery and training in Palo Alto and San Francisco, so the girls and I tagged along too as school had finished for the year.

We did the touristy things in San Francisco like spending time at Pier 39 and going to the aquarium. I took the girls sight seeing on the hop on hop off bus, including walking through the Presidio and spending half a day at the Exploratorium which the girls absolutely loved. It was filled with hands-on science experiments for kids and we could have stayed there for days.

We flew back to New York and began school holidays in earnest with the girls going to summer camp each day.

The weekend before returning to Sydney we went to Montauk, with Blue School co-founders Matt and Renee, who have a five year old son Rhyus. They offered us a weekend in their guest cottage five minutes walk from the beach, which apparently has the best surfing on Long Island.

Idyllic walks along the beach, swimming in their pool, eating wonderful food and roasting marshmallows on an open fire made this the most magical weekend. They were most excellent hosts.

The girls spent four weeks in total at Sweet Soul Movement on Lafayette right near Astor Place. The camp focused on dancing and singing training with a Broadway bent. At the end, they performed in an amazing show which David and I enjoyed thoroughly.

After the show David and I met up with Ara to celebrate his birthday with some intense karaoke and celebratory toasting. It was not a good look on the flight the next evening. Especially with the temperature sitting around 41 celsius the previous day.