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Celebrating 13th Birthday in Healthy Ways at Four Seasons Hotel Sydney

March 03, 2014

Mozart celebrating her 13th birthday in Sydney

Can a new teenager have a blast in a healthy way celebrating her 13th birthday? Yes, indeed and that is exactly what we did at Four Seasons Hotel Sydney!

Her birthday was in the fall, but thanks to our fast travel on 3 continents these last few months, we are just getting this up now.

BIRTHDAYS AND TRAVEL

Since we have been traveling the world non-stop for the last 8 years, celebrating birthdays are a little different for our trilingual daughter.

kid jumping for joy at Four Seasons Sydney rooftop pool

CELEBRATING BIRTHDAYS ABROAD

It started when we began when she was 5 as it helped her identify exactly what "world travel" was by planning her 6th birthday in Paris before we left. Who knew we were starting a trend?

She celebrated her 7th birthday in Salzburg,  her 8th birthday in Stockholm, her 9th birthday in London, her 10th birthday in Barcelona, with her Spanish speaking best friend, her 11th birthday at Harry Potter's Wizarding World, and her 12th in Penang, Malaysia with her Mandarin speaking friends.

spectacular view of Sydney Harbor

CELEBRATING IN SYDNEY

So her 13th birthday in Sydney made it the 9th country and 4th continent that she has celebrated a birthday on our open ended world tour!

We couldn't have picked a better place for this rite of passage as she becomes a teenager. We were completely beguiled from the moment we saw the breathtaking views from our room of the stunning Sydney harbor.

Sydney view from our Four Seasons suite

GLUTEN-FREE, GRAIN-FREE

The Concierge, Chefs as well as the Director of Public Relations Hansni Bhagani went out of their way to make this first teen birthday super memorable. Despite our challenges of special dietary issues for health reasons, FS Sydney served us the most delicious paleo food and even a scrumptious chocolate cake that was gluten and grain free!

delicous food at Four Seasons Sydney - Paleo style!

WORLD'S HEALTHIEST INSTRUMENT IS ABORIGINAL

Our stay started with a bang...or rather a drone from Australia's national musical instrument made by the Aboriginal people called a didgeridoo which has been a healing tool for at least 40,000 years and many call the healthiest musical instrument in the world.

Our teen Mozart is a musician, singer and prolific songwriter, so they arranged some didgeridoo lessons in our gorgeous suite from "Gifts at the Quay" and she was delighted.

Learning Didgerido at Four Seasons Sydney suite with Gifts at the Quay

WHAT IS A DIDGERIDOO?

Until our first trip to Australia a few years ago, I had never heard of a didgeridoo, but recently it was recommended to us by Carol Vander Stoep because there is no other instrument as potent for health ( based on scientific studies) and it is almost identical to the Buteyko breathing technique similar to the meditation breathing achieved by yoga masters.

Mozart playing didgeridoo at Four Seasons Sydney

BUYING A DIDGERIDOO

We enjoyed the lesson and didgeridoo jam sesson so much, that we decided to get our own to add to our travel lifestyle ( along with our piano, violin and guitar that our kiddo plays around the world) and will be writing more about that.

Mozart mastering the didgeridoo in Sydney

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN SYDNEY

Mozart also has a passion for art so loved visiting the nearby Museum of Contemporary Art, feeding seagulls near the Circular Quay, and wandering around this enchanting historic Sydney city center area called "The Rocks".

Feeding birds in Sydney at "The Rocks"

Mozart exploring Sydney

Mozart shopping at Museum of Contemporary Art gift shop in Sydney

EXPLORING SYDNEY

We took a ferry ride to Manly Beach to visit local friends and caught a spectacular sunset of Sydney from the natural bushlands of North Head Sanctuary area. 

beautiful Sydney sunset

LUXURY LOVING TEEN

This new teen joyously tried out the sauna ,steam room, Jacuzzi and felt like a glamorous model as she enjoyed lolling about the roof pool area reading Vogue and snacking. Still mostly kid, we watched her gleefully jump and do cannon balls into the pool.

Teen fashionista luxurating at pool in Sydney Four Seasons

Catching sun rays at Sydney Four Season

FIREWORKS IN SYDNEY

We knew our travel baby's teen years were off to an auspicious start when the night of her birthday we watched fireworks going off in Sydney while laying in our beds ( much to our surprise)!

Sydney Harbor fireworks seen  from our Four Seasons suite

Have you ever celebrated a birthday abroad or while traveling?

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girasoli

13? Wow, she is growing up so quickly!

Although I don't comment, I have enjoyed following your family around the world.

Am doing the Paleo thing (well 85%) and gluten-free if I do eat any grains. Have enjoyed your tips!

girasoli

Oooh! Forgot to add, Happy Happy Birthday Mozart!!

Jeanne @soultravelers3

Thanks so much Girasoli, always wonderful to hear from you!

It is hard to believe my baby is 13 and now when we look back at the early pictures of our travels, it seems amazing that she was so little then. ;)

Time flies when you are having fun...nothing like a growing kid to let you see how fast it is going. LOL

More Paleo/GAPS/Grain-free tips and recipes coming! It is a whole new world doing it here in the States...sooo much more available...though I do miss a few super cheap things from Asia.

We can get great pastured chicken livers here for cheap..so I have been making nutrient dense delicious pates and paleo chili that I will be writing about soon... and more. ;)

My beloveds don't like liver..but this way I have them eating it regularly, loving it, and keeping us on a low budget! ;)

girasoli

Yum! I love chicken livers!

Jeanne @soultravelers3

I do too girasoli and they are so good for you, BUT one must eat them from well raised pastured chickens who are not fed grains, soy or given antibiotics etc, so that was challenging in Asia. We found good pastured chickens but they threw away the livers!

Any way now we can have a lot and saves us from buying liver pills like we had to do in Asia.

Mozart does not like liver, so I had to get creative to make her love it! ;)

I also have some paleo dessert recipes for cookies and brownies that Mozart made for Christmas that were yummy and I learned to fry cookies here as we have no oven. ;)

Thanks again for commenting as blogging can be a bit lonely, never knowing who is reading or caring what one writes. ;)

Gabrielle

I care too Jeanne! Still following your adventures with great interest. Hope we get to meet if you do come to France... happy belated 13th To Mozart (loved the pictures from the singing post), hope your health continues to improve. Take care + thanks for sharing!

Jeanne @soultravelers3

Aw,thanks so much Gabrielle! So happy to hear that. Waving back to you in France and hope we do get to meet you when we are back exploring in Europe!

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