And once again, there is a lot of info in this thing, and I wouldn't want to read it all if I were not the one experiencing it. It is mostly for Clark and me to remember our trip, but feel free to read it all if you have that kind of time on your hands.
So Monday, January 23: We were going to go to the beach but because we haven't had a day without rain since we got here we just did a few things in the city. We went to the Queen Victoria Building which was beautiful. It is just a historic shopping center that has beautiful tile mosaics everywhere and immaculate chandeliers. The shops were all our of our price range so we just walked around and then continued on walking through the city.
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| Queen Victoria Building |
We went to Hyde Park after that which is just like a mini central park. There was a guy there playing a keyboard and we sat in the park long enough to hear him loop through all of his songs. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon watching the funny long legged, long beaked birds peck around and beg for food. Clark wanted me to include that we did not drink Lime Fanta because it does not exist in Australia anymore. It used to be his favorite drink here and now he cant find it anywhere. We did have some Lemon-Lime Solo which he discovered is equally as good.
That evening we had dinner with the Barrs. Genny made Bulgogi, a delicious Korean dish with "Peaches Down Under" for dessert (canned peaches, sour cream, and lots of brown sugar and cinnamon, baked.)
For those who do not know the Barrs, first off, you are missing out on knowing the best two people in the world. We could have spent the whole time our entire time in sydney just spending time with them. Unfortunately they work in the temple everyday so we couldn't, but we did spend a lot more time with them than I thought we would. More than a few times Clark and I were faced with the decision of staying in the city or going home for dinner with the Barrs, and more often than not we went home for dinner. Dinner would last two or three hours each time because none of us could stop talking. Anyway, Clark and I have a new set of grandparents and I'll try to include throughout this post what makes them so wonderful.
Tuesday, January 24: We hadn't had a day without rain since we arrived in Sydney and Tuesday was no different. However, we decided we'd been in Australia for too long without going to the beach. So, we headed to Circular Quay (where all the ferry's and boats leave the harbor) and jumped on a ferry to Manly Beach. We walked around the shops on the wharf (mostly window shopping because everything is about twice as expensive here,) had fish and chips, and Copenhagen ice cream.
There's something about the beach that just makes me feel happy. The moist air, the sound of the waives crashing, the sand, the people watching, I love being at the beach. After Manly we took a spectacular ferry ride back to Circular Quay. The view of the city from that side is beautiful here are a few photos.
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| A ferry like the one we took the photo from |
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| Fish and chips at Manly Beach |
Everyone we've talked to here in Sydney says what an unusually wet summer they're having and that it's too bad we're here for it, but I haven't even minded the rain. It's been hot enough that when it rains it just feels refreshing.
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| Lego Poseidon |
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| The city at night |
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| The Opera House |
Wednesday, January 25: Wednesday we spent some time catching up with a couple of families Clark knew while he lived here. First we met up with the Chalkes at Carlingford Court. Clark was really good friends with a few of the Chalke kids, Brad, Emma, and Daniel. They lived in the same ward and only a few blocks away from the Walkers. Brad who was Clarks same age lives in Perth now with his wife so we weren't able to see him, but we had lunch with Emma (the oldest Chalke) and her three kids Zeke, Kira, and Neve. Monica Chalke (the mother) Aimee, Harry, Benjamin, Nathan, and Ammon (the youngest daughter and four youngest boys of nine children.) I'd heard so much about the Chalke family so it was so fun to finally meet them all and be able to put faces to their names. After lunch Clark and I tagged along with them to Costco where we had dozens of free samples, bought two beach towels, a giant jar of Jelly Bellys, and a box of 72 Cadbury Koala Caramels.
Unfortunately we forgot to take any pictures all day, but If we meet up with the Chalks again, I'll include some pictures of them.
After Costco we had plans for dinner with the Vinson family. Brother Vinson was another one of Clark's Dad's counselors while he was Mission President. Now he is the Area Seventy in Sydney. So he came and picked us up from the Chalkes and took us out to his beautiful home for some real, home-cooked Aussie burgers. Aussie burgers are different in that they have beet root, pineapple and a fried egg on them, and it turns out to make a delicious combination of flavors. It was one of the best burgers I'd ever had actually. The Vinson's house is on 4 acres of land in the country, completely secluded, and surrounded by beautiful trees and greenery. We loved their home and Clark really loved Brother Vinson's Renault Monaco GT. It was really fun to get to know the Vinson's and the Chalks. Everyone I've met here in Australia has instantly made me feel at home and been so great to get to know. No pictures at the Vinsons either.
After Brother Vinson dropped us off at home, Genny, Peter, Clark and I busted out the Jelly Bellys and sat around the kitchen table for about an hour playing "name that Jelly Belly." It all started when Genny told us that Peter eats Jelly Bellys by taking a handful and tossing them all into his mouth, and we all agreed that was unacceptable. So we introduced Peter to the joy of eating Jelly Bellys the correct way. We were all laughing and really getting into it. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful day.
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| Bus Stop |
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| Entertaining ourselves while waiting for the bus |
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| Really long escalator |
Thursday, January 26: January 26th is Australia Day. The day the Australians celebrate the first settlements of the country. We went into town to join the wet celebration. There were stages set up all around with music and entertainment, people wheeling around decorated garbage bins that were playing music (I didn't quite grasp the concept there,) risqué girls and meat heads lining up for a booze cruize, and all the other things that you would expect to see on Australia Day. I imagine a lot of events were rained out and not as many people showed up because of that, but it was still fun to walk around and people watch.
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| People were pushing these "rubbish bins" all over the city and they played music. Weird but cool. |
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| Everyone trying to stay dry while listening to a musician |
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| Clark sporting the ponytail. He said it was purely for convenience (it was windy) not looks. I like it. |
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| Clark looking longingly at the booze cruise |
We then chose once again to join Peter and Genny for dinner. Their son Adam has actually been staying with them for a few days for some work training in Sydney and he made his famous prawn pasta. So good. Adam has been fun to get to know as well. Once again we sat around the table for a couple of hours chatting then ending the night with some Australian Open viewing. Clark and I would have loved to go down to Melbourne where the Open was being played, but once again, we are on a tight budget so that quickly became out of the question when we looked up ticket prices. But at least Clark got to watch the matches at a decent hour and not in the middle of the night or replayed the next day.
Friday, January 27: Had a bit of a sleep in today, after staying up late to watch Federrer lose (clark was bummed). The bus/train/ferry pass that we bought when we arrived at the airport expired today, so when we were planning on going to the city, we realized that it would be expensive and not worth buying another because we would not be here for a week. So plan B was to catch a bus to Castle Towers, a HUGE shopping mall which is not too far away. Our strategy to get there was to just hop on a bus that was headed in the right direction and ask the bus driver for advice. It has worked well for us so far and did not fail us today either. After getting off one bus and trying forever to cross a busy street (no cross walk or intersection in sight), we dashed across in front of a turning car, that we thought saw us but must not have, and Clark had to put his hand on the hood and jump over half of it so he didn't get run over. In the end we made it to the next bus stop and onto the correct bus which took us right where we wanted to go. The bus system is really pretty good here, they come and go all the time and lots of people take advantage of them. Even the kids ride them to and from school so you get to see all the colorful uniforms they have to wear. Some of them are nice, but others look really miserable to wear all day. We spent the whole afternoon walking around "not-shopping" (don't have money or the room to blow on souvenirs and stuff). We actually did buy a few things, but we just walk around the stores and browse. Everything is really expensive here - clothes especially. Shirts and pants are at least double what you would pay at home and it seems like they don't have cheap stores like forever 21 and H and M, where you can get good deals. It's just all expensive here, or "dear" as they call it (so sorry if we don't bring back lots of cool shirts and souvey's for the family and stuff). The other thing about the stores and shops here is that they all close at 5 o'clock. Unless you are a grocery store, which close promptly at 9, or a restaurant you close at 5 no matter what. Which stinks for tourist's like us.
We were supposed to meet up with some more friends, Caylee and Dan and their two kids at 7 for dinner, but the shops were all closed so we decided to just go and see Sherlock Holmes 2 in the theatre (great movie), kind of lame to see movies on vacation, but pretty nice too other than the price, 18 bucks a pop. Luckily the lady accepted our student IDs and we got in for $15 each.
After, we had dinner with the Archibald's at a mexican place and then all went to a chocolate restaurant (Max Brenner's?) where they sell strictly chocolate dishes. It was awesome. Clark got a chocolate brownie and ice cream covered with melted milk and dark chocolate and I got a cupcake with ice cream drizzled with chocolate, then we shared a "chocolate lick" which is simply a little cup of melted milk chocolate. It was really fun for me to meet Caylee and Dan and their adorable girls, Georgia and Dillan, and for Clark to reminisce and catch up. We ended the night hitching a ride with Caylee and then headed home in a bit of a chocolate coma to fall asleep on the couch watching some more tennis. Not bad at all.
Saturday, January 28: We went to do a session in the Sydney Temple today. It was great to see the Barr's in their "real home". It is a beautiful temple, a bit smaller than most, but really nice. We enjoyed it and it was good to say we went into the blue roofed temple. We had planned to head up to the central coast with the Barr's this weekend, and they had been invited go to a baptism and a few chinese new year celebrations so we just tagged along. The baptism was in Greenwich (close to the city) and was really nice, it was a tiny chinese girl whose husband joined the church a couple of years ago but she had two years worth of questions before she would commit to it. After two years of investigating you meet a lot of people, and it seems like each of them came. Her husband got up and played "I like to look for rainbows" and sang along on his guitar, and I am sure mostly everyone cried. Then she and her friend sang a song, her husband and herself bore their testimonies, and ended with some short talks from the bishop and mission president. Once again, mostly everyone was crying. Clark also ran into a missionary that was in Sydney while his family was, who actually is from Centerville. He moved back for a job, and so it was an interesting place to meet up with him (Josiah Smith).
Next we headed to Ryde, where several chinese families had gotten together to celebrate, they were not very close to eating and we had to go, so they taught us how to make dumplings and then we were on our way to Mortdale for the big celebration. When we got there, we saw chinese decorations all over the place. Hanging from the ceiling and lining all of the walls. Special Guests, like Pres. Barr, were all given chinese tops to wear and then the food was served. They easily fed two hundred people and there was plenty to go around. All very authentic. . . a little too authentic for us unfortunately. Some was very good, but most of it all had a oily fishy taste - Clark and I both looked at each other and said, "Man, I love Panda Express."After dinner there were lots of shows and dances, including the big "Dragon" costume! (It was actually a tiger, but it was the year of the Dragon so it must have been on sale - we all just went along with it) There was a magic show done by the man who works in the temple with the Barr's who had invited us to come. It was actually really good! The best part was that he kept on glancing over at the Barrs, like a proud son. It was adorable. Turned out to be an awesome night, and instead of heading straight up to the coast, we just slept at home and headed out early the next morning. Fine by us.
Sunday, January 29: We woke up early and drove up to the Central Coast. Didn't stay awake the whole time unfortunately, but we we did see was good looking. Got to Toukley for church where the Barr's spoke. A little history on the Barrs and Toukley - he was called to Bishop at 26, only a handful of years after he was baptized. Then right after that he was called as the Stake President, then the stake split and he was called to be the president again of the new northern stake. Then served in pretty much every mission presidency until he went to be one himself in the Baltic Mission (where he was born) and when he got back within a few weeks was called to be Bishop again, then released, and called to be Temple recorder for a couple years (driving back and forth at least 3 times a week), and then Temple President a three year calling that required them to move down to sydney. The man has served. I think only Pres. Monson can trump Peter Barr when it comes to hours logged for the man upstairs. Now back to the church story, needless to say Everyone LOVES these guys there and everyone was extremely friendly, which was really nice, but because the Barr's were up on the stand they probably all assumed we were there by ourselves. Investigating or something. . who knows. Or maybe they are just that friendly. After the meeting a few people would comment, "thats the Temple Pres. and his wife, aren't they great?" or, "They are the Barrs and they take care of the Temple, they are the best people." Things like that. Little did they know, we already know how good they are. So after their talks, the Barrs said we needed to take off up to Newcastle to see Genney's mom. Once again we didnt ask questions when they said we would only be going to one hour of church. I guess you have earned the right to do that when you have served as much as they have. Right?
We drove to Newcastle to see Genney's mom and her husband Nick. She was born in Poland and then taken to Germany during the war where she worked nearly to death and then finally moved to Australia as a refugee. She is this little old lady, stricken with arthritis, that has not stopped working for a second. We were warned but she made a huge lunch of homemade pasta sauce and spaghetti. After filling our bowls for us, heaping over the top, she insisted we keep eating for the next hour or two. It was delicious, but you can only eat so much spaghetti - it takes up a lot of room. After lunch we sat around the table and listened to Nick tell stories from his childhood. He was born and raised in Bomba Italy. He has a terribly thick and beautiful accent. It took a lot of energy to translate what he was saying into English, then from Australian to American. Hilarious man though, and wonderful stories about playing tricks on US soldiers, growing figs, his family's lack of money and how it was not a problem back then, and his move to Australia with 15 other Italian boys for a better future at the age of 18. With Genney's, Peter's, Nick's, and "Nan's" histories and childhood it made us both feel lucky, spoiled, jealous, inexperienced, sheltered, grateful, and full of admiration. Felt kind of lame just being from Utah. . . in America. . .
Anyway, it is hard to say enough nice things about those people. It was a great lunch. Nick formally invited us to come and live in their untouched upstairs, which is fully furnished and beautiful. He built the house and have only lived in the bottom floor because of age and health. We both would do it in a heartbeat.
We spent the rest of the day on a tour of the beaches of Newcastle and the Central Coast. We went to Nobby's Lighthouse, where we walked about a half mile out to a beautiful light house and watched huge container ships line up for miles, all waiting for sometimes months for their turn to come into port and get loaded up. There were about 15 wind surfers and kite boarders going all around and there was the coolest little beach strictly used for dogs. It was full of about 30 owners and their dogs. We sat and watched for probably 30 minutes as all these different kinds of dogs interacted and played. It was so cool, but made us both miss Ronnie really really bad. We want to come and move to Newcastle! Clark said the whole time he was here in Australia it seemed like kind of a lame town with not much to offer. He was wrong. It is hip and cool. Beautiful beaches, tons of great places to eat and shop, and lots of good jobs, (sweet PWC in Newcastle Jordan!) but the doggy beach kind of sold us.
Next we went out to Jenny Dixon Reserve beach. It was amazing! I would say just look it up on Google Earth or something. It might be the perfect beach, and thats all I'll say. Then we went out to this huge field in the middle of nowhere, a little ways away from the beaches, (I guess it is a mental hospital all around it...?) and saw hundreds of Kangaroo. I guess they come out at dusk and you can just see tons of them! The Barrs brought along a little bread and we got to feed them out of our hands - even though signs say you shouldn't. They are so incredible. Some are tiny little guys, and others stand about 5 or 6 feet tall. Luckily they didn't all flock to us, but plenty did and there were friendly but still you could tell they are wild. It is hard to understand how cool kangaroo's are until you see them in person, jumping and moving, scooting around using their tails. That was awesome to see, and it feels like I saw an imaginary creature with my own eyes. The myth of the Kangaroo can be put to rest.
We went home and because we were still pretty full on spaghetti, we just sat around the kitchen table and at crackers and cheese that Genney pulled together. It was perfect, and delicious. Tasty nice cheese, with some Jatz crackers, with homemade fig jelly, sliced pickles and tomatoes. We sat and talked for ages, until bed time. But of course it was the Australian Open Final night and Clark and I sat and watched until we couldn't keep our eyes open, and it seemed like it was pretty much over. (of course it went on to be the longest grand slam final in history and considered probably the best in history. . . bummer)
Monday, January 30: Monday was another awesome day with the Barrs. We woke up and Clark went across the street with Peter to help a neighbor cut up a tree. After that we went to Soldier Beach, which is a 3 minute drive from the Barr's house, and had fruit salad and yogurt for breakfast. We had that for breakfast almost every morning while we were with the Barrs. We sat on a picnic table and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and nice breeze then walked down on the rocks and watched the waves crash. I think I could have sat on those rocks for hours watching the ocean. It was mesmerizing watching the waves crash then build up and crash again. I would imagine falling into the ocean and I realized I would have no chance of making it out again alive. The ocean is so powerful it's scary. We stayed there for a few hours just walking along the beach, soaking up our first really sunny day in Australia. All these beaches are really making me want to live near the ocean.
We headed back to the house for lunch and had baked bean and cheese grilled sandwiches. So good. We ate out on the back patio under the grape vines and then Clark and I dipped our feet in their pool to cool down. It was nice needing a pool to cool down instead of the rain doing it for us.
We then took off down the coast towards Sydney and made a few more stops along the way. First we stopped at a place called The Entrance just in time to see the daily pelican feed. The Entrance is just a touristy area where a lake meets the ocean and they feed the pelicans every day at 3:30. It was way sweet to see those things up close. They're huge and their beaks/pouches are crazy. The lady was throwing out fish that they would catch in their beaks, try to swallow them down sideways, and the fish would get stuck in the pouch, so the pelican would cough it back up, flip it around and try again. We could see the shape of the fish the whole time, it was weird and cool. So that was fun to see. Then the Barrs bought us ice cream cones and we headed down towards Terrigal Beach where we finally swam in the ocean. The waves were really big and strong so I didn't last long because I get freaked out after being tossed pretty good a few times in a row. But it was great to finally have a hot day to swim, get a sun tan, and eat some hot chip and tomato sauce sandwiches. Yes, Mcdonalds fries on a slice of bread with ketchup. Somehow it was delicious.
We then finished the drive to Carlingford where the Barrs dropped us off at Caylee and Dan's house for a very good pasta dinner that Caylee made. Georgia tried on her new school uniform for us, (she's started kindergarten a couple days later) and we relaxed after our long day at the beaches. Caylee drove us home again and we ended up talking in the car for an hour or two. It was really fun to hear Clark and Caylee talk about all the funny things they did when Clark lived here.
All in all it was such a good weekend with the Barrs on the Central Coast. Probably the best part of our trip yet.
We were supposed to meet up with some more friends, Caylee and Dan and their two kids at 7 for dinner, but the shops were all closed so we decided to just go and see Sherlock Holmes 2 in the theatre (great movie), kind of lame to see movies on vacation, but pretty nice too other than the price, 18 bucks a pop. Luckily the lady accepted our student IDs and we got in for $15 each.
After, we had dinner with the Archibald's at a mexican place and then all went to a chocolate restaurant (Max Brenner's?) where they sell strictly chocolate dishes. It was awesome. Clark got a chocolate brownie and ice cream covered with melted milk and dark chocolate and I got a cupcake with ice cream drizzled with chocolate, then we shared a "chocolate lick" which is simply a little cup of melted milk chocolate. It was really fun for me to meet Caylee and Dan and their adorable girls, Georgia and Dillan, and for Clark to reminisce and catch up. We ended the night hitching a ride with Caylee and then headed home in a bit of a chocolate coma to fall asleep on the couch watching some more tennis. Not bad at all.
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| AMAZING!! |
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| Clark, Dillin, Caylee, Dan Georgia |
Saturday, January 28: We went to do a session in the Sydney Temple today. It was great to see the Barr's in their "real home". It is a beautiful temple, a bit smaller than most, but really nice. We enjoyed it and it was good to say we went into the blue roofed temple. We had planned to head up to the central coast with the Barr's this weekend, and they had been invited go to a baptism and a few chinese new year celebrations so we just tagged along. The baptism was in Greenwich (close to the city) and was really nice, it was a tiny chinese girl whose husband joined the church a couple of years ago but she had two years worth of questions before she would commit to it. After two years of investigating you meet a lot of people, and it seems like each of them came. Her husband got up and played "I like to look for rainbows" and sang along on his guitar, and I am sure mostly everyone cried. Then she and her friend sang a song, her husband and herself bore their testimonies, and ended with some short talks from the bishop and mission president. Once again, mostly everyone was crying. Clark also ran into a missionary that was in Sydney while his family was, who actually is from Centerville. He moved back for a job, and so it was an interesting place to meet up with him (Josiah Smith).
Next we headed to Ryde, where several chinese families had gotten together to celebrate, they were not very close to eating and we had to go, so they taught us how to make dumplings and then we were on our way to Mortdale for the big celebration. When we got there, we saw chinese decorations all over the place. Hanging from the ceiling and lining all of the walls. Special Guests, like Pres. Barr, were all given chinese tops to wear and then the food was served. They easily fed two hundred people and there was plenty to go around. All very authentic. . . a little too authentic for us unfortunately. Some was very good, but most of it all had a oily fishy taste - Clark and I both looked at each other and said, "Man, I love Panda Express."After dinner there were lots of shows and dances, including the big "Dragon" costume! (It was actually a tiger, but it was the year of the Dragon so it must have been on sale - we all just went along with it) There was a magic show done by the man who works in the temple with the Barr's who had invited us to come. It was actually really good! The best part was that he kept on glancing over at the Barrs, like a proud son. It was adorable. Turned out to be an awesome night, and instead of heading straight up to the coast, we just slept at home and headed out early the next morning. Fine by us.
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| Peter and Genney with Brother Fung and the two missionaries who were in the dragon costume |
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| We spent probably ten minutes taking photos with these two girls. They couldn't get enough of it. |
We drove to Newcastle to see Genney's mom and her husband Nick. She was born in Poland and then taken to Germany during the war where she worked nearly to death and then finally moved to Australia as a refugee. She is this little old lady, stricken with arthritis, that has not stopped working for a second. We were warned but she made a huge lunch of homemade pasta sauce and spaghetti. After filling our bowls for us, heaping over the top, she insisted we keep eating for the next hour or two. It was delicious, but you can only eat so much spaghetti - it takes up a lot of room. After lunch we sat around the table and listened to Nick tell stories from his childhood. He was born and raised in Bomba Italy. He has a terribly thick and beautiful accent. It took a lot of energy to translate what he was saying into English, then from Australian to American. Hilarious man though, and wonderful stories about playing tricks on US soldiers, growing figs, his family's lack of money and how it was not a problem back then, and his move to Australia with 15 other Italian boys for a better future at the age of 18. With Genney's, Peter's, Nick's, and "Nan's" histories and childhood it made us both feel lucky, spoiled, jealous, inexperienced, sheltered, grateful, and full of admiration. Felt kind of lame just being from Utah. . . in America. . .
Anyway, it is hard to say enough nice things about those people. It was a great lunch. Nick formally invited us to come and live in their untouched upstairs, which is fully furnished and beautiful. He built the house and have only lived in the bottom floor because of age and health. We both would do it in a heartbeat.
We spent the rest of the day on a tour of the beaches of Newcastle and the Central Coast. We went to Nobby's Lighthouse, where we walked about a half mile out to a beautiful light house and watched huge container ships line up for miles, all waiting for sometimes months for their turn to come into port and get loaded up. There were about 15 wind surfers and kite boarders going all around and there was the coolest little beach strictly used for dogs. It was full of about 30 owners and their dogs. We sat and watched for probably 30 minutes as all these different kinds of dogs interacted and played. It was so cool, but made us both miss Ronnie really really bad. We want to come and move to Newcastle! Clark said the whole time he was here in Australia it seemed like kind of a lame town with not much to offer. He was wrong. It is hip and cool. Beautiful beaches, tons of great places to eat and shop, and lots of good jobs, (sweet PWC in Newcastle Jordan!) but the doggy beach kind of sold us.
Next we went out to Jenny Dixon Reserve beach. It was amazing! I would say just look it up on Google Earth or something. It might be the perfect beach, and thats all I'll say. Then we went out to this huge field in the middle of nowhere, a little ways away from the beaches, (I guess it is a mental hospital all around it...?) and saw hundreds of Kangaroo. I guess they come out at dusk and you can just see tons of them! The Barrs brought along a little bread and we got to feed them out of our hands - even though signs say you shouldn't. They are so incredible. Some are tiny little guys, and others stand about 5 or 6 feet tall. Luckily they didn't all flock to us, but plenty did and there were friendly but still you could tell they are wild. It is hard to understand how cool kangaroo's are until you see them in person, jumping and moving, scooting around using their tails. That was awesome to see, and it feels like I saw an imaginary creature with my own eyes. The myth of the Kangaroo can be put to rest.
We went home and because we were still pretty full on spaghetti, we just sat around the kitchen table and at crackers and cheese that Genney pulled together. It was perfect, and delicious. Tasty nice cheese, with some Jatz crackers, with homemade fig jelly, sliced pickles and tomatoes. We sat and talked for ages, until bed time. But of course it was the Australian Open Final night and Clark and I sat and watched until we couldn't keep our eyes open, and it seemed like it was pretty much over. (of course it went on to be the longest grand slam final in history and considered probably the best in history. . . bummer)
Monday, January 30: Monday was another awesome day with the Barrs. We woke up and Clark went across the street with Peter to help a neighbor cut up a tree. After that we went to Soldier Beach, which is a 3 minute drive from the Barr's house, and had fruit salad and yogurt for breakfast. We had that for breakfast almost every morning while we were with the Barrs. We sat on a picnic table and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and nice breeze then walked down on the rocks and watched the waves crash. I think I could have sat on those rocks for hours watching the ocean. It was mesmerizing watching the waves crash then build up and crash again. I would imagine falling into the ocean and I realized I would have no chance of making it out again alive. The ocean is so powerful it's scary. We stayed there for a few hours just walking along the beach, soaking up our first really sunny day in Australia. All these beaches are really making me want to live near the ocean.
We headed back to the house for lunch and had baked bean and cheese grilled sandwiches. So good. We ate out on the back patio under the grape vines and then Clark and I dipped our feet in their pool to cool down. It was nice needing a pool to cool down instead of the rain doing it for us.
We then took off down the coast towards Sydney and made a few more stops along the way. First we stopped at a place called The Entrance just in time to see the daily pelican feed. The Entrance is just a touristy area where a lake meets the ocean and they feed the pelicans every day at 3:30. It was way sweet to see those things up close. They're huge and their beaks/pouches are crazy. The lady was throwing out fish that they would catch in their beaks, try to swallow them down sideways, and the fish would get stuck in the pouch, so the pelican would cough it back up, flip it around and try again. We could see the shape of the fish the whole time, it was weird and cool. So that was fun to see. Then the Barrs bought us ice cream cones and we headed down towards Terrigal Beach where we finally swam in the ocean. The waves were really big and strong so I didn't last long because I get freaked out after being tossed pretty good a few times in a row. But it was great to finally have a hot day to swim, get a sun tan, and eat some hot chip and tomato sauce sandwiches. Yes, Mcdonalds fries on a slice of bread with ketchup. Somehow it was delicious.
We then finished the drive to Carlingford where the Barrs dropped us off at Caylee and Dan's house for a very good pasta dinner that Caylee made. Georgia tried on her new school uniform for us, (she's started kindergarten a couple days later) and we relaxed after our long day at the beaches. Caylee drove us home again and we ended up talking in the car for an hour or two. It was really fun to hear Clark and Caylee talk about all the funny things they did when Clark lived here.
All in all it was such a good weekend with the Barrs on the Central Coast. Probably the best part of our trip yet.
to be continued....
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