nelson's bay

Hello. I am not hopeful that I am going to be able to catch you up on what we've done the last week as we keep adding new stuff. I want to ask you to remind me to tell you about Bats and Blackbutt Reserve but then I'll get a bunch of emails reminding me and that won' t necessarily buy me the time I need to write about them. So I'll start with today and I'll get all the important stuff in over the year.

Now that we feel pretty settled here in our new home, Mark and I noticed that we only have 6 days left until he starts school (kids start the following week) so we decided we better get day tripping now while we have the time.

Today we went only about an hour north to an area called Nelson's Bay. There are a bunch of little towns and beaches along the penninsula that many people from Newcastle apparently have little cottages and weekend getaway homes. And I understand why. It was a short drive along marshes and lowlands with lush vegetation and not very many cars. We drove through a few small towns which, frankly, are beginning to all look the same in Australia. Here's the thing about Australian towns, as far as I can tell. They contain the following stores, no more, no less: petrol station, restaurant which is usually a bar/grill, a cafe with the same sandwiches, muffins, scones and drinks as all the other cafes, a little food store, a butcher, a bakery, a fruit/veggie stand and sometimes, an ice cream store and a tourist/gift shop. That's the totality of what we have found in Australian towns, including each little suburb in Newcastle (though in this bigger city there are plenty of larger stores catering to just about any other need we may have.)

Anyway, we passed through a few of these towns along the gentle bay and checked out their beaches but opted to go around to the side of the penninsula that was on the ocean so we could rendevous with the real thing

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We found a gorgeous beach with rocks on both ends and big waves full of boggie boarders and surfers. We spent a marvelous day playing in the water, each of us boogie boarding at the level we thought we could handle, reading, walking, playing in the sand, climbing on rocks, napping and picnicking.




We left the beach around 4pm, intending to drive home in time for a reasonable dinner. However, we decided to just drive by this other beach that we might want to visit next time and as we pulled into the parking lot, we saw camels walking along the sand dunes. We followed them down to a lower parking lot where we saw a big trailer and a sign that said, Camel Rides, with two adorned and saddled camels laying next to the trailer. Long story short--we did not make it home in time for a reasonable dinner. But we had a blast with our new friends, Israel in front and Jasmine behindl. The photogenic girl down below is Sheba. And that's Jordan who bonded the most with Jasmine.



































Tomorrow we are going to a birthday party for two nine-year olds on whom we have never laid eyes in our lives. These boys attend the school Gabe and Jordan will be going to. We are very grateful for the generous invitation by the parents who have no idea who we are. We have essentially been begging everyone we have met from their school to hook us up with some families so our poor children can play with somebody, anybody besides each other and their parents. So this will be our first encounter with such potential families and we're all hopeful that we'll meet some friends.

Love to you all!