Adventures in Hervey Bay

Things have been really busy for us here in Sydney - of course, it does help that I have cousins here to hang out with. :-) On Tuesday, I took the train into the city and met up with my cousin, Rosie, her daughter, Rebecca and her grandson, Liam. While Rebecca and Liam went to the museum, Rosie and I walked around the city a bit and then had a drink (me: an iced chocolate and Rosie: her morning coffee) at the museum cafe. For lunch, they took me to a 'hole in the wall' for a spaghetti lunch at a place called 'No Names'. The restaurant is very basic: the water and juice is actually served in reused juice containers. Rosie and Cheryl raved about the food here - I thought it was okay - I am pretty discriminating when it comes to my pasta. :-)

St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney

View from museum cafe

Another iced chocolate :-)

Spaghetti restaurant

Rosie, Liam and Rebecca

On Thursday, Rosie and I met up again to go to the State Archives to do some family history research. Cheryl works at the State Archives, so she (along with her daughter, Renee and granddaughters, Ayla and Lily) met us there for lunch. It was great to see everyone again and Lily even was happy to sit with me and walk with me around the Archives while we had a tour from Cheryl's boss. Rosie and I didn't have much luck in finding anything to look at while at the Archives, but we are going to be doing some more research there next week and hopefully we will have better luck then.

On Saturday, Dad and I drove about 90 minutes west of Sydney to two towns: Katoomba and Leura. Both places are tourist destinations and both have main streets with cute and quirky shops - we had a nice time checking out these shops, although things are very expensive in both places, so it was all about sticky beaking and not about purchasing. :-) We saw some lovely scenery and some beautiful waterfalls/cascades.

View on the path to Katoomba Falls

We couldn't see all of the falls from the usual vantage point due to fog in the valley, but saw this further up the trail

Part of the falls along the trail

Bottom of the falls

What we were supposed to see when we went to view "The Three Sisters"

What we actually saw - buried in the fog and it was also raining

Pool of water at the bottom of the Leura Cascades

Leura Cascades

Picnic shelter

Cute 'Bistro de Paris' table and chairs outside an antique shop in Leura

Leura Post Office - love the architecture

We often see dogs tied in the back of utes (pick up trucks), but still a little unusual to see a sheep in the back of a ute

On Sunday, after church, we took another drive - this time north of Sydney to a place called Terrigal. It's a seaside town with an amazing beach. Dad and I enjoyed people watching and walking along the beach. Australia has some great scenery!

View from Terrigal Beach

Terrigal Beach (we climbed up to the top of those two hills)

Terrigal Beach

Ocean rock pool (great place for little ones to be safe from the big waves and the water is warm)

Dad climbing on the rocks at Terrigal Beach

"Little Nippers" ('Nippers' is a junior program that introduces children ages 5 - 13 to surf lifesaving) going through the hoops held up by their instructors (there were tons and tons of the little nippers on the beach around 3pm - they were doing various activities: running/jumping/diving through the waves, going on body boards and surfboards and doing relay races)

Surf Life Saving Rescue Boat (someone had written SOS in big letters beside it)

"Little Nippers" tackling the waves

Look at how large the waves are that these young ones have to learn to deal with

Relay Race - they had to run/jump/dive through all the waves to get to someone beyond the waves and then run back and touch the hand of their teammate

Lagoon at Terrigal

Terrigal Beach - look at the colour of the sky and the water - amazing!

Seaweed with little grape-like pods attached

View from the lookout at the top of the first hill

Looking at the top of the second hill from the top of the first hill

View of the beach from the top of the first hill

View of the rocky shore from the top of the second hill

View of the ocean from the top of the second hill

We have enjoyed our first week in Sydney. We are staying in a serviced one bedroom apartment close to the airport. We were told that the housekeeping girls would come in to clean twice a week, but so far they have been doing it almost every day, which is great! All the employees here have been wonderful and very accommodating.

The group of guys Dad is teaching are very keen - they all ask questions and discuss their own working experience, so it's made for a great first week for Dad. It takes Dad about fifteen minutes to drive to where he parks and then he has to walk for about fifteen minutes, so he's been getting in a little exercise each day.

I spent most of this week doing my usual things: knitting, reading, watching tv, doing computer stuff and going for walks. I am trying to go for a walk each day to try and keep up with the exercise. The renovations to the gym here are supposed to be finished this week, so I am hoping to get in there and some bike riding.

On Friday, I took the train and a bus to meet up with my cousin, Rosie. We met at a mall near her house and stopped at a local coffee place so Rosie could have her morning coffee - she goes to this place every day and so they know her well and know her 'usual'. I wanted to be a good guest and so I thought I should have something, so I had an iced chocolate. :-) It was pretty good (made with real chocolate as opposed to chocolate syrup), but there was no whipped cream or little tiny chocolate on top, so I think I still prefer the iced chocolate from 'The Coffee Club'. It was nice to get together with Rosie and spend the day with her.

On Saturday, Dad and I drove to Renee's house and Cheryl, Lisa and Nicki were there as well - it was great to see all three girls and Cheryl again. It was also good to see Renee's little girls, Ayla and Lily - this was the first time we had seen Lily and she is almost nine months. Renee went all out for us: she made a roast chicken dinner and topped it off with a pavlova for dessert - that is my absolute favourite dessert - and it was extra yummy - she really outdid herself this time! We had a great time visiting with them and catching up with what they have been doing since we saw them last. Ayla played a little shy at first, but then she started to warm up, especially to Dad - turns out she likes the guys. :-) Lily is a little cutie and loved all of the attention she got while we were there.

Ayla talking on the 'phone' (which was actually the air conditioning remote)

the pavlova which Renee made

me eating the delicious pavlova

Lily

Dad, Lily and Ayla

Me and Lily

Lisa, Me, Renee, Cheryl and Nicki

Today, after church, we got together with a guy who is on Dad's course, Pete, and his girlfriend, Sylvie. Pete had contacted Dad yesterday to see if we wanted to join them and another couple for lunch at Manly. We love going to Manly - the beach is amazing (do you girls remember it - it's where Aunt Janet used to live), but we already had made plans with Cheryl and her girls. We drove to where Pete lives which was about an hour away and near a beautiful beach. After a nice chicken lunch, we went for a really lovely long walk (2 hours) along the beach - I got some great pictures. Pete and Sylvie are both really nice people and very easy to talk with - we quite enjoyed our time walking and talking with them.