Our day at the beach

Although the worst of the summer heat has thankfully passed, we were still keen for a break and so on Saturday packed up the dogs for a day-trip to the Southern Coast, about 2 hours' drive away.

We always go to Tomakin Beach, which is a great off-leash public beach that has sand-dunes to protect the dogs from the main road, a beautiful stretch of regular beach and a lovely inlet area that tends to be more like a wading pool than a beach. Its always a great day, and one of the nicest things about it is that we're always close enough to pack up at the end of the day and sleep in our own beds at night!



Our Day at the Beach in Pictures:

Before we went swimming we had a picnic lunch at the overlook area adjacent to the carpark. The views from here are lovely, and it would have been worth the trip just for the picnic!  Rory blew up a big, huge float that he bought on sale at KMart for $20...it ended up being a ton of fun to play with in the waves.  It looked a lot like this one, except possibly not quite as fancy:

After our picnic, we headed down to claim our spot at the beach (see the floatie in the background):

Within seconds of sitting down, Alfie had begun to dig his hole in the sand, which he does every time we go to the beach.  He's not so much a fan of the water and can't quite figure out the waves, but he LOVES the sand.

 

Harry is pretty much indifferent to being at the beach, and treats the experience in much the same way as he treats every other thing that happens in his life-- as an opportunity to be on somebody's lap.  

Lilly, though, really seemed to love the beach and the water, which surpised me because she really didn't seem to like it last time we went.  In fact, we almost didn't take her but decided she'd bark all day if left alone at home.  We even had a swimming lesson, which she actually seemed to enjoy!

 

 

After the swim lesson, with Harry in front trying to 

steal the attention, as usual! 

After we'd swam, read and gotten suitably sun-burned we decided to take a walk to the far end of the beach to the inlet.  

This is the inlet, but it is not my picture.  It was shamelessly stolen

from elsewhere on the internet.

And then, after a fabulous day, we arrived back home, tired and a bit pink, but having had a ton of fun. 

The problem with white dogs is they get just as sunburned as you do!!

More Port Douglas Pics

Finally got the pictures off my camera, though I didn't have all that many. Dad was the photo guru for the trip... apparently he took over 800 shots, which for all you math dorks (assuming they were up for about 18 hrs a day) meant they took an average of 3 shots an hour. Not too bad, but then consider that at least 5 hours of the day were spent at home in the mornings or evenings and were unphotoworthy, and your total goes up to 4 shots an hour. Still not as bad as I thought it would be, actually, but I spent way too much time trying to work out that on the calculator to backtrack and delete the above paragraph. Just take my word for it... it SEEMED like they took tons!!

Anyway, here are some Port Douglas pictures I took:

Mom and Emily at the Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas. I like the way they both have the same expression!

Rory, Emily and I at the entrance to Mossman Gorge.

Mossman Gorge itself. When Rory and I went in January there was a suspension bridge that you could go across and take a walk through the rainforest... unfortunately this has been taken down due to 'structural concerns'. It was a shame, because it was a gorgeous walk!

Rory, Emily and I swimming at Mossman Gorge. Emily is shivering, and I think Rory is trying to signal that it was hot. I don't know what he's on about; the water WAS cold... I think he's impervious to temperatures.

How I swim best... doggy paddling.

Looking very sexy in our blue lycra body suits that are SUPPOSED to keep jellyfish from biting you (do jellyfish bite? sting, maybe) but are probably more just another way to raise $5.

But they did come in handy as a prawn-hiding device. We hid several in the mitten part of the wetsuits and used them as fish food/ lures. Not TECHNICALLY what you were meant to do, but it was worth it!

Feeding the fish!

Emily snorkeling. Notice how she has ducked underwater and removed her snorkel for the photo? She must have had a mouth full of water, but my sister will do anything for a good photo!!

Notice how there are no pictures of dad snorkeling? That's because he only did it for about 2 minutes. I jumped in ahead of him and swam out a bit, and when I turned around he was doggy paddling out with his mask and snorkel on but his head above water (I think he was breathing out of his snorkel). When he got out the lifeguard asked if everything was okay and he said 'yep, I saw the fish I came to see and now I'm done!' Gotta love dad's sense of humor. He went on the glass bottomed boat twice though, and spent time at the underwater viewing platform as well, so I think he had fun.

Emily buying beer. She was fairly excited to be of legal drinking age in Australia. Mom says when she goes to Austin she should just show bouncers this picture and say 'see! I'm legal!' Rory kissing his Cane Toad for good luck. Also squeezing it a bit too hard, which was probably NOT lucky, but that's okay! Rory trying to get his frog to GO with a birthday hooter thing (I don't know what they're called). You were supposed to get your frog to hop to the edge of the table and put him in a bucket to win.

With my Cane Toad, who was enormously, disgustingly huge, but, in an enormous, disgusting way, kinda cute, too.

I don't think Emily thought her Cane Toad was cute, just disgusting. I love this picture!

Back in Canberra

Mom, Dad and Emily are back in Texas now, and Rory and I are back in Canberra, back at work, and back to house projects. I'm hoping my kitchen will finally get finished this weekend... there's only so much longer our budget can handle eating out and microwave meals! We had a great time with Mom, Dad, and Emily, though, and I'm already missing them! Here's a run-down of our North Queensland vacation last week: Tuesday: I got off early from work and Rory and I drove up to Sydney to meet Mom, Dad and Emily (who drove up to Sydney after Rory's game on Sunday). We dropped our car off at Rory's brother's house in West Sydney and took the train into the city, so didn't arrive at the hotel until about 10:45 or so. Wednesday: We all woke up early (4:45 in the morning!) for a 7am flight to Cairns. It was great to step off the plane into tropical heat, having been in the dead of winter in Canberra. We got our car and drove up to Port Douglas to check into our hotel, the Mantra Links Resort. On the way, Mom and Emily couldn't stop saying how much North Queensland looks like Hawaii... the same windy roads, tropical vegetation and temperature. Port Douglas is a town about 60k north of Cairns, and is a great hub for all sorts of outdoorsy endeavors in Far North Queensland. Its a very small, cute town and has a HUGE bat population that can be seen every evening at dusk, a-la-Austin. Here's the town: And here is our hotel: Or the outside, anyway. I don't have any pictures of the inside of our unit, but it was lovely, had three bedrooms and a kitchen. Once we were settled in, we went to Mossman Gorge, a swimming hole in the rainforest about 10 minutes away from Port Douglas. The water was freezing, but Rory jumped right in. With a little coaxing, I came too, and with a lot of coaxing Emily finally came as well (Picture to come soon; tomorrowish). Thursday: Thursday was our big outing at Port Douglas... we took the Quicksilver Outer Reef tour and snorkeled at the Great Barrier Reef!! Basically, we boarded a big ferry and took an hour and a half trip out to a platform that was erected on the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef. Once there, we were able to swim, snorkel, take a glass-bottomed boat tour, etc etc. It was all wonderful! We snorkeled, then had a lovely buffet lunch, which included an assortment of seafood. We swiped several whole shrimp and hid them in our bodysuits (which you wear for warmth and to avoid jellyfish stings)... the fish loved them! We were able to get the fish to eat right out of our hands... an experience worth breaking the rules for! Mom said later that, on the glass bottom boat tour, they said the reason you weren't supposed to feed the fish was because some of them were prone to taking a bit of snorkler hand with them as well. True? Perhaps, but we got lucky! (more pics to come soonish)

Emily and I in our wetsuits. Good look, isn't it?

Friday: Emily was dying to check out the town, so we went shopping while Mom, Dad, and Rory played golf. It is a cute town, and Emily bought a dress, but it was a somewhat expensive town as well. We also bought groceries to cook out with Friday evening (Emily wouldn't try kangaroo), and after their afternoon of golf and our afternoon of shopping Rory and I cooked hamburgers and sausages on the grill by the pool. After dinner we went into town to play slots ( do you play slots? do slots? what's the verb there?). Gambling is legal everywhere in Australia, and is a big revenue raiser for a lot of small towns. Rory was the only one that was lucky, and won $126!! Saturday: Saturday morning we went to the Mossman River and boarded the Nice N Easy Crocodile Tour. Our tour guide, a Freddie Mercury look alike, took us for a 1 hour cruise to see several crocodiles, a green tree snake, and lots of other wildlife. Because the boat was so small, we were able to get up close to several of the crocodiles, but we got the best view later on that afternoon... playing golf!! Dad wanted to play again, so we all went along. On the 9th hole was a real, live crocodile!! The golf course guy said it was getting a bit big to be making a home on the fairway, and I have to say... I agree!! That evening, we went to the Iron Bar in Port Douglas for a Cane Toad race. Cane Toads are big, ugly toads that are a huge pest in Australia... they have poison glands on their heads and kill a lot of local wildlife. Aren't they beautiful? Each person was given a number, and if your number was called you got to come up and be the 'jockey' for one of the toads. Rory was called, and raced a toad named 'Jerry Springer' in the first race. He came 3rd. I raced a toad called 'Fat Bastard' in the second race... he jumped off the table and I had to run around the room trying to catch him. He lost. Emily thought she was in the clear, but dad bought her a toad at the toad AUCTION and she came 3rd in the last race, with a toad called 'Aussie Aussie Aussie'. The worst part? You had to kiss the toads before you could race them! Sunday Our last day in Queensland, we drove up North towards Cape Tribulation. The more North you got, the more gorgeous stuff became! It was all rainforest and tropical heat... and we found the most perfect beach, with an island just off the coast... called Thornton Beach. The ripples in the sand felt like a massage under your feet, and I found TWO sand dollars (and a half of one... a 50 cent piece?)! Monday Monday was spent in Sydney... at the Taronga Zoo! A new elephant was born on July 4th, so I spent about an hour watching him. His name is Luk Chai, and boy, is he adorable! He seems to have a way to go in terms of trunk-eye coordination, though. Actually, I'm a bit peeved. There was a big contest to name him, and I DIDN'T WIN! I entered several adorable names, but in the end a 6 year old won. As if a 6 year old can think up a name like that! Rory reckons I would have won, except that I wasn't young enough for PR purposes. Before we drove back to Canberra, we ate dinner with Mom, Dad and Emily at the South Styene, a floating restaurant on the Darling Harbour. The South Styene used to be a ferry that took people to and from Manly Beach, but now is a delicious restaurant with a piano. There was nobody playing the piano, so dad stepped in and played a few songs... and won us a bottle of wine! Rory and I picked up our car from Tim's and drove back to Canberra, arriving at about 2:00 am, only to wake up for work at 7:30 am. An exhausting drive, but the trip was well worth it!! Some more pictures of Mom, Dad and Emily's trip (thanks, in part, to Emily's facebook account):

At Rory's football game, right before they left for Sydney. I'm not sure what I'm waving dorkishly at, but everyone else looks cute. That's Harry in Emily's lap. A family picture at the farm. I think this will be our Christmas Card photo... Emily put it on the timer.

Emily with her beer... the legal drinking age here is 18, so she was pretty excited to be able to buy (and drink) alcohol. I got ID-ed more than she did!

At Port Douglas, with Cockatoos on our heads. These are a very common bird in Australia, although they don't generally sit on people's heads!

The New, The Improved Kitchen, Dining and Living

Mom, Dad and Emily have been up from Houston since last Sunday, and Dad has gone to town with kitchen renovations!! Rory was wonderful, and worked until about 11pm every weeknight for about two weeks before they arrived to get the house finished. I helped too, but Rory deserves most of the kudos... he did all the hard stuff and really made it all come together! We ended up moving in the day before Mom, Emily and Dad got here... in fact, I was still unpacking 30 minutes before they arrived! We had a great week in Canberra... we visited Gold Creek, went to the farm, ate in the Telstra Tower revolving restaurant, and they saw most of the sites around Canberra. Dad tiled the kitchen, Emily painted loads of trim, and mom's decorating skills will be sorely missed. They left today, leaving the kitchen looking like this: I bought the kitchen second hand for about 1/5 of what we would have paid for it new (from someone who had only had it 3 years... who gets rid of a three year old kitchen?!). Rory knocked down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room to make one big, long room, and it really opened up the space and made it look excellent! We even got a dishwasher, which is a giant leap away from washing dishes by hand! When dad came, he did a fabulous tile job. He used the tiles that we had on the hearth in the lounge room, which I really liked. That brings the grand total of 'original decor' items to 2... the tiles and a bit of wallpaper that we left in the master bedroom closet. Dad also bought us the kitchen cabinets, which match perfectly... lucky, considering we bought them from Bunnings (Australian Home Depot) straight off the shelf. And now, the living room: My favorite room in the house! Remember the ugly pink bedroom? Rory knocked down that room, too, and we separated it into two seating areas. We laid carpet on one side of the front door, and wood on the other to make the long room into two separate areas. We chose a paint chip from Bunnings and used every one of the colors on it... kind of un-inspired, but it turned out great!! The walls are gray, the trim is a darker gray, and the focal walls and firplace are green. The carpeted side is the TV area, a small seating area with the blue couch and the TV (and Alfie's chairs). The wood side we use for a game/ seating area. I prefer the chairs over by the heater... its been nice and cozy over there for the past few cold nights! It turned out better than I could have hoped for... there is lots of room for lots of guests, and its comfortable to boot! Mom, Emily and Dad went up to Sydney yesterday, and Rory and I will join them to catch a flight to Cairns on Wednesday morning. We're going to go to the Great Barrier Reef for a few days... I can't wait for the warmer weather! Hopefully, I'll have lots of great pictures to share when we get back, and I'll continue the house tour as well.