Coffs Harbour and back to the Blue Mountains

Wednesday was spent in Coffs Harbour as well. What a great town...it reminds me of Carlsbad and I loved it. Only about 18,000 people live in the town but it is very long so there is a lot to look at and visit.

I got up that morning and dropped Mark off at the local golf course. Then I went back to Karen & Mick's and went for a run around the town. It is great to check out new areas and I got to see a lot more of the northern end of the city. After the run, I did lots of fun stuff - laundry, made reservations for Blue Mountains, cancelled some reservations for other stuff, etc, etc...it all needed to be done, so at least I got it out of the way. After picking Mark up, we headed back down to the beach. It was another great day - a little more clouds, but still sunny and beautiful. We somehow have lucked out on the weather...especially since Cairns just got 600mm of rain and is now flooded...

The beaches down this way are much different. Big waves, but since it is in the harbour, they break every which way. It is really weird too because there are sandbars all over, so you will go in a couple feet and all of a sudden be waist deep, but then two feet later, you are standing in 2 inch deep water. It can be a little freaky if you aren't paying close enough attention. The beach is really sandy too, so we were covered in it when we got out.

We again met Mick and Karen after work, and Mick took us to Heritage Park - a local suburb. This suburb was built right in the middle of kangaroo grazing areas, so there are kangaroos all over the place. In people's yards, on the street, in the grassy areas. Needless to say, Mark was finally happy that he got to see kangaroos in the wild. I enjoyed it too, but since I was driving, had to pay more attention to making sure I didn't hit one!

That night, Mick took us to the Sawtell RSL Club (Karen was playing squash) . The RSL clubs are great! Cheap food, cheap drinks and you get to people watch all the locals. I must say though, out of all the ones I have visited since arriving in Australia, the one in Sawtell is by far the busiest and nicest looking one I have been in. For dinner, I had Barrimundi...it was great! On the side were veggies and potato and pumpkin...yes, pumpkin...it is very popular here and you can usually find it served anywhere. Although, I have yet to find pumpkin pie. If I asked for it, they would probably think I meant a meat pie with pumpkin in it...

Side note: Since I have done a ton of driving, the main thing I have noticed here is that there are a million round-a-bouts and half of them are in Coffs! I do like the round-a-bouts though because that means there are less stop signs. And the answer is no for those of you wondering if I have pulled a National Lampoon's round-a-bout...if you don't know what I am talking about, don't worry...

After dinner, we just hung out back at Karen and Mick's. I think Mark enjoyed being around locals and talking with them about the differences between Australia and the US. I again just enjoyed spending time with friends and lounging around in a house. I must say, the Steven's family (and extensions) have made my trip to Australia so much better - what can you say about great friends other than just feeling lucky to have them!

On Thursday, we got up early and headed to the Blue Mountains - I knew Mark would like it up there as much as I did, so that is where we will spend his last few days in Australia. The drive is about 8 hours, so we stopped in Newcastle on the way. It is another great little beach town about 150km north of Sydney. We just drove down to the local beach and hung out there for a few hours. Mark went in and said it was too rough, so I just got wet enough to cool me down, but stayed out of the water.

We walked around a bit and checked out the local salt baths and Newcastle Beach. This sand has the "barking sand" as well. I should try to figure out why it makes funny noises like that - something to do when I get back to the states and have a bunch of time on my hands!

The drive to the Blue Mountains wasn't too bad, but it is so frustrating because half the time we are doing 40, 60 or 80kph because the construction on the roads is everywhere. I will have to come back in 5 years and see if it all has been completed. Maybe then the laws will allow you to drive 110kph for more than 10km!

Well, this trip to the Blue Mountains is completely different from the first trip - basically because it is sunny and warm! It was so warm last night, that I could barely even sleep...I was so uncomfortable.

We got up this morning (and after a quick run), hiked for 4.5 hours. It was great to get out there again and Mark enjoyed all the scenery and birds. Too bad we both don't like them...I could care less and keep walking but he wants to sit around and watch them for hours!!! Oh well...my shoes have definitely had it because my feet were killing me after the hiking. Next time, I will have to buy hiking boots before coming to Australia - it is definitely a must for bushwalking here.

Since we finished hiking around 2:00, we walked around town and got free chocolate samples, looked for digeridoos and just enjoyed the beautiful day. We hung out at the RSL club for a little bit and people watched - oh my, there were some characters in there tonight! Very entertaining. It was crazy, when we got out of the RSL club, all of a sudden the fog had rolled in and we couldn't see much at all. The weather did a 180 from when we went in there. I was kind of bummed because we were going to check out the Three Sister Illuminations tonight, but now we won't be able to see anything, so we won't even bother with it. It has been nice though to hang out up here again - I really do love it up here and it is so relaxing. We head to Sydney tomorrow...

Story from Byron Bay: I totally forgot this story from Byron Bay. The first night we stayed there, a group of French or Italian guys were having a birthday party for one of the guys. They had the whole deck area reserved and were going crazy. I think they were all drunk by 6pm. So by 9pm, they were throwing up and being loud and obnoxious. Then, the birthday boy (after throwing up) decided it was a good time to go swimming...but he of course could not go in with his clothes on, so next thing we know, he is running around the hostel completely naked holding himself so "the women don't see him"...it was quite amusing. The funny part was the older lady next to us all concerned and trying to get his friends to put him to bed...AHHHHH, maybe you had to be there...