Bloaks

The last few days we have hit the beach. Ian and Emily rented a car for the weekend and we went to check Royal National Park about 20 mins south of Sydney. The park was very huge! We found a beach that had a bunch of cliffs surrounding it. The weather was okay, it was windy which made it cold, but no rain. It was mostly overcast so sun was not our friend that day. I did manage to get in the water and attempt to do some body surfing, but I think I ended up getting drug on the ground more :)

We also just got back from going to Palm Beach which was about 40 minutes north of Sydney. According to Ian, this is not as popular as Manly and Bondi beach because you have to have a car to get to it (most tourist rely on public transportation, plus they do drive on the left side of the street) and it is a little off the beaten path. The beach was absolutely beautiful. The sand was made up of a lot of broken shells, but there were areas of soft sand too. The beach is patrolled by volunteer life guards who have to wear these silly yellow and red swim cap looking hats. There were a lot of people surfing which was fun to watch. The waves were a decent size. The water was gorgeous, especially since we had a cloudless day with sun beaming off the water. The water was cool, but it is true, once you get in, it does feel nice. We did see quite a few blue bottle jellyfish that were washed on shore during low tide. Blue bottle jelly fish's sting is like a bee sting and they just pour vinegar on the wound. None of us got stung so we were all safe! Brian and I did some shell hunting which was also fun.

Tonight we are going to have "take away" dinner from Stir Crazy again (it was so good) and have a picnic on the park which overlooks the bridge and opera house. We will get to see the sunset and city lights. Unfortunately, we have to catch a flight tomorrow. Ian is dropping us off at the airport at 8:30am. We will actually be getting into LA on the same day (we leave the 7th, which is the 6th in the US). We are really going to miss Australia and our friends. We will also miss the nice weather (I hear snow is back home), but we are ready to see our family (animals included) and get ready for Christmas.