Last Few Adventures

In my head, I planned my last couple of weeks in Wollongong being nothing but beach days. In reality, it rained most days and was cloudy the days that it didn’t. I got to spend only one afternoon at the beach when the sun peaked through for a few hours. But I still enjoyed the end of my trip there. I went down to Crookwell with Courtney and Sonya for a few days, then back to the Gong. I also spent a couple days down the coast with Jack, and then again back to the Gong. It was relaxing traveling though, most days were very mellow and it was really nice to see Courtney’s and Jack’s families again before I left. The days I spent in Wollongong were fairly full with last minute errands, running on the beach, packing and re-packing, guitar hero, and saying goodbye to the friends that were still around.

Crookwell

The few days we spent in Crookwell were very mellow. Sonya and I were pretty tired from all of our traveling and we spent a lot of time hanging out on the couch working on our blogs and watching movies. One afternoon I snuck into Courtney’s brother’s soccer game and taught him a thing or two. It was a really fun 5- a – side outdoor game and I was super excited to get to play. I ended up playing against Jordy (Courtney’s bro), but it was fun to run around a bit. I felt really badly at one point though because I took a shot on goal, missed, and it hit a little girl in the face. Of course that little girl was the daughter of a close friend of Courtney’s mom. I apologized profusely and in the next play proceeded to trip over the ball and fall on my face. Instant Karma. Luckily, there were no lasting injuries on either part and other than a few jokes about it later, the whole thing was forgiven and forgotten.

Kiama, Culburra and Jervis

Luxurious sleeping quarters

One night while Jack was working in Kiama I tagged along and went exploring. I saw the Kiama blowhole, read my book in a park by the light house, saw a few friends from Campus East, chased some seagulls and sat on a swing for a bit. It was fun to see a new place, even if I did not do anything wild. Once it got dark I went and ate dinner with Jack where he works and then slept in his car until he got off.

Kiama Blow Hole

            We left from Kiama to drive down to Jack’s house in Culburra for a couple of days. His family is renting out their home for the holidays so they are all living in a flat for a few weeks, but we got to stay in their mostly empty house. It was so tempting to run through all the rooms singing at the top of my lungs and jumping on all the beds. I managed to refrain from jumping on the beds, but we definitely did some questionably terrible singing. One night while we were there we went out to dinner with Jack’s family. After we ate, Jack and his Dad and I played a couple of games of pool. I was nice and let them win, because as I told them, I don’t trust anyone that I can beat in pool. (Had nothing to do with my pool playing abilities, of course…) I did manage to beat Jack in a game of Monopoly though. He might not exactly know that I won, because we quite in the middle of it, but I’m pretty confident that I did.

Singing in the rain

            Before returning to the Gong, Jack and I spent half a day down in Jervis Bay. Unfortunately, it was raining again so although we were looking at some of the most beautiful beaches ever, we didn’t hang out for very long. We went to 3 different beaches, looked at them, took a few pictures and jumped back in the car. Hyams Beach (the third one we went to) has some of the whitest sand around, supposedly. It looked pretty white to me! After our beach investigations we had an awesome lunch at the Pilgrim’s Market overlooking the harbor. The food was delicious and the place was funky. It was a shop and café combo with eating tables intermixed with shop tables. We drove back just after lunch so that Jack could make it to his footy training in time.

Lunch

            In spite of the disappointing weather, it ended up being a great few days. I really enjoyed spending time with Jack’s family (and Courtney's); they were very welcoming and fun to hang out with. And I managed to squeeze in another new place just before I left the country!