Holidaying like Australians

Given an infinite amout of time, money and energy we'd probably be spending the final month going to Perth, The Great Ocean Road, The "top End" and many of the other bits of this vast island we have not done. These will have to wait for another day. The alternative game plan is to spend some time holidaying like your everyday Australian Citizen does. We got a taste of that at Forster recently and this was more of the same with the added bonus of being with John, Lisa, Sarah and Emily (AKA The Pateman Family). The basic strategy seems to be, keep the accommodation simple and get as close to the beach as you possibly can and get onto it as soon as you can. The venue for this particular "Pateman adventure" was Umina Beach Holiday Park 90 minutes South of Warners Bay.



Time for breakfast as our little Aussie made the two minute trek back to the Cabin.



So how to spend the day? Take the ferry to another beach. Not just any old beach though as it was Chris' turn to go to Palm Beach which in case you'd forgotten is the adopted venue for Summer Bay in Home and Away.



Stupidly left our swimmers behind though so after sitting on the beach for a while and overhearing the lifeguards gloating over the Ashes progress, we strolled round to the rocks for some family shots.



Then let Jess, Sarah and Emily go for a dip in the Ocean Pool. They sat out for a team photo; probably relieved to get their feet off the slimy bottom.



Pizzas in the evening and a very late game of Perudo , followed the drama at the BMX bike track. Tina took the kids and Alex came back very excited "I went really fast and the hills were really steep and I skidded really well round the corners....... By the way Jessica fell off and hurt herself really badly!" 30 seconds later I heard the mournful of cries of our little girl with big grazes on her knee, thigh, stomach , elbow and hands. I wanted to blog the injuries but did not feel it quite appropriate. Just remember your first big bike fall and fill in the gaps yourself. Anyway no broken bones, at least but we abandoned plans for Sunset views at the Waratah lookout. Instead we exchanged it for cloudy ones the next morning.



The rest of our weekend then just flew by. Cloudy but still good enough for another surf at another beach. "Sausage sizzle" for lunch, time for just one more swim and then home. Apart from the stress of losing our car keys for an hour on Saturday and the stress of an injured daughter and our insistence that they play dice games until half past midnight, I think John, Lisa, Sarah and Emily enjoyed our company. If they didn't. Well they only have to put up with us for another month.