Rachel and the boys had a dip in the Motel pool and then we settled down to Toy Story 2.
18th Isaac's Birthday! The boys found the balloons and party hooters and brought them into bed with us which woke us up very effectively. Isaac had forgotten about presents and didn't mention them at all until Charlie started to hand them out. They all went down well despite being from the $2 shop.
We went to the local Anglican church which was a fairly traditional service but they were very welcoming to the boys who were the only young children. The vicar invited them to the front and gave them pens and paper to draw things that they shared as this was the theme for the day. At the end of the service they went back up to show off their artwork and both performed very well. There was slight confusion as the vicar didn't know what a croissant was but the lollipop, ball and book were readily identified. The only other child, an 11 year old, had drawn a man being fired from a cannon onto a target with knifes sticking out of it so our 2 were comparative angels.
We had lunch at the playground
and then went out to hire a motorboat on the saltwater lake system as a birthday treat. Isaac assumed the controls and we were soon zigzagging our way up the North Arm. There were some beautiful houses along the shores no doubt Melbourner's holiday homes.
We were trolling a small spinner from Isaac's rod and Rachel had a bite but lost it. At our northern boundary limit we pulled into shore and sat and watched the small fish leaping out of the water.
Looking at this photo its hard to see how anyone might fall out!
On the return journey Charlie started throwing the hats out of the water which, fortuitously, gave us Man Over Board practise. Shortly afterwards a powerboat went past creating a large wake which caused Charlie to fall out of the back of our boat. Al immediately dived in after him and swam over to where he was bobbing in his life jacket. Charlie looked across and said " 'Cuse me Daddy, I want to get out!"
Meanwhile Rachel and Isaac were rapidly dissapearing into the distance as they did not know how to slow down. Eventually they came about and headed back at full speed. Charlie and Al managed to avoid being run down and caught the trailing mooring rope. Charlie was easily passed back in but it took some time to heave Al in, mainly due to Rachel's hysterical laughter - Al was not quite so amused.
Back at the jetty the boat-hire girls had seen the whole incident and were swooning over Al's bravery and speed of action (Editor: No they weren't). Isaac was given a can of bright pink creaming soda as a birthday present.
After a long eventful day Isaac was put to bed and asked "Is it Boxing Day tomorrow?"
19th We were slightly underwhelmed with Lakes Entrance and ready to move on but we thought we had better check out ninety mile beach whose western edge started in town. We picked some fish and chips and headed over the lagoon to the surf beach. The area was quite reminiscent of Camber with sand dunes to climb over before a wide coarse yellow sand beach. We had come barefoot and had to run between the patches of shade as it was red hot.
It was slightly bizarre sitting on ninety miles of beach were everyone was crammed into a 30yd stretch however just dipping a leg in was enough to show there was a vicious sideways rip and that staying between the flags was a good idea. There was a strange phenomenum where the water washing back out was going fast enough to create waves, one of which knocked Al over just in time for a shore bound 8 footer to tag team him.
We saw a dad and ~8 year old boy swept out and then across by the rip. They were completely stuck with relentless large waves dunking them until the lifesaver reached them.
Victorians are far less conscious of the skin cancer issues than Sydneysiders and despite being a stinking hot day there was a fine collection of deep purple tans getting more sun. Al was again approached about his Mahommed Ali t-shirt!
Poor photo but gives an idea of the night sky here
0 comments:
Post a Comment