Day 10 Road trip continued

Up early again this morning 5am – the girls are asleep – they all seem to be having strange dreams and talking in their sleep – I try to comfort them. I too had very strange dreams about inheritances, being arrested, protecting Allysha – bizarre.

I get some good work in – nice iterant connectivity – even install a huge MS SP (386mbs). Had a nice IM chat with Mick. Also spoke with Michael briefly.

I wake the girls – they decide to go check out surfing options will I continue working.

I try the new flickr up loader – it seems like it has hung -I hope I did not lose all the tags and edits – only 1 of the 25 uploaded – frustrating. Oops – I think I figured out what was wrong – I moved the photos from underneath the uploaded – put them back and retrying – the tags still seem to be in place – if it works I officially declare this program is awesome – to overcome that kind of operator stupidity - impressive! It worked – the new fickr uploader is now officially given the Brian Leonard ***** star approval. That should be good for a few extra sales – oh – it is free! www.flickr.com

I paid for a pro account since I was running out of upload bandwidth for the month.

I get the blog for 2 days ago posted and moderate some comments – keep them coming!

Girls got back from checking out the surfing scene and we decided to head north. We packed up the car, checked out and on the road by 10:30am.

The girls already argued this morning – they sure like to push each other's buttons -and Aria wants desperately to be Allysha's mom. I put an ipod earphone in my left ear and listened to Five for Fighting.

Stopped in Grafton for lunch – wandered around by car again – yuck – but stumbled on a local café – it has a 7 page menu – we just ordered and I am blogging as we wait for the food. The lady taking the order looked flabbergasted at the amount of food we ordered – I suspect these are going to be larger helpings than we expected. Might have more leftovers…our car is going to smell interesting – Thai and Aussie café mixed with the rice bubbles Allysha spilled all over the floor yesterday.

What a cool sleepy little town – you walk across the huge streets without fearing for your life – all the cars are backed in in front of the shops. It looks like a Midwest town – oh – and feels like one too – the heat and humidity are here – we have arrived in Summer, finally. I am already feeling sticky. Pam and Allysha and I have our swim suits on. There is a table with about 12 people doing a pink elephant gift exchange next to us – they seem to be having a great time.

We only garnered a few stares – the café workers even spruced up the bubble tea drinks the girls ordered – Allysha still does not like it – Pam is finishing hers and Aria is trying it..

Ran to the car to get an ipod to fill for Aria – hopefully eliminate some of the backseat battles.

Food just arrived – wow big plates of food. I think we can probably polish it off. You have to really set aside time for eating.

I actually did not enjoy that meal very much – it just did not sit right as I was eating – and I did not eat very much. I took a couple of Rolaids with the meal – I hope I feel better.

We hit the road at 1 and arrived in Byrons Bay at about 5pm. We rented some boards; Pam found a hotel while Aria, Allysha and I surfed. We did not have a very good plan and Pam walked about a mile - to where she thought we would be surfing. When I got to the beach I could not see any waves on that end of the bay so we went left and surfed by the park – I thought she would see us easily but she did not. Allysha actually ended up walking to the end of the beach to retrieve her – she was not happy. The spot we were surfing had a strong current running parallel to the shore -I kept Allysha close although she did go very far out once and I had to retrieve her and remind her to stay close. We walked back to the motel, loaded the boards in the car and drove back to the beach she had been at. Pretty cool – you can wade out into the surf as it is a point break. There was a strong current that pulled away from the shore towards the center of the bay. I had given a safety lesson in the car but I guess Pam did not understand – she was fighting the current instead of swimming across it or riding into the shore and walking back. I was keeping an eye on her – a local surfer actually approached her and gave her the advice – she made it back but she was exhausted. Allysha got to surf and I gave it a go. Aria was surfing the whole time – she looked great. Pam took some great pictures – very beautiful. Both Allysha and I got terrible rashes.

I could not get up to speed on the 8ft board – maybe in the Am I will get a longer board and try again. We got 2 boards for 30 dollars and they are letting us keep the overnight.

Pam spoke with her cousin Carl on the drive. We are going to talk to him again tonight and it sounds like we will meet up with him in Brisbane tomorrow.

Pam is on the phone ordering Pizza to be delivered to our room from Earth and Sea. I am looking forward to eating in.

I think we are going to try to surf again in the morning – come back to the motel and shower, check out by 11am and head to Brisbane arriving between 1 and 2pm. We hope to meet Carl for a late lunch. Pam is talking to him now. It is so cool that she will get to see her cousin – it has been 20 years. We have to be at the airport by about 4pm tomorrow.

We were able to call on confirm the flight for tomorrow – having the local SIM and cell phone is very helpful.

I am supposed to cal Michael in the morning – I may have to try using one of the cell phones as I do not have internet at our motel – the Wollongbar motel.

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