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We’ve been delinquent in posting not because we still can’t find a decent high speed connection but because we’ve been having too much fun hangin’ with the Aussies. We got an invitation on Sunday for dinner on Monday with a family we met in the parking lot after church. (That sounds like the lyrics to a Cake song or perhaps a tongue twister.) We had planned on meeting up with some people in Brisbane, but when that fell through we headed north instead to dine with the Drakes. Parents of seven children, Robert and Coleen were unfazed by our four. Their property was a dream for the kids–a sugar cane farm originally owned by Coleen’s parents. Fulfilling his desire to keep his family close, her father divided the land amongst his children, who now all live on the property in their own homes with their spouses and children, kind of like an Aussie version of a Kennedy compound. Robert is an accountant and never farmed the land, but Coleen’s brother farmed until about three years ago when the local processing plant shut down effectively putting all the small farmers out of business. The Drakes fittingly keep pet ducks, and much to Kieran and Asher’s delight, rats as well. Coleen assured us the rats had received a bath during the day so they would be hygenic for handling by the kids.

After a delightful home cooked meal attended by the three children who still live at home, a niece who is an apprentice electrician, three friends, Coleen’s mother, and our clan, we headed into the den for family night. We sang songs, had a lesson, and played the little kids’ favorite M&M game, “Don’t Eat Pete.” Tom spilled the beans that it was my birthday, so I even got an on-key performance of Happy Birthday on my behalf (when left to Andrus voices, there is usually little musical accuracy). We found out our new friend Naz lives just around the corner from us and will be having him over to teach the Family Night lesson next week. He was the hands down favorite for Kieran and Asher who tackled him, poked him, teased him, and nipped at his heels like puppies desperate to play. He came right back tickling Kieran and calling Asher’s name in a droll American accent every few minutes. Coleen thought Asher looks the part of a “surfy” with her new beach bronze hue and golden locks. Dax and Mac discussed movies, music, and cell phones with the older girls and could have stayed all night had we not pulled them away around 11:00 pm.

As soon as we got moving the next morning, we hopped in the van and headed west for a barby with Richard and his kids, who Tom, Mac, Kieran, and Asher met in the park outside our house the day before. Tom was immediately drawn to Richard because he had built an enormous castle on the beach using shovels and industrial sized buckets he had brought from his “farm” an hour away. Mac was pleased that he had three young sons eager to climb trees, discuss bugs, and in general run amuck with him. One of them sized up Kieran accurately when he mused, “He’s a fast midget, isn’t he?”

We weren’t sure what we were in for and were hopeful that Richard was really the nice bloke he seemed and Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve now been in Caloundra for more than a week and unlike our time in New Zealand, we don’t have countless pictures of fabulous exploits to send home. As Tom pointed out, we purposely took things down a notch so we could muster our energies for the “tough” countries that are coming up in the next few months. We still have plenty of pictures and will still be hitting some fun tourist activities in the next two weeks, but the nature of our travels has changed for the moment. For the first time in our married lives, we’re enjoying a vacation at the beach. We’ve been to many beaches around the world over the past 16 years; we even lived directly on a beach in Connecticut for one year and mere blocks from the beach in southern California for six. During all these travels and this tenure, we never slowed down sufficiently to build sandcastles, get to know the surf, or study the tides. I especially am not good at this particular form of relaxation. There is always something that needs to be written, cleaned, studied, or fixed, so how can I just kick a ball or sit still and stare at the sea?

Caloundra seemed the perfect place for us to experiment with guilt-free relaxation. The southernmost town on the Sunshine Coast, it is free of the swanky international resorts that draw tourists from Asia, Europe, and even America to the towns in the north. People actually live here, work here, and as all good Australians do, play here. Many also vacation here, especially during the current school holidays. We worried that our timing, which was unfortunate from a cost perspective, would mean crowded beaches, packed restaurants, and noisy streets. Not so. We know the visitors are here, we just haven’t figured out where they are.

The first thing Tom did after we rented the house we are in was to visit the surf shop across the street to get the inside scoop on surf lessons for the big boys. While there he met Cap’n Rob, a Caloundra Read the rest of this entry »