Loving it...

May 14,2010 We are in Mission beach. I love it here. I love that it is small (about the size of Gretna), I love that the people here don’t lock their doors all the time, I love that there are wallabies hopping all around the town, I love that we are right near the beach, I love that it is warm (30+), I love the CS host (Mary), I love the CS house (huge and beautiful), I love that it is not touristy here, I love that it is so relaxing, I love it…

We arrived again to be invited into the home of such a wonderful lady. I have to say it again, CS is so great. The people we have met and made friends with is so unbelievable. This would never have been possible had we been spending all our time in hotels. We have been able to experience such cool things, such as footy games, meals with great people, local town life, having a beer at the neighbours, local trips up the mountain, fire twirling (Reiley you are the best),marking homework with Vincent (fun), riding a thoroughbred race horse (wow), and just hanging out with new friends. It is all exactly what we had dreamed would happen.

The horse riding was so very fun for Miranda and I. Sally (Mary’s daughter) saddled up her horse for Miranda and Miranda was very brave to get right up. She started by walking around the riding ring to get warmed up. Sally had some poles and obstacles set up and Miranda took Snow around them to get some control and get more confidence. It didn’t take much longer and I asked Miranda if she would like to try to trot. She said that she was ready, so she gave a bit of a squeeze and Snow started a bit of a quick trot at the start. Miranda slowed him down a bit and had a big smile on her face as she rode him around and around the ring.



When Miranda was getting ready to be done and we needed to leave shortly, Dean suggested I get on and go for a ride also. Miranda handed over the reins and I jumped on and took Snow for a ride around the ring too. What a great animal. So powerful and listened so well. I asked him for a trot and he immediately obeyed and it was great fun!!



Another fun thing we did was to take a ferry over to Dunk island for the day. It is only a 10 minute ferry ride and when we got there we decided to hike a few miles over to the other side of the island to coconut beach. I settled myself in on the beach in the warm sun, picked up my book and relaxed. For lunch we chopped up some tomatoes, onions, cilantro and limes which we ate with corn chips. Mmmm so good. It was the first time in the last month that we could sit on the beach all day and soak up the sun. It was an amazing day.



Today, Colton and Dean went on a fishing trip to the nearby islands. They had a great time though didn’t catch any huge fish but caught tones of small fish. Dean figured he caught at least 30 fish or so. They brought some really nice bright orange fish home for dinner tonight. They are called strawberry coral trout. I am really looking forward to frying them up tonight. Check Colton's blog for more fishing info.