We decided today to be tourists in Lesley's home town. I looked online fun things to do in the area and we came up with a good list of interesting touristy stuff within 20 kilometers of her house. The weather was amazing and we got a nice early start.

Our first stop was the Edogawa Japanese garden and art gallery in East Gosford. The gardens were beautiful and it probably would have been a very peaceful place had it not been lawn maintenance day. There were three guys mowing and edging and leaf blowing so it was quite noisy. We did meet a cute old guy named Max that who was a volunteer and talked to him for a while. It was kind of fun to walk around the Koi pond. All the fish would follow you and beg for food like little Labrador Retrievers. We looked in the art gallery for a few minutes but this months exhibit is graffiti art which I just don't get. It all seems violent to me.

Our plan was to drive on to the Forest of Tranquility and go for a 5k rain forest hike. We drove down a dirt road about 7k to the entrance to the park. We got there just behind two school bus loads of kids. We decided we did not want to hike with 120 middle schoolers and that we probably missed the opportunity to see any wildlife. As we were turning to leave a park volunteer came over to say hello. She was one of the wackiest and most entertaining people ever. I can't even describe how unique she was and she had the best facial expressions when she told stories. We stayed and talked to her for about 20 minutes. We learned nothing about the park but knew her entire life story by the time we were finally able to pull ourselves away. We got in the car and pulled out of the carpark and both just started laughing and shaking our heads. We decided the people we met this morning were better than the sights.

We drove around the country side for about an hour just enjoying the sights and taking detours. It was about 12:30 by now and we were feeling a bit hungry. Lesley had picked a restaurant that she really wanted to take me to called The Bamboo Buddha. This was a beautiful vegetarian restaurant consisting of multiple decks and walkway sprawling through gardens and bamboo forests. I loved this place. I could eat every single item on the menu and the gardens were absolutely gorgeous.

Next on our agenda was the Firescreek Fruit, Flower and Herb Winery. It was just a kilometer or two up the road from the restaurant. We pulled into the cellar door and we were the only ones there. We were greeted by a very kind and welcoming lady who talked with us for a long time while we sipped her wines. My favorites were rose pedal wine, lime wine and manderine orange/sweet chili wine. They were very different from anything else I have ever tasted.

After the winery we went to the St. Fiacre Botanical Distillery. This is a fragrant garden with a distillery tucked into it. The owner was very proud of his still. He showed us around and explained the liquor making process. I have to admit it was pretty cool. He starts all his varieties as vodka that has been distilled six times. Then he runs the vapors through a tub filled with fruits or herbs and then cools it down super fast. What he gets is a beautifully flavored alcohol with no preservatives, additives or colors. We tried a dozen varieties and then giggled for the next hour.

Our last sop was supposed to be the Woy Woy pier to watch the afternoon pelican feeding put on by the local fish market. The website said 3:30 every day. We got there at 3:10 but it was over. Ray was there waiting for us and said it was very un-spectacular. A guy from the shop came out with a bucket turned it upside down and walked back inside. We decided it was probably ok that we missed this event.

We walked around Woy Woy for an hour and then went back to Lesley's for dinner. I spent about 2 hours on Tuesday making a party play list for my Ipod for Saturday night so we downloaded that and played it for a couple of hours. We danced around and sang and Ray took pictures of the crazy women in his life. We laughed and had a great evening.