We had so much fun today. We left Lesley's around 10 this morning and headed to The Hunter Valley. This valley is one of three major wine regions in Australia and is less than two hours from Lesley’s place. We got into the town of Cessnok just before noon and stopped at the Historic Royal Oak Hotel for lunch. We picked up some maps and brochures on the area and got some limited advice from our Server and off we went to explore. The First Vineyard we visit...

This morning we left Lesley's at around 9:30am and headed down to the Patonga Pub to watch the Super Bowl. Football is called "Grid Iron" in Australia. It was us and about 7 other guys in the bar for the game. Most of the local group were retired guys wearing Aaron Rogers jerseys. I could never quite figure out how they became Green Bay fans, but they were, which meant they didn’t like the Giants. Ryan was the only one in the bar routing against The Patriot...

This weekend has been exactly what we needed. The sun is shining and the temps are warm. We had another lazy beach day today. While we were at the beach we got out our Lonely Planet and our maps and decided that our next mini trip is going to be to The Hunter Valley. We found a brewery resort called Potter's Brewery that we booked into for a couple of nights. It is in the heart of wine country, should be fun. We also drove around a bit and found a pub that is hav...

I don't have much to report for this weekend. We are relaxing for a couple of days at Lesley’s before we head out on our next mini adventure. This Morning Lesley and Ray took us for a two hour walk around the town of Umina Beach. The clouds were just starting to break up and this bright yellow ball made an appearance. After lunch we went down to the local beach and worshiped the bright yellow ball in the sky. It was heavenly. We napped, body surfed some w...

This morning we said our goodbyes to Anne and Rob. We definitely have new friends for life with those two. I wish they could come on the rest of the journey with us. We walked across the street to the bus terminal and took a bus to a transfer station and picked up a second bus to take us to a ferry. The drive North up the coast to Palm Beach reminded us all of California. There were some cute homes and some very expensive homes built into the rolling hills. Mos...