Oh.my.god...nice food, lovely family company, a bed that is in a different room to where you drive...after 4 weeks of living in the Spaceship we had forgotten just how good these things can feel! Our first stop was with the McDades; Jen's Australian 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins! Jen hadn't met some of them before but they were all so welcoming and generous to both of us, we felt at home straight away. Ben took us out the one day to see some sights and for a Cold Rock icecream but we spent the other catching up on laundry and generally not doing much at all. Admittedly we haven't been trekking up mountains BUT constantly being on the move, sleeping in a confined space and not having anywhere to sit and relax properly does eventually take its toll. Trish did a lovely supper the second night and had more family over which was great. Jen got forced into changing her 4th cousins' nappy, which she dealt with very well!
Next we headed to Jen's Uncle Trevor and Donna's house in Morayfield (further up the coast). Again, we were made to feel very welcome and had a great few days. Trevor took a day off work especially to take us out for the day...we were out the house by 8am and saw so many places we can't remember them all! It started with a walk round a rainforest, morning tea looking out over the Glasshouse Mountains, breakfast in Monteville, a slice of carrot cake and chocolates before going to Underwater World in Mooloolaba before finishing the day with dinner watching the sunset in Noosa! A great day but we were pooped! Spent the next day sleeping, mainly because we'd eaten so much the day before!
Friday night we went back to Brisbane for a night out with Jen's cousins Claire and Michael. We had a really good time and some how managed to stay out until 5:30am??
After a few hours sleep and a fry up we drove further up Sunshine Coast to Caloundra for our last family stay, this time with Donna (Jen's 3rd cousin). We were greeted with a feast for lunch before being told we were going to the opening afternoon/evening of the Caloundra night races. Horse racing is a big thing in Australia so it was great to experience such a big event. Donna was fantastic, we had a great couple of days with her. After a leisurely morning (another fry up!) we headed to the local street market and then onto the beach. Before heading back we stopped off for fish and chips and then spent the evening watching DVDs.
So, as you can probably guess, we've been spoilt for the whole week and had an absolutely amazing time with everyone. We forgot to mention the lunch Pete (Jen's 2nd cousin) took us for in Brisbane...oh and our 3rd Cold Rock that Donna took us for in Caloundra. It was very hard leaving everyone but we are due to be in Hervey Bay tomorrow for our Fraser Island trip and if we stayed any longer we physically wouldn't be able to leave!! The diet starts...soon.