Two weeks ago we had a weeks holiday at Anna Bay in Port Stephens. We were all really looking forward to a nice summer holiday at the beach. The previous week had been really hot and we hoped the weather would continue. We had a shaky start to the holiday.
We left on Sunday, the temperature was predicted to reach 40 degrees C. Packing for holidays is always stressful - there is a long list of things to bring for the kids besides just their clothes. Sarah was also bringing about twenty books - I don't know when she was expecting to read them. Sometime Sarah forgets that she has three kids that need to be entertained. Besides remembering all the things to bring, the other problem is fitting it all into the car. Despite having the Odyssey (aka the jumbo), there is limited boot room with the third row of seats up. So on Sunday morning I had crossed off all the things on the list and managed to fit it all in the car and we set off as planned at 10:30. It is about 2 1/2 hours to Anna Bay from our house. We arrived there seven hours later!.
When we were about 30 minutes away from Anna Bay, I realised there was one thing I had not put on list - the keys to the house. I asked Sarah if she had packed them. Well the answer was no. So we turned around and headed back home. Luckily the kids slept most of the way back. At about 3PM we headed off the second time, finally arriving at the holiday house at about 6:30 with two stops for MacDonalds at the same Macdonalds.
The next day, Monday was nice and warm and we all headed down to the beach to see Sarah's friends Mark, Tim and Mia who were also staying in Anna Bay. The boys splashed around in the water and played on the rocks. Ella and Sarah went shopping for food. We couldn’t really swim because there was an onshore wind that was slowly covering the beach in blue bottles. I popped a few for Ben and then a few more…after a hundred or so I pointed out to Ben that the beach was covered in them and he didn't need to keep showing me each one.
Tuesday, the weather was not looking good and we headed to the local fun park - Toboggan hill. The boys each had a go on the climbing wall, although Ben was a little bit scared once he had got a few metres off the ground . We all had a few runs on the toboggan and then the kids had a go on some kids dodgem cars. Everyone had a good time.
Wednesday was pouring rain so we visited Fighter World at the local air force base. It was a bit of a rush through as the children darted between the planes. The main attraction turned out to be some old arcade games. We didn't last as long as I hoped there. Our next door neighbours have friends that own a play centre down in Charlestown about an hours drive south through Newcastle. We drove down to check it out and have some lunch. The kids were pretty happy - Simon especially when he found that they had a playstation.
Thursday and the weather was looking slightly better so went to another beach called "One Mile Beach". It wasn't that warm but at least it wasn't raining so the kids could spend some time digging holes. The other reason for going to this beach was that it had a different orientation to the ones that were still covered in blue bottles. Just our luck though, the wind had changed and this beach had even more blue bottles on it. There were so many they were in piles a few cm high. We went back to have lunch with Tim and Mark. Now Tim is a bit of gourmet - makes his own ice cream. What a shock I had when we had chicken nuggets, mini sausage rolls and pizza for lunch.
Fridays was looking bleak again We couldn't take it anymore so we decided to come home a day early.
Not our best holiday ever although I am sure the kids had a great time.
