surfer's paradise
so Chris and I went over to the famous "surfer's paradise" and I was amazed at the general tackiness of the city. And I'm not sure if the "skin cancer" centers (oops, centres) on every corner were a good thing or a bad thing. the beach itself was nice, though swimming was not an option b/c of the waves (hence the name). I really wanted to rent a surf board and take lessons, but Chris was in a really bad mood and didn't want to stay too long. Walking around the city I noticed that almost every woman of child-bearing age was either pregnant or walking around with a stroller (and multiple children). This was a bit of a culture shock (coming from China and all).
however: sitting on the beach listening to classic rock (on chris' awesome iPod+speaker setup) eating a foccacia sammich, drinking a bottle of cascade light and laughing at the newbie surfboarders wiping out was just fabulous. its amazing how great the sea (and graceless surfboarders) makes me feel.
Chris and I headed back to his place right before dusk, so when we got back to decided to put on our togs (running gear) and go roo huntin (looking for kangaroos). Now, Chris does *not* live near a city, or civilization as a whole, so within 20 feet of leaving his yard it was full-on jungle, which was very, very cool. There were a few cow pastures we saw at the beginning of the run, and we ran into a team of roos, hangin out eating the short grasses... Chris jumped up and down a few times so that I could be so priveledged as to observe the hoppage of the roos (they are so cute when they hop!).
After that we continued the run deeper into the outback, ran into a couple giant spider webs (ie: both the spider web and the interrupted spider were very ginormous indeed) and then figured out that it might be best if we didn't "run" so much as walk with caution. It was so beautiful and otherwordly in there. Most of the plant and animal life (with the exclusion of the cows, b/c well, we've *all* seen cows) was dramatically different from anything that I had ever seen before. There were small creeks and gully just overflowing with greem. It was like a tonic for my soul.
This morning, I'm going to take HP and the priz of Azk (en chinoise) out to the pool, and after coating myself with incredibly thick layers of sunscreen, I am going to sit with my feet in the pool, drinking iced tea, and read the book... at the beach yesterday it was noted that I was the same shade as the white sand. People stared at me, not b/c I was amazingly hot or anything, but I honestly think it was because of the freakishly white pallor that I was assaulting them with. Ok, toodles y'all.
however: sitting on the beach listening to classic rock (on chris' awesome iPod+speaker setup) eating a foccacia sammich, drinking a bottle of cascade light and laughing at the newbie surfboarders wiping out was just fabulous. its amazing how great the sea (and graceless surfboarders) makes me feel.
Chris and I headed back to his place right before dusk, so when we got back to decided to put on our togs (running gear) and go roo huntin (looking for kangaroos). Now, Chris does *not* live near a city, or civilization as a whole, so within 20 feet of leaving his yard it was full-on jungle, which was very, very cool. There were a few cow pastures we saw at the beginning of the run, and we ran into a team of roos, hangin out eating the short grasses... Chris jumped up and down a few times so that I could be so priveledged as to observe the hoppage of the roos (they are so cute when they hop!).
After that we continued the run deeper into the outback, ran into a couple giant spider webs (ie: both the spider web and the interrupted spider were very ginormous indeed) and then figured out that it might be best if we didn't "run" so much as walk with caution. It was so beautiful and otherwordly in there. Most of the plant and animal life (with the exclusion of the cows, b/c well, we've *all* seen cows) was dramatically different from anything that I had ever seen before. There were small creeks and gully just overflowing with greem. It was like a tonic for my soul.
This morning, I'm going to take HP and the priz of Azk (en chinoise) out to the pool, and after coating myself with incredibly thick layers of sunscreen, I am going to sit with my feet in the pool, drinking iced tea, and read the book... at the beach yesterday it was noted that I was the same shade as the white sand. People stared at me, not b/c I was amazingly hot or anything, but I honestly think it was because of the freakishly white pallor that I was assaulting them with. Ok, toodles y'all.