Similar to our Christmas routine back home, Christmas morning was a mad combination of presents, breakfast, playing and packing. We had to check out by 10:00am and were trying to get to Metung to join our friends the Davies and their family for Christmas lunch/dinner. Things went smoothly as the boys opened Santa's stockings and we enjoyed coffee, briefly, watching them revel in the moment. But then we were back whipping things into a frenzy and cramming our beautiful blue car with what seemed like even more stuff! A brief "eggs Benny" buffet breakfast and we were off rolling down the highway toward Metung.
The journey was longish, about 4 hours plus of driving, but uneventful and it was interesting to travel down a road we knew from our trip to Sydney. There were no goannas to be hit or breakfasts thrown up and we rolled into the lovely Davies property around 3:00. They had already started and mostly finished dinner which was what we had hoped (we hadn't wanted them to wait for us!) and we joined them for a late plate of turkey and ham. We were welcomed with a very generous amount of warmth and interest and the visit was such a wonderful combination of food, family and fun that it took the sting out of missing family back home.
The boys fell into a comfortable routine of play with all of the grandchild girls in the family and they did a very good job of working with the pink and the princess outfits. The senior Davies were very generous to us with thoughtful gifts for the boys and ourselves. We also had great fun meeting Simon's sister and her husband and getting to know Simon's brother and his family better. This was all done over cricket games on the lawn, bocce ball, scooter rides around the deck, tractor rides around the property, boat rides to town and the beach, and a long table filled with wonderful food and drink. The pace was certainly our speed and felt very much like a weekend at the (Clear) lake.
One of the highlights of the visit was when Simon took us across the lake to a trail that led to 90 mile beach. After beaching the boat and walking for 10 minutes, we climbed over a dune to see one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever laid eyes on. 90 mile beach is apparently the second longest uninterrupted stretch of sand in the world and I felt like we were in that scene from Plant of the Apes with the Statue of Liberty poking out of the sand...we could have been the last people on Earth. The water was warm enough for a swim and Colin had a few good runs on his boogie board while others body surfed. We sat and ate cookies staring at the incredible scenery while the kids made castles in the sand. Soon it was time to return home but we would remember this beach and its solitude for some time.
Another memorable moment was our Boxing Day dinner. With most of the kids in bed, Alex served up an amazing lamb salad and with several great bottles of wine to accompany it we settled into comfortable conversations and relaxed laughter. A few more bottles later and suddenly Simon's mom, Jan, had us all in outrageous masks and wigs vamping, posing and giving our best impressions of George Bush or Osama bin Laden! What a great, weird moment. I thought, isn't it great when family and friends of different generations can let their hair down, let go of decorum and inhibition, and have a good ol' healthy belly laugh. After the craziness of 2008, it felt okay to try to laugh it all away.
Other highlights of the visit included watching test cricket on Boxing Day, an Aussie tradition; trips to the Metung bakery by boat and by car; watching the pelicans being fed and a close encounter with a large black swan. But the best moments by far were simply the opportunities to live, for a few moments, with people -Australians, and to share, compare, exchange and talk about life and all of the similarities and differences we share. Linton and I both remarked that in this visit we had suddenly and finally felt like we were no longer just visiting Australia, but had in fact begun to simply live here.
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