Vaca to Hippyville or Byron Bay as Some Call It :)

We took a weekend trip to a little place called Byron Bay!  It was highly recommended by some of our friends here and let me just say...it deserved it's high accolades. We had a blast at Byron.


This place is my kinda weekend getaway!  It's a TOTAL HIPPY TOWN.  This is the sign that greets all the cars coming into town.  Chill out...peace baby.

The town has tons of little shops and cafes, bakeries, and awesome beaches.

You get really sucked into the hippy vibe with all the shops selling incense, auro beads and rainbow...everything.


We saw lots of rainbow painted vans.  My kids kept noticing that people were actually LIVING in the vans.  They were carpeted inside and equipped with a little kitchenette.  Yah, they were living in their tie-dyed rainbow vans....ah, the life of the flower children.

There are sooo many dreadlocks in Byron Bay that you almost feel like you simply don't fit in without them.  I love visiting a place where hair washing is completely optional.  I didn't feel the least bit funny about my long lapses of time between hair washes.  I guess I'm a bit of a hippy at heart and hair!

We loved listening to and watching all the street acts along the roads.  Everyone was looking to make a buck (some gold coin donations) for their spot of talent.  A lot of Simon and Garfunkle drifting on the breezes.  It was awesome.

This guy was a bit of a jack of all trades.  He kept pulling new tricks out of his rainbow van hoping to keep a captive audience.  Here he is balancing a spoon on his nose.  He wowed us with this after he fell off his unicycle....awk-ward!  I thought his outfit alone was a spot of talent.  Who can get away with pants like that?  It takes some talent folks!

They have tons of really fun little shops with great toys and kid furniture that people hand craft.  The girls wanted to take home this fancy table and chairs.  Just right for a spot of tea!

We stayed in a hotel while in Byron, but man there is a lot of "camping out".  I loved this sign.  If you could visit Byron Bay, you would concur with the city council that a sign like this is necessary.  Sometimes people just need to be reminded to find a camp site or at least curl up together with your comune in a field somewhere, but move off the streets please :)

We found an awesome park that hosted an Artisan Market.  The trees were so much fun to play in, but the booths at the market were even better.  They ranged everywhere from "Removal of cellular waves from your mobile phones that are damaging your bio-auro" to crystals of all shapes and sizes...to some seriously awesome wood working booths, beautiful jewlery and of course...incredible food!!

One of the exciting places we visited at Byron Bay was the lighthouse.  We hiked up a fun little trail, saw sea turtles, whales and dolphins along the way and loved our tour of the lighthouse.

They have the area set up so that tourists can walk through the old, original lighthouse keeper home and see how lighthouses used to function before electricity etc.  It was so awesome.

The view was amazing.  The bay was full of dolphins.  It was so fun watching them.

We took a tour of the lighthouse (yes, once again, I'm nerdy...and I make my children take tours and force them to do "boring" educational things even while on a vacation).  And...I LOVED IT.  It was so interesting learning about lighthouses.  How they work now and how they used to work.  We got to climb the winding staircase all the way up to the top.

And look at this tour guide???  Who wouldn't want a tour of a light house with him?  Just one look and I was completely convinced that everything he said was absolute lighthouse gospel.  He looks exactly like what I'd picture a lighthouse worker to look.  His face was sun and wind tanned, his chin a little whiskery with white and grey stubble and his smile was beaming with the pride of his profession.  He loved this lighthouse.  It was fun listening to him rattle off facts.  I kept asking questions, just because I could tell he loved answering them.  So cute!

When we left the lighthouse we walked down to this lookout and as the sign indicates, it was the most easterly point of the Aussie mainland.  Look at that ocean....it goes on forever!

We had some really yummy food at Byron.  Crazy Aussie burgers, with fried egg, beetroot, and pineapple.  Burgers you can't even fit in your mouth!  We also ate some awesome fish and some incredible Indian food at the market. The Samosa was fabu!  Oh how I love me some good fair food!

One of the booths we passed was just a "Snuggle with the bunnies for a Gold Coin"  A "gold coin" in Aussie is a 1 or 2 dollar coin.  It's such a small little round disk, you end up tossing them around like pennies.  And when Oaklee looks for "pennies" in the grocery store parking lot, she'll often find a $2 coin...not bad for a lucky find.  Once again, you'll notice Oaks...laying on an animal.  This girl!  What am I going to do with her?  No fear.  She just snuggles them nearly to death.  Love her.

This was our hotel/apartment.  The view off the patio was beautiful.  It's hard to see in the pic but the ocean was right across the street.

In the hotel room!

We loved the beaches at Byron.  I wanted to snap this one with the lighthouse behind her.  Also...her swimsuit that has completely lost it's elasticity.  Thanks Old Navy...we got some good use out of your $10 suit.

These are the moments I will miss the very most when we leave Australia.  I love sitting on the beach watching my kids play together.  They have gotten really close over here.  I hope so much that they never lose that friendship.  It is so fun watching them on the beach.  The beach is the perfect day of fun for everyone.  No one gets bored, there's always something to do.  Whether it's in the water or in the sand!

These 2 are besties. I will often find them sitting like this, arms around each other.  They look out for each other so much.  And together they pretty much worship their older brother.  I can't help myself, I love them to pieces.  So I get a little camera happy seeing them.  Can you blame me?  Look at those beauties!

Sandy toes...happy hearts!  Notice my toe nails...lots of different colors.  I visit "The Shiny Spa" here.  It's a little spa run by Birdy and Oaks.  They do everything from nails to massages and always include a little tea time.  My toes always come out in a variety of colors and patterns.  MMMmmmmm I love a good trip to the Shiny Spa!

The girlies!

Ok, Oaks just LOVES the beach.  She goes out to jump waves with Park or Daddy, and boogie boards with mom and dad riding with her, but what she loves the most is the sand.  She builds, digs, digs some more, makes sand angels and then just does lots of this...lounging out. Getting sand out of her hair the next day or week...is quite a chore.  But it's worth it!  Look at that tan little beach baby!

"Did you see me ride that last wave all the way in?  No wave too big, no jellyfish sting too small!"  Park is becoming our boogie boarding master!

Park and Syd set up a perfect lounge area with boogie board shade.

Lex enjoying the beach tent.

We went on an awesome hike in the mountains around Byron.  On the way we passed over Parker's Bridge.  Having a bridge built for you is sometimes overrated...but it's worth a picture on the blog, I suppose :)

We saw some cool animals on the hike.  Here's an enormous frog.  We also saw a huge python crossing the road in front of our car.

I missed some of the front of him trying to get my camera out and snapping.  But yah...it was big!

This hike was along a creek.  The goal was a great big waterfall.  It was really pretty along the creek beds.  But we did end up with a couple water leaches.  Yummy.

The view at the end was spectacular.  Although the waterfall was nearly dried up, the cliffs were incredible.

Oh...please never let it get old to take your 2 little sisters by the hand and show them a huge ocean freighter!!!  Parker is a pretty awesome big brother.  Love that kid so much!

Syd has created a "family sign" for us.  She came up with this, by accident.  She was trying to sign I love You as she was quickly waving to me at school drop off but couldn't get her other finger to bend down.  This was the result.  She decided it means, "It's great to be an Allen!"  I kinda loved it, so we went with it.  Now we have to make both signs at drop off and apparently at other picture moments as well :)

Go Birdy...and yes, she cleared it!  (Seriously those leg muscles? She kills me.  I swear I've never had muscles like that!)

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...Oi, Oi, Oi!


Love these 3 kiddos!  And I love how they love each other. We had such a blast on our trip to Byron Bay!
We definitely CHEERED UP, SLOWED DOWN AND CHILLED OUT!