Road Trip Baby! First Stop Coff's Harbour and Newcastle!

We have waited for cooler weather to make our sojourn to visit Sydney.  I have been so excited to go and see Lex's mission.  He has such special memories, as most missionaries do, and this trip was awesome to get a glimpse of this part of his life that will always be so dear to his heart.

We drove the old Pajero, all the way (11 hours) to Sydney, and she rode like a charm (albeit a bumpy one--no shocks, for 11 hours.  You feel it after awhile :) We always see these lorikeet birds in Brisbane, and saw them sitting all over fence posts along the roads.  They are noisy and beautiful!

Our first stop was a place at the very top of Lex's mission called Coff's Harbour.  It is a bit of a tourists' town.  We had a blast here.

The coast toward Sydney is full of banana plantations.  And there is a huge one in Coff's.  It's called The Big Banana.  The owners have made it a tourist site, to see the workings of banana plantations, a few amusement rides and many, many, many banana souvenirs and banana flavored treats on the cafe menu.  Everything from banana chips to banana muffins to banana topped burgers.  Crazy!

Here we are walking the path through the plantation.  All the trees are banana trees.

You can see the banana bunch uncovered to the right of Lex and the kids.  It was so fascinating, because the bunches grow up!  I would've thought they'd grow downward.  It was actually really cool to see how these plantations work.

This is the view of Coff's Harbour from the top of the plantation.  Gorgeous!

Just watching the ocean (and wishing for his boogie board, I'm sure!)

We decided to take a few rides on The Big Banana's Toboggan Slide!  We timed each other, raced for glory, and everyone had a go by themselves but Oaks...who was a little too short to reach the brake without someone behind her.

"Slow Down"????  Whatever, I don't think Park ever touched his brakes.  Need for Speed!

Just waiting for the next available toboggan!  Why is it that Parker can always make funnier faces than me in these mom and son selfies?  I need to practice at home in the mirror!!!!!

Here are the kiddos walking through the actual "Big Banana" and yah-- it was big!

The actual harbour was quite gorgeous.  They climbed out on these enormous concrete blocks to check out the harbour more closely.  The other side was filled with fishing boats, yachts, dinghies and all kinds of other vessels.  It was very harbourish!

Daredevils!  Jumping from one block to another.  Cleared it!

This is the super fun place we stayed for 2 nights in Coff's.  It was a little holiday home in a sort of resort area.  It was so beautiful.  We loved it.

Oaks loved the kids' room.  2 beds down and 2 beds up and A LADDER!   It was quite the sleeping accommodation.

Even the Old Pajero looks good amongst the ferns, palms and foliage!

On the way into town we found this awesome lilly pad pond.  It was covered in flowers and when the sun goes down all the flowers close up.  It was so cool!

Mom strikes again-- a museum day!  Of course.  This is the biggest cartoon museum in the Southern Hemisphere...are there others?  Who knows! But this was truly an awesome find.  It's called the Bunker Cartoon Gallery in Coffs, because it's built inside an original World War 2 bunker!  So awesome.  It is just covered in cartoons, huge canvas sized cartoons.  The good ones with puns and sarcastic wit!  I loved it so much.  They had a section where kids could sit and create some of their own cartoons, inspired by the art around them.  They had shelves and shelves of old and new cartoon/comic books to peruse.

The exhibition on display while we were there was called "Funnybone" By Ed McMahon.  It was great.  The cartoon paintings were awesome.  And my kids even got most of them.  Clean humor...hard to find these days!

A couple of our faves!

The whole time I was there, I was missing my Dad.  He not only gave my love of museums and learning, but also of cartoons.  He and I share a real appreciation for dry cartoonist humor.  I love looking at cartoons with him and I love when he mails me cut out cartoons, (or saves them to show me) that he has clipped from the newspapers that he knows I will appreciate.  I get a kick out of them.  And I love sharing that with my Dad.  I just love my Dad so much.  I wish he could've seen the bunker, he would've have really appreciated. A little history meets a lot of cartoons...what a great mix!  We took this picture for Grandpa So Jo.  My kids know how much he loves cartoons.  They love the cartoons he clips for them, especially when he writes their names on them, with arrows pointing to various characters (ie; Parker ends up on many Dennis the Menace sketches!!)  We love you Grandpa and missed you on this site especially!

Our next stop on the road trip was a city called Newcastle.  Lex spent a few months here on his mission.  We saw the chapel he went to and took in the sites.  We ate at this delicious cafe called The Hog's Breath...marketing must be tough!  But the food was pretty good!  :)

One of the big sites to see in Newcastle is the Church of Christ.  It is an absolutely gorgeous church.  We were allowed to walk around inside and see the windows, paintings etc.  While we were there a service was going and we were welcomed so warmly by the members.  I'm so glad to know the congregations at my own chapels are welcoming like that.  They were very proud of this cathedral and happy to show us around.  My kids learned a lot about different ways of practicing religion and being faithful dedicated Christians.  It really was a beautiful site.  Oaklee was excited to go inside a castle-- it does kind of have a castley look.  But the inside is very dark and cathedral like.  All of us commented on how glad we are to go to a church that is light and warm inside.  Although the church was beautiful-- the paintings, windows and alters were almost spooky and not at all like the warm feeling you get looking a picture of the Savior in the foyer of an LDS church.  It was great to see my kids recognize and appreciate the difference between religion and spirituality.  Beautiful building though and some great Christian people inside.

Another fun site in Newcastle are the ocean salt baths.  These are huge baths that have been tiled and built just on the beaches of Newcastle.  They are filled by the ocean water and people come everyday to swim and do laps in the baths.  It is still ocean water but without the waves.  They are pretty cool.

On the other side of the baths, there is an awesome rocky shore where the waves crash and fill these little crevices all over the rocks.  It was fun to explore and watch how the water ebbed and flowed around the rocks.

Our Boys!  So stinkin Cute!

We found tons of cool sea life.  All kinds of shells, and living creature coming in with the waves and the tides.

Parker-- controlling the waters!

This girl can entertain herself for hours when she is around the ocean.  Finding all kinds of treasures and hopping from one pool to the next!

Birdy and Lex finding more marine life!

This pigeon found the perfect spot to check out the view.  We were wishing we had his seat.  But the view from the rocks wasn't too bad!  We loved our days spent in Coff's and Newcastle.  Now onto Sydney...