Homemade sweet potato gnocchi with pork tenderloin and steamed green beans. Yum!

Here are some pictures from our trip to Yamba with our friend J.  What a fantastic spot to spend a week.  We surfed, fished, swam with dolphins, canoodled (Rae and I, that is), ate, drank, watched movies, and spent the requisite number of hours doin' nuthin'.

Posting this makes me think we never did show pictures of when Mom and Bess were here.  Or pictures from when Dad was here.  We really should get on that.

We stepped out of our apartment tonight after dinner to check out the Supermoon, whose existence was made known to us by the Newcastle Herald.  The sight was even more spectacular than we had hoped for.  On this magnificently clear night, the moon was perfectly positioned in the East over the ocean, and it lit up the enormous swell that happened to be pushing through.  An occasion to ponder our place in the cosmos, if there ever was one.

Caves Beach is a 30-kilometer drive south of our place.  When J and S were here, they bought a book about Newcastle that listed this as a cool place to visit, especially during low tide when one is able to meander through ocean-side grottos and climb over rock shelves.  We never made it down there with J and S, but thanks to their reminder yesterday, Caves Beach was back on the agenda.  This very neat spot is definitely worthy of future visits, and next time we will be sure to bring our swimmers and the surfboard.

We decided to postpone our POI adventure for Sunday and opt for a lunch picnic at Glenrock instead. 

We like our apartment a lot.  The trouble with us liking it so much is that we often do not want to leave.  To be sure, we have become trapped in a routine over the last few months, albeit a rather fun one, consisting mostly of work, home, the beach, the gym, and the pub, and we have failed miserably in our continuing mission to get out and explore our environs.

So, to rectify this, we have invented a new form of entertainment.  We turn on our helpful little GPS unit, select “navigate to point of interest,” and pick something, more or less at random, that is within a suitable distance given our level of ambition and available time.

Yesterday we picked the Mount Sugarloaf Lookout as our destination, and below are some photos of that journey.  Highlights included a wonderfully twisty journey through forests of eucalypts at sunset, a stop at Kurri Kurri for views of a classic Aussie country town with several iconic pubs, and chocolate pudding.  What fun.

Also, if you are looking for a good soundtrack for the evening, try Bon Iver.