Saturday, May 23rd, 2009, Coast North of Sydney

Bob:

In the morning we tagged along with Neville while he went shopping at the Westfields Shopping Center that is just across the railroad tracks from his home. I had wanted to see what types of stores were there, so we intentionally wandered the corridors to take a peek at the food court and the assortment of stores. Much was the same or similar to what you would typically find in a medium-sized shopping center in the USA, but much was also different. The food court had McDonald's and KFC and Hungry Jack (American: Burger King), but also some chains specializing in Asian cuisine such as sushi and other things that I would not expect in a US shopping mall. The anchor stores were Target, an upscale department store similar in tone to Macey's in the U.S., but also a Woolworth's. However, in Australia Woolworth's is not a five and dime variety store such as it used to be in the USA, but rather a very good grocery store, and that is where we got everything on Lyn's shopping list. Monika bought some packets of coffee and a bag of dark chocolate-coated licorice candy that looked delicious even though we had never seen anything like it back at home.

That afternoon our hosts drove us up to the North Shore Beaches area. The rugged cliffs marching down the ocean side and the huge waves crashing against them reminded me of the Cliffs of Moher in northwestern Ireland. In between the rocky cliffs, however, we found some beautiful beaches with the surf pounding up onto the shore. The first beach had a unique, ocher-colored sand that Lyn said was quite distinct from the other beaches in the area. Monika, of course, had to try out the waters of the Pacific. Even though she had shortened her zip pants to Capri length, she still got wet, but she enjoyed every minute of it!

Our next stop was a different beach, where we saw rescue squads practicing bringing their boat in through the rough surf. Here we stopped for a snack of meat pies at a seaside cafe.

We then drove around to the other side of the peninsula. Instead of the storm-tossed wind and noise that we had experienced on the ocean side, the waters on the leeward side of the peninsula were as smooth as a lagoon. The rocky heights also protected us from the onshore winds, so the whole impression was much more calm and serene than on the ocean side, an interesting contrast. Out in the middle of the bay, however, the winds were quite fresh as we observed a regatta (I think) of at least 20 large sailboats and they were heeled over and just spanking along with the wind.

That evening Lyn cooked a nice steak dinner, after which we watched another movie Neville had on Beethoven, this one focusing on the last years of his life and the first performance of his Ninth Symphony. We all weren't sure if the story line involving a young women copyist/composer helping him copy the music and then actually conduct the performance was true or not (doubtbul at best), but it did make for an interesting story with some fine acting and really great music. The curious thing is that the two movies dovetailed well enough in depicting Beethoven's overweening character and the actors looked similar enough that you could really believe the first one as being Beethoven as a young man and the second one as being Beethoven as an old man.