But, to ease our sorrow over missing a white Christmas, we planted ourselves in the sand on the beach and gazed at the surf, the mountains in the distance and the blue, blue sky and water. The girls caught waves and body surfed most of the day. Shelby got sucked under a couple of waves until she finally figured out that she needed to dive into the waves and let them wash over her, Aubrey and she kept at it the longest. Quinn and Gillian were in and out of the water, feeling torn between fun and sun.
The waves are smallish, but there are plenty of people on boards and enjoying the waves. It was great fun to watch. There were lots and lots of young children being taught by parents to surf, so I suppose that this beach we are on is a good one for training future surfers.
We also, most of us, have sunburns as a result of our Christmas day activities. As noted numerous times on this blog, Australia has the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world. There is a depletion of ozone that sits right over this piece of land and the result is incredibly powerful sunbeams. Quinn saw that the UV levels were "10" today...highest they can be.
We are slathering on copious amounts of SPF 30 sunscreen...normally at home, Quinn turns her nose up at 30 and goes more for like SPF 8, and doesn't burn. Today I witnessed her putting sunscreen on no less than five times, and her arms and back are burned. Shelby is the worst. Jeff and I were putting sunscreen on her, so we probably should be fired. Let me just say that Northrup sunburns are pretty mild compared to some of the poor British skinned folk we saw on the beach today. For that, we are thankful for us and cringing sympathetically for them. We have decided tomorrow to sit in the shade during peak sun hours (10am-2pm) to keep the burns under control.
Later in the afternoon, Jeff and I went on a little walk and made our way to a 7-11 (fancy that) about a mile from our hotel. We were hot and went in to get some drinks. Jeff opened his lime juice concoction and started guzzling it in the store and I grabbed a sparkling water and made my way to the counter. I opened my little purse to realize that I had no money at all, and there was Jeff chugging his drink in one of the aisles of the little convenience store. "Uh...Jeff," I said and I looked over at the man behind the cash register, "Do you have any money?" Jeff stopped mid-swallow, put his hand on his pocket of his swim trunks and shook his head.
I only felt like throwing up just a little, I imagined hiking all the way back to the hotel, leaving Jeff at the store as collateral and trying to make it back to collect him and get my own drink all without dying of thirst and in less than 20 minutes.
I told the man at the counter my plan. Jeff looked helpless and guilty with half a bottle of stolen lime drink now churning in his belly.
But, nice guy that our new best friend at the 7-11 was, he told us to take both drinks and just bring the money back later. Whew!! We hoofed it back to the hotel (did I mention that it was up and down a steep steep hill?) and got the car and some cash and drove back to the shop. Thank goodness we also remembered in our haste that people still drive on the left side of the road here, that would have been a total bummer to get in an accident and be wanted for stealing drinks at the local 7-11. How would we explain it all to the kids?
It all turned out well, though and we came back, had a lovely sweet dinner all of us together and just talked and got to be together. These memories we are making are such a treasure. Quinn tried new foods tonight (all seafood: oysters, raw ahi tuna, scallops, and shrimp) and was just as proud of herself as I was of her, what a fun time. The others were less adventurous, but we had a nice Christmas dinner together, not traditional, but so lovely all the same.
We really do wish all our friends and family were here with us, of course, you all are in our thoughts and part of our conversations. We feel incredibly blessed, what a wonderful Christmas it has been.
XOXO from us all.
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