First things first, on arrival - about an hour in a very hot shower! The first afternoon, I ran around the grocery like a crazy person and collected this random assortment of foods that struck my fancy for us to graze on for our first eat-anything-you-want-you-could-get-from-home meal: celery, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, hummous, garlic artisan bread, navel oranges, blueberries, natural yogurt. All sooooo good.

Next to the Manly marina is the Manly public pool. It was built with economic stimulus money. Why didn't we get a pool with that money in the states? We just got silly things like roads and bridges that I recall.... The first rule on the gigantic list of rules painted on the wall outside the door is: "Antisocial behavior is unacceptable." The pool has a big slide and a kiddie pool with water canons.

On my very first day in Australia, I walked by a man and he said "G'day" to me. No kidding.

Also, on the second day a man said "Good day for it," when I passed him. Not sure if that's a thing people say here, or if he said it because I was near the marina and he assumed I was going sailing....I'll report back when I know more.

Trees are blooming with beautiful bright purple flowers and temperatures are delightfully warm and sunny, with intermittent showers. It feels like spring!

We're a short walk to a grocery store, a marine hardware, lots of restaurants and cafes, and the park where they have farmer's and crafts markets on the weekend. It seems a sweet little town to plant ourselves in while preparing Daybreak for sale.