Watched some tv last night. Mark and I took advantage of our double sized jacuzi tub! It may have taken us a half hour to fill it and the jets weren't exactly powerful, but I added some Thieves and Lavender oils, so it was a healing time for both of us. I even put oils on the soles of our feet to help with Mark's cold and me not catching it. We got to bed just around 9 pm. Woke up early. I could not sleep, so I charged up my phone and laptop. What a nice surprise to get so many emails after my updated email sent yesterday. Thank you!! Mark was still sleeping, so I let him sleep. I knew that he would need much more rest. We were not in a hurry to be anywhere, so we stayed in bed until after 9.
Breakfast was a shake for me and cereal for Mark. One of the rules of our room was to wash all of our dishes. So, we made sure our glasses, bowl & utensils were washed. We left our room around 11 and checked out. Mark was still under the weather and we didn't want to have to drive far. The choice for today was Brooklyn. Mark set our route and we packed up the car. Then we walked out to the waters' edge. The breeze was cooler than when we first got outside. I didn't wear my sweater so we upped the pace of our walk to warm up. There were many people lined up by the ferry boat dock. We could only walk up to the ferry dock as the rest of the road was restricted. The sign posted said there would be fines levied if we went beyond a certain area on the rough non-paved road. We had a good view of the Hawkesbury river. So, we walked back towards the hotel. The crowd of people had all gotten onto a bus. Stopped to get Mark a flat white coffee at the corner shop. He picked the larger size, which was just a normal coffee and was told $5! We thought that was very expensive. It was still good to get some hot liquids into Mark to rid him of his cold. He did take a day cold pill this morning. We walked back to our car and headed out of Brooklyn. We didn't get far when we were stopped for road work. It took quite a while for the traffic and work vehicles to clear for us to leave. Brooklyn only has a population of 722 and there were not that many cars on the road. It was sunny outside. The temperature was only 21C, so just around room temperature. The sky was full of clouds from the Southerly Buster that rolled thru this area over night. Made a few phone calls along our drive thru very mountainous terrain. There were few houses and even less cell towers, so our phone calls kept reconnecting and dropping. Oh my, the coverage is horrible in Australia. We stopped along our drive at Catherine Hill Bay. The road dead ended into the ocean. The views were spectacular. We found a place to park and walked down to the beach. The view was similar to Manly Beach, but no buildings around at all. Stunning different colors of blue in the water with large swells crashing into the beach. The beach was beautiful! We could see a pier further up the coast. We walked along the beach to an area with rock walls. I was able to do a wonderful connection back in time. Most interesting. We had a lovely conversation with a man that lived in the area. He had a restaurant recommendation for us. So, we headed in that direction. We stopped and walked out to a look out. There were huge rocks on the shore which the big waves splashed into. We saw a couple of people climbing along the edge on the rocks. Again, talked to a local man as we admired the view yet again. We were looking for Caves Beach. The Cave restaurant was located at the intersection of Ham Beach and Caves Beach. Both beaches were beautiful. That was the biggest restaurant I have ever seen in Australia. Mark ordered the chicken schnitzel, which we shared. I added a big bowl of cooked seasonal veggies of carrots, broccoli, zucchini and cauliflower. There was plenty of food for both of us. They had pokey machines, but we decided to keep going. Mark wanted to get in an afternoon nap and we were close to our hotel. Arrived at our hotel, Lakeview Motor Inn, just after 2 pm. There was no one in the office when we arrived and Mark gave them a call. They told Mark that the key was in the door and told us which unit was ours. The room is quite nice. We have a huge king sized bed, two chairs, table & chairs, plus microwave and fridge. Nice sized bathroom with glassed in shower. Plus, utensils, glasses & dishes. Don't need much more. Mark had a nap until 4:30. I watched some tv and logged onto the hotel wifi. Eventually, I got tired and also had a short rest. Mark checked us in. Then we headed over to the small town before Belmont, called Marks Point. It is located right on Lake MacQuarie. The problem was that they built houses and there was no where to stop to get their great view. We eventually found a big park, but they only had a rough dirt road to get to the water, so we turned around. Mark spotted the Marks Point Sports Club. We signed in as guests, but they didn't charge us an extra fee for dinner. Mark tried one of their canned Canadian Club & ginger ale drinks. I stuck with my water. He had some honey chicken for dinner. I had fried rice with veggies. We shared our meals. Then found their pokey room. I was trying to play a familiar machine, but it would not accept the bills I fed into it. So, I exchanged my bills, but it still complained. I got the hint and went to the machine next to Mark's. I was only playing pennies on 10 lines and it really was not paying much. Then all of a sudden I don't even know what the matching pieces were, but it paid me $150! I played down to $150 and cashed out. I have not been that lucky in a long time. We headed back to the hotel. Decided that we needed to have a drink to celebrate my win! We still had some Baileys and Drambuie that we took off the boat, so we enjoyed our drinks. Watching some tv, but I don't think we will be up too late. I would prefer that Mark gets more rest. We will head to Hawks Nest tomorrow. It's only an hour or so away. Thanks for much for all the wonderful emails and messages. Love to hear from everyone!!