Heavenly Avoca

After spending a week and a half seeing the Sydney sights and meeting all sorts of amazing people, it was time for a little R & R. Luckily, a new friend owns a house on the beach about an hour north of Sydney in a little village called Avoca and even luckier, he offered to let us use it for a few days. To say we jumped at the opportunity, is putting it mildly. Last tuesday morning we jumped in our bright red rental car and head north. The drive was great (aka no accidents, driving on the wrong/right side of the rode, or close calls). In fact, we realized that we really hadn't felt like we had left the states until then. All of the trees, hills and valleys really looked foreign (not too mention cars moving on the wrong side of the road at 110 km/hr). Upon arriving at Avoca we felt like we had landed in paradise. It was a quaint little town, much like the towns on the Oregon coast. A couple small coffee shops, a general store, and an "everything you need for the beach" store. We dumped our stuff at the house and headed straight for the beach. Amy was in need of an immediate wave/ocean fix and Ella & Jason were in need of an immediate lunch fix. While in Avoca we once again were introduced to an amazing group of people that we now call friends. Duncan and Bec Cameron live in the hills overlooking Avoca with their 6 children....yes 6 children (5 girls, 1 boy - more on the Cameron's in a minute). Their oldest, Ashely, volunteered to babysit the first night we were there so we took her up on the offer....Date night for the Lacey's.

We had a wonderful time. We went to a restaurant call "Cowrie". It was nestled on the ridge overlooking the bay and gave us a wonderful view of the ocean and beach as the sun sank below the horizon. We had a great meal as well. That is until the couple next to us started decided they wanted to talk...They were locals out on their 25th wedding aniversairy. We really enjoyed hearing their stories and talking until they decided they wanted to discuss all of the nasty spiders that come out at night in the area and how you would have to be stupid to walk outside at night with sandles on. We both looked down to see our half naked feet....we definitely watched every step the rest of the night. The second night we were invited to the Cameron's for dinner. It was AWESOME! All six kids immediately swarmed to Ella when we entered the house. Ella was in heaven!! And was complete exhausted by the end.

We abolutely had a blast with the Cameron's. Fun with the kids, awesome meal and great conversation. Jason and Duncan even hit a little "Wild Turkey".

The rest of our time we spent on the beach, watching surfers (the waves were huge), and just relaxing. Of course Amy, was also able to find great coffee.

As we were getting ready, we met Kate Craik. Her and her husband Peter had their forth child 4 days before we arrive and Kate was already out on the town with the other kids. We were blown away.

We had a blast at Avoca! So much fun and so relaxing. Thank you so much Tim!! Here are some more fun pics.