MWNews 110

It's been a busy few days.  Traveled around and see the sights.  Mostly, sites we have already seen but we spent money so that counts for something.

Monday, we went to Cessnock.  I thought maybe they had improved or expanded some things, but as Monday was a holiday, almost everything was closed.  Not sure what holiday it was but even those things that were open closed at around 1 or 2 in the afternoon.  Not much there anyway.  It is just a small town on the way to other places but it is kind of out of the way so we never travel through there anymore.

It is on the way to Hunter Valley Gardens and if I had gotten an earlier start or noticed that they had something going on there, we might have made that our destination.  But as it turned out, everything at the Gardens was ending at 2 and we did not find out about it until 12, so we decided not to go.

We did decide to go here.

 This is the tower at the park I have previously described.  A huge endeavour to try to climb and then slide down.  William ran to it first.  He loves the slide.  I am not sure how many times he rode down it but he went up the metal side the first time and it was crowded at the top.  So he decided to go up the rope ladder side the second time.  He forgot that he is not that good at climbing.  It took him twice as long even though there were about half the people on that side.  But he had fun.  I have a picture of him coming out of the slide, but since you cannot see when they get it, it is hard to judge when they are going to come out.  I just got the top of his head as he emerged so I did not include it here.

Maeghan has still not been down it.  She still thinks I will slide down with her at some point.  Maybe after I lose a few pounds, which might be never but might be soon.  Have not done a lot of walking this week so I am not sure if I am still

getting thinner.

Walking with the kids is kind of a waste as they do not move very fast and it is just not that effective.  I suppose we could walk a very long way but the kids get tired of doing that pretty quickly.  I have just noticed that this entry is doing something strange to the text so I am going to jump to after the picture to keep typing.  I think I may have fixed it but you never can tell.  I will jump to the end anyway, just in case.

 We spent about an hour at the park.  They went on the swings for the first time and they played on the bike track.  It has been raining a lot lately and parts of the park were under water.  They have made improvements, though.  All the picnic tables have roofs over them.  Not sure how much protection they will provide since unless the rain is coming straight down, they will still get wet.  They are really tall and not very wide.  I am not sure they would even provide shade except maybe at the middle of the day.

The BBQs were working and several people had them going.  No fences around them and lots of kids running through, so I am still not sure how safe that is.  I guess it might work if someone stays close to the BBQs to keep the kids away.

After the park, we went to a bar.  Ok, so it is actually a club, and RSL which stands for something but I am not sure what.  It is a military club, they have lots of war memorabilia and they have a nightly moment of silence.  Lots of them around and anyone can join or come in.  This one is fairly big.  Mostly, they are used for pokies but most have restaurants in them also.  We went to have dinner and let Juanita play the pokies.  It wasn't bad and if you get the special, it is really cheap.  We did not get the special and Maeghan wanted spaghetti.  They did not have any so she had to settle for sausages and chips.  She did not like the sausage, it was kind of strange and the chips and sauce had a funny taste also but she ate them.  William had the kids pizza, pineapple and ham.  He did not realise the pineapple was on it until he had already eaten half.  That's when he decided he did not like it.  He ate the chips though, or most of them.  They got ice cream with theirs also, so they were happy.

While Juanita played, we were going to go outside but it was too cold and windy by then, so we went back in.  Normally, I have a beer and play Keno while we wait, but this time, I had to take care of the baby so I never made it to the Keno window or had a beer.  We left after that and went home.

Tuesday, I am trying to remember what we did.  I got it, we went to Terrigal.  Another local little town on the ocean, about 30 minutes from here.  It is a nice touristy place.  I know most people do not like touristy places but I like to walk in the the shops and stuff.  Terrigal does not really have good shops but it is a nice walk along the beach.  They had paved paths so you can stay out of the sand if you want to.  The kids didn't.  They immediately went for the sand and played around in that.

Terrigal also has this place.

This is the big hill.  Maybe a hundred or so meters high and very steep.  Maeghan and I climbed it.  It used to be just a grass hill but they have put in steps and a walkway all the way to the top so it makes it easier to climb.  I had to rest halfway to the top but Maeghan kept on climbing the whole way and was not that tired when she got to the top.  She did not take the pathway, she climbed all the way on the old grass part.  Not sure why but she made it.  She said before we started that she was going to climb as far as she could and them stop.  William was asleep in the car, or he was when we got there.  He said he did not want to go but of course, when we got back, he said he wanted to.  I was too tired to take him so we will have to save it for another day.

I am not pleased with the way this is letting me put the pictures in.  It will not let me put them side by side.  Maybe if I did it separately, it might work, but for now, there is that huge gap on the side.

We spent most the the day in Terrigal.  Went around the block twice, I think.  We walked along the beach and that first picture in this entry is from the rocks as you go around the corner on the path.  It you are brave enough, you can go all the way around to the park where the big hill is but we are not that brave.  It requires you walking along slippery rocks and at some point, you have to get wet.  Maybe we will save that for another day, also, but I doubt it.  It looks kind of dangerous.  Not that a lot of people don't do it anyway, but with the waves coming in, if you slip, you are going to fall onto rocks and then have waves crashing over you, so we will probably pass.

We went to a bar while we were there also.  This time, it really was a bar.  Juanita and I have been there before and we have probably taken the kids before but I can't remember.  It is an outdoor seating area where you can order drinks and they have bands there at nights and on the weekends.  During the day, it is just a nice place to sit and look at the ocean.

It is in the huge hotel that dominates the town of Terrigal.  When we come into town from the ocean side, you have to go along the rode that is high up above the town.  When you look down, you see this huge building that is about ten times the size of anything else.  There are lots of houses and even the square where all the shops are, but this hotel is what you see mostly.  The kids all call it the castle.  Not sure why.  I guess it vaguely looks like a castle but since I am always driving, I have never looked that close.  If you come into town from the other side, it is just houses and such and looks like just another place along the way.  We go that way all the time to go to one of the shopping centers but we rarely turn into Terrigal.  It is not big but as I mentioned, it is nice.  Very crowded during tourist season.  So much so that we avoid it if we can.  No place to park and it takes forever driving around the square because of all the foot traffic.  I have heard they are going to close on side of it and make it an open air market, they have already closed it to one lane of traffic, but I am not sure that will ever happen.

Yesterday, we went to another bar.  This one is Mingara, I might have mentioned it before.  It is more of a club that a bar but it has plenty of bars in it.  We are trying to get the kids drinking early so they can enjoy sitting there watching TV while they have a beer.  I think it is a good plan, not sure why.

Actually, there are lots of things in the club.  They have the pokies area, biggest one outside the casinos in Sydney.  They also have a coffee club restaurant, where we pretend we are just there to have coffee but we are really there to gamble.  They have a burger restaurant and a noodle bar and some type of Chinese restaurant.  There is also a big restaurant type of thing that has good lunches but I am not sure if it is supposed to be an upscale restaurant or just a local sit down eating place.  It is nice and either way, it has some good lunches.  Never been there for dinner but the signs for it look nice.

The reason the kids like it is they have a huge kids play area.  It costs money to put the kids in there but not a lot and the kids love it.  Play castles, and computer games and a big TV.  Some dancing machines and other stuff for the kids to do.  They go in for three hours or so at a time and always hate it when we come to get them.

Mingara is where I won the $640 on Keno.  Now that I am writing this, it seems like we might have a problem.  We seem to go a lot.  I think it is just lately, we have been a lot.  Normally, it is about once a month or so.

The real reason we went there was because next door, but still part of the club, is a huge swimming pool.  I think I have described this before.  Probably many times.  But we actually went there to go swimming for a while.  Spent about two hours in there before we moved over to the club part.  They also have a fitness gym there but we are not members.

Outside, they have a bowls club and a putt putt golf course.  A really nice putt putt golf course but very expensive.  $18 a game.  We have only done that once, right after it was built.  Now, it has trees and bushes and walkways all the way through and has really grown up around the course.  It goes up and down a hill also, so the course is really hard.  Not like a normal putt putt course.  Maybe we will do that tomorrow, on our last day of vacation.  Have to wait and see.

Well, this entry has gone on for a long time again.  I never seem to write a quick note.  Guess I will have to keep trying.  I think this one is so long because the pictures take up so much room this time.  Probably keep it to just one picture unless I can figure out how I made the multiple pictures work before.

So, until next time,

Talk to you later