Tripping Away

Taking some extended leave over this summer has allowed me to have a decent break away even though it was wrapped around spending time with our eldest daughter who has a summer job away from home. We have recently spent 10 days in the town my husband and I went to university in and having a car (as opposed to when we were cash strapped students without one) meant that we were able to explore places we have never been to even though we lived there for 6 years.

It was a cost effective holiday as we house sat for a relative and cared for her cat while she was away and we were able to cook all of our own meals as usual, just like when we are home.

We found lots of things to do that involved driving places so cost some petrol but had very little cost otherwise as there were several beautiful scenic places we were able to visit at no cost.

We visited stunning beaches and coastal cliff areas, watched sunsets and ate fish and chips in a park. We ran down large sand dunes and watched sea-lions bumbling up the beach or frolicking in the water. We checked out some historic buildings and visited a little maritime museum. We marveled over some early 20th century engineering and visited an eco-sanctuary and watched native birds and enjoyed the bush (and listened to some teenage complaints about doing all of this boring stuff!!)

It was great being able to find "new" things to do in a city that is not new to us and be able to appreciate the fascinating things that are right under our noses in our own country. That's one thing that the COVID pandemic and the global shutdown has taught us is that there is fun to be had wherever you are - you just need to do looking for it!