Brisbane Trip Day 26: Newcastle

It was the eldest cousin's 13th birthday today, so Caitlin and I made sure we were up early enough to say Happy Birthday before she went to school. I spent the rest of the morning sorting out my photos and emails etc, while the kids watched Netflix and YouTube videos (and chased the chickens out of the house anytime one of us left the back door open). In the afternoon I walked over to the hardware store to see if they had a new fuse for my fridge cord - we thought we'd fixed it in Brisbane (the fuse had slipped out of place) but the fridge still wasn't working. I plugged it in to 240v power here and it worked fine, so I knew it was the cord. The hardware store didn't have the fuse so suggested I try the automotive place. He looked at the fuse and said it was fine, and said he'd have another go at getting the fuse to stay in the right place. He tested the cord and said the fuse was working but the power wasn't getting to the other end - so I came home and opened up the new cord I'd bought, and that works fine. I spent a bit of time organising to see people during the rest of our trip.

The girls came home from school and their dad from work, and the kids all hung out in the front room for a while. Amelie and I made a birthday card. The youngest cousin and her mum and brother came over, and we had chocolate mud cake for birthday cake. The kids all moved out into the back yard and played on the trampoline and the adults sat and chatted for a while. The other mum and I went down the street to get fish and chips for dinner (we walked to the closest one, which was closed, so we came back and drove into Swansea. On our walk we met a scared, scruffy looking dog, who wouldn't let us get close enough to pat him - he didn't have a collar on and he looked lost, I hope he is ok).

When we got back the girls were dancing to the Moana soundtrack in between jumping on the trampoline. We ate our dinner and hung out in the backyard until the mozzies got too bad. The boys had moved inside earlier and were playing on the iPad. Once the visitors left everyone wound down pretty quickly. I sat out the back for a while and chatted to my BIL, mainly about the Uni cricket club days, and some of his memories of Tony as a kid, then I went to bed and read my book. The kids all came in soon afterwards. A very relaxed day before a week of seeing different people every day!

Brisbane Trip Day 21: Brisbane

It was another quiet morning at home. The kids gradually woke from their various beds (they all seem to have settled into their own spot, after all the bed switching over the first few nights). I spent some time on the computer and then curled up on the couch with my iPad, then we watched some movies as the kids emerged - Chasing Liberty, and When We First Met. We started I, Robot then people kept getting distracted so we paused it for later. Lots more chatting, making and eating dehydrated food, cups of tea, Roblox, Minecraft, playing with the kittens. I transferred Caitlin's phone to a new plan so she has unlimited calls - will make contacting her friends (and us) a lot easier.

In the afternoon the older girls were going to dancing. I felt like going out as well so was keen to take the boys to a river or lake or somewhere and have my friend meet us there with Caitlin. No one wanted to go and I was tempted to talk them into it, when one of the girls suggested I take them to dancing. This worked for everyone - all the other kids were able to stay home, my friend had a night off the drive to dancing, and I got to go out and explore.

We left around 2pm (I took her car because we were picking up some other girls and there wasn't really room for people I didn't know in my messy car). I love talking to these girls, they are interesting and informed and curious. We picked up the other girls and I dropped them all at dancing and then I had about 3 hours to do whatever I liked. I kept driving along the road that dancing was on and found an information centre. I popped in and said I had 3 hours to kill, what kind of things were there to do and they looked at me like that was the hardest question they'd ever been asked. They suggested a couple of picnic areas but warned me that they might be a bit isolated and creepy at this time of day. We had a bit of a chat and they gave me a map. I wandered a little around the park where I was (Pine River) - the playground was amazing - and wanted to go down to the river but it seemed to be blocked by a DiscGolf course. I drove further north towards Petrie and saw a BCF, so went in to buy a replacement cord for my car fridge (it's only been 2 weeks since it stopped working...). I drove up to the river, traffic was heavy but flowing. The first park I went to didn't feel inviting, so I drove over to the other side of the river. There was a guy standing in a gazebo and I felt uncomfortable walking past him so I walked the other way, under the railway line and alongside a football field. There were occasional places to stop and look at the river, some cool mangroves and 2 bridges to walk under. It did feel isolated so I didn't linger - I did take some cool photos though. The river wasn't super pretty, it was nice though.

I headed back down the road to a big shopping centre (Strathpine). I wandered around for a while, browsed a book shop, then realised I needed to eat. I had a chicken burrito from Zambreros which was delicious. I was heading to Aldi to buy a cheap drink when I walked past a massage place -they did a 20 minute foot massage for $25 and my feet have been SO sore on this trip - so I treated myself and it was amazing. So relaxing and nurturing, I'm so glad I did it. Walking felt much easier afterwards, and I was quite relaxed and happy. I browsed in Aldi, bought and ice coffee, wandered around a bit more and went to Big W to get more charging cables for our devices. It was nearly time to get the girls so I went back to the car (and could now play my music because I could charge my phone and not risk running out of battery). On the way back I stopped at an electrical store to try to find a charging cable for our multi-USB box, they didn't have what I needed but had some suggestions for me to try. I arrived at dancing and read in the car until the girls came out. We had another great chat on the way home.

Back at the house I joined my friend in the bedroom watching tv again and the girls all ended up with us as well, talking about our days and lots of other things. We watched The Revenant while we talked (and played with kittens) - it got pretty intense, certainly not a relaxing movie but so well made and acted. The boys were still playing Roblox and the girls wandered off to watch various things on Netflix (Caitlin and one of the girls are watching Brooklyn 9-9, the other has been watching Married At First Sight). Amelie and I went to bed and she watched youtube videos for a while and I played on my iPad until I was ready to sleep.

Brisbane Trip Day 19: Brisbane

Amelie and I were up early, I did some stuff on the computer and she watched YouTube videos. The boys had stayed up playing Roblox for most of the night, so they were unlikely to wake until much later. I had a chat with my friend and then left the kids (most still sleeping) with her while I went into Ipswich to meet another friend for coffee - someone I'd met in Seattle, and I hadn't seen her since her now 18yo son was 3 weeks old. We sat and chatted and had a chai and caught up on lots of stuff - mainly current things rather than filling in the last 18 years, but there was a little bit of that too. The morning went really quickly and we were there for about 3 hours!

I came home and found all the kids awake. My friend was watching TV in one of the bedrooms and I joined her in there, we started talking and turned the tv off, and she and I stayed there for the rest of the day. The kids came in and out - especially the big girls, at one point we had all 3 of them lying on the bed with us - and they joined our conversation or talked about other things, showed us some YouTube videos, asked us questions. Amelie came and snuggled for a while then wandered off. We watched The Huntsman:Winter's War, which I hadn't seen before and really loved. My friend had to pop out to help another friend for a little while, when she came back we continued hanging out and chatting on the bed. Her partner cooked dinner and after Amelie had eaten she came in and watched Pokemon while we talked, then she went back out where the boys were playing Roblox. The kittens were in and out as well and we spent time playing with them on the bed. It was a lovely, really nurturing and fun (and funny) afternoon, I felt great and very happy. We eventually wandered out to the kitchen and had some dinner ourselves, did a bit of food organising and chatted some more and headed off to bed when we were ready. Amelie slept with me because she'd seen something scary on TV, the other kids are finding a bed in the lounge room wherever they can and everyone is loving the communal space.

Brisbane Trip Day 16: Brisbane

3 of our hosts had dancing all day today, so they left the house with their mum around 6.30am. Amelie and I were up not long after that, and the other kids woke later in the morning. We had a very much needed, very relaxing day. I spent a long time on my computer, catching up on my blog and email and Facebook, and sorting photos, tidying up my hard drive and so on. The kids watched Netflix movies and TV, played Xbox games and iPad games. Lots of Minecraft and Terraria and watching YouTube videos. And of course a fair bit of time was spent playing with the kittens. One of the boys stayed home with us, and he had a couple of friends come over, the boys all played on the trampoline and in the trees for a little while. It was hot and very sticky, so we all tried to sit or lie under fans and keep a little bit cool. Late in the afternoon Caitlin walked down to the shops. It was too late for the op shops but she bought herself a drink and snack and walked back. The other kids and my friend were back late evening, and we spent more time chatting and watching movies (Hotel Transylvania 2). The kids have been rotating who gets the good bed in the lounge room - they've sorted out sleeping partners (Amelie with the oldest girl, Caitlin with the other girl, their 2 boys together, and Liam on a single sofa bed). It was the boys' turn on the good bed, and the some of the girls were going to sleep on the air mattress. It kept going down though and one of the boys discovered if he threw his body down on it, Amelie (who was rested there) would fly up into the air. That led to about half an hour of tossing people up in the air from the air mattress, it was a lot of fun to watch! (and definitely the most energetic part of the day for us). We all drifted off to bed eventually.

Brisbane Trip Day 8: Coffs Harbour

My cold was still hanging around but I was in a much better frame of mind today. We had a very quiet morning hanging around the campsite – I did some washing and optimistically hung it on the clothesline even though there was still a bit of rain around. AMelie played in the playground and once the kids had had breakfast they headed to the office to get equipment to play in the games room.  I stayed at the tent waiting for the auto electrician and tidying up a bit – our hectic set up when I was stressed meant that things were really messy. The auto electrician arrived and was able to fix the window easily – and explain another problem I’d been having with the window and gave me some tips on fixing it. I really appreciated this as the last time I had the window fixed the problem started and the guy didn’t want to know about it – this guy said that the problem should have been anticipated and fixed when I had my switch replaced.

Feeling very relieved that my window was now working, I joined the kids for a game of mini golf. They’d also played pool and table tennis and were hoping to play air hockey when the equipment was returned. We snacked on cold sausages and salad from the night before, then the kids had a swim while I sat at the pool edge and caught up a bit on my blog and email and started to search for accommodation options for the next parts of our trip. It was hot and humid again, with occasional rain showers.

Around 4pm we got out of the pool and headed up the coast for a look around. (Some of my washing was dry and I grabbed that off the line before I went). We went one headland north of our beach to Moonee Beach – apparently voted No 3 on the 101 Best Australian Beaches of 2017. We waded across the river – Amelie and I found a shallow crossing,  the others went a bit deeper and it was a little scary/exciting – there was a slight current and the sand was very soft, but at no point was it too deep or strong for us to handle. On the main beach we played in the edge of the surf – again, it was too rough to go out far, but there was a wide shallow area of knee deep waves and that was a lot of fun. What we could see of the beach was quite pretty, but the rain had set in again and combined with spray from the surf we couldn’t see very far along the beach, it was just mist. There were sea birds on the shore who were interesting to watch, and the water temperature was beautiful. It was great to be in the ocean, even if it was just at the edge. Eventually we wandered back through the river to the carpark – the current was stronger this time although we found an easier place to cross. We played on the sand for a while, investigating the little crab holes that appeared to all be in pairs. We wandered over the bridge that led out to the headland and saw lots of fish in the water, and the kids saw an eel.

We got back in the car and headed back to Coffs Harbour. It was weird - looking out from the car the day looked cold and miserable, but when we were outside the temperature was lovely - just a bit wet. We drove to Boambee Beach which looked beautiful but still too rough to swim, then out to the break wall on the southern side of the harbour and walked out a little way so we could see the waves breaking on the ocean side - they were big and were making awesome thumping sounds as they hit the wall. We were all still in our swimmers because we'd hoped to find another beach to swim at, but by this stage no one wanted to swim again so we got changed into dry clothes in the car. We sat and watched the harbour for a while - little waves on the rocks, fishing boats going out, birds flying around. I did a bit more research on accommodation options and discovered that Sea World Resort had a deal on, because their main pool is closed, which meant we could get accommodation at the resort, plus entry to all the theme parks, for less money than it would have cost us to get theme park tickets on their own! I decided to think about it for a bit and check the details again once we'd eaten.

We ordered fish and chips from Sea Salt Fish and Chips and drove around to pick them up. We'd wanted to sit near the jetty and eat them but it was raining pretty steadily by now - we found some covered picnic tables, not with a view to the jetty but in the vicinity, so sat there to eat. The food was delicious - fantastic chips and the seafood was great. Possibly the best fish and chips I've had.

Back at the caravan park we found that the rain had pooled in the roof of the annex again so I spent some time rejigging everything to prevent that happening overnight. The seam above Liam's bed also started leaking, which happens when the roof just gets too wet, so Caitlin and I put a tarp over the tent to try to cut down the amount of water coming in - it slowed to a slight trickle so we just put towels and a bucket underneath and hoped it didn't get worse.

Half-lap Day 36: Katherine

Millie and I were up before sunrise. She could see the sky becoming orange in the east, and stood for a while to see if she could see the sun come up – it was still a good while until that would happen so she snuggled back in to bed with Tony and the iPad, and I got ready to go for a walk. I’d wanted to walk across the old railway bridge near town, which is now a pedestrian bridge, and see the low level nature reserve further down the river. Tony had ridden his bike around that loop the night before, and we’d talked about me riding his bike to see it but even with the seat down it was just too big for me. I thought about riding Caitlin’s bike but figured I was way more comfortable walking. LiAM woke and wanted to come with me and I said I was going to walk fast and far – he decided to stay at the tent.

It was a beautiful morning and it was cool seeing the trees light up as the sun rose. I went to the pedestrian/railway bridge end first. The middle of the bridge was solid metal, the edges were metal mesh so I could see through it down to the river, a little scary actually. The edges of the bridge were quite high so it was hard to see the river from the bridge, there was a raised area on each side where you could stand to see the view. I was looking upstream towards the car bridge and saw something floating in the water – it looked like a crocodile head but I figured it could easily be a log. It went under an overhanging tree and then I saw lots of ripples coming out from under the tree – then the whole crocodile emerged and I saw it floating along and under the bridge. I didn’t see it come out the other side, so it either submerged or went to the shore under the bridge. It was long – a couple of metres I’d guess – and a yellowy green with black stripes. It had quite a pointy noise so I think it was a freshwater – still very exciting to see my first wild crocodile.

I continued over the bridge then checked out the steam engine in the park near town, then walked down the bike track along the other side of the river. It was a long walk, just along the side of a street, with trees on my right so I couldn’t see the water. Eventually I reached a school – lots of kids were being dropped off at 8am, I wonder if school starts earlier here? – and found some steps leading down to the hot springs. Tony had said swimming was closed there the day before, but I couldn’t see any signs that said that. There were a few people swimming and it looked divine. I dipped my hands in and the water was a beautiful temperature – not hot, but it would have been easy to get straight in.

From the springs it was a short walk to the bridge which crosses the low level. There was a weir there and lots of rocks, a really beautiful spot. There were picnic tables on one side and easy access to the water, although there were also signs here saying don’t enter the water because of recent croc sightings. This bridge was very close to the water level and also metal mesh on the pedestrian part – a little shaky when cars crossed the bridge but not scary like the high bridge was. The walk back from the low level was along the path I’d walked some of a few days ago, but I couldn’t remember how far I’d come last time. It was hot by now, I wished I’d bought a hat. I felt like I’d been walking a long time since the low level bridge, and I still didn’t recognize the path, so felt like I had ages still to go – and suddenly I saw the caravan park so I was back! It had been a 2 hour walk (LiAM was very please he hadn’t come with me, although a little disappointed that he’d missed the crocodile). I was pleased with my new shoes too – that’s 2 walks I’ve done in the 1^st 2 days and they are comfortable and my feet don’t sweat in them!

The weir at the low-level crossing

We had breakfast and hung around the tent and played with Bundy and Pumbaa. I got the owner’s son’s phone number and Tony gave him a call about the car, he said to bring it in in an hour. Tony, Caitlin and LiAM went in to town to do a few messages – buy a fan, exchange one of the shirts I’d bought for Tony, get Millie’s birthday present, get new batteries for Tony’s cap with lights in it. Millie and I hung out with the dogs and played some games, then Tony dropped the other kids off and took the car to the mechanic. He was back quite quickly, the guy hadn’t been there and the other mechanic had said to come back in a couple of hours.

We had a quiet morning, catching up on a few things, I tidied up all the paper and stuff that had accumulated in our car, then went and plugged the computer in and did some email and blogging. Tony took the car back and the guy said that it’s probably a radiator problem, when he looked at the radiator he said it is made of plastic and quite brittle and if he tried to do anything with it it would probably crack, and getting a new radiator is probably the way to go. He ordered the parts and will put it in tomorrow morning.

By this stage the girls who the kids had been playing with were back from their trip to the caves, and they spent the afternoon all playing together. They explored the little fish ponds around the owner’s house, catching fish in bowls and putting them back in and comparing all the different types. Tony and I had wanted to go to Edith Falls and maybe have a swim – the kids were freaked out by stories of freshwater crocs in the water and said they wouldn’t swim. LiAM wanted to go and see the falls anyway, Caitlin was undecided and Millie was a definite no. They were having so much fun with their friends that we decided to give it a miss and just have a true rest day, hanging out at the caravan park and doing very little. I read my book and did some puzzles and some more blogging, talked to the girls’ mother, did a little more tidying of the car and had a very relaxing afternoon. The puppy was back and forth to our tent, and one of the kittens came over at one stage too (but was soon chased back by Bundy). Tony and Caitlin did the bike ride that Tony had done the day before. The Hot Springs were closed with a sign saying a croc had been seen there today - they were full of people swimming though, and the water was so clear that it would be easy to see a crocodile if it was there, I guess. Caitlin had a quick dip - just in, across to the other side and back and then out.

The kids played together until it was dark then went to have their respective dinners (we had sausages, tomato and pasta) then got back together and went exploring the park for frogs and geckos and spiders. One of the girls had been desperate to see and hold a green tree frog and they were all thrilled to find one. Everyone had a hold and the frog was released back into the garden. LiAM found a little brown frog and caught it for a brief pat as well.

Millie was really tired and went to bed as soon as she could after tea (she was delayed a little by the frog then headed for bed). I had an early night too, Tony and the other two had showers and came to bed a bit later on.

Half-lap Day 35: Katherine

Our plan was to get up and going as quickly as we could to head out to Katherine Gorge before it got too hot. We were on our way by 9am, which is about how long it takes us to get up and have breakfast, play with the puppies, play some games and tidy up a bit. (Pumbaa, the biggest of the puppies, expanded his range enough to come over to our tent, so there was lots of puppy cuddles and amusement as he played under our table). The drive out to the gorge was interesting, seeing some of the outlying houses of Katherine and then the farms along the road. There was an old steam engine in one paddock (not a train, a road engine I think). We also saw a few horses.

We wandered in to the Visitor Centre which was lovely and cool – the morning was pretty warm already. Looking at the maps and chatting to the girl at the desk we decided on a walk to a lookout which would let us see the first gorge – about an hour return, which everyone felt ok about. As Tony was coming in a guy handed him a voucher for a bacon and egg roll which he didn’t need – so Tony and the kids ordered that while I went back to the car to get shoes and hats and sunscreen and food for our walk. It took the usual very long time for Millie to get her sunscreen on – she’s very thorough – then we headed off.

Before we got to the place where the boat tours leave we discovered trees full of red-nosed flying foxes. They were hanging in the trees and making a lot of noise. Very cool to see. The walk was quite pleasant after the boat ramp, through trees and with a rock wall on our right. There were stairs and rocks going up and down, and we stopped to rest a few times. After a while the path started to climb – lots of metal stairs, and about halfway up Millie stopped and wasn’t keen to go any further. I went on with Caitlin and LiAM, Tony and Millie followed after a while. The climb wasn’t too strenuous and we soon arrived at a small outcrop where we could see the river (with no fences) then it wasn’t far from there up to the lookout.

Even Millie was impressed with the view, she liked the sparkling sun reflecting off the river. It was great to see the high cliff faces with the river flowing slowly through between them, a beautiful green colour like all the rivers up here. We looked for crocodiles but didn’t see any. We stayed at the lookout for quite a while, enjoying all aspects of the view, and marveling that because it wasn’t quite on the edge of the cliff, I felt no fear at all, even though the consequences of falling from here would be just as bad as those other places where I was freaking out.

On the way back down the kids thought they saw a crocodile on the far bank, but it was hard to tell from that distance. We walked back a slightly different way, closer to the edge of the river, which was a little nerve-wracking, thinking about crocs. Swimming and canoeing in the river are closed at the moment as there have been recent crocodile sightings. We made it back without incident and watched the flying foxes for a while, then back to the Visitor Centre where we explored the display on the local area. It showed how the gorge had been formed and lots about the local people and culture. Exploring the gift shop afterwards, Millie found a sparkly plush crocodile which she really wanted – she decided to get it as an early birthday present and was thrilled.

We drove back in to town, stopping briefly at Knotts Crossing – a place on the river with a small weir, and easy access from the carpark. It was beautiful, although the sign saying a crocodile had been sighted here only 4 days ago made everyone a little nervous when we were close to the water – we didn’t linger.

Once in town we went straight to the pool. Caitlin bought some new goggles and we played in the shady end of the pool for ages. Tony watched some of the Collingwood game on his phone then joined us. He played with the basketball and hoops for a while too. I went and got the cold chicken and bread and stuff from the car and we had some lunch, then went back in the pool. LiAM had had enough before the girls, so he and I played Dots until the pool was about to close. I had quick dip to cool off again, then we went back home.

The kids spent most of the afternoon playing with the girls they had met the day before, and going to see the puppies. The owner of the puppies let them out for a play, and also let his kittens out of the house, so there were lots of happy kids playing with baby animals for a while. Tony went for a bike ride on the track that goes either side of the river here, and saw the low level rapids and the hot springs. I read my book and did some puzzles and had a lovely quiet afternoon.

Tony cooked sausages on the BBQ for dinner and then the kids played with their friends for a little longer - they went gecko hunting and were excited to catch one, until it dropped it's tail and ran off and they all felt really bad. After a while everyone headed off home to get ready for bed (which seemed to take us ages).

Half-lap Day 34: Katherine

I was up first and went for a walk along the Katherine River. The path was up high and separated from the river by trees, I caught glimpses of the water from time to time and saw the sun come up behind the trees on the other side. I had hoped to walk to the Low Level Nature Reserve but didn’t know how far it was and turned back before I got there. Back at camp LiAM was awake and I walked him over to the toilets – some of the big dogs were off their leads and he didn’t want to walk over by himself.

We went and sat up in a communal area near the owner’s house, where there is a powerpoint I could plug my computer in. LiAM played on his iPad and I caught up a bit on blogging and email. We chatted to the owner’s grandson and his son, and found out a bit about Katherine and the surrounding areas, and about our car and other things. They told me of a mechanic (a relative) who might be able to have a look at our car.

After breakfast Caitlin and I went in to town to browse the op shops and get some clothes that we’re in need of in this hotter weather. Tony and I realised that most of the shirts we bought with us are dark colours and it would be good to have some lighter ones, or they have polyester in them which is just too hot and sticky. We went to 3 op shops and found a few things that were suitable (although the prices seemed high compared to the op shop prices I’m used to). We went to the Visitor Centre and talked to a lady at the counter who gave us lots of info about the area, then went to Target to try to find goggles for Caitlin – they didn’t have what she wanted, but I did get some slip on runners which are more comfortable than the ones I bought with me. We popped into Woolworths to get a chicken for lunch, and ran into Millie’s friend and her family, so had a good chat with them about everyone’s plans for while we are in Katherine.

We headed home and had some lunch, then spent a few hours sitting in the shade of our awning and playing games, chatting, patting the dog – the mummy dog has made our place her little home, she sleeps on our carpet and wanders around after us whenever we go anywhere. The kids went to see the puppies regularly, and Caitlin met a couple of other girls in the campground and showed them the puppies as well. It was a hot afternoon but sitting around in the shade wasn’t too bad, even though we were all sweating. Eventually we decided to head to the pool for a swim before it closed – when we got there we discovered that it closes earlier on weekends and we’d missed it by an hour. Everyone was very very disappointed, a swim would have been great. We played in the awesome playground across from the pool, and watched the local Rugby League game on the oval next to us. There were some cool birds there too, with blue heads and yellow wings. The security guy came in and asked us to close the gate when we left (we were the last people there and it was close to sunset) – we weren’t sure whether he meant to lock it or just close it – we locked it and hoped that was the right thing to do.

On the way home we stopped at Subway – we had a voucher to buy one footlong sub and get one free, so we bought the 2 footlongs and a 6 inch and everyone got a 6 inch sub. As usual it took us ages to decide what we wanted, we did eventually manage to order then stopped at Woolworths to get some cheap soft drink to have with dinner, then back to our tent to eat. The night was still warm but not hot anymore and we had a relaxing evening eating and playing and talking to the dog. As we were getting ready to go to bed I walked everyone over to the toilet – one of the big male dogs was out and playing with Bundy (the female that was hanging out at our tent). He was pretty scary and we asked Tony to walk with us as well – the dog kept appearing in front of us as we walked over (we walked the long way around, on the road and he could run between vans) and he really freaked us out. We figured that my head torch was freaking him out and that’s why he was barking at us – once I turned it off he settled down, but the kids were pretty spooked by then and I didn’t feel brave enough to walk past him on my own, we were all very glad Tony was with us, he comfortably went over and patted the dog and held his collar until we were past. The dog’s owner came and got him and took him home, so walking back was much more relaxing.

We hopped into bed and read for a little while and all fell asleep fairly quickly.