"Closest Thing To Heaven"....

As we made our way down from Byron Bay we were lucky enough to drive through Sydney (and take a drive over the Sydney Bridge courtesy of a fortunate wrong turn) and Stanwell Tops, which meant we were able to stop at say hi to the Wyghts again... We were so excited to

come "home" and see my Aunt Karen and Uncle Doug... After we bored them with our stories and excessive amounts of photos we continued on our journey and 90 minutes later we came to Jervis Bay, a local destination spot that came highly recommended by my uncle... But no amount of praise could prepare us for the wonder that is Hyams Beach...

Some people talk about falling in love at first sight; everything clicks and you just know that this is it... they say that they know "This is the person for me". Well, the moment I stepped foot onto Hyams Beach I fell in love....

We all did... We fell in love with the beach. The sand was white as and the water was the most beautiful turquoise. In fact, the sand was so fine and so white that the next day as I sat on the beach, cutting up strawberries to put in my yogurt for breakfast, I picked up one of my strawberries and seeing it covered in sand, I mistook it for sugar for a second longer than I should have... The only downside to this beach is that, as it's in a bay, it isn't a beach suitable for surfing... But it's one downside is out-shined but all the positives... Like all the amazing BBQ's just ready and waiting for us to have a cook out... Jod was investigating the mentioned BBQ and accidently turned it on but we had no idea how to turn it off... We ended up just walking away and crossing our fingers that we wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night to a massive fireball... Good news... No fireball...

I think we really are blessed to have similar personalities that blend so well... The only thing close to a fight was deciding who had to leave the safety of the hostel to the camper van to shut the windows in the middle of a massive down pour... We ended up solving it like rational adults... With rock/paper/scissors.... I lost.... But, if we had a girl who was dead set on living the partying, backpacker life every night she would be sorely disappointed because many nights involve turning in at 11 pm because the sun has gone down and there's only so much you can do inside a camper van and our favorite night was with just the four of us. Tonight was it. Keeping up with our tradition, we rejected the idea of a camp ground in favor of parking in the parking lot with the beach shower and toilets readily available and the beach only meters away.... Prime location actually. The beach was empty save for us after 7pm and we all enjoyed taking solo walks/dance/run in the waves along the beach at twilight... Brittany and I were amused to find that we both wrote messages in the sand on our walks... Hers; a prayer of thanks to the Lord... Mine; an international relations salutation... aka I wrote a hello message from the canadian girls to the navy base boys on the opposite beach... haha...

The next morning started off the same way we ended the night before; with a run on the beach. It is seriously the best way to start the day and I am positive that if we lived on the beach we would all become in tip top shape... I'd love an opportunity to test out my hypothesis... Maybe in February or March. Brittany said that she felt at home walking on the beach and I had to agree, which makes no sense coming from a girl who was raised in a landlocked, beach-starved province such as Alberta. It's amazing that a month ago I could count the number of times I've been to the ocean in my life on my fingers but now it's hard to imagine being without it.

Luv, V