Saturday, October 27, 2007

Friday with Friends...


Abby, Baby Liv, and I headed off down the highway Friday morning. Our destination... Bowral in the Southern Highlands region of Australia. Our reason... to meet Ellie and Elijah for a fun afternoon! We arrived in the quaint little town around 11:30 ~ it was truly beautiful. The drive (once leaving the main highway) was the Australia that I had dreamed of... lush green farms ~ one after the other... horses, sheep, cattle.... one farm named "Brigadoon"! We drove through Moss Vale which I must return to visit one day soon and onto Bowral. This is a tiny town ~ population 8,000 ~ that has "refurbished" the main street of town into a thriving little metropolis. The sidewalks were full and the shops bustling!


Ellie and Elijah had made it to town a little earlier and were waiting for us. It took Abby a little while to warm up ~ it had been a few months since our last visit in Sydney. Elijah is such an amazingly sweet little boy ~ wanting nothing more than to hold Abby's hand and help her! She did declare when we arrived home that he was her new best friend!!!


We walked around, had a great lunch, did a little window shopping and then it was time to return home. It had been a beautiful sunny day... up until we returned to our cars. 2 seconds after loading the girls and their associated paraphernalia into the Nissan, the bottom dropped out of the sky! What a storm!


We drove slowly to the highway only to have to pull over on the side and wait for about an hour until things cleared.


I called Joe to tell him about the 2 feet of snow on either side of the road... and learned that I was in the middle of a horrid Australian hail storm.... YUCK!!! The temperature dropped from about 80 degrees to about 40 degrees in a matter of minutes and I am not exaggerating when I say the white stuff was piled up two feet on either side of the highway!


I finally pulled back onto the highway and had a white knuckle drive home. But... it was so worth it! We had a great visit with Ellie and Elijah! Just wish we lived closer so we could visit much more frequently!

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