Vacation with friends

Our friends joined us in Airlie Beach. It’s fun to travel with another family as the kids seem so happy to be with other kids, and it’s fun for us to have adults to talk to and trade off childcare. 

Our first day together, my friend and I went running at 6am. We ran together in Seattle before they moved. When we visited them in London, we did a 10K. It’s always more fun to have a running buddy. That said, it is hot in Queensland. Like Africa hot.. didn’t Matthew Broderick say that in some movie? Now I know what he means. 

Since I still can’t figure out celsius, I can’t tell you the temperature. It was at least 90% humidity and the sun just feels closer here. When I finished the run it looked like all my red blood cells were trying to escape through my face. I was tomato red… a little disconcerting actually. I was so hot that when we returned, I jumped into the pool with my running clothes on. 

The rest of the day was very relaxed as the kids played happily in the pool together. There were three different pools and no one else was in them for most of the day. 

On Saturday, we did a tour of the Whitsunday Islands. There is a famous beach here called Whitehaven beach. It’s a protected area for many reasons but one is the sand is pure silica. When you walk on the sand, it is the texture of snow but it’s not cold .. it’s not hot either because somehow the silica does not absorb the sun’s heat. 

We are landing on Hill Inlet for a hike to see the view of Whitehaven beach.

Whitehaven beach before tide goes out

After tide goes out

We toured on a small boat designed for water rescue. The boat travelled very quickly over the water and our guides maneuvered in all manner of crazy ways so we felt like we were on a roller coaster. Great fun. We stopped at two different sites to snorkel. 

our boat

Sonia and our little buddy

Airlie Beach was hit by a category 5 hurricane last March. It destroyed many homes and hotels. Part of our hotel was still under construction from the damage. One of our snorkeling sites had been a great place to see coral but after the storm, the coral in this protected bay was completely destroyed. Coral reproduces one day a year some time in November or December. The day has something to do with the full moon. Our guides told us the coral would reproduce but it would take 1000’s of years before it looked the same.

Our next site was not affected by the hurricane and the coral was amazing .. so many different colors and shapes. The kids really like snorkeling. We saw lots of fish (big and small), a sea turtle, and some small jellyfish.. no box jellies though. 

These are all photos of Whitehaven that our friend took -- he is a much better photographer than I am.

wearing stinger suits and hats