uh Kas, do you have my camera?

Yesterday we went to Stadbroke island! Check it out, beautiful huh? :)

 I need to get a thesaurus because I'm using the word beautiful a lot but it really was ha. How about breath taking or awe inspiring instead ha. We left at 7 and Lisa dropped us off at the Ferry, we then took the Ferrry over to the island, and then a bus to the opposite edge of the island. Like I wrote underneath a few of my photos on facebook, the scenery reminded me of a location where they would film the Bachelorette. (Minus the hot guys competing for our attention ha) There were hot guys, but I think they were more interested in surfing than in chasing after the two American girls trying to do handstands on the beach. That's what we did for a lot of the time on the beach. (Somebody who's name starts with a K and ends in assidi doesn't like salt water much ha) So ya we're trying to turn into pros at doing hand stands. I taught Kassidi and she was doing really well!

It wasn't very touristy, and I liked that about it. The part of the island we were on had a few tiny ocean front shops at the top of the point, like a bakery, a surf shop, a few little cafes, and then you would hike down to the beaches. There were four or five within walking distance (NOTE to anyone considering coming here. This is not a fat person friendly island. By within walking distance I mean possible to walk to if you have water bottles, cover yourself in sunscreen, have a few hours to spare, and have been working out regularly for the last couple months.) This was about half way down to one of the beaches. Down wasn't so bad, but walking back  up it OUCH ha when I woke up this morning they were so sore I couldn't even walk!

We walked down the beach and had Frenchman's beach all to ourselves, literally not another person in sight. It was great. Perfect opportunity for taking lots of pictures. We invented something new. You know how people do "planking" and "owling" well we've invented "mermaiding" inspired by ariel when she gets up on the rock in the Little Mermaid. Just wait, people doing this pose is going to be a BIG thing, started by yours truly. :)

 By the way if everyone would take a look at our swimsuits you will see they are the AUSTRALIAN FLAG! We were really excited when we found them.

After that we hiked back up and got a sandwich... and then TRAGEDY STRUCK. We got gelato (Kassidi had never had it before so I had to introduce her to the awesomeness of gelato) and then ran up the bathroom  and then planned on heading to a new beach. BUT walking out of the bathroom I checked my bag and didn't have my camera.

"uh Kas, do you have my camera?"

"No... why?"

"IT'S NOT IN MY BAG!"

We looked everywhere, asked everyone, put up signs on shop windows, left my phone number, retraced all of our steps (remember the part about us hiking all over the island... ya so you can imagine how easy that was) so long story short after a few hours of me freaking out and looking everywhere we were sweaty, tired, sunburned, and still camera-less. (My camera is by baby for all of you who don't me very well. It was my Christmas present two years ago and it's been with me for a lot of trips. I managed to hang on to it dragging it around Italy for 6 months so I was so mad at myself for losing it in the first couple weeks of Australia.) A family even gave us a ride to the police station to see if anyone had turned it in. No luck. But I called and left my information just in case if someone did turn it in. 

Sorry there are no pictures for the middle part of my blog post. Trust me. I REALLY wish I had had my camera. 

Finally I kind of gave up and we went on this board walk around some cliffs, it was awesome, and found some grass and laid out for a little while. Then we walked down to another beach with a lot of surfers and had fun watching them surf and swimming around and doing more hand stands.

After we walked back up to the bus stop it was 4 pm so we decided to catch the bus and try to be home by dinner. We're in line to take the 4:55 ferry... and at this point I had decided it was stolen and I was never going to see it again. And then I get a message on my phone from the police station that they found my phone!    SOMEONE TURNED IT IN!!!!!! Prayers are definitely answered. I love nice people.

I can't complain because I was happy to have it back. But we were down at the Ferry (there isn't anything around the ferry besides a few little houses and a cemetary so no shops, cafes, etc to wait in) and there wasn't a bus that ran to anywhere near the police station. So I managed to talk the police officer into bringing me the camera... the downside was that it took him 3 hours. But it was worth the wait because we walked along the beach as the sun was setting. Birds. Sail boats. A slight breeze. And we got my camera back in time to take a few pictures before we caught the last ferry. We also talked to an old man on the dock and he had a lot of good life advice. So it didn't end up being the day we had planned. But maybe it ended up being better than what we had planned. How sad would it have been to miss this sunset?