We spent our last few days in Sydney on none other than…the beach! Friday we hung out at Maroubra Beach…mainly because the boys found out the waves there were pretty big. No kidding…I’m no chicken (ok…maybe a little) but even I was terrified and the waves were only about 10ft high…must have been the combination of that and the strong undertow. It always felt like you were being sucked out into the ocean. On the upside, the weather was searing hot, but awesome…not a single cloud in the sky. The next day, we headed out to Coogee Beach. This was by far our favorite because of a place called ‘The Baths’ (connected to the beach). The ‘Baths’ is an area of rock formations in a U-shape that creates a little pool in the middle you can swim in. The rock formations are set up kind of like a barrier against the huge waves…so when they hit, they cause an enormous wall of water that goes up and ends up pushing tons of water into the pool…creating a natural ‘wave pool’ (albeit a super freaky one). Colin and Ben decided to join the locals in wandering up onto the rocks to face to walls of water the waves created…one of the largest ones we saw (which we also caught on camera) was over 30ft high…nasty. When you’re in the pool and the wave hits, it lets in so much water, so fast that it sends you flying…(in the direction which also happens to be…rocks. cripes) You are completely out of control. Mind you…I was terrified when it happened, but I still managed to crack up when I saw beck wash by me screaming hysterically. It was kind of a rush and we ended up doing it two more times before we had so many cuts on our feet that we were forced to retire.

Sunday was our final day in Sydney and was a relaxing one. We went to the early morning service at Hillsongs (8:30am!) which was great! Reuban Morgan lead worship…and ended up repeating three of the songs we sung the week before. Two of them were songs I had liked from the week before…so Ben whipped out our camera and did a fine job recording them (fine considering it’s off a camera). You can check em’ out here. We ended our trip watching the final game in the Australian Open…which I actually enjoyed watching! In fact, we all became so hooked that we’d stop in malls to watch portions of games. No kidding…it’s one of the two sports (…golf) that I hate to play, but once I actually understood the game, it was actually quite enjoyable. Perhaps I’ll pick up a racquet when I get home…?

So, all in all…the Australian leg of the trip has been amazing! I love this country and I’m glad to have spent it with Ben and my family. Next up, we get to invade Hong Kong looking forward to it. More l8r!