Sigh. Vacation is over. Ugh… I am suffering from a bad case of PHD – Post Hamilton Depression. Here’s why…

Beach.
Friday morning we went to Catseye Beach. Holy awesome. The water was a brilliant mixture of blue and green hues, and you could walk forever and not have the water go past your chest. The sun was hot, the water warm. Ty was hesitant, as he usually is at the ocean, so he preferred to stay safely on the sand and play. Lily was content with the sand toys for a while – until she realized that the ocean was like a giant swimming pool. We put on her life jacket and let her go crazy. Run and fall, splash and roll. She LOVES the water!

View of Catseye Beach from on top of the hill.

Pool.
When Ty got tired of the sand and the sun made him hot, he decided he wanted to go jump into one of the resort swimming pools. Of course Lily had to join him. I let them splash around for a while until Lily was ready for a nap.

Shop.
We left sleeping beauty resting on her beach chair under the shade and light breeze of the Palm trees. Ty, Sherry and I set out to explore the resort area of the island. We had coffee and ice cream, then went to the gift shop. Ty found some sweet new sunnies! Lily liked them, also.

Tide.
When we went back to Lily and the boys, the tide had gone way out, leaving heaps of shallow pools behind. Ty ran out and made friends while looking for crabs and snails. He was fascinated with what he saw. That’s him way out there in the red wetsuit.

Pedi.
We wandered through more of the resort, passing by this fantastic pool with a swim up bar. I booked a pedicure, the kids played on the playground a bit, and we went back to the house to rest. Jay took me back down to get my pedicure, and he passed the time by finding a seat at the swim up bar. He met some interesting people – guys who had worked on the island 15 years ago and were having a little reunion. Sounds like they had an awesome time working there back in the day – crazy stories!

Party.
That evening we went to dinner and had a feathered friend wandering around inside the restaurant.

After dinner we came across a kids party. They had a pirate ship jumper, dance music, smoothy machines, face painting, and a yellow hula hoop that Lily didn’t want to put down. I felt sorry for the girl that had to paint Ty’s sweaty face after he had been jumping for a half hour. Ty chose a batman design. The boy in line ahead of him chose a rainbow – his tough tattooed dad tried everything in his power to convince his son to choose a super hero – to no avail. It was quite entertaining. Such a fun, unexpected evening!

Baby Joey loved Hamilton Island.

Lego.
Ty finally finished the worlds most complicated Lego set. It took him 5 days to finish the Opera House. I suppose if you were to extrapolate that out to the scale of the real one, it was a fair representation of how long it took to build the real one. Note the Eddy Munster eyebrows from his Batman face…

Whitehaven.
Jay and I had gone out to Whitehaven Beach when we came to the Whitsundays with Miranda, and since Ty didn’t fare so well on the GBR boat ride, we decided to send Kirk and Sherry out on Saturday morning to see it. We figured they would appreciate a kid (and stress) free outing to what has been voted Australia’s #1 beach.

While they were out exploring, Ty and Jay rode the go-karts. Ty had enough of getting whipped around the track behind Dad’s back, so he asked to stop about 5 minutes early. It will be more fun for him when he is old enough to drive. In any case, he looked cute.

We took the kids back to Catseye beach for a while until Kirk and Sherry got back. We went back to the house after lunch and tested a bit. Had to take full advantage of that amazing view. *sigh*

Sunset.
One Tree Hill. Home of the world’s most beautiful sunsets. *sigh*. We were staying on the side of the island opposite the resort and Main Street, so we passed over One Tree Hill multiple times a day. Saturday night we stopped to watch the sun set – again, amazing. Ty made a friend. The two of them were digging for pirate treasure with spoons from their picnic. Jay had a brilliant idea and I executed it flawlessly. I distracted them – told them to look at the sunset – and I dropped a gold coin into the hole. When they looked back they were SO excited to find treasure!!! I waited a few minutes and did it again so they could each have one. A gold coin is $2 here. They were ecstatic! Ty will probably be crushed when he reads this blog someday. When we were at the airport the next day, I bought him this little pirate coin bag for storing his treasure. So fun.

Goodbye Paradise.
The next morning we cooked a nice big breakfast – and served it to Ty on a silver platter… We got everything packed up and went for one last buggy ride around the island. This is a place I will never forget. No matter how fast-paced real life is, Hamilton Island forces you to slow down. After all, the speed limit (and buggy governors) restrict you to driving 20 km/hr. That is slow – but just what I needed.

I’m a bit behind with my writing, but this is a good place to stop. More to come later! G’day mates!