Byron Bay

"What time is it?"
"9:28am"
"What day is it?"
"I dunno...."

And thus starts our Sunday morning, May 17, 2009.

We are currently staying in Byron Bay, New South Wales. We arrived here yesterday after staying at the Lambert Mansion in the Gold Coast for an amazing 4 days - 4 days of feasts, games, and absolutely phenomenal company with Ellie, Jordan, Anne, Kevin, Sai and Jason. It was great.

Byron Bay was reportedly the favorite place in Australia of a couple of our friends, so we were looking forward to spending time there. We had heard it was a really hippy town, although the Aussies have told us now that Nimbin is the 'bed of vice' that we heard Byron Bay to be.

Anyway, back to this morning. We typically have toast and tea - courtesy of Woolworth's - at our hotel or hostel when we wake up. However, we had recently been the unfortunate victims of a BBQ sauce explosion over all of our food, and so , we had no personal bread to toast, or tea to brew.

So, we walked about 200 metres to the cafe directly behind our hotel, Sentori. We sat at a table surrounded by couch cushions on 2 sides, and picked up the local newspapers. We quickly ordered an omelette (for MW) and toast with jam (for me), along with British Breakfast tea.

A (hot) guy sits down directly in my line of sight - we make eye contact. I smile, half-heartedly, as I'm involved in some random ordering decision. Despite the multi-tasking, I take in his ear-length brunette hair, his black hat, his beautiful face, his arm tat, his trendy rings, his Aussie clothing, and his horrible, horrible 80s style sunglasses. Other than those, he's gorgeous.

We order; Mel and i make random conversation as Walt dives into various sections of the regional newspaper. Far from our conversation yesterday (about what we would logically and emotionally do with 3 wishes should we be granted such by a benevolent genie), we discuss LOST theories (we watched the finale, finally, last night! Who is Esau?!) Gwyneth Paltrow, Rugby derelicts, and 'does Stephen Speilberg have to honor the wish of a dead parent leaving their child to him as his godchild?'.

In between these ridiculous conversations, which are slanted by our 'American accent' (as Ellie says), Mel is keeping track of the number of times the hot Aussie looks at me. She casually throws in a 'nine' or 'twelve' every now and then, and each time, I look at her incredulously, trying to figure out what that number means in the middle of the current convo.

But no guts, and no glory, he leaves in his Range Rover without approaching our table (though he potentially gazes from behind those hideous 80s sunnies while saying goodbye to all of his friends at the nearby table), and we bid him adieu.

This town has a good amount of good looking dudes, I comment to Mel.

We order more Earl Grey tea and hang out for another hour or so at this cafe.

After a quick trip to the hotel and the showers, we drive up to the lighthouse at Cape Byron, and trek our way down several trails to the Eastern-most point of the Australian Mainland. We take photos, a boring video blog, and then walk down to the beach below - Main Beach.

We stroll along the cool waters, dipping our toes in and traipsing across the rocks which jut out from the white sand of the beach. Mel runs to retrieve her flops from a rock (we're walking back a different way) and Walt and I stare into the sunny, glittering Pacific Ocean in front of us. We note the surfers (we deemed them 'surfer ants' from far above at the lighthouse) and watch them catch a few waves. A good looking runner with a clear-cut 6 pack runs by for the second time (I smile at him and consider doing the "ECS" move, but shut it down for pride's sake.) I ask Walt, "If there were speakers in the sky, and you could choose whatever song you wanted to capture this moment, what would it be? Mine would be "Beautiful Day" by U2." He thinks for a moment and responds with a song we've recently jammed to: "How far we've come" by Matchbox 20. When Mel catches back up, her response is the very song we left playing in the rental car, "Your Sex is on Fire" by the Kings of Leon.

"What a great compliment that might be from a guy", she repeats, as to a previous conversation we had. I laugh and say, "I've been thinking about if he meant that his ex-girlfriend has the clap... and he said that in retribution." We laugh about that for a few strides, while enjoying the absolutely perfect day.

We take the wrong street and end up walking quite a bit out of the way, then venture back to find the up-hill climb back to the lighthouse. After 20 minutes of hiking, we make it back to the top. I stare at the green-blue sea along the way back, hoping to catch sight of a stray humpback whale (they are supposed to be here in June and July). No luck.

We eat lunch at the Blue Olive - a deli along the main strip of Byron Bay - and then stride down the streets of this hippie town. We stop in several stores along the trek, admiring hats, knit jackets, and various other wares along the way. No silverwares, though. Mel and I enter a store labeled "Cupcake" and I buy a pair of bad ass tan heeled boots for $99 (dear boots of mine, stored in Atlanta, how I miss you so!) We next happen upon a thrift store and I find a rad dress (too expensive) and a rad scarf (perfect). I sigh in appreciation and we wander down the streets a bit farther.

We end up at "Sharky's Tattoo Shop" where Mel has finally (FINALLY!) decided to get her nose pierced. According to her, she's been thinking of getting it done for the past few years, but has only recently decided to actually do it. And today is THE day. So we stop into this tattoo shop (after a bit of searching), and she selects a multi-colored stone (the light pink was unavailable, to her dismay) and he punches a needle through her right nostril. Her eyes tear up, but she swears it didn't hurt. She pays her money and walks out the door with a brilliant stone twinkling like a star in the brilliant blue night.

We head back to the hotel after stops at Woolie's for breakfast tomorrow AM. We grab our Macs (Hughey J, Jazzy H, and MJ - their names) and I shriek with absolute joy as I read my mom's email that she is planning to visit in June. I find a good friend of mine online and chat up about random nothingness, as usual. Whether it's convenience or coincidence, anytime the conversation gets juicy, he has to go. Mel and I run back to the kitchen to chop up the Turkish bread and Tasty cheese for a late dinner, to accompany the box Cabernet we purchased at the bottle shop (please note: box wine does not equal white trash in Oz, or so I'm told). She and I sit down and have a serious conversation regarding several men who have been on our mind as of late. We are eventually joined by Walt, and we immerse ourselves in such a deep conversation that looking back, I cannot remotely remember the entrancing line that began the journey.

And yet, I'm incredibly grateful for this very one, for these two beautiful souls by my side.

I can't believe Walt leaves in 6 days.

How bizarre.

We round out the evening with this blog as they read their respective books before bed. We hope that tomorrow will find us reaching for the sunrise over this Eastern-most point of Oz at 6:20am.