Holiday Day 14- Townsville

I've finally put all of our photos on our new pc which means I'm able to finish off blogging about our trip. For those reading along my last entry was about the first part of our stay in Townsville. This entry is the second part of our stay.

Day 14 offered up a glorious Townsville day and we headed off for to spend some time at the Townsville Strand. Thanks to Facebook I had arranged to meet my 'old' (but not OLD) friend De who now calls Townsville home. She suggested the area known as the Rockpool and we made lunchtime plans.

Here's the rockpool area. It's right next to the ocean and in the background you can see Magnetic Island.

We arrived a bit early so I slathered the kids in sun cream, hats and protective gear. It is very rare for me to let the family play in the midday sun and I was very worried we would all end up burnt.

 Tiny Girl is under that massive hat.

As I was meeting De, Mark decided to go fishing for a while. Luckily the Rockpool also has a fishing platform so we were all able to entertain ourselves while we were there.

The Rockpool uses water from the ocean and has a sandy floor. Just before De arrived, Tiny Girl realised that the floor was not concrete and so promptly refused to touch it with her feet.

I took her out for a play on the grass and she found another toddler to have a standoff with.

After meeting De (sorry, no photos we talked too much) and having a fabulous lunch at the Rockpool Restaurant, Tiny Girl and I headed off to find Mark. She decided to try her hand at fishing while Big Boy complained about something and refused to talk to me.

For all Mark's efforts we only ended up with one fishy delight, and delightful it was. Despite catching no fish, he ended up line catching a crab. It was, hands down, THE most delicious crab I have ever eaten.

So Townsville served us up a delightful time with Miss De, wonderful architecture and glorious food. For those that believe in fate or the universe it also served us up a solution for Big Boy's every present rash. On the way out of Townsville Big Boy was complaining about being itchy and sore. Not knowing where the chemist was I popped 'chemist' into the GPS and it took us around a few streets to a small local chemist. I marched Big Boy in and the pharmacist took one look and announed that she is in fact the local skin specialist chemist. We had in advertently found just the right place at just the right time. Thanks universe!

P.S. Townsville was battered by Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi a category 5 storm last week. I haven't seen many pictures and I hope the areas we visited fared OK. My very brave friend De sat out the storm at home with her family, while we all watched her Facebook for updates. I'm very happy to report that De and family are 100% fine.