I love spontaneity. This weekend I was supposed to be in Melbourne with my host family for the famous horse races, but due to some unfortunate events we had to cancel our trip. Instead of flying down to Melbourne, I called some friends last minute and had some of the most relaxing, fun-filled days I've had in awhile. Saturday morning, Kelsey and I headed to the beach - the perfect way to spend a November day. We drove up to Caloundra on the Sunny Coast and went straight for the water, swimming and floating and riding waves for hours. Afterwards, we laid on our beach towels and took naps, getting our fair share of vitamin D, and headed back towards Brisbane when the sun was almost setting. On the way, we stopped at another coastal suburb closer to home for some dinner. We sat at Doug's Seafood Cafe overlooking the water and devoured huge plates of fish and chips. It was one of the best meals I've had since I've been here. I have to say, there's nothing like stuffing your face with fresh grilled barramundi with the sun setting over the ocean in front of you.

Today, I had planned on meeting up with Kelsey and a couple other nannies, Frances from South Africa and Hayley from England, at a morning market nearby. The market comes to New Farm every Sunday morning and is filled with food, clothing, and souvenir stands. We wandered through the stalls, working up our appetites, and finally treated ourselves to a feast. The four of us sat at a table in the shade, listening to live music, and scheming up some adventures for the next couple of months. I feel like my friends and I do a lot of scheming, coming up with all sorts of ways to spend our time here in Australia and all sorts of adventures to fill our weekends. We hadn't planned much for the afternoon, but as the stalls began to close and the musician packed up his guitar, we decided we didn't want to stop hanging out and go home. So we piled into Kelsey's car to spend the afternoon wine tasting. We drove south and ended up at Mount Tamborine, which is filled with wineries around every bend. At Cedar Creek Estate, we tasted wines and went on a tour of a glow worm cave (a really strange combination, I know). Glow worms are tiny insects only found in Australia and New Zealand, and their butts glow, making the inside of the cave look like a planetarium of stars. After the tour, we sat out by the lake that was filled with ducks and rainbows, hoping to enjoy a nice glass of wine, but instead we found ourselves quickly back on the road as the restaurant was closing. We stopped at another winery that was close to closing time as well, but got a quick free tasting and made friends with the owner who was incredibly interested in the four nannies from all over the world.

Beautiful duck pond

It was such an unexpected, fun day, but one of my favorite parts was the drive home. We drove through winding roads in the mountains and country farm roads filled with goats, cows, chickens, and horses. We pulled over to take in beautiful views of the country, to pet some miniature ponies on a dirt road, and we stopped to let giant lizards and wild kangaroos run and hop across the road in front of us. The four of us sat in silence for almost two hours home, with the windows rolled down, warm breeze blowing, sun setting overhead. Even when we hit the highway with bumper-to-bumper traffic, we were more content than we could ever imagine.

This might just be Heaven