Day 7: To Beechworth

We awoke at 8am to silence. Rach was quietly playing her iTablet in the lounge room and Seth had gone back to sleep. On the only day where their 7am wake-up would have been beneficial – checkout day!

The morning after breakfast was a big clean up and packing session, of course. Luckily the crazy storms and rain of last night (Sarah did spend a little time in the other double bed in the kids room to comfort Rachael – Seth slept through it no worries!) had dissipated during the pack up hours.

I finished up the packing as Sarah returned the key and took the kids for their final camp playground play. Rach said her emotional goodbyes to her favourite slide and all the other parts of the playground.

We then attempted to kill off a good portion of the morning in Bright so Seth would nap in the car on the way to Beechworth.

We got coffees, maple scroll and muesli bar at Sixpence coffee, visited the candy shop and got some goodies, and got completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount and breadth of candies and lollies in the shop, and again when visiting the Christmas Shop. Seth was stunned by the glittering snow dioramas (glass encasing/lamp style) and Rach exited after being freaked out by some Santa statues.

Out the front we then all waited while Sarah got Gemma some Christmas earrings. Seth wandered over to a box of elves toys and flipped one over and then yelled and recoiled. Rach was cracking herself laughing at his reaction – I don’t think he expected the realistic elf faces embedded in the dolls.

I fetched the car then we all met down at the “big playground” for a final play there. Rach and I also went down to the riverbank and skipped and threw rocks in. “It was so much fun!” Rach exclaimed when reporting back to Mum.

Seth again gave some trademark “Wooooohs” at the sight of the rushing river.

We signed off at Bright with some takeaway beers from the brewery. (Hellfire Amber Ale x6, Mandarin Dream Milkshake Ale x4). Seth slept for about 30 minutes of the 50 minute drive to Beechworth, despite being quite cooked. It was pretty smooth sailing otherwise.

We pulled up out the front of The Hibernian and scooted across the road to Amandhi’s for some lunch. Seth was being his usual entertaining self smiling and showing off to the table down from us, and commenting “oooof” about their big dog. They both made us laugh by patting the cut-out Alpaca standee of the neighbouring shop, Rach pretending, “Oh, he’s so soft!”.

Checked in at The Hibernian, unpacked and hung out in the kids’ room to get Seth comfortable with the space. He later had a nap with some fuss but settled a lot better than we expected. Rach immediately got bored and I had a much-needed shower after a packing day.

We strolled down to Bridge Rd Brewing for some dinner later on, but both kids were dicey. Seth was touchy and Rach had been bored too much in the afternoon and was ratty. The visit went well, that considered. Seth ate all the pineapple off the pizza, meat out of the burger. Rach only had one piece of pizza. They did some good playing in the kid’s area; Seth climbed a steep wood ladder/ramp and navigated the crooked terrain well. One round of beers and dinner, it was a mercifully quick outing but good nonetheless.

Back home Seth gave out a few more cries than the afternoon’s nap, but did settle well after that – both of them were exhausted.