Our travels this week...

This past week Craig & I snuck away for a couple of days to the Newcastle area of NSW to catch up with some friends we haven't seen for a while. Unfortunately it rained the whole time we were there LOL

First we visited Mr Drummond at Chain Valley Bay. His wife passed away 3 months ago and we were unable to make it to the funeral so we thought we would visit him when we could. The Drummonds played a big part in Craig's life as a teenager after losing his mum when he was 16. He spent alot of time at their home ( as did many others over the years) and they welcomed him as part of the family. They are a lovely couple and have blessed many people over the years. Mrs Drummond made my wedding dress.

This is the view from his back window, not a bad bit of real estate!

The next day we visited some other friends, Tony & Karen Noone. They also were a big part of Craig's life before we met and they are now my parent's best friends. They live in a little village called Abernethy which is near Cessnock in the Hunter Valley.

We had a fantastic time at their place catching up and reminiscing and lots of laughs!!

On Thursday we planned on doing some sightseeing in Newcastle but it was bucketing down with rain, as it had the whole couple of days!! We had breakfast in a bakery cafe at Warners Bay

After brekky we went for a walkaround the water but I felt my socks were a bit wet, turns out I had crack in the soles of my shoes!! They were only a cheap pair of joggers from Kmart so can't complain LOL. As you can see it is a bit wet for walking, hence the wet socks LOL

On the way into Newcastle we stopped at a Rivers clearance shop and bought some new shoes, actually I got 2 pairs and Craig got 1 LOL. Great prices, half the price than in the normal Rivers retail stores.

We headed into Newcastle and had a drive around the headlands then went the the Customs House Hotel for lunch. It is a heritage listed building that used to be the Customs House for the Harbour. It was a gorgeous building and we had a lovely lunch.

This is the dining room:

We were amazed at the thickness of the woodwork on the door frames and skirtings:
Sorry some pics are not that great but they were taken on my phone.

Then headed home, got caught in the peak hour traffic when we came back to Sydney, certainly did not miss that while we were away!