On Friday, our friends Jason and Kristen invited us for a visit to their home on the Central Coast. We went to visit them last year, too, and it was so memorable. When you visit the area where they live, you feel like you’ve been dropped into the most beautiful resort – there is water everywhere – bays and inlets and spectacular ocean beaches. And the whole area is carpeted with the most beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers. It is a true paradise on earth. Jason, who is a top rate chef, made us the most amazing dinner, and Kristen’s Mom & her husband joined us for the evening. Toni and Rod had taken a caravan trip around Australia this past year - they were on the road for 9 months – and it was fascinating to hear about their trip, the places they visited and the people they met. It sounded like a great adventure.

Kristen and Jason just returned from a trip to New Zealand for a friend’s wedding, and they showed us their photos and told us about the unusual celebration. The bride and groom had met in Queenstown, so that’s where they chose to wed. While the guests hiked into a lovely spot by a lake, the wedding party arrived on floating rafts, towing the bride and groom, who were riding on inflated whales. I wish I had one of their photos to post, as it was one of the most unexpected bridal processions you could imagine, and looked like incredible fun.

On Saturday morning, Jason took Tom for an epic bike ride around the area. Meanwhile, Kristen, Toni and I went shopping and out to coffee at a magical place called The Fragrant Garden. Later on we met up with the guys, and went out to the beach where Jason is a surf lifesaver and had lunch. We always have a great time with Kristen and Jason; they are beautiful, generous and fun loving people, and we treasure their friendship. We were having too much fun to take very many pictures, but here are a few.

Here is Akiko, who looks quite fierce in this photo, but she’s really a lover


And this is T-bone, who is about as sweet a cat as you’d ever meet

This is a visitor who came to check out the ladies while we had coffee

Jason, Kristen and me at the beach after lunch

P.S. If you look in the blog archives from last year you can see Jason & Kristen close up, holding T-bone.