Surfing/Catamaraning/Swan Valley

Saturday

It was another one of those “best days ever.” I woke up at 6:30AM… I know, it was not fun getting up that early on a Saturday morning. Johno picked me up at 7:00AM and already had Katy. We headed for Trigg Beach. The surf wasn’t fantastic, but it was a good size to learn on. Johno is very tall, so his board was quite long. Katy and I both took turns surfing and body surfing. It was the most thrilling experiences of a lifetime. I know why people are addicted to surfing. The rush of the waves and riding them was awesome. I only got up on my feet about once, but I got up on my knees several times.
After surfing, we had breakfast at a local café. It was a little expensive, but very good. (They put scrambled eggs on toast over here… not with toast, on toast!) Johno dropped us off at Katy’s house after brekky. We had lunch and went back to the beach with her host family. They have two little boys 7 and 10 yrs old. We took surfboards and boogie boards with us. We stayed out for about two hours and came back home. Johno picked us up after a while and took us to the Swan River with some of his friends in the city. We hired and took out catamarans for an hour. It was my first experience sailing a boat entirely on my own. I could do that all day, everyday; it’s incredibly fun and relaxing.
After catamaraning, Johno dropped us each off at our houses. I went for a run, had dinner and took a shower. I got dropped off at Katy’s, and we ended up deciding to go out. We went to Subiaco, where we walked around to find a good place to go out. We ended up at the Subiaco Hotel, where there was a live band. We really wanted ice cream, but since we couldn’t find an ice cream shop still open, we just bought a pint from a convenience store. We also got peanut butter and Oreos. When we got back to Katy’s, we pigged-out like the Americans that we are. I then spent the night.

Sunday

We had a leisurely morning, getting up without setting an alarm. I woke up and helped on of the boys on the computer for a while. When everyone was up, we drove into Subiaco and had a Boost Juice smoothie. We also went to the supermarket (where I bought chocolate chips, because I’m going through withdrawal and NEED chocolate chip cookies!) We then went back home and got ready for the afternoon.
Katy drove us to my place, where Len and Heather were ready to take us on a tour of the Swan Valley. The Swan Valley is an area full of vineyards, a chocolate factory, and breweries. First, we stopped on the side of the road at a farmer’s pick-up truck to get a watermelon and honeydew melon. We then went to the chocolate factory, which was no more than a glorified, tourist trap, chocolate store. It wasn’t particularly exciting. What was exciting though, was our next stop. We went to the John Kosovich winery. We met the winemaker, Jason, John’s son, who led us through the wine tasting and told us all about the wine. We tasted down in the bottom of a cellar, where there were stacks of wine barrels. We then headed to the Faber Vineyard, where the winemaker, John Griffiths, led us through the tasting of his wines. I ended up purchasing two bottles of wine. It was just fantastic to sit with two wine makers and really hear about the differences in wines and what goes into making them. I certainly have a newfound appreciation for wine. We went to a little Italian couple’s house after that and purchased quite a bit of produce, including cantaloupes, tomatoes, grapes, eggs, garlic and figs. On the way home, I fell asleep.
We had a very nice dinner tonight, as Heather and Len’s friends came over. I’m tired, but I’ve got a big week ahead. I leave for Bali on Friday night, so I’ve got to catch up on sleep before then!