Airlie Beach

Ahhh, back by the water.  I arrived in Airlie Beach a couple of evenings ago and even in my short walk in the dark from the bus station to the hostel I could tell that more stuff goes on in this town than in either Rockhampton or Mackay.  I checked into the hostel and unpacked my stuff before getting to bed.  The hostel is nice, but I wish it were warmer.  I'm getting tired of being cold at night.

I woke up the next morning and took advantage of the free wi-fi by getting started with Google+ and video chatting with my entire family at the same time.  We were all on different computers and I just couldn't get over the fact that we were able to hold a conversation and see each other at the same time.  It's my new favorite toy  :)

After spending a good chunk of the morning on the computer, I got up and went running.  There is a little boardwalk lining the beach and I went back and forth along that a couple of times.  I went to the store to get enough food for my stay here, had lunch and then hit the beach.  I walked along the boardwalk again and snapped some photos.  I was really impressed with the man-made lagoon adjacent to the ocean; it was beautiful and the water was really warm. 

I ended up sitting in the sand by the water, just watching the sun set and listening to the waves coming in.  There was a guy sitting not too far from where I was and he eventually made his way over and sat next to me.  We started talking but unfortunately didn't have too much in common.  He started out at university and then dropped out because it was too hard.  Needless to say, he's not too fond of studying and wasn't exactly enamored with the way I talked about school.

This morning I got up and did pretty much the same thing, except this time I spent the afternoon at the lagoon.  It was really nice while the sun was out, but the clouds kept rolling through, blocking out the warmth.  I'm really hoping that farther north the clouds will disappear.  I'm so ready for straight sun.