March 21st, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 217
Peter's POV
Today was another sunny day in Port Douglas. We pretty much did what we we have done every day here. Wake up, work for the morning, then relax and go to the beach in the afternoon. After we finished dinner we did add a twist the day. We played a game of Euchre and fell into our beds beat.
Big Pete's POV
The days here in PD are all running together a bit. On our way here we decided to make Port Douglas a spot where we would relax, chill out and really try to embrace the beach vibe. Today was one of those days. Stacie's hip was hurting a little from all of the running we have been doing, so we decided to go for a long walk instead of a run. We walked into town and wandered around a bit before heading back home. The heat even at 9:00 in the morning was oppressive and by the time we got home we were drenched. The day prior we had finally broken down and decided to close up the windows of our breezy house and use the air conditioning. It was a tough decision because we all love the open air living. However, when we walked into the house after that long walk in heat an humidity we knew we had made the right decision.
The end of open air living
In the afternoon we went to the beach and did some skim boarding and tried to play a little frisbee. I have improved my skim boarding, but there is something about the physics of this sport that is not conducive to a 190 lb 43 year old (meaning I am not fast anymore). Neither attribute (age/weight) in and of itself is prohibitive, but combined it makes the sport a little tough. You see skim boarding relies on speed and the ability to keep the board on top of the water. So if you are light, and slow you wont really sink. If you are fast and heavy, you wont sink either because you are going fast. However, if you are slow AND heavy (like me) you neither have the velocity or the light weight to keep you up. So while the light and fast Peter has rides that seem to go on forever, I go like 5 to 7 feet and celebrate like a kid who has just won the big stuffed animal at the fair. It's cool to see your kids start to surpass you at just about every activity they undertake, but it's quite humbling as well.
The frisbee attempt did not go well because of the wind at the beach so we all headed home to start cooking. Peter and I jumped into the pool to cool down and rinse off a bit. The girls headed upstairs. We had a nice dinner and then decided to try to teach the kids the card game Euchre. It's a trump game popular in the midwest, but not in a lot of other places. I grew up playing it in high school and it is my favorite card game by far, but it is really complicated. Lots of rules and strategies to understand before you are even a decent player. The kids picked it up pretty quickly and I am hoping that over the next couple months we play a lot and they like it as much as I do.