Happy Monday!

I hope you had a great weekend :) This weekend flew by so fast, I don't know where the time went. I didn't get half the stuff done that I needed to, but I did find time to watch the Raptors win their way to the NBA finals! I only kind of watched… when they were down I had to mute it because I was too nervous hahaha. I wish I was in Toronto! I've seen our friends post some videos online and it looks like the whole city was going crazy when they won!

I'm really milking our road trip for blog posts lol, but today is all about our last afternoon in Byron Bay. We spent the morning watching dolphins at the Cape Breton lighthouse. Then we stopped for brunch and then we were off to the beach.

We had researched the best beaches around Byron Bay, and I think we have a new favourite Australian beach! We went to Wategos Beach, just 2km from Byron Bay town centre. It was only a five-minute drive from the lighthouse but we had to circle the streets for a while to find a parking spot. Some of the house we drove past were incredible. DIdn’t see any Hemsworth brothers that day though lol.

We were in line with a bunch of other cars, but we were hopeful. After all, we had just gotten the best spot at the lighthouse, maybe we’d get lucky again. 

Tj was getting so excited as he was driving. It was the perfect beach day and we'd get glimpses of the beach when we were looking for parking and it looked sooo nice. And wouldn't you know it… we got a prime parking spot right beside the beach. YAY. We had to wait for a surfer to change out of his wetsuit and run to the bathroom, but we got it lol.

I don't even know why we loved this beach so much. It was certainly pretty, but all of the beaches in Australia are spectacular. It just had such a good vibe. The waves were fun to jump in, but not completely overpowering (at least not on the day we were there). There were a lot of people but it wasn't too crowded. The weather was amazing. We definitely need to invest in a good beach umbrella or half-tent because it was just beaming down on us. Luckily we had lots of sunscreen. We swam and read and napped. Tj facetimed a friend back home and I listened to podcasts. It was such a perfect, relaxing afternoon. I could’ve spent another few days just hanging out on this beach.

Our road trip was almost over and we were getting sad. It definitely wasn't easy to pack up and head back into the car for a 6.5-hour drive. We wanted to get as close to Sydney as possible but this was not an easy one. I kept falling asleep and had to fight to stay awake. I didn’t do a very good job haha. We were listening to a good audiobook though, so Tj didn’t care too much when I fell asleep.

If you ever find yourself there, here are some restaurant recommendations:

• Bayleaf (Tj loved the coffee here!)

• Top Shop Byron Bay (I had the most delicious breakfast burger)

• Asia Joe's

• Kinoko (who wants a sushi train?!)

• Bella Rosa Gelateria

• Miss Margarita (we didn't get to eat here because there was always a long wait but it looked delicious! Would be a good spot to stop for happy hour too.)

Byron Bay was really special and we would love to go back there, although next time we would fly. I would highly recommend it to any of our future Australian visitors! Although I’ve been told that a lot of students flock there when they graduate, so that would probably be a time to avoid.

We had one last stop on our epic road trip and it was another good one!

Have a good week :)

P.S. That first picture with the cars and the glimpse of the beach is one of Tj’s favourite pictures of our whole trip!