Lathams News: BARB AND JOHN ARRIVE TODAY...

A pretty chilled out day today. We don't have a lot planned as our good friends John and Barb Ross are coming to stay for a couple of days today..

After our trip away in April, John and Barb went home and bought themselves another van. This time they have bought an A Van as they are able to store this one in their garage at home. They had to sell their full size van when they relocated from Maleny to Maroochydore as they had no where to store it at the new place they had bought.

Although comfortable in their tent, they realized after camping with us for a couple of weeks, that tenting was not practical to travel in unless you were staying in the one spot for a week or more. Also when tenting you had to bring so much more. With a van, most of the things you need like plates, cutlery, bedding etc is all stored permanently in your van.

Anway with lock downs etc, they hadn't had a chance to take a test run in their new van so when they heard that we were going to Rainbow Beach for a week, they decided that it would be a good time to give it a test run.

They planned on arriving around 11am so we had a pretty chilled morning at home, with a nice cooked breakfast before heading quickly into Rainbow Beach to visit the bakery to pick up something nice for morning tea and a sausage roll for John (they are his favourite) whilst we awaited their arrival...

Whilst in town we took a quick drive to the Esplanade carpark on the beach front. This is also the access point to the beach. Whilst there we decided the beautiful rainbow steps of Rainbow Beach..

John and Barb pretty much arrived just after 11am, and we wandered down to see them whilst they set up. They then joined us for morning tea and some lunch.

Whilst we were having lunch, Steve got a phone call from "Absolute Canvas" to let us know that the boat cover was finished and that we could go and pick it up...

John and Barb decided to come for a drive with us to collect the boat, but before we could do that we had to head to Tin Can Bay to visit the bank so whilst there we took them for a drive around Tin Can to show them the lovely esplanade that we had explored earlier in the week.

From here it was back to Cooloola Cove to pick up the boat. Steve was really impressed with the work of "Absolute Canvas" and would recommend them to anyone. They have done a brilliant job with the cover, making sure that it was padded in troublesome spots. It was also over $1000 cheaper to get it done down here than having it done at home. In fact we were able to have a great 8 day holiday, get the boat cover made and still come home with change...

He is pretty impressed.

He even threw in a spare tyre cover along with a specially made bag to store the cover in when it is not in use, plus canvas pieces in case we ever need to repair it. He also threw in a couple of the toggles that clip on the back of the boat also...

If you ever need a cover made for your boat or some canopies or tarps made, then this is the place to go..

Once we arrived back we took John and Barb for a drive down to Carlos Point to see the boat ramp and show them where we had been to watch the sunset the previous afternoon. It was quite overcast this afternoon so we knew that we weren't going to be in for a beautiful sunset this afternoon, but the weather predictions for the following day were good, so decided then and there we would make sure that we were around to enjoy it the following afternoon, armed with wine, cheese and crackers...

None of us felt like cooking dinner tonight so we decided to go check out the Surf Lifesaving Club and have dinner there....

Unfortunately, it was a little too cold to sit out on the balcony for dinner tonight so we found a nice spot inside to sit and relax. Besides, as it was dark, it wasn't like we were able to enjoy the coastal views...

The menu had a good selection of meals...

Whilst John ordered the Schnitzel with Chips, the rest of us ordered the Chicken Neptune which was grilled chicken with prawns, coconut and mango sauce with mash and broccolini. Steve and I decided to share one meal between us as I was pretty sure that I wouldn't manage a whole meal on my own...

It was delicious, plenty, with seven prawns as well as two pieces of chicken. Good value for money as it was only $24...