Our Saturday

So this morning (Sunday), the sky is very gray.  It really looks like rain.  The weather forecast says nothing about rain.  This is pretty typical.  You see, the weather forecast we get is never really for us.  It's for Newcastle or Williamtown.  Both of them are southwest of us.  Williamtown is also inland and has completely differenet weather from us, though they are only 30 minutes away. 
We've been sorta puttering along and I don't actually have much to write about.  This is probably a good thing as it means we are settling into a routine. 
My car still isn't fixed.  I took the car in for two quotes like I was supposed to, but the insurance agent has not called me back, despite repeated calls to her. 
We tried to go to Barrington National Park yesterday.  It is a very large park and has three areas.  We were trying to go to the southern and western parts.  We made it to the southern part at about lunch time.  We took a quick walk on one path, but kids were hungry as was I.  So we tried to find something to eat.  It took us about 2 hours of driving to find a small town.  We drove up to a really neat looking cafe.  The building was really old, but clean.  The menu looked really good so we went up to the counter to eat.  Oh, sorry, the kitchen is closed, but you can have tea or coffee.  We went next door to a pub/tavern that was still serving lunch.  When we went up to order, the lady said "just to let you know, we are really backed up in the kitchen.  People are complaining and walking out.  It's gonna be over an hour before your food is ready."  Well, there is no way that our kids will sit still that long.  The pub was really busy, full of Aussie cowboys, complete with Stenson hats.  The tiny town was hosting a rodeo and the pub wasn't used to the amount of people in for lunch.  We thought about going to the rodeo, but it was $35 for us to get in.  We also still hadn't had lunch and it was now 2:30.  We drove on though the town and just as we started to turn out of town, I saw a little grocery store that had take away food.  So we got some burgers and ate a little picnic.  We decided it was probably too late in the day to do any other parts of the park as it would have been another hour and a half to get back to any part of the park.  We puttered around and saw a sign for a dam.  We drove a very twisty road out to Lostock Dam.  We drove over part of the dam and down a ramp to a picnic area.  It was very nice and peaceful, with lots of ducks and black swans.  We ran around a bit and then headed back out.  We headed for home.  At about 6 pm, we stopped for fuel and decided we'd better eat in Maitland as it was about 1 1/2 hours till we'd get home.  We saw a resturant and stopped.  It had a 2 hour wait.  We'd seen a McDonald's, a KFC, and a Pizza Hut.  The kids and I had eaten at that Pizza Hut before and I didn't want to go back.  But after driving around town for 30 minutes, we were finding much else.  Lots of pubs, but I am soooo tired of pub food.  So, back to Pizza Hut.  We had to wait 20 minutes for a table.  This place is not like a US Pizza Hut.  You don't get to choose what your order, everyone gets the buffet.  The buffet is one small area of salad stuff, one area of pizza (typically under cooked and a little cool from sitting out) and soft serve ice cream.  The place was packed because it is all you can eat.  Now, Jay and I each only had 2 pieces of pizza.  I had a little salad and no ice cream.  Jay did not have any ice cream either.  Sam and Tom had 2 pieces of pizza and Joe had 3.  All three boys had ice cream.  We also each had a drink.  Now, for this, we paid $66.35.  Yup, we could have order 4 large pizzas from Dominos for $30 and come out way ahead.  But at least everyone was fed and the kids were happy.  We drove for home finally and arrived about 9 pm. 
I'll post some pictures later of our walk at Barrington Tops as it was a neat place.