This weekend just gone a bunch of us embarked on what is now an annual winter weekend at the beach. Part tradition, part early birthday celebration for my housemate Bec, we made the four hour trek south to enjoy some crisp coastal times.

Having Friday off, my extra long weekend began with a lazy morning, a bagel and the content knowledge that my car new car stereo had been installed (thanks Lewis!) and I wouldn’t be driving south in the cone of silence.

First-road-trip-together selfie!

We arrived in Esperance just in time to catch the last cotton candy-esque light at Twilight beach:

Magic.

The rest of our crew arrived in stages and we sat around the dining room table, devouring cheese, wine and delicious pizza whilst listening to my hastily assembled ‘Golden Oldies’ playlist (far too much Rod Stewart, even for my liking).

Saturday morning started as all good mornings do: with the smell of sizzling bacon wafting from the barbecue.

Jordan was in charge of team bacon/chipolatas:

Jordan and Claire

Kadn cooked some impressively perfect poached eggs and Bec nailed ‘three – medium brown’ on the toaster.

Kadn, Bec and Scott

The winners were our stomachs.

Toast Jenga

#BACON

We decided to work off breakfast (or attempt to do so) with a seaside frolic.

At a deserted lookout we managed, using the camera’s self timer, to capture a group photo delightfully reminiscent of a late 1990’s teen drama cast photo:

Kalgoorlie Creek? The Goldfields Gang?

Just moosin’ around

Only one person braved the icy water.

It wasn’t me.

After stocking up on provisions we went back to the homestead and sung ‘happy birthday’ to Bec around a Triple Peanut Butter Cheesecake I prepared earlier.

It was pretty intense! Very rich. Very delicious.

There is peanut butter and peanut butter chocolate in the filling. Some more peanut butter chocolate is sprinkled on the top (which is a chocolate ganache). With some chopped peanuts, for good measure. It was ridiculous. I shall post the recipe later this week.

After the cake (and the subsequent sugar highs and lows) we all had a bit of a lie down. We had to gather strength for the evening ahead. Which involved beer pong, dancing and rounds of flip cup:

Good times.

As well as a trashing of the kitchen bench:

Delightfully messy.

And another group photo using the self timer, with the camera balanced precariously on the kitchen range hood:

Clever.

We then jumped in taxis and headed for Esperance’s one and only watering hole. There we danced to a cover band and stuck around for the dubiously named nightclub (the ‘snake pit’) to open. Andrew and I ducked out early with Bec and Scott and left the others to the dance tunes, laser show and ill-advised rounds of shots.

To be continued…