Amy and Sue Head to Melbourne

 Amy and I were supposed to go down to Melbourne for Mars and Aiden's wedding in December, but due to Amy's illness we had to cancel, we headed down in March to do some of the things we were planning to do.

First stop was our most favourite Bed and Breakfast - Amberesque in Rutherglen.

Amber had asked if we would mind being guinea pigs for a cooking workshop as she was hoping to start some up- she had to twist our arm ( not!) so helped her out.

We had a great time learning how to make Turkish Pide in Amber's kitchen,

The finished product

We then sat out in the garden with our pides, pomegranate tea and our cheese and olive platter

The breakfast theme was Turkish, we had our Turkish Pides yesterday so went for the cinnamon pancake option, with peaches, pistachio, rose gelato and little pieces of blackberry Turkish delight- it was so yummy.

Before heading to Melbourne we went across to the garden shop we discovered the previous day as we wanted to make a terrarium at the Terrarium Bar. It was an amazing set up.

Good to see Amy working with plants again, we both had a great time, making a terrarium for ourselves each and a gift for some friends,

Then we headed to Melbourne, having a chocolate lunch at the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie.

We stayed 2 nights with my friends Louise and Ron in Boronia, they looked after us so well and made us feel so welcome. I forgot to take photos.

One night we caught up with  Mars and Aiden at the Vanilla Lounge in Oakleigh, They had their wedding reception in the Function Room there. It turns out Oakleigh is a Greek Precicnt, we had some great food there, and a nice time catching up with them,

Louise took us up to the Dandenongs - it was a 10 minute drive to Sassafras, where we found this lovely sculpture garden at the Tanglewood Gallery, then onto Olinda for lunch, I love the Dandenongs.

Louise and Rob had a dog called Lucky, Amy and he were good friends, it made Amy happy to have a dog to pat and brush.

On Saturday we picked Amy's friend Steph up from the train station, took her to Collectors Corner, a massive indoor plant store in Keysborough. Again I forgot to take photos, so this was one of the information signs I had taken a picture of so I could remember how to take care of those plants,

Amy and Steph

We stayed the night in Melbourne, going to the Victoria Market and the girls just catching up and hanging out. I also got to catch up with my brother Gary, his wife Arlene and Matthew.

It was a great trip, we headed home stopping overnight at Albury before arriving home in Canberra.

Tuesday Girls Head Home

 It was time to head home after a great time away exploring the area, Deb and I headed out for our last morning walk along the beach, this time on the other side of the peninsular, parking at the Surf Club where we walked along the beach down past Lake Wollumboola- which had a sea berm separating it from the ocean.

As we walked towards the lake we could see this large black blob, we were trying to figure out what it was. As we got closer we realised it was black swans, there were hundreds of them, probably a thousand or so.

They scattered and swam out into the lake as we came closer so we stayed away as we returned as they were all back in place. Turns out the lake is an important east coast drought refuge for them and they graze on the algae and sea grasses. It was quite the sight, made our morning.

Back to our villa for breakfast, pack up, visit our favourite Culburra Café and head home the back way on the Nerriga Road.

We stopped off at Tiajara Falls

With lovely views through the valley,

We had a lunch stop at Tarago

I good adult size swing that needed testing out!

Past the wind turbines on Lake George before arriving back in Canberra- another great Tuesday Girls adventure.