O'Sullivans Beach

On the Monday we did some walking along the beach and relaxing around the beach house and just enjoying the views.

 Looking out the left from the beach house you can see the remains of the pier that was at Pt Stanvic where the oil tankers came in and unloaded. That is all but demolished and these pylons should disappear very soon.

 This was what we used to call Rabbit Rock. From a distance you can still see the rabbit shape, though not from this picture!

The big house is  my cousin David and Leanne's new house, they had been living in the beach house for a number of years then subdivided the block and built their new house. To the left of the house you can see a bit of a white building and a red roof that is the beach house- it has views out to the right towards Port Norlunga and Christie's beach. Jeff and John the other two brothers have that block and the beach house and are still deciding what to do.

After our leisurely morning we headed into town and visited 2 Hampstead Road, Broadview where mum used to live in my grandparents two story house which I remember many a visit. It has been demolished and is now the car park for the Hampstead Hotel- where we had a bit of lunch then wandered the streets behind and walked down the street mum used to walk down to go to school and the tennis courts she used to play at.

Then we headed into Adelaide and went to the Art Gallery of SA and saw the Impressionist Exhibition they had with paintings form the Musee D"Orsay in Paris.

From there we headed over to Jeff and Fiona's and had a lovely dinner with them. I forgot to take a photo of them but got one of the cat sitting up at the table and one of their dog!

Road Trip to Adelaide with Mum

I was born in Adelaide and spent my childhood years there. My grandparents had a beach house at O'Sullivan's Beach and we spent many a family holiday down there.The house ended up in my mum's sister's family and for many years it was lived in permanently by members of the Goss family. My cousin David and his wife Leanne have been living there, but recently subdivided the block and they have built a lovely home next door. At Christmas time I received and email from my cousin letting us know if we were ever in Adelaide we were welcome to come and stay in the old Beach House, so I took them up on the offer and thought I would bring mum over for  a visit as I thought she would enjoy the trip down memory lane. I flew to Melbourne picked up a hire car ( had all sorts of dramas and traffic delays ) but we made it to Horsham the first night, then drove to Adelaide the next day.

 Silo art at Victorian and South Australian towns along the way

                                         

We settled in to the Beach house and watched the sunset while having dinner with David and Leanne. Enjoyed a lovely walk on the beach the next morning then enjoyed a relaxing Sunday morning at home before heading out to church in the afternoon at Onkaparinga Ward where we met people mum had known many years ago. A quick trip home and changed into walking clothes and I was able to drive mum down to the marina where we could easily access the beach where we were able to walk while the day was still sunny and as we headed back enjoy the sun starting to set. It was a lovely day and we have both enjoyed the memories this has been bringing back.

The Beach House

Near Christie's Beach

Mum near the Marina at O'Sullivan's Beach

Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsular with Mum

Had the weekend down in Melbourne with mum. Plane ride all went smoothly- no fog to delay me, picked up the hire car and headed out to Berwick then we headed south. We stopped off at the Mclelland Gallery and Sculpture Park which had some great sculptures spread out in the bush garden- had been set up by Dame Elizabeth Murdoch.

From there we headed down to the Peninsular Hot Springs and enjoyed soaking in the various thermal pools before heading down to out cottage in Sorrento we had hired for the weekend. It was a lovely cottage, we lit the fire and enjoyed a cosy evening relaxing in our cottage.

I headed out for a walk the next morning along the bay beach side of Sorrento before heading back to our cottage for breakfast then we headed down to Pt Nepean National Park. It was the old Quarantine Station and Army Barracks. First off we caught the shuttle bus right down to the tip of the Mornington Peninsular, you can only get down there by walking or on the Park Bus. As you drive down the peninsular narrows and you can see the ocean beach on one side and the bay beach on the other side- great scenery.

Down the tip it Fort Pearce, this is where the army base was set up to guard Pt Phillip Bay, soldiers and guns are stationed here. You can wander through the old tunnels, see where the guns where and learn the history of the area- very fascinating. You can see across to Queenscliffe and Barwon Heads on the other side of the peninsular. We spent about an hour exploring the area before catching the shuttle bus to the next area where you wander around as well.

We headed back to the Quarantine Station and wandered through there and by that time we were starting to get hungry and ready for lunch. Drove back to Sorrento, were amazed by the hordes of people so got some takeaways for lunch and sat out in the sun, before buying stuff for dinner and headed back to our cottage around 3pm and then just relaxed. We had lovely weather.

Sunday morning I walked to Sorrento Back Beach and walked along the Mornington Coastal Path- lovely views. Had brekky back at the cottage, we packed up then I drove mum to the back beach and then bay beach and we walked along the beaches there before heading back to Berwick where I dropped mum off then headed out to the airport and back to Canberra!

Brisbane May 2018

Amy and I headed up to Brisbane for the weekend in May and had a lovely time. We escaped a cold Canberra weekend and enjoyed a lovely 23 to 25 degrees up in Brisbane. We landed around 10am and picked up or hire car and drove into Brisbane to meet Amy's friend who lived in Newstead. We met her and her baby and went out to lunch before heading into the city and checking into the Marriot Hotel where we were staying. We relaxed for a bit then walked into Queen Street and did some shopping before walking over the bridge to Southbank and met up with her friend and her partner and enjoyed a lovely meal together. It was weird sitting outside with just a light cardigan on! We wandered around the Southbank Markets before heading back to our hotel- was a great day!

Sunday morning after a yummy breakfast in the hotel, we got our car from the Valet Parking and went and picked us Steph, Andrew and baby Evelyn and headed down to the Currumbin Bird and Animal Park where we spent the day. We had a great time! First off we had a "Behind the Scenes Encounter " of the Bird Flight Show which was great. We wandered around for a bit and then went to the "Free Flight Training Encounter" where we got to learn how they train the birds for the Bird Show and we also worked with Jack the magpie and got to help try and train him. That was really interesting.

Then we took a late lunch break, went to the bird show, wandered around the park and headed down to the entrance where we got to feed the lorikeets - there were hundreds of birds and hundreds of people but it was well organised and we had lorikeets all over us, it was great fun, the girls enjoyed themselves and then we headed back to the car and battled the traffic back to Brisbane.

We had dinner with Steph and her partner before heading back to the hotel after a great day out. The next morning we packed up, had our breakfast and then checked out. We picked up Steph and Evelyn and then headed north to the Sunshine Coast and up We had views of the Glasshouse Mountains it was a lovely spot and Amy was in bird heaven! There were lots of birds out the front you could hold and talk to, and then we payed for a tour to go into the aviary- they had this massive big aviary with three different sections that you walked through with all sorts of birds that would come and land on you. They had macaws, red tailed black cockatoos, eclectus parrots, lorikeets, all sorts of birds.

The girls went up and had devonshire tea and I went for a walk through the gardens, then I looked after the baby while the girls went through and did another tour of the aviary- so they had a great time. We then headed back into Brisbane, dropped Steph off and headed to the airport. Our plane was delayed about and hour, we finally landed about 9:30pm so it was a fairly late night and was 3 degrees in Canberra when we landed so a bit of a shock to the system having been in 23 degrees, but a great weekend away.