It's the last week of school holidays (spring break) and this time it has gone by quickly. It helped that we had two Monday public holidays in a row. It was so nice to get away for a while.
We took a holiday to Merimbula on the first long weekend and celebrated Phil's birthday. We left on a Friday afternoon after Phil and I had a kid-free morning and went out for a quiet breakfast at Western Basement in Weston. We picked up Nicholas early from school then drove to Kambah to pick up Catherine and were on our way. Catherine fell asleep straight away and didn’t wake up until the halfway point at Nimmitabel. We had a quick lunch stop at the bakery and scored a free loaf of bread when Catherine threw a tantrum because she didn’t get the right cupcake. It’s a bit amusing that random people tend to give her things, but it doesn’t help when it’s because of a tantrum. Anyway, we had some of the bread with dinner that night and it was really good (thanks Catherine ;-) ).
As soon as we entered the Merimbula house, Catherine said, “Ooh, I like it!” And for the next fifteen minutes, the both of them kept hounding us to take them to the beach. From the moment they woke up that morning, they couldn’t wait to go. So Mitchies Beach was our first destination.
The rest of our time there was the most relaxing time we’ve had in a while. Sometimes our lazy mornings felt extremely long with the children waking up so early, but we all managed to fill our time with reading, watching ABC2, playing with toys and games, drawing and writing. Catherine would usually nap just before lunchtime. Then we’d head off to the beach and the boardwalk in the afternoons. Although the air temperature was pleasant when we were there, the water temperature was a different story. It was icy cold but the kids still wanted to paddle in it anyway. Pambula Beach was where we spent most our time. The waves weren’t as crazy as the ones at Short Point Beach and we enjoyed walking and climbing to the rock pools after having played enough in the water and sand.
We had a nice day celebrating Phil’s birthday. We had pancakes for breakfast, spent the morning at the beach and then lunch at Oaklands Cafe in Pambula. In the afternoon, we walked on the boardwalk at Top Lake and then picked up fish n’ chips for dinner. Nicholas and Catherine helped put the candles on the chocolate and berries cake and we sang “Happy Birthday” to Phil. We ended the night eating cake happily.
Driving through Brown Mountain was a bit scary on the way back home. It was very windy and debris was coming at us from every direction. We joined a few cars at Nimmitabel and stopped to recover from the intense drive. We were back in Canberra for a day before we headed out to our next long weekend getaway to Sydney.
We were expecting to have especially grumpy kids by the time we went to Sydney with all the excitement from Merimbula, but were pleasantly surprised that they weren’t too bad during our stay. Phil flew ahead of us to Sydney for work and we met him the next day after our 3-hour drive. I had snacks prepared for the kids in the backseat but they didn’t touch any of it until we got to Sydney. Catherine slept for most of the drive and Nicholas happily kept me company. We picked up Phil from work at Randwick and drove into the city where we stayed for the next 3 days.
On our first morning, we swam in the indoor pool at our friend’s place. Then we got our city fix and joined the crowds. At Darling Quarter, we met up with Canberra friends at the Playground. The children had a great time playing together and the change of scenery was fun. Later we met local friends, checked out a food truck fest at Belmore Park and enjoyed having dinner there.
Saturday we spent the afternoon with friends in Telopea and ended the night back in the city watching the fireworks at Darling Harbour from our friend’s place. Then it was back to Canberra after our filling brunch on Sunday morning. As well as our city fix, we got our food fix and hit the following delicious places: Umami, Sedap, Taste of Shanghai and Taste Baguette. All so good!
Holiday, celebrate!
travel
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