Today marks the end of 17 days of Canberra's Enlighten Festival. Over the last 9 days more than 30 hot air balloons have been ready to launch over the lake each day at sunrise - as part of Enlighten's Balloon Spectacular. We've tried 3 mornings to see the balloons in flight - but without success; apparently the winds were too strong or in the wrong direction on these days!
But I did enjoy this beautiful sunrise ...………..
Old RG Menzies turns his back on the sunrise each morning …..
This morning we had one last chance to see the balloons in flight, on our regular early Sunday morning date climbing Mt Ainslie.
BUT the balloons didn't launch this morning!! APART from this one...... thank you CBR!!
The most appealing balloon of this year's festival - the Beagle Maximus - was waiting for ages in front of Old Parliament House, ready to fly. But it never launched today!
As a break from balloon watching we took Ollie to the German Club last Friday night. He got hooked on pork knuckle during his Munich stay at Christmas so we wanted to make sure he knew where to find the same dish here in his hometown.
A great dish for a growing boy!! Ollie is great company over any kind of meal; we had a lively conversation about a huge range of topics - he has a better understanding of global politics, history and complex social issues than most adults do - as well as having a better appetite.
We've just had 3 beautiful days in Coogee with J & J, A & E, having lots of fun and laughter together at our favourite city beach, great meals and LOTS of physical activity.
After noting the presence of the very imposing Wallabies RU Team (and the Q'ld Reds) we were all settled in our ocean view rooms at the Crowne Plaza by Saturday afternoon. The girls were primed to hit the big grassed oval at Grant Reserve and test out one of Abi's new birthday ball and racquet games.
Abi's recently mastered the art of cartwheels. She can do them PERFECTLY and is now practising doing them NON STOP!
A duet of cartwheels!
It helps when you have a big sister willing and able to teach you the next level....
We walked up to La Sen at the Spot, Randwick for a beautiful Vietnamese meal on Saturday night, adding a 3 kilometre walk (there and back) to our afternoon of running around Grant Reserve.
Sunday dawned cloudy but warm, good enough for a perfect morning on Coogee Beach.
Abi did hundreds of cartwheels up and down the length of the beach this morning.
Abi is "at one with nature" wherever she finds herself - always watching out for birds, insects, crabs and any other form of nature (and marine life).
A laid back lunch at the Coogee Bay Hotel and a 2 hour sleep after (for an exhausted Abi) ended off a perfect Sunday morning at our Coogee Beach.
We celebrated with dinner at our fave (but crowded) Barzura's last night...…. Coogee was as lively as a January summer this Canberra Day long weekend!
We were all down the beach again as early as possible this morning...…...
And just to make sure we all got the most out of our long weekend at our fave beach we ended off our stay with a walk to South Coogee and the beautiful rock pool (the Ivor Rowe Rock Pool) at the end of the Bondi to Coogee coast walk
Ella and Abi find lots of hidden treasures on these rocky platforms.
We ended off a perfect weekend with a late lunch at the Pool Café at Maroubra before the long drive back to Canberra. It was such a joy and a privilege to spend uninterrupted time this weekend with my gorgeous, funny, fit and always whip smart family - and there is no bias at all in that observation!
There's no excuse for us to miss Enlighten - Canberra's annual festival of illumination. It's close enough for us to walk to, so we can pick our time and go more than once if we want. We walked over on Saturday evening - joining thousands of other Canberrans. We got there in time for the lights to be turned on at 8.00pm.
Outside the National Gallery Neil Dawson's hanging "Diamond" looked beautiful tonight - as the sun went down.
The NGA's illumination was exciting this year - moving images for the first time - based on Tony Albert's I AM VISIBLE.
The Portrait Gallery's illuminations used a similar idea to last year (animations based on portraits of onlookers). I liked the giant jelly fish!
Questacon always puts on a good show .............
We gave the crowded Noodle Markets a miss and stood fairly disappointed for a while waiting for the National Library's illumination to be more exciting. There's nothing challenging about Enlighten, just a week or so of fun and pretty lights and a chance to enjoy something harmless alongside thousands of other people.
We walked home afterwards back around the lake - in relative darkness once we crossed Commonwealth Avenue Bridge.
This morning we had one last chance to see the balloons in flight, on our regular early Sunday morning date climbing Mt Ainslie. 
BUT the balloons didn't launch this morning!! APART from this one...... thank you CBR!!
The most appealing balloon of this year's festival - the Beagle Maximus - was waiting for ages in front of Old Parliament House, ready to fly. But it never launched today! 
As a break from balloon watching we took Ollie to the German Club last Friday night. He got hooked on pork knuckle during his Munich stay at Christmas so we wanted to make sure he knew where to find the same dish here in his hometown. 
A great dish for a growing boy!! Ollie is great company over any kind of meal; we had a lively conversation about a huge range of topics - he has a better understanding of global politics, history and complex social issues than most adults do - as well as having a better appetite.
