Canberra Balloon Spectacular @ Enlighten Festival

March is a busy month for us here in Canberra (our city's birthday month!). The 10 day Enlighten Festival started on the 1st day of March this year - coinciding with the opening of a wonderful Vincent Namatjira exhibition at the National Gallery - and a chance for us to see (after hours) the superlative Emily Kane Kngwarreye exhibition being staged there at the same time.

 

Its a treat for us to see Enlighten and visit the gallery any hour of the day (or night during Enlighten) - only a short walk from home.

As part of the festivities the Canberra Balloon Spectacular lifts off as Enlighten is coming to an end. We set out this morning around 6.30 and fluked some superb views of the balloons launching over the lake as the sun rose in the eastern sky......

And have I mentioned the Alliance Française French Film Festival opened on the 7th March in Canberra too?? (We signed up for 6 films this year - starting this week!) Oh and Skyfire (fireworks display on the lake) is back - tonight - after a 5 year break!

It's a beautiful city we live in!!  

Walking Sydney

We stayed on in Coogee Tuesday and Wednesday after the young ones had left. We enjoyed Ollie's company on Tuesday night - on his way to a day of work at Sydney HQ and music festival the night after - and spent the rest of our time exploring more of Sydney.

Tuesday we set out walking to Centennial Park - admiring the big street trees, the various ocean glimpses and the always fascinating range of buildings along the way. This beauty was on Glebe Street in Randwick..... 

 

We came across Hooper's Cottage on Gilderthorpe Avenue, Randwick's oldest residence (built 1848) and listed on the state's heritage register since 1999.

We found the cute little Cat & Cow Cafe on Clovelly Road was a great spot to break up our walk on this hot, sunny Sydney day.

Wednesday we set out for Balmain In Sydney's (inner) inner West - an old stamping ground for us, but a part of Sydney we haven't visited in quite a few years. It was a pretty easy trip there on the L2 and then the 442 bus from the QVB stop on York St.

We walked the length of Darling Street from Balmain Town Hall to the ferry stop in East Balmain, trying to identify places we used to shop, eat and explore all those years ago.

We found a great lunch spot at Ciao Thyme on Darling Street - very innovative and rustic in character and everything we ordered was packed with flavour.

Our view from the cafe .......

We caught a ferry back to Circular Quay, via McMahon's Point and Milson's Point Wharf - one of Sydney's most spectacular short ferry trips!

Long weekend in Coogee

It might have been Canberra's birthday this weekend but we decided to celebrate the occasion and the extra day's public holiday here in Sydney!

We were lucky to share the break with the young ones: lots of walks, swims at adjoining beaches, fabulous meals (including a very fancy one), a bit of shopping for the girls and so much laughter!!!

On Saturday morning we headed around beautiful Gordon's Bay to Clovelly Beach for a swim. Ella and Abi always stride out in front on our walks, chatting to each other the whole way!

Gordon's Bay was looking good ......

The tide was a long way out at Clovelly so great for swimming but not so good for jumping off the edges of those concrete sidebars today.

Everyone was happy on the walk back to Coogee after hours of swimming and sunning and a great lunch at the Clovelly Hotel.

Saturday night we had a big night out at Bennelong planned - a repeat of our wonderful experience at this iconic restaurant on this same weekend last year.

Three gorgeous women ready for the big night out - outside the entrance to our Coogee apartment block....

Abi and Ella - both so grown up now ........

The Opera Bar was heaving with people, but we managed to find some space to sit - in prime position - as the sun went down.

These girls, and especially Abi this time, are always up for some cheeky fun!

This pair have been married 20 years this year - our excuse for this year's memorable celebration at Bennelong. Joshy ordered the iconic Bennelong pavlova for dessert and Jody ordered a "chocolate crackle"!

This was such a happy night. We all love this amazing, iconic restaurant, its attentive well-trained staff, the superb food and the incredible sense of occasion you experience when you walk through the door. Ella and Abi love the mocktails, and like us really appreciate the beautiful presentation and the chance to choose from such a high-end menu. We're ready to make this an annual event!!

We'd recovered enough on Sunday morning to walk all the way to Bondi Beach, with the girls stopping for swims at Gordon's Bay and Tamarama. Sunday is Nippers day on many Sydney beaches. Coogee looked busy with hordes of Nippers as we headed up towards Dolphin Point at the northern end of the beach.

Looking back to where we came from as we approached Marks Park on the southern end of Bondi Beach.

A view of Bondi Beach on this busy (warm) Sunday.

The girls and Rob and I caught an Uber back from Bondi - taking the easy way out, but Josh and Jody walked the full 15-16klms round trip. We all deserved our pizzas at Arthur's last night!

Before heading back to Canberra today the girls wanted to complete their goal of swimming at most of the local beaches with a final swim at our own Coogee Beach. 

Unfortunately, there was quite an out-of-control shore break on Coogee Beach today - it was wild!! Ella and Abi (and Josh) braved it for a time but it was not exactly pleasant.

The young ones returned to Canberra after a last lunch together at our old fave Coogee Bay Hotel. We'd had another wonderful, memorable, laughter filled, long weekend together - and it felt very quiet when they left!!