Adventure, baby!

Travel

Birthday Escape: Glen Davis and Katoomba {Day 3}

It’s cold out here. Bone-chillingly cold. The sky is blue today though so it’s a great day for the drive to Glen Davis, a tiny little town where my dad grew up. It was a mining town where my uncle, grand-dad and great grand-dad all worked in the mines, but became a ghost town at some stage, and has now come full circle with people moving back into the town to retire. It’s quite eerie as it is a town in name only – there’s nothing there except for the houses that have moved back, and they sit amongst the ruins of foundations from the previous houses, school and shop buildings.

There is nothing left here of my dad’s house except the front steps and some foundation blocks, but it was really amazing to visit it and see where my dad was a little boy running around. The countryside is amazingly beautiful, so it would have been a very pretty place to live even though it was so isolated it would have been really hard to get anywhere to get supplies.














After visiting Glen Davis we slowly drove back to Sydney, stopping at Lithgow for food and Katoomba for hot chocolate and waffles. I love this little art deco cafe called Paragon on the main street of Katoomba. It has fabulous chocolate for sale, hand-made on the premisis I believe.






Since we were so close we drove down to the Three Sisters Lookout. We came up here on one of our first dates, two years ago, so it was really sweet to come back and look around again and reminisce.








Birthday Escape: Mudgee and Relaxing {Day 2}

A big fail on behalf of Google Maps (or my map reading skills) lead us to drive into Mudgee while looking for a little town called Glen Davis that my dad grew up in. Turns out Glen Davis was in the opposite direction .. whoops! Never mind, it still ended up being an interesting drive.

A pretty church in Mudgee. Everything was closed when we got there just after 2pm. We ate an an Asian bakery as it was literally the only food place open apart from Subway.

We stopped off at Windermere Dam on the way back to our cabin. It looks fairly good weather here but it had been raining all day on and off, and when we got back in the car it started to snow!










Birthday Escape To The Blue Mountains {Day 1}

For my last 20-something birthday Alec took me away for the weekend to stay in a river-side cabin at Turon Gates, about 4-5 hours hrs drive from Sydney.

After a long and somewhat dramatic drive there, we awoke the next morning surrounded by bushlands.

Our solar-powered cabin, right in the middle of a nature reserve.

Alec takes a look around.

This photo is begging for a funny caption. Pity I can’t think of one!

Scenic bushlands and nature were all around.

It was awesome waking up every morning to look ut of the window at this river. The river was a major site during the gold rush and the remains from the gold prospectors can still be seen here. The river is crystal clear (and bloody cold!). In summer I can imagine it would be a great place to swim and canoe.

Ghost gums – everywhere!

Pretty! I loved how much wattle was everywhere – the bright yellow against olive green and red and brown dirt. So Australian!

Playing with my 50mm lens.

Very obliging boy.

So rugged and manly!

Who da man?

Cheesy! A happy photo on a happy day.

Doggie Weekend

A few pics from playing with the girls this morning before heading off to Newcastle.

Buffers always aims to slobber my chin.



Kahlua looks grumpy – she knows I’m leaving.


On Stockton Beach – Amy poses for the camera.


Newcastle in the distance.


Amy makes a friend.


Enjoying the sun.







Oh Hai!




Mmmm chips and Coke on the beach.


Zoom zoom zoom!



Kiama

We checked out of our house at Callala beach this morning and slowly drove home via Berry, Kiama and Stanwell Tops. The rain started bucketing down after we left Kiama so unfortunately it wasn’t nice enough to take any pics.

Kiama – the little blowhole.


Oh hai!


Wonky self-portrait.


Kiama lighthouse.


Big blowhole. Thar she blows!



Snuggles.


“I love my dad!”



I had such a great weekend. The girls were amazingly well-behaved! Such a pleasant surprise – both my wonderful Alec for taking me away and my loving dogs for not being painful!

Callala Beach Getaway

Alec surprised me with a beach weekend down south at Callala beach. He rented a dog-friendly house and spirited me away after work on Friday night for a lovely weekend.

Beach!



Buffy’s first time on sand.


Kahlua has a bad hair day.


Freedom! First time off leash in public.

















Hunter Valley Offsite

Occasionally I get sent to cool places like the Sebel Kirkton Park Hotel in the Hunter Valley for an offsite.

The hotel was stunning, set in beautiful rollings hills. The property had a few dams and I saw some kangaroos hopping in the distance.

This is the room I shared with Katia. Another thing about offsites – they’re kind of like having a sleepover in high school again. I always get great roommates so it’s a lot of fun.


Bird of paradise flowers.


Where are our rooms?


Pretty balcony view.



Close-up of roses.


Piece of wood I smashed into three pieces using the palm of my hand. Yeah!


Me and Katia with Olympic gold medal winner Lauren Burns, who gave us a bit of a martial arts lesson.


Sun setting.




All prettied up at the Casino Royal-themed dinner.



Even under duress, I won’t give up my lip gloss.


Retribution is swift.



View from my window the next morning.



Going for a walk around the property with Katia and Shaden.





I also stopped at a winery on the way home and stocked up on some red, white and dessert wine. Does an offsite get much better than this?!

Last Day in Tokyo

So sad that our last day came so quickly. We spend the morning visiting the Tokyo Google office and Alec’s Sysop friends. We had a great time and had some of the Japanese mysteries explained to us. No-one could explain what the mystery slime that kept appearing on our food was however.

We then caught the monorail to Odabia, a man-made island that is an entertainment district. We didn’t have much time so we only went to one place, Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. Alec in particular really enjoyed the museum, particularly because of the robots.

The airport was our next stop and then finally home the next morning.