A Day at the Beach

 Ahh, the beach. Took a quick day trip with friends over the break to breathe in some coastal air.

Couldn't leave without stopping by our favorite, "Pebbly Beach" where we were greeted by a variety of friendly parrots.


Summer scrunched down in distress whenever they landed on her head, but the kids could've stayed in the parking lot another hour I'm sure.

 Down the path there opens up this beautiful stretch of shoreline where mild-mannered, wild kangaroos live beach-side.



(Being there sorta makes me feel like any minute I'm going to see giant Teletubbies peek out and dance around those green rolling hills. So idyllic.)

 

(Gotta love taking pics of cute Sum-Sum in her oversized "emergency" outfit. She got carsick on the winding mountain roads to the coast...)

 

See the joeys peeking out of some of these pouches??

This had to be an old grandpa roo. Big, bony and real slow.

 Of course the boys were too busy sword fighting in the waves to be distracted by the wildlife. :)

Floriade

Talk about a love-affair with Spring! Canberrans know how to celebrate the season right. Check out our main city park transformed into an explosion of blooms. The breathtaking and glorious "Floriade"

(Even the Queen of England is here visiting Floriade today - kids were begging to skip school so they could catch a glimpse of her on the boat ferrying her over the lake to the entrance.)

 There were daily cooking shows and gardening experts and a full schedule of presentations.

You'll notice these mannequins are all dressed entirely in plants and flowers. The creative artistry and detail was exquisite.



The plots were all carefully arranged and planted in designs more clear from an aerial view, with signs posted in front showing whether it was a "dragon" or "chili pepper" or what.

With designs continuing to bloom over three weeks, talk about planning!

 The Bonsai tree collection was amazing.

 They had craft stalls, rides, games and petting zoos for the kids. And of course, booths full of cool foods, oils, handmade toys, jewelry and everything else you'd expect to find.

Kids Contest for decorated garden gnomes

Free admission during the day, paid admission for special night concerts & activities.

If I were to suggest a time to visit Canberra is would definitely be during the spring, and if you could manage it make sure to arrive when Floriade is on.

Sprite Stand

Maybe THAT'S why not one Australian stopped at our "lemonade stand" last week - lemonade means "Sprite" here and who cares about a sprite stand??

I don't know. I guess it's just not done here. We had to start texting friends when we hadn't had a customer the whole first hour. Kids held on a couple more hours though and ended up getting some nice folks - albeit all "foreigners" like us (except a couple sweet Oz kids/neighbors/friends who were kind enough to oblige!)

And it's not like there wasn't appropriate signage...

It was awesome to see all the thoroughly confused faces slowly drive by, maybe throwing out a smile or wave. One friend texted back, "Yes, not the done thing here, more like something we'd see in a Peanuts comic."

I love it. I can't imagine growing up without ever doing a lemonade stand! Maybe we planted some seeds in some little heads...

But seriously enormous lemons right off the tree (thanks Odette!) then FRESH-SQUEEZED, I mean, c'mon - who passes that up?

Now that I think of it there actually was a sweet Aussie grandma that passed then swung back around the neighborhood to purchase, saying "I couldn't pass up those sweet little faces."

They were sweet. We had fun. And they even sold all our fancy "lemonade" by the end, thanks to a caravan of Malaysian businessmen, so a successful venture after all.

(Next time we'll try setting up at the park instead.)