Coogee / Margaret River, W.A.

---

3 - 17 September 2011

The much anticipated arrival of Nanna and Pa is finally upon us! Always so good to see the parents, especially when it's in a different part of the country every time we see them these days!

They stayed in the same caravan park as us at Coogee and the six of us took a trip down to Margaret River for four nights somewhere in the middle of their stay. We did the tourist thing around Perth and Fremantle - the Historic Fremantle Prison, Kings Park and the Botannical Gardens, Burns Beach and Hilary's Boat Harbour, Freo Markets and Fishing Boat Harbour....

The best part, however, was just relaxing in the evenings with the wine, cheese, chocolate and other goodies we came across sitting around the table playing Bastard Bridge and catching up.

The guided tour of the Fremantle Prison was a memorable one. It's hard to believe the prison was in operation until so recently and quite chilling to stand in the gallows and the lashing podium - actually it was a little disturbing to hear some of the stories but really interesting at the same time. The punishment back then seems barbaric to say the least!

We toured Swan Valley for a day and dad picked up the best olives he's ever tasted from the Olive Farm up there. The Devonshire Tea was pretty good too!

The Botannical Gardens were in full bloom and looking gorgeous and we had some amazing sunsets back at Coogee at the beach on our doorstep. Special times sitting on the beach with the sun setting over the ocean and watching the boys playing with their nanna and pa..


Our trip to Margaret River was amazing and we certainly seemed to squeeze a lot into each day. We covered the wineries, the cheese factory, the chocolate factory (more than once...), the beaches, Cowaramup (also known as Cow Town), the liqueur factory, flower emporium and a brewery. And dad kept us all entertained of an evening!

The day trip to Busselton was great and the boys loved the train ride on the jetty out to the Underwater Observatory. It was interesting to learn about the jetty itself as well as the sealife beneath it.

Mum thought it would be a good idea to head back to Coogee via Donnybrook which is home to the Southern Hemisphere's largest playground so the boys could run riot. It was quite a detour but the boys loved it and mum was adamant that we give Gnomesville a visit. Well, well, well, we didn't know what to expect of Gnomesville and it was a very queer place indeed. The drive through the countryside was absolutely gorgeous though and I'm so glad we can all now tick Gnomesville of our bucket list!!....

I should be getting used to goodbyes by now but they don't seem to be getting any easier. It was a bit of a teary farewell but so good to do some more travelling and sightseeing after being at Coogee for a few months straight. It was good for Alex to have some time off too after working some pretty big hours in the last few months.

The day after mum and dad left, Oscar was trying to drag me back to their cabin to see them stating "wanna see nanna & pa"...

---