Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Albany, WA

The weekend just been I headed off to Albany WA for the Verve Energy 10km fun run. I was primarily there for work to present the prizes (as we sponsor the race), but since I was heading down I decided to run the race as well.

I arrived on the Saturday and had a few hours to kill before I could check in to my motel so I decided to take a drive out to the Natural Bridge and the Gap.

The natural bridge (shown below) is a granite formation caused by the gradual wearing away of the rock by the Great Southern Ocean!

It was an overcast day but that didn't dampen the amazing rock work and coastline! 
 Quite different landscape to the Perth coastline, that's for sure!
 You can see the gnarled branches on the trees showing how much the wind has shaped these over the years!
 The trees themselves snake up the rocks.

 Between the rocks there are all sorts of delights, beautiful wildflowers everywhere. One could explore for ages!
 I managed to get a panoramic photo on my iPhone, which shows more of the coastline for you! It truly was an amazing spot to visit! Although I was pleased to not have Ethan with me as the safety standards aren't like NZ, that's for sure!!

 The following day I ran the 10km race, it was a spectacular point to point race, full of ups and downs. It was a challenging race, that's for sure. I wasn't racing it, just running it at a tempo pace and I managed to take out third position. Here I am on the podium!
All in all a very enjoyable weekend away, although I did miss my boys a lot!

Dinosaur spotting and finding new parks in Perth...

We always like to find new and different things to do in Perth on our weekends, so a few weeks back we visited the Museum of Natural History in Guildford. The museum itself is a Taxidermy exhibition, so there are lots of dead and stuffed animals, mammals, reptiles etc. But the main attraction for Ethan was the plastic dinosaurs (he is dinosaur mad!)...

Its not a long visit, we were done and dusted in around 20 minutes, but that is perfect for Ethan's attention span. Right next door is a gelato shop, which makes this a perfect outing!

From here Ethan, Jason and I went to check out a new and exciting park, the Woodbridge Riverside Play Space. It was AMAZING and Ethan had a ball. It had everything you want in a park. Firstly, it had a good fence so we could let Ethan wander to his heart's content and we didn't need to be worried about his escaping.
I was really impressed with everything to do there.... there were sand and water play areas, loads of swings, tunnels, a flying fox (with a safe swing/flying fox for kids Ethan's age) and more.

Here's Ethan on the flying fox swing! He LOVED it!


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Monday, October 28, 2013

Perth Royal Show 2013

After 5 years in Perth Jason and I finally ventured out to the Perth Royal Show (an institution here in WA). We didn't know what we were in for but we were pleasantly surprised in the end.

The show runs for a 6 days Saturday  - Friday (including a public holiday Monday) and we strategically chose the Wednesday/Thursday to attend as we were hoping it might not be as busy as the Saturday/Sunday or public holiday.

We were overwhelmed down show bag alleyway, but stopped for a rest near the main arena watching the show jumping. Ethan was then spell bound by the old train/tractor steam engines. 

From there we headed off into the garden exhibition, which was an oasis, a haven of calm in the otherwise manic show grounds. I was particularly taken by this exhibition, the herb garden was built into the outdoor table! An idea I really liked!

After the garden exhibition Ethan and Jason had a camel ride. They had a ball!
From here Ethan had a pony ride, we had some dinner, then treated Ethan to a couple of rides at the toddler ride area (fire engine and helicopter).
Here is the fire engine ride:

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By this time we were all quite exhausted and it was time to head home! We all enjoyed ourselves and we will definitely go again next year.

Circus Joseph Ashton

About a month ago we took Ethan to Circus Joseph Ashton  (a traditional family circus of acrobats, bareback horse riders, animal trainers, clowns and trapeze artists for over 150 years/7 generations). If you have been to Cirque Du Soliel and expecting something similar then you would be disappointed, however if you are expecting a traditional circus then that's what you are in for.

We got to see lots of horses and dogs (which made Ethan happy), laugh at the clowns and during intermission Ethan got to ride the little horses (5 times!!!).... 

Ethan was a little restless but he enjoyed it all the same! We will definitely be visiting this circus next time it is in town!