Roos and wine

We had a little celebration last weekend, so we headed out of town on Friday afternoon and headed up to Hunter Valley.  The drive to Hunter is really beautiful once you get out of Sydney. There's lots of road cut through rocky hills, and then more rolling green start to appear as you get closer to the wine region.  

  We got in late-ish on Friday, and there's not much to do at night besides eat dinner. The wineries are located outside the main little town, so you really need to plan ahead and book a spot for dinner. There's no stumbling across a spot for eating! Luckily we had a booking and had a fun little dinner before we headed back to our room for the night. Our drive to our resort turned into a bit of an adventure, first with two foxes running out in front of us. Luckily we were able to spot their eyes and slow down plenty before they dashed across in front of us! They hung out in the field by the road after their wild dash, and we watched them for a while. Then, probably not surprisingly, some kangaroos jumped out right in front of us a bit further down the road. They were really big ones, and one seemed like he was planning to hop straight into the side of our car! He changed his mind at the last minute, but not before he was in arms reach! Shew! The next day we headed out, without much of a plan besides eating food, tasting wine, and seeing where the day took us. It was a gorgeous day, so it was perfect for exploring around wine country!  

Yum breakfast spot

View from the breakfast dining room

  After our fun breakky, we popped into the winery across the road to check it out. 

 

From there, it was on to just driving around. We found a little walking trail, and decided to stroll for an hour or so.

 

 

T getting a bit restless with our walk and pretending to run in slow motion

We popped into a couple more wineries, just to check out the beautiful buildings and the scenery. 

And then we decided a picnic with some local cheese & wine was just the thing. We happened to pull into a winery where some local music was going on, so we picked a spot on the grass and had ourselves a fun picnic. 

And then some chilling out at the hotel sounded pretty good! So we sat on our little room patio and watched the sun set over the vineyards. And some people get married. And some more roos.

 

 

 

 

So OK, I might have gotten a little fidgety and ended up walking around the grounds a little bit to take all of these pictures. But that was basically it for our lovely weekend away! We ate dinner at the restaurant at our resort later that night and then got some breakky before heading back to Sydney on the morning. It was a fun little weekend, and I always love seeing those Roos!

 

   

Saturday walk in the park

Last Saturday was a lovely day, if a little bit cold in the morning. T had found a cool sculpture while I was away in SF, so we decided to go out for a morning walk and check it out. We headed down the hill toward Woolloomooloo. That big gray mass looks like a weird building, but it's the tower of a naval ship docked along the wharf in the navy base.

The pie shop wasn't open yet, but the birds were hanging out there by habit I guess. 

 

  We continued our way around the water to the sculpture. I've been that way before, but reading about it, I learned that it's placed in such a way that it's mostly submerged at high tide, which is maybe why I didn't notice it before. T noticed it because it also has sounds! They don't play continuously, but if you stick around, it plays parts of key speeches in Australian history as well as mechanical sounds to represent the influence of industry on the area. 

The sculpture from the path above

 

 

 

We sat by the water for a while and listened to the clips. It was just us and a fisherman down there, and it was so peaceful. 

  After our statue visit, we decided to walk into the Botanic Gardens and find a new building I'd read about. When we got into the main part of the garden, we saw something I'd never seen before: people were sticking their arms out to the cockatoos and letting the birds land on their arms and shoulders! It was crazy!

  At first I thought it was a tour group, but then we across a lone guy and he was doing the same. It was so strange, like we'd entered some alternate Disney universe where wild animals have no fear of you. The guy we came across was clearly a tourist (with some kind of Slavic accent maybe?) and asked us to take pictures of him while he got the birds to land on him. We did it, but the whole time I was thinking "I hope they don't come land on me!" I tried to look as uninviting as possible - those guys are big! And loud!

This is where I like my cockatoo - in a tree

We did eventually leave the birds behind and found the new Calyx building. It really is a striking building.

 

 

 

The Calyx hosts different exhibits, and right now there is one on about chocolate, and its journey from a plant to a commercial product. But you have to pay to go in the building and it was such a gorgeous morning, we decided to just carry on with our fun walk.

  We headed on down the hill toward Circulay Quay. There's always something going on or something to see down there, and this morning didn't disappoint: it was the Oreo Olympics!! You could sign a waiver and then "compete" in these goofy activities, but at the end you got to be rigged up and boosted up in the air! And you got some Oreos. I decided this was a worthwhile activity.

 

The best part!

And just to make sure T got equal picture time, I took his picture in front of these big ole plants.

It was a great way to spend a sunny, cool, winter morning!