Perth: A Shaw holiday!

We arrived in Perth to be picked up by Sally who'd been super organised and rented a car already to drive us back to the AMAZING house we'd called home for the next 2 weeks! Not only that but she's cooked us a 3 course meal and provided partyhats for the Perth party!!! Such a star. After touring the mansion, we got tucked in and the wine was flowing of course then it was down to business creating a masterpiece of a welcome sign for when Mum arrived.

Mum didn't land til late at night so we checked out Hillaries Harbour and our local beach in Joondalup.
We got the the airport equipped with sign, balloons and party hats - Naomi and Chris included - we got a fair bit of attention from other people and think they were pretty excited to see our mum too!! Haha

We thought we should ease Mum in gently with the time difference so took a short trip into Perth City for a look around. We saw the Swan Bells in a pretty cool rocket like building. The bells were donated from London to celebrate Perths bicentennial, they've been rung at every British Monarchs coronation for hundreds of years so don't know why they were sent to Oz really but we've seen them anyway.
Mum, Lucy and Sal then ventured onto Perths big wheel for a lovely view of the lake why Naomi, Chris and I mucked about on the sundial.
After we decided we should get our priorities sorted and book a wine cruise on the Swan Valley!!

We though that by her second day in Oz mum should really be able to handle a little Aussie road trip so we made the 6 hour round trip to Margaret River.
As we were going on a wine cruise later in the week , we would concentrate on cheese tasting!! The Old Cheese Factory was a definite favourite and we ended up buying a fair amount of cheese for a famous Shaw cheese board!!!
We stopped at a chocolate factory aswell where Toby, Ben and Dad were all thought of and would've received gifts I believe.
After Chris, Lucy, Naomi and I enjoyed a picnic in the village and then Me and Naomi helped Mum and Sal out with their lunch, we went for a very 'Moooving experience' at the Canoly Cow in search of honey combe for a very excited Naomi!! Haha I believe her reaction at the mention of honey combe was 'Oh yes yes yes yes'!!Hahaha . Sadly there wasn't really any honey combe but we did get a fair amount of fudge from there before moving onto a lovely little fairy shop.
On the way home Mum got her first wild kangaroo sighting so it was a great end to the day.

The Swan Valley wine cruise started bright and early and of course mine, Lucy's and Naomi's bad boat luck continued in that the boat we were booked onto was going somewhere else so we were on a different one!! It turned out well though, we saw our original boat and preferred the one we were on, all good. Coffee and muffins started the day followed by our first tasting at 10.30AM! We also got a cheese board each, amazing!
Sally put on an awesome show parading around the boat with the first wine we were to taste while the host described it, she was by far the best wine model! Haha. On the way to the first winery we passed Rolf Harris' childhood home - a very exciting moment. We made use of the captain at the first winery, Sandleford wines, to sneak out Mum and Dad's anniversary present right under Mum's nose!! A brilliant plan as she didn't suspect a thing. Onto the second winery, Swan Valley winery, with a couple more tastings along the way of course, We had a 3 course meal accompanied by a pianist and the hosts singing - very lovely. We then had another tasting there before getting back on board for the journey back…with more tasting!! There was a bit of a party on the way back as well with music, singing and dancing and a bit of a 'who's the loudest' competition with another boat!

Thursday was an exciting day full of great views and bike riding on Rottnest Island. Mum, Sal, Lucy, Chris and I took a ferry from Fremantle to Rottnest nice and early - me ,Lu and Chris equipped with bikes, a picnic and plenty of water, Sal and Mum didn't require any of this for their relaxed bus tour!!!
One of the best parts of the Island was getting up close to the lovely Quokkas, a small kangaroo/squirrel like creature that can only be found on Rottnest. Turned out they were really friendly too as they attempted to share our dinner and one was particularly taken with Lucy's leg!! Haha.
Chris, Lucy and I met up with Sal and Mum on several occasions along the way at different viewing points. Lucy was desperately trying to get a spot on their bus but unfortunately for her it was full! Lol

On Friday we put the finishing touches on Dad's welcome sign before heading off to Hillaries harbour to book a restaurant for a funfilled evening. Dear old Dad landed Friday afternoon after 23 hours in the company of screaming children and so was feeling a little worse for wear so we rebooked the restaurant for Saturday night and had a games night instead so he could recover. To be honest I'm not sure Lucy, Chris and I could've sat through a meal anyway due to the very tender bottoms we had thanks to the devil's bike seats!!!!

We spent the bright, boiling hot day at Fremantle prison hearing about it's history from the convict era to the prison era until it eventually closed as a working prison in 1991 and then we went to Fremantle market and Mum, Dad, Sal and Luc got very excited about a vegetable shop! (Not even kidding!)
Later on we dressed according to the dress code, yes the restaurant had a dress code - part of the reason we chose it!!
It was a bit sad as it was Sally's last night in Oz but it was a great night for her to leave on.

Sunday morning was emotional saying bye to Sal and then our Whitsundays friends, Seb and Leah, came over for a barbeque which was good fun catching up on the last few months.

Monday started early so we could get some jobs done, i.e. book a campervan, before setting off on the 3 ish hour journey to the Pinnacles for sunset.
Sadly the clouds blocked the sunset so we didn't quite get the experience we were hoping for but it was still pretty cool. We had a yummy meal in the nearby village of Cervantes before heading back to Perth.

After the Road Trip we chilled out for a day returning to Fremantle Prison for the Great Escape tour and getting some more yummy food from the markets. Naomi and I went for a drink with Seb and Leah and then we watched some movies and got an early(ish) night before tomorrows road trip to Wave Rock.

The road trip to Hyden involved a very interesting section aptly named 'The Tin Horse Hyway'! It took us a fairly long time to complete this section as we stopped for photos of almost every horse and there were a lot!! They were so impressive and inventive it was hard to choose which ones to photograph.
We also stopped off in the quaint little of York and bought sweeties from the traditional sweet shop.
Wave Rock was really cool and naturally we did what everyone else does and surfed the wave. Nearby was another cool rock called the ' Hippo's Yawn' and of course had to have a photo in the mouth of the Hippo!

Dad and Mum got their first upclose encounter with Kangaroos and Koalas at Yanchep National Park . Sadly we'd missed the Aborigini experience but the wildlife made up for that a bit.
For our last night with Naomi we decided we needed another games night so it was airhockey and table football competitions for the evening and boy can Mum and Dad be competitive - they nearly took us out with the hockey puck thingy!!!

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