Alex managed to stay very busy while we waited for our food.
Margaret River is on a cape at the southwest tip of Australia and the landscape is beautiful. The coast is rocky and the bush is colorful and full of blooming flowers and birds.
And one of the main attractions is the fabulous wines produced in the area! We stopped and tasted a few for as long as the boys would stay entertained. This was outside Sandalford winery, by far our favorite find here.
We finally checked into our little cottage and let the boys explore everything.
It was a great 2-bedroom chalet just outside the town.
It had its own playground out back.
And the best part was that the kids could help feed the farm animals at the main house. The owners' daughter introduced us to all of their animals. They had two orphaned kangaroos that had been raised as pets, along with chickens, guinea pigs, a rabbit, cows, and ponies.
This little girl was so cute! She is still young and needs help holding her food.
Alex loved the chickens. What is it with him and chasing birds? You can hear him saying "bock bock" while he's trying to catch them.
After a nice dinner, we tucked the kids into their room and listened to them play for the next hour and a half. Ben kept getting in Alex's crib so no wonder they didn't go to sleep. I finally went in to tell them to go to bed and Ben was leaning against the wall with a paci in his mouth reading a book. I wish I'd taken a picture! Once I finally stopped laughing, we got them to sleep and got to relax and enjoy some of our wine.
Unfortunately, traveling farther south (where the sun comes up even earlier, if that's possible) and leaving the comforts of our own beds meant the boys woke up even earlier than usual so we started the day Saturday at about 4:45am.
This was about 30 seconds after breakfast.
We drove around and explored the area some more. I thought this carnation plant was pretty cool because I'd never actually seen carnations growing anywhere before.
We spotted more black cockatoos.
The first group of wild kangaroos we encountered. I think it's like spotting deer here but I still get pretty excited.
The area is dotted with limestone caves and we stopped in to visit Mammoth cave. I was a little unsure how it would work with the kids so we picked one with a self-guided headphone tour and well-protected walkways.
The cave had some beautiful formations.
And I shouldn't have doubted that the kids would enjoy it. Ben loved running in the semi-darkness and Alex thought all the walkways and stairs were just a huge playground.
He also thought the flash on the camera was hilarious and started counting "one two three" to have his picture taken.
The exit was a different story...it was a LOT of stairs to get out, then a trail down the hill back to the visitors center. Mama and Daddy had some tired legs afterward!
The trees around the caves were enormous.
The vegetation was so beautiful! Everywhere I looked it seemed like some kind of flower was growing wild.
We stopped at the next cave to let the kids explore in the discovery center and they loved this play cavern.
We took one look at the entrance to this cave and turned right around. It looked like hundreds of stairs going straight down.
Instead we wandered down a few more beaches...
...and stopped to do some more tastings, this time cheese, ice cream, chocolate, and olive oil. Alex was kind enough to pick up all the used spoons on the floor and put them in the trash can.
One of the pretty vineyards.
This is a kookaburra, an Australian cousin of the kingfisher. They are said to "laugh" but they sound more like very loud monkeys to me and kindly start their calls at sunrise, which is around 5am. No wonder we're all up so early!
These wineries are so beautiful!
Daddy and Alex stopped to smell the flowers.
We had dinner in town again and Alex did surprisingly well sitting in a big chair. Well, once the food came anyway. Nothing gets his attention like anything edible.
Sunrise on day 2. I thought the dewy spiderweb was particularly pretty.
While Matt went out to surf, the boys and I fed the animals again and played around on the little farm.
The swell came in on Saturday night and there were some huge waves on Sunday morning! This isn't what Matt surfed but was still fun to watch.
After a nice brunch, we meandered our way back toward Perth but stopped outside Dunsborough to check out the whale-watching point. Sure enough, we were lucky enough to watch several humpback whales leaving Geographe Bay and heading back towards their Antarctic feeding grounds. They were still a pretty good ways out but through the binoculars we got a nice look at the giants. Click on the picture for a bigger version and you can see two breaking the water. I really hope to do a whale-watching cruise and see them up close!
Once again, Matt and I got a pretty good workout after hauling the two kids on the 30-minute roundtrip hike. It was totally worth it to see whales for the first time!
These were two great videos of the boys playing basketball. I'm pretty sure Alex will be a natural athlete.
And Ben is finally learning how to throw a ball!
We had a wonderful weekend. We all loved Margaret River and can't wait to go back. The best part was that Ben didn't wear a diaper, even in the car, and was accident-free the entire weekend. Now, back to real life!
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