mom in oz...sunday brunch, derby market, didgeridoo music, and brownies!

after a restful friday (full of cooking, baking, reading, napping, and resting) we had an insanely busy saturday. up early for garage sales (where we got our first jaffle iron!), sunday brunch with friends, sampling my prune brownies, then to the derby markets for fun, food, crafts, and (lucky us!) didgeridoo playing. the guy playing the didgeridoo was incredible. my favorite so far.  then we took photos outside derby or bust, a tradition now with visitors.  walked home and rested before heading off to the derby rodeo!  see photos here in the Mom's visit in derby 2011 album

one more trip to cable beach and 12 mile cafe for lunch

woke up early again today and took miski back to cable beach for another romp. she was so tired from her big day yesterday that she didn't play that much. she still had a blast though. walked along the beach for an hour and then hit the markets again...this time getting amazing smoothies for breakfast. wish derby had markets like these. anyway, headed out of town and grabbed some lunch at 12 mile cafe.  talk about amazing!  we had lemongrass noodles with organic veggie stirfy, chili chicken satay, and kafir lime and lemon polenta torte.  wow!  drove back to derby with full bellies and a puppy snoring in the back.  now we've just got to get ready to head to bali in a week! yay!  more photos here

miski's first trip to the beach!

woke up super early saturday morning, packed some things up, shuffled a sleepy puppy into the car and drove to cable beach in broome. miski has not really enjoyed water so i was surprised how much she loved the ocean.  she played in the water and chased the waves for over an hour. after that we took her to the markets, grabbed a breaky wrap and then went to a friend's house to clean up and have a much needed nap while miski played with her favorite doggy friend.

street arts festival, markets and beer in fremantle

another fantastic day in beautiful, sunny perth! we grabbed muffins in leederville then caught the train at 10am to freo. wandered down the beautiful, old streets towards the markets, shopping all the way.  i loved the markets, they were full of wonderful things from handmade jewelry, wall decals, produce, cupcakes, food, wood and other crafts, etc. we shopped a little bit in there and jose got some japanese soup.  we also got miski a cute little raincoat and some peanut butter doggy cookies. can't wait to give them to her.  we then found a nice painting outside that we got and wandered around to various street art acts. we watched breakdancers from the USA...not that good though..., chalk art, acrobats, stilt artists, etc.  it was very fun but it was also extremely hot. we walked across the park to little creatures, a local (huge) brewery with legendary beer.  we sat outside overlooking the port and sampled most of their beer. my favorite was their bright ale - jose's too. i also liked the white rabbit dark ale.  we had bruchetta and then pork chops with apple chutney and potatoes and a beet, pumpkin, feta, walnut salad. it was SO good!  we wandered about a bit after, got cupcakes, and then headed on home. we were exhausted by the time we got back and pretty much just vegged out watching movies and documentaries. more photos in this album

happy easter!

happy easter everyone in the us...a day ahead anyway.  today was more of a day of rest for us which was nice. got up and had a stroll at lake monger across from where we're staying. it is a beautiful lake with lots of wild birds and a lovely walking track. only 3.5k but still a nice walk.  then emmett came by and we walked into leederville and saw some of the shops (very quaint) and had coffee, tea and milkshakes at a place called green & co...although the picture shows what some inspired artist turned the name into :)  see photos here  then i went across the street and had my first frozen yogurt in about 10 months!  it was an american company and it was so nice to have my favorite treat after so long. then we went into subiaco (another suburb) and walked the mostly closed shops there.  but it is a very cute area, much larger than leederville with more cafes, etc.  we went to the markets there again and looked around and ate vietnamese food again (jose's choice).  very yummy but not as good as the day before.  jose found a clothing store he really liked and bought his first hoody ever! looks great on him. then we headed home, relaxed, watched documentaries online, had another lake walk, ate fabulous open faced sandwiches with wine and watched punch drunk love.  a nice day :)

Super tired from our lago quilotoa tour

We had a full day tour of lago quilotoa, a lake in a volcanic crater. Pics to come later. It was awesome and a good hike down and up again. Tons of dust though. Then we had lunch and explored the Pujilí market where they sell all kinds of stuff including loaves of unrefined sugar. Tastes like molasses.