Busy Long Weekend & Manly Food and Wine Festival

This weekend was what the Australians call "June Long Weekend" .  I asked a few times what the Monday holiday was in celebration of..and got no response.. So just now- I googled it. It's the Queen's birthday.  Of course.

Regardless of the reason for celebration- we managed to have a great "June long weekend"!  Saturday was Lionel's birthday- so I made a cake while Dan went to pick out our new car.  We decided that all 3 of us going car shopping was too much- after last weekends experience.  Car seat in- car seat out- as we test drove the cars-then Dyllan would get sick of sitting still- and crawl around the dirty car sales floor- all while we tried to negotiate with the sales man.  Anyway- so Dan went and picked out a good, solid, reliable car.  Funny enough- its the same car his dad has.  A Mazda Tribute.  We are just so happy to (almost) have a car again.  Dan picks it up Wednesday.  Yay!

Anyway- the weekend was fun- relaxing, and kind of boring on paper.  But it was nice not to have too many plans- and just do whatever.  Sunday morning we went over to Anthony and Nat's for  breakfast.  The boys went on a run (just like old times) and Nat and I hung out while Dyllan danced and put on a show for us.  When the boys got back we made a big breakfast and hung out for a bit-then headed home for Lionel's  family birthday lunch.

Monday we went on a walk around the headland and along the beach- then went to see Granny and Gaga.    Dan's mom and her brothers are on a rotation - staying at the house caring for Granny (kind of like a hospice).  We relieved Marianne for a few hours.   Granny is doing ok- her spirits are up- and she is a pleasure to be with.  Dyllan enjoyed walking around with Granny's walking device- she would scoot it all over the house- with her keyboard propped ontop so she could stop and play anytime.

After Granny and Gaga's - Dan, Dyllan and I packed our rain coats (its been raining here lately!) and headed to Manly to walk the neighborhoods and scout out potential areas to live.  We ended up walking for 2 and a half hours- discovering all kinds of cool new neighborhoods.  We are getting excited to be close to Manly again.  Unfortunately- Sydney has now crept into second place- just behind Tokyo- as most expensive city to live.  Yikes- well it shows!  Things are ridiculous here!  We are hoping to get kind of lucky when it comes time to rent!  We are hoping to move mid Sept- after we get back from the US.

Since I didnt take any pictures this weekend- Ill post photos from last weekend- at the Manly Food and Wine Festival.

The food and wine festival has gotten HUGE! It was soo much fun.  We met up with a bunch of our friends- drank wine- watched the surfers- had dinner- and enjoyed the winter sunset!

The Manly Corso

Excited for some wine!

Packed!  The entire corso was packed with booths- plus they lined the beach and streets- much bigger than the last time we went (4 years ago!)

Live music

Surfers in winter

Wine booths along the beach

The only photo we took of us or our friends..woops!

Live Reggae 

"hmm , which wine next?!"

Jeremy giving kids wine.  We were pretty glad we didnt bring Dyllan.  We were surprised by how many people did bring their kids though!  Too much work we figured.  Dyllan stayed home and drank juice.