Almost Wordless Weekend

 

Hunter Valley Chocolates

which is right in front of Petersens Wines (Champagne of course)

Accommodation - The Carriages

Wildlife

Choir Boys

Thirsty Merc

Meatloaf

(from the big screens)

By the time Meatloaf came on stage it was dark and very, very wet - as in the rain had set in

So my poor little camera had a very hard time taking this shot (the best of about 20!)

Aussie Maria's Australia

First off -

Go RABBITOHS we beat them PANTHERS - YEAH!!!!!

This is a long running friendly feud between my almost-SIL and his favourite NRL team, the Penrith Panthers and my favourite team - South Sydney Rabbitohs.  And we beat them BIG time!!!!

Ok, now down to business

One of the most annoying things I find about the amazing digitial cameras - the fact that you usually don't print them to look at them!!!!.

For a couple of months now I have wanted to share some photos with you, but 3 home moves, 6 computers and 3 digital cameras later, I could not find where they were.  I was sure I saved them.  I know I never printed them.  But where were they?????

Finally found a disc over the weekend that I never look at - it is labelled photos, but nothing else, and yes there they were

So what am I going to show you????

Well it happened in the end of July 2004.  A surprise for a wedding anniversary.

A weekend away in one of our favourite areas of NSW - The Hunter Valley.  I did a post of one trip here

Yes we checked out our favourite wineries and yes the favourite food shops.  But this time hubby had organised something special.

Unfortunately it involved a extremely early start, can't remember exactly what time now, but I can tell you it was pitch black and would be for another 2 hours after we arrived at the destination.  Please remember that this is our winter time and while the Hunter Valley has beautiful spring, summers and autumns, the temperature can drop quite low (well for us anyway :-P) here.

So please don't be surprised at some of the photos and our faces - early hour remember.

We saw this .......

and we got views like this

yes that is sunrise

and a little of The Great Dividing Range

and just to prove it was us ☺

this was just prior to becoming airborne

A Bucket List moment

They like everyone to take part, so you are requested to help with the inflation of the ballon and the packing up at the end of the trip.  Lucky for me I was responsible for the camera, as the balloon looks very heavy.

Inflating the balloon

and packing it up

We then went back to their office/base and had a wonderful breakfast and a glass of champagne to celebrate.

Bye for now

Wined & dined

Hi everyone
Thanks Clare for the good wishes, we had a fantastic weekend. My "babies" (one is in the photo below) are 28 and 27, but you are right, they will always be "my babies" :-)

In the end we were a party of 16 plus one absolute gorgeous, delightful, happy baby boy and we stayed at the Grand Mercure Vintage in great accommodation, which were perfect for our big group - 4 separate apartments which had 2 bedrooms with ensuites and a great big lounge, dining area with BBQ. Which was great for our large group gatherings

Here we are tasting wines at the beautiful Irongate Wineries - beautiful and the staff were the best!!!!

Another wonderful winery - Ballabourneen Wine Co. - had this saying near the entrance - very apt and the wines again were lovely as were their staff!

Picked these absolutely delicious chocolates up at Irongate - Sweet Shiraz Chocolates - mmmmm - no where near enough in the box, need more!!!

Another wonderful view from a winery of Brokeback Range A wonderful weekend of laughing, wining, eating (so much food - a huge, huge groan), talking, shopping, sightseeing

Hope you all had a great weekend too