The first half of September - Part I

The first half of September was hectic with family gatherings, dinners, sightseeing and family!

It was my son's birthday on the 4th of September and my husband's 60th on the 5th of September. 
Daughter daughter Karina who is now living 2 hours south of Manila in the Philippines arranged to come and spend 2 weeks in Perth.
It was originally going to be a surprise for Dad and brother, but with Jose working in Sydney, he was only going to take 1 day off work and arrive on a Thursday and leave Sunday, so I had to tell him Karina was coming, and he took 1 week off work, spending a total of 9 days at home.

On Tuesday 4th, I joined Jose and Karina on a trip to the city and after Jose dealt with what he had to do we drove to the Kings Park Botanic Gardens to have a look at the Spring Festival wildflower show.

Kings Park is huge at 4,06 km² or 1,003 acre, bigger than New York's Central Park with an area of 3,41km² or ‎843 acres. 

It rained on and off, so we didn't see much, but managed to catch a rainbow and were lucky enough to get close to a friendly kookaburra that stood a mere 20 cm from me when it flew onto the rail of the lookout, where we were admiring the view of the city and Swan river.

Rainbow over Perth, seen from Kings Park

Elizabeth Quay area with pedestrian bridge, statues and Cafes

The new buildings at Elizabeth Quay - an hotel and exorbitant priced apartments

Jose and Karina looking at the city, when I joined them the Kookaburra joined us on the rail

The friendly kookaburra on the rail

Wildflowers and the Honeyeater feeding on flower pollen 

Views of Kings Park

   
That night we joined our son, wife and baby for dinner at their home, and the next day we celebrated Jose's birthday with a dinner at "Two Fat Indians" restaurant in the newly renovated rooftop food court at the Carousel shopping centre.  The food and service were great and we had a great night.

Even though I'm not a shopper and hate going to big shopping centres (malls), I must concede that the recently opened rooftop area looks beautiful, modern and spacious, with an entertainment area where live music is played and patrons can watch from an amphitheatre, lots of comfortable seating areas, fairy lights, and lots of new restaurants.

Westfield Carousel new rooftop eating area

Westfield Carousel rooftop entertainment area

  On Saturday 8th of September I had invited a few friends for lunch to celebrate Jose's birthday. Even though we had a few wet and cold days, we were lucky that the sun came out that day, but we still had to use our outdoor gas heater on the patio for warmth while having lunch.
The birthday cake was a low-carb Mandarin cake with cream cheese icing that was moist and delicious. The mandarins I used were the last ones from our tree in the backyard.

The family on Michael's birthday dinner and the table of savoury and deserts for Jose's birthday lunch

In the afternoon of Sunday 9th, Jose flew back to Sydney and Karina and I planned some activities for the following week, as I had the week off work.


On Monday 10th, Karina and I took the train into the city centre and walked through some of Perth's iconic buildings - The State Buildings, City of Perth Library, St George's Cathedral, St Mary's Cathedral - until we reached the beautiful suburb of East Perth. 

St Mary's Cathedral, St George's Cathedral and the Ascalon statue, Perth Library, State Buildings

In East Perth, we walked across Victoria Gardens and the Matagarup Bridge to the new Stadium area.

East Perth with the bridge and stadium on the other side of the river, and the city centre buildings in the distance

Victoria Gardens in East Perth, the Stadium and bridge, Peace Grove monument

You might remember from my previous post that the bridge wasn't totally finished, but I noticed quite a lot had been done and it was looking much better. Workers were installing an overhead cover in an area where there will be seating.

Bike repair station in and exercise machines in Victoria Gardens. Karina on the bridge and the new overhead covers on the bridge

And by then we were quite hungry and stopped at the amazing Camfield pub and chose the Fish and Chips for lunch, a beer for Karina and a Lemon, Lime and Bitters for me.

The Camfield and our fish and chips

When we left the pub the sky had turned a dark gray so we cut our trip short and rushed back through the bridge and East Perth to catch the free CAT bus (central area transit) into the city and got to the stop just as huge drops started falling.
In the city the rain continued so we decided to get the train back home and watched a movie from Netflix - "The Age of Adeline". Interesting movie, loved it! 

Hope you enjoyed the first part of the tour, have a lovely week.

Dark skies over Perth which made us rush home