School Holidays - week 2

 We enjoyed more beautiful weather during the second week of the school holidays.

We also fit in a city staycation, a visit to the aquarium, a boat ride on the harbour, catch up with friends and had soccer starting again. We'll start next term feeling refreshed and relaxed!

Autumn walks by the ocean

 A new tote bag by indigenous artists Miimi and Jiinda via their Adairs collaboration.

City staycation 

Aquarium visit

Soccer season starts

Loving my new vases in yoga poses from Jones & Co

20 years - a city break to celebrate.

A few weeks ago Simon and I booked a couple of nights at a hotel in the city to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. It's the city where we met when we were working together at The Renaissance Hotel (now the Sydney Marriott) We chose a staycation close to home to enjoy Sydney and all those things you never take advantage of in your home town in your busy day to day life. 

I never get over how beautiful the harbour is and how lucky we are to live surrounded by so many amazing spots!

We stayed at The Langham as we had never stayed there before and we loved that there was the Day Spa attached and it was in walking distance to The Rocks and several restaurants/bars.

It's a gorgeous boutique hotel with a lovely vibe. They also have a great new restaurant that recently opened " Kitchen on Kent" and the buffet there was amazing!

During our stay we booked in for a couple's massage and took full advantage of the pool and spa.

It was lovely to pop in here in the afternoon to relax and refresh before going out for dinner.

On one of the days we drove over to Bondi for a walk then headed to Watson's Bay for a seafood lunch. The blue skies and crowd made us feel like we were on holidays and miles away from home.

Also a Frose at lunchtime on a Wednesday definitely had us in vacation mode.

One afternoon we wandered down to The Rocks for a drink at The Lord Nelson. It's such a beautiful area with the old sandstone buildings and trees everywhere. 

We couldn't resist a stroll past Pottinger St in The Rocks, the site of our first kiss! Simon walked me to my car after work 23 years ago and the rest is history ;)

We chose our favourite Mr Wong's for dinner one night. The food never disappoints!

The cocktails were pretty good too.

Later on we walked off dinner by the harbour and enjoyed the pretty lights and buskers.

It was so lovely to take a couple of days off from normal routine and celebrate our anniversary.

I can't believe it's been 20 years! I'm looking forward to seeing what the next 20 hold x

STAYCATION - our city break - January 2017

We are in full on holiday mode here! 

The days are running into each other, the weather has been amazing and we are feeling very very relaxed. I don't know how we will go back to our usual routine at the end of the month!

Simon and I didn't give each other Christmas gifts as we knew that we wanted to do a hotel stay in January and that would be our gift to each other. We booked 2 nights at the Primus Hotel Sydney and decided to have a staycation and enjoy our own city. We decided to take the boys with us for one night as they love a hotel stay and then drop them at the grandparents for the 2nd night while we relaxed a little more on our own.

On Friday we headed over to EQ Moore Park where they had set up a temporary water park for the school holidays. The boys had a great time going down the slides and splashing around for a few hours. We grabbed some lunch and headed to the hotel to check in.

The Primus Hotel is located in Pitt St in Sydney and is so central to everything.

It was lovely and quiet when we stayed as the Christmas + New Year holidayers had left and the corporate guests hadn't started up yet. The hotel is a beautiful art deco style and the attention to detail around the place is amazing! As you walk into the lobby it is quite stunning.

There was a bottle of champagne and a cheese plate to welcome us which was lovely. 

I just love a hotel stay with their crisp linen, fluffy white towels and delish bath + shower products. 

We headed up to the roof top to check out the pool and the younger boys went for a dip.

Finn and I left them to it while we walked a couple of blocks to Pitt St Mall and Westfields to have a browse through the shops.

After a huge day the boys were tired so we decided to have room service for dinner and an early night. I think I might have had the best club sandwich ever! Simon had a delicious spanner crab risotto and the boys had pasta. The food everywhere in the hotel was amazing!

The next morning after a yummy buffet breakfast we headed to Balmoral Beach for a swim before dropping the boys at the grandparents for a sleepover. The boys loved jumping off into the water and we grabbed a coffee and an iceblock from The Boathouse before leaving.

After dropping the boys off we headed back into the city and drove through The Rocks stopping for some lunch and admiring that harbour view!

Back at the hotel we decided to take advantage of the fact that we had nowhere else to be and headed back up to the roof top bar to while away a few hours. It was bliss to just sit, just the two of us and chat and enjoy some snacks + cocktails. 

On Sunday we were booked in for lunch at Fort Denison. Simon had received a voucher for his 40th birthday and we had to use it before the end of January. I'm so glad we waited to use it as it was the perfect end to the weekend and you couldn't of asked for better weather.

We caught the "hop on, hop off" ferry at Circular Quay and sat down to lunch with a stunning view!

The ferry comes past every hour but as we weren't in any rush we stayed for 2 hours and enjoyed a leisurely meal and then had a little browse around the rest of the island. (it's only tiny)

It really was a wonderful weekend and we are so lucky to have so many beautiful places to visit so close to home.

How are your holidays going? Are you going away?

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