At the Copa...Copacabana

This weekend, we thought we'd utilize Malcolm's two days off during the school holidays to relax with the children. We found a lovely beach front home at Copacabana. We left nice and early on Friday morning and stopped enroute at Avoca Beach before going to Terrigal for a lunch of pies. After some ice-cream on the beach, we headed for Copacabana to get ourselves settled in for the next 4 days. We were greeted by the most amazing view from deck of our temporary home.

The view from the deck

The house exceeded our expectations. The living are was huge! There was foxtel and there was free internet. What more can a girl ask for? One had important Disney business to attend to at 3pm on Friday. Excursions and dining at PALO are open for reservation for silver castaway members (that's us!). I had better stake my claim before other equally crazy Disney lunatic take up my spots. I was able to book PALO and excursions fairly quickly but was stalled in my attempts to book nursery slots for Jonah and Samuel. Despite multiple emails to DCL, I am still left with a further 19.5 hours to use up. It shall have to wait until my return to Sydney.

The living area

Watching the children play on the beach from the deck

The private path down to the beach

The house viwed from the beach

The deck leading down to the garden

I consoled myself by joining the rest of the family on the beach. The children had a fabulous time entertaining themselves within a "hole" on the sand. We wondered along the beach to the local take-away shop for dinner. The burger with the lot was awesome and the old battered sav made a comeback! We ambled back along the beach back home and de-sanded for bed. We finally initiated Lanella into the world of gaming, ending the night with a couple of games of Puerto Rico.

Jonah trying to push his sister "in-nah-hole"

Success!

Playing on a near deserted beach

Climbing out of the hole

We awoke on the Saturday to a rather bleak and dreary day. We decided to go ahead with our plan to go the Entrance to see the Pelican feeding. Unfortunately, our memory served us poorly. There was no feeding at 11am. The only feeding time is at 3pm which is too late. Lunch was at a little cafe where we found some food that was not deep fried. John Dory with lemon butter sauce...yummy! Disappointment over the pelican feeding was offset by an encounter with a certain bird. The bird theme continued when we got home with a resident kookaburra making itself comfortable on our deck.

Enjoying the view

The pelican just wandering around the shops...

We were joined in the afternoon by Malcolm's parents much to the delight of the children. They had brought along Elliot's tadpoles that they were babysitting while we were at Berry the previous weekend. Nana had also boiled some lettuce and froze them so the little tadpoles will have food. Hmm...I am not sure that my dedication as a mother would go that far. I kept hoping that the kookaburra would eat the little things so that I don't have to carry tadpoles home.

Grandpa was a hit for bringing along beach rods. After watching the start of the second test match against India, an afternoon fishing expedition was in order. A man kindly pulled up some beach worms for bait, unfortunately, no fish were caught. Dinner was a social affair with friends who also happened to be in the area. Ribs and steak BBQ with asparagus and salad made a great meal. It was nice to catch up with Sharon, Paul and little Trinity. Auntie Su made a great cheesecake to cap off another great day!

Heading down for some fishing

Lara, patiently "flapping" away continually so her mother could get a photo of "motion blur"

Showing off her funky hair do

Sunday was another relaxing day. More beach sessions, naps, fishing and cricket. I also managed to get some time to google map all the attractions in New York in an attempt to choose which ones to visit. Dinner was another BBQ, this time with seafood. It will be tough having to face reality tomorrow, the only consolation will be that we don't have to leave the house until 5pm...