A Weekend of Exploration: Watson's Bay and Palm Beach (by Suzanne)

We had another busy and fun packed weekend in Sydney!  The kids and I had been to Watson's Bay one day a few weeks ago, but we did not do a lot of walking around the area, and Ethan really wanted to go see it.  So Saturday afternoon we took the ferry over to Watson's Bay, one of the furthest Eastern suburbs of Sydney.

The famous restaurant at Watson's Bay is Doyle's, where you have to have the famous fish and chips.  We had lunch as soon as we got there.  Doyle's has been there since 1885!  Ethan was able to confirm that yes, it was the best fish and chips he has had since we've been here.  (I actually preferred the fish and chips that I had last weekend in Bondi, but don't tell anyone!)

We took several walks along the shore, seeing the city of Sydney in the distance, several old lighthouses, and gorgeous views all around.  We took the Heritage Trail, where we had good views of the North Head of the Harbour, Manly, and Middle Head.  We stopped at Camp Cove Beach, where   there was one topless woman who really put on a show for the clearly uncomfortable beach goers.  (The members of my family were definitely some of the uncomfortable beach goers, especially Brady and Luke, but they were not the obvious ones! Both of the boys actually managed to keep their eyes completely away from the topless woman. )  A little further down the path, we saw Lady Bay Beach, a marked nude beach, much more hidden from plain view, where we noticed two men completely naked on the beach.   :)

The kids' reactions to seeing that the beach allowed nudity...

We  took the southern trail where we could see the South Head of Sydney Harbour as well.  The two heads represent the entrance to the Sydney Harbour.  Our feet were quite tired after this day of walking! 

This was taken in the park right as you get off the ferry at Watson's Bay.  You walk up this small hill to "The Gap" bluff, where you can look across the other side of the peninsula to South Head.  On this side you can see the city behind us.

This picture was taken up at "The Gap."  The bluff right behind us is South Head, and in the distance you can see North Head.

This was taken during our walk, in the distance below the kids you can see the Camp Cove Beach.

This red and white lighthouse is called the Hornsby Lighthouse.

Watson's Bay must be a big place to get married.  We saw 4 wedding

 parties while we were there that day!  

Sunday we decided to go north of Sydney to a little town called Palm Beach.  We had heard from several people that it was a beautiful beach to go to.  One person had even compared it to Hawaii.  We took the bus, which isn't a great comfortable means of communication.  The busses are very crowded, but we were fortunate enough to have seats for the 100 minute bus ride.  The beach was beautiful and did also have a very nice rock pool right on the side of the water.  But as with all of the beaches here at this time of year, the water is freezing!  I have yet to actually get in the water!!!  There were some neat rock formations that went out into the water here, so we got lots of pictures out on the rocks.  Elise and I did some sea shell collecting here as well.  Palm Beach had the largest and best shells that we have found yet!

Luke is not shy with the waves.  He loves it!!!

Brady, on the other hand, is usually on the beach designing huge sand cities. They get larger each time we go to a beach!

Luke and Elise got "buried" in the sand.

We stopped by a charming restaurant on the water called The Boat House before we left Palm Beach.  We were so sad to find out that they had stopped serving food after lunch, so all we could have were some "chips," or french fries as we Americans call them.  I also had my usual glass of "sparkling wine."  This is something I love about Australia!  Everyone drinks champagne all the time!  It's not just for special occasions.  It is one of the main wine choices everywhere, and I love it!  I no longer need an excuse to drink champagne!  :)  

Well, we had a great day at Palm Beach.  We decided that it maybe wasn't worth the hour and a half bus ride, but lovely none the less.  Probably if we had a car the gorgeous drive would have been more enjoyable.  But then again, we are liking getting to see new places all the time.  We love getting to know new areas around Sydney!