Catching up - Bali

Last December, Ross and I popped over to Bali for a whirlwind few days.  Ross had a few days work in Denpasar so, thanks to my wonderful parents, I was able to accompany him on the trip.  As he was working I spent most of my days reading by the pool or wandering through the fabulous shops and gardens.   We also had some wonderful meals out with some of Ross' work colleagues.  Mostly expats that live in Jakarta and that are lucky enough and close enough to have holiday houses in Bali.  Their lifestyle sounded fabulous to me until I heard about the traffic issues in Jakarta.  One family we had dinner with had boys at the British School in Jakarta (where I went to Pre-school way back in the late 1970s!) and despite the fact that the school is only 8km from their house it takes them two hours on a school bus to get from A to B.   My 40 minute school trip (yes, some days it can even take longer, sob!) sounded not so bad after hearing their tales of traffic woe.

The first few days we stayed at the W in Seminyak.  It was gorgeous and as we had a villa with a private pool, extremely relaxing.  I floated about the pool amongst frangipani flowers, read lots of books and caught up on sleep.  It was heavenly.

I did manage to leave the hotel every now and then.  Coffee at the The Corner House in Seminyak became an essential part of each day quickly.  Easily the best coffee we found in Bali and the most charming little cafe to sit in and enjoy said coffee.  It is well worth a visit if you are in Seminyak.  Even the Bathroom is gorgeous!

Homewares shopping isn't too bad either!  This is Kim Soo near the Petitenget Temple.  Lots of gorgeous things to be found inside!

After 4 nights at the W, we moved to the incredible Ayana, famous for the adults only pool and the Rock Bar.  Both well worth a visit and I actually thought that this hotel would be fun to stay at with the kids.  There were multiple pools and the gardens were a delight to wander and explore. The staff bent over backwards to ensure we enjoyed our holiday experience as well.  

The kids pool was being renovated whilst we were staying there so this is unfortunately the best photo I was able to take of it, but seriously how much fun does that look?!  When I showed the boys they insisted that we take them next trip!  

This is the divine adults only pool.  Truly spectacular!

Whilst we were at the Ayana we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary.   11 years, sigh.  I feel so lucky and so blessed. 

So that takes us up to mid-December.  I'll try and add Christmas and our annual trip to Whistler before the year is half over!

Los Angeles

 Way back in early January we visited Los Angeles for a few days en route to Canada and in the interests of actually documenting some of our life events on the blog I thought it was about time I wrote a post about it!

We have visited LA on our way to Canada (and on two occasions also on the return trip) for the past three years.  Partly because we like to break up the long trip to Canada with the kids and partly because we love it there.  My husband lived in LA for a while in his twenties and gets a hankering for a visit every now and then.  I love the shopping and the restaurants!  The boys are learning to love it!

We have stayed either in Santa Monica or in Beverley Hills.  Both are great places but if I had to choose between the two locations I would pick Santa Monica.  Choose a hotel along the promenade and then it is an easy walk to the beach, playgrounds and one of LA's best shopping precincts.   If you are travelling with kids the promenade in Santa Monica is brilliant for children and a great place for them to explore and burn off some energy!

Despite our frequent visits to LA we have never 'done' Disneyland.  The boys have never even asked us to go. Everyone from the moment we get on the plane in Sydney assumes that is why we are heading to California and asks the boys if they are looking forward to Disneyland, so it isn't even as if they don't know about it.  They just don't seem to be that interested in going.  They do get excited about our annual visit to Pizzeria Mozza though!  

Activities for kids that they have enjoyed in LA have included a visit to the California Science Centre to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour.   The exhibit wasn't complete in January 2015 but it was still well worth a visit.  The boys couldn't quite believe the size of it, nor that it had actually been into space, and multiple times at that. The rest of the Museum is well worth investigating, it is similar to Questacon in Canberra with lots of hands on exhibits 

The highlight for the boys though was a visit to the Peterson Automotive Museum, the home of the Hot Wheels Museum and all sorts of other fabulous cars.  For my two little car fanatics this was literally paradise.  

They really enjoyed the Hot Wheels exhibit but they also loved the rest of the museum.  It is home to one of the largest automotive collections in the world and of course has lots of cars that have featured in all sorts of Hollywood films.  Including multiple Batmobiles and so on!

Their father loved this one, a 1966 Jaguar XKSS formerly owned by Steve McQueen!

My favourites were a toss up between these two!  Who remembers the movie the above car came from?  I seriously must have watched that movie a hundred times with my brother.

The boys could have spent all day exploring the museum and it is well worth a visit if you are in LA. 

The highlight for me in LA is the shopping and just simply exploring.  All of these photos were taken around Melrose Place as I love it there!

If you are looking for a decent coffee in LA - ignore everything on tripadvisor and other forums. Everywhere we tried was terrible.

Alfred we just stumbled across and thank goodness.  Perfect coffee every time.  They know what a flat white is.  Enough said.

Food wise the highlight of our trip to LA each year is Pizzeria Mozza!  We have two pizza connoisseurs in the family and they rate the pizza at Mozza as they best they have ever had!  Everything that we have ordered there has been fabulous though!

The Ivy at the Shore in Santa Monica is great too for breakfast.  Not so much for the coffee but do go for the atmosphere and the boys rate the pancakes highly!

Look at that bougainvillea.  A visit to the Ivy at the Shore is essential just to walk through that fabulous entryway.  Until next time LA!