Getting Lost on Australia Day

This Australia Day we decided to go and get lost. We wanted to start the day acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land which we did on our front lawn. We want our kids to understand  the importance of our indigenous friends and know that Australia Day is a day when there is hurt as well as joy and pride. We can be grateful for our country. We can be proud of the land that we live on. But we also need to understand the hurt that came from the European settlement. 

We decided to start our journey at Grotto Point where there are some indigenous carvings - kangaroos, a large fish, a dolphin and an emu. We found a couple of the carvings but found it hard to identify them all.

Eliza made friends with this magpie. She was trying to work out if it was real or pretend. Turns out it was real! Just sat very still and let people get quite close to it.

We then pulled out our Getting Lost Cards and started to follow a white car. We called the car Berbic)

While follow the white car, we needed to dance for the next song, which was Staying Alive by the Bee Gees. Quite a fun song to play.

We followed Berbic until it looked like it was going to take us back to near our place, so we pulled out another card.

The card told us to turn down the next street starting with M. It was Merlin Street. Merlin Street didn't really take us anywhere. Our next card was to drive to the next signposted natural attraction. This one we though would be very easy with being near so many beaches. Turns out we were wrong. Brown signposted locations aren't very popular at the city beaches. We drove, and drove, and drove but couldn't find anything. We then realised that it was well after lunch so everyone was probably hungry. We tried to find a place to stop for lunch, but we also forgot that being Australia Day, everyone would be near the beaches so it would be hard to find parking. Other places were closing because it was later than peak lunch time. After a few stops, a few times deciding that there wasn't good variety or it was way too pricey to get lunch there we came to Chargrill Charlies at Randwick and it didn't disappoint. A tasty lunch to fill our tummies. 

We then pulled out the card for heading to a beach. After driving past a lot of beaches, unable to find a parking spot, we eventually came to Maroubra Beach. We went and saw the rocks and enjoyed watching the waves come in.

Was Daddy standing a bit too close? Yes, yes he was

Then we headed over to the beach to enjoy an ice cream. 

Then we enjoyed the water and the waves. We told the kids that they weren't to get very wet, but like that happens. The boys got their legs very wet as they ran in and out of the waves. Eliza got caught out by a wave that came up behind her. They had a blast though. Pants off for the car trip home! Trying hard to let kids be kids and have fun (even if it means sand in the car and wet clothes for the car trip home).

Eliza got caught out by a wave