Caz, Jo, and Duff load the car while Mel, Tori, and I map our route before we check out of our house in Freo
A few wine tasters at Houghtam Winery
Jojo blows out the birthday candles of her lemon meringue dessert plate
The sunscreen police even came to our covered table during lunch. All five girls were applying loads of sunscreen every five seconds.
A little application happy if you ask me...
Jojo, Duff, Caz, me, and Tori... sugar high anyone?
Happy, happy! Jo, Duff, Caz, me, Mel, and Tori
A spoonful of chocolate or 10 at the Chocolate Factory
Mmmm, mmmm, aaah, gourmet chocolates aplenty
No cheese at the cheese tasting. This Lancester winery is known for it's little tin shed in the middle of the vineyard.
Grapes anyone?
We spent our last day in Perth celebrating Jojo's birthday. She was splattered with balloons as she ascended the stairs first thing that morning. After checking out of our house in Freo, we headed northeast to Swan Valley to eat and drink our way through Perth's local wine region. We went to a few wineries including Houghtam, Jane Brook, and Heafod Glen from which I recommend Houghtam's chardonnay, the 2004 Elizabeth Jane Methode Champenoise Pinot Chardonnay or 2007 Savignon Blanc, and the 2007 Reserve Chardonnay or 2006 Chenin Blanc respectively. We celebrated Jojo's birthday at Chester's and continued our afternoon food tour - first to the ice creamery, then to the chocolate factory, with a final unfulfilled stop at a cheese tasting (they'd run out of cheese). Stuffed to the brim, we swung by the Swan Valley caravan park to help Mel, Tori, Caz, and Duff get checked into their deluxe accommodations for the evening. Seeing their classy digs made it slightly easier to leave behind the beauty of Perth to return to work in Melbourne the next day. Our visit would not be complete without a repeat visit to Cottlesloe, our favorite beach near Perth. After a swim and watching the sun set, we went for one last fancy dinner at Blu and parted ways. The fearless four continued their adventure in Western Australia while Jojo and I headed to the airport for our red eye flight back to Melbourne. We left feeling relaxed, tan, and like we'd seen and done everything we wanted.
