she decided she wanted to go on a road trip. a simple and quiet birthday celebration to mark another year of her life. her second birthday here in australia.

surprisingly, she invited us to come along, although i think she only really wanted raven but since it’s considered kidnapping to take a 16-month old toddler without the parents’ permission, she took the parents on board as well.

the heavens couldn’t have given her a better gift: a warm and sunny 25 degrees where it had been cold and shitty the days leading up to that glorious sunday. the gods knew how to make the wanderlust in her happy.

i was happy too, by extension: i was going on a road trip and i didn’t have to drive!

and so to torquay it was. but not before stopping by at geelong for brunch. and also, to give raven a break because, really, if you’ve ever been on the road with a cranky baby in the backseat, it ain’t pretty. makes you wanna do a u-turn and just drive back home. sometimes, the best holiday is when the baby is sleeping and you got the whole entire house to yourself to do nerdy stuff, like read a book or crochet.

or blog, like what i’m doing now. f%ck the dishes.

anyway, who knew geelong’s eastern beach was actually such a pretty place?! with the right light and with just the right amount of perfect weather, it’s beautiful. the last time we were there, which was my first, it was still nice but i never really got to appreciate it until last week when i saw their massive park dotted with palm trees. the blue of the water contrasting the green of the grass. a silhouette of the skyline on the horizon. people milling about with their dogs and their kids and their skateboards.

the food at wharf shed cafe was, um, typical. don’t get me wrong, it was good and all but they’re the kind you usually get everywhere else. you know what i mean? they’re what i like to call as australia’s comfort food: calamari, chicken parmigiana, some pasta, and chips. let’s not forget the chips.

aside from driving us, the birthday girl also shouted us brunch so we were definitely #winning it on that day. normally, jeff and i share but el2 insisted i get the chicken parma so i did. could only finish half.

the other half?

i stand up and walk away for not even 3 minutes and the friggin’ seagulls swooped in and ate the rest! seriously, i was literally an arm’s length away from my food taking pictures of el2 and raven and next thing i saw, those sneaky bastards were going for it!

so, yeah, consider yourself warned.

but the park, though. we had a lot of fun chasing raven in that park.

*raven at 1 year & 4 months old