in the merry old land of aus: time well spent

As a little surprise for my Easter Break, my mo and sister decided to join me in aus for two weeks! I found this out about four days before they actually got here and so had little time to make plans for our visit together, however, it couldn't have gone any better! I am saying this for myself, but am sure they will agree that we couldn't have done it better! Here is a recap of our time together up until our road trip!

Wednesday and Thursday

Went to Semaphore for a stroll along the jetty and the beach and had some new flavours of ice cream together - fruchoc (apricot and chocolate) and boysenberry. This was the first time that the girls caught some sun and aslo the first time they took the train that I take almost every day here in Adelaide. Mom and Sara were suffering from jet lag and had no choice but to fall asleep at about 5:00 pm. I was so happy to have company, and then they fell asleep and I watched tv for a few hours alone. The next couple of days weren’t so bad though; I think I adjusted to their sleeping schedule more than they did to mine because I found myself waking up before 6:00 am and getting tired right after ‘tea’ (dinner). Anyway, I had big plans for the girls so I didn’t mind the early mornings.

First on our list was Cleland Wildlife Park. As you may have read/seen, Alison and I had a really good experience here, despite the dismal weather. So did Sara, mom, and I. We fed the emus, koalas, and kangaroos, and got to experience a variety of Australian wildlife. We even saw a kangaroo with her joey sticking feet first out of her pouch. She was a little moody or something and scared Sara up onto her feet in a split second. What I really like about Cleland, is that the animals have relatively large spaces to roam around in and they seem generally content there. There are also a lot of birds and trees and specialized habitat areas.

A is for Adelaide and Australia

Semaphore

Sara and I feeding the Kangaroos

Mama was friendly with the emus .. until they started following her

Friday

Friday was our day of rest, planning, sun, smoothies, and wine coolers. We sat by the pool and caught up while we planned what we should do next with our time together in Aus.

girl time!

Saturday

Being the girls that we are, we thought Saturday would be a good day to go down town. We saw the museum, my school, and the Rundle Street Mall. We had a nice picnic together by the Torrens River and walked around enjoying the sunny weather. On Rundle Street we watched a few street performers do their thing. One Jamaican guy did a show that involved dancing, synthesizers, and the limbo. A couple of children did magic tricks. A lady was doing some sort of interpretive walking on stilts .. and there was the famous didgeridoo player there.

Some fountain art in the city, with the museum in back

a bench on Adelaide Uni's campus

Sunday

On Sunday, we visited the Port Adelaide market and did a dolphin cruise along the Port River. The market was held in a large, two floor warehouse-type building and was more or less a massive garage sale. There were trinkets and clothes, old bicycles and baseball cards, as well as a few cafes and food vendors. Not exactly the type of market that we had anticipated, but still very interesting to explore while waiting for our lunch time dolphin cruise. The Port River was wide and open, with little vegetation and few high rise buildings along the shoreline. It was a very industrial part of Adelaide, with massive cargo ships and docking stations as the primary landscape for the length of our cruise. It was very exciting though to see the dolphins come swim alongside the boat for about ten minutes at a time. Even when we were docking at the end of our ride I saw a group of dolphins swimming under the nearby bridge. To save a little money and enjoy the nice, sunny weather, we walked back to our home here in Cheltenham and had dinner at home.

Sara and mama by our boat

three dolphins that swam with us

an industrial part of the waterfront

Monday

Monday was zoo day. We got up fairly early and enjoyed the leisurely walk along the Torrens River, which cuts through Adelaide and directs us perpendicular into the Adelaide Zoo. The walk to the zoo is beautiful. The river is beside us to the left the whole walk, and there are nicely put together cafes, rowing clubs, and gardens on the other side. Even though I was starting to feel a little under the weather, we enjoyed some more sun and toured our way through the zoo. The animals were very active and, because it was Easter, so were the people. We had a nice bbq lunch and were home in time for our afternoon tea and to pack for our upcoming road trip!