Adelaide Xmas catchup WITH PHOTOS part 1
Written January 15th, 2011
Tuesday, December 21
We left home just after 6am. It was cold and gloomy and we kept fogging the car up for hours (the air con refused to work and would just blow air rather than altering the temp of the air at all) which was fun. We’d ride along with the windows up for as long as we could, and then once the windshield would start to get foggy on the driver’s side the windows would go down. Driving along at 100km/h on a cold morning with the windows down… not very nice.
Our first stop was Ballarat. Natey was hungry, Claire and I needed to pee, so we stopped at a Hungry Jacks which was the first place we saw. The inside was rather retro, which was amusing. I mostly enjoyed a Betty Boop sign.
Next stop was Horsham, where we ate at a cute little place called Cafe Chickpea. I thought by the name that it would be vegetarian friendly which would be good for Claire, but unfortunately they sucked in that regard. She ordered a vegetarian pasty but they were all out so she got a tiny bowl of chips that were actually really gross. I got a yummy turkey focaccia (top left picture) that I very much enjoyed.
I drove from Horsham to Bordertown, which meant I got to drive over the border from Victoria to South Australia. I didn’t even notice though, I have no idea how. I wanted to listen to my music during my driving time, but the front speakers don’t work (I think?) so the only sound was coming from the back speakers and it had to be deathly loud in the back for the people in the front to be able to hear it. Such a pity.
At Bordertown (top right picture) we got some beverages from a grocery store (coffee milk YUM!) and I had to stop driving. That was my first time driving on the way to Adelaide, every other year I’ve been old enough to drive we have gone in Mum’s school car which I wasn’t allowed to drive. So it was nice to help out this time.
The most anticipated stop on the road trip (because we are weird) was the ‘Jeep On A Pole’ at Keith. Jake and I hae a magnet featuring this amusement on our fridge. We all got our pictures by it, which was freaky for Jake and I as Claire pointed out as we were approaching that there was a bee (or wasp?) nest under the vehicle.
Final stop before the hotel was a little restaurant off a petrol station in Tailem Bend. We have been stopping there for as long as I can remember, mostly because it is AWESOME. They do great milkshakes and have super tasty wedges, as you can see above. Plus, the view is so lovely, looking over the Murray river.
We got to the hotel at about 4:30. There was lots of confusion, we had paid for a car park but couldn’t work out where we had to park while we went in and got the room keys and found out where to park.
We had a room on the 8th floor. After we had put our stuff in our rooms (Natey and Claire got the big room with windows, a tv, and a door to the balcony. Jake and I got a room that had barely any space to move around the bed, no windows at all…) we went down to the 4th floor to see the gym/pool area, and then went for a walk to find the nearby grocery store. We grabbed milk, juice and fruit and took it back to the hotel, and then went over to Nanna’s for dinner. Thankfully I knew my way around so once we took a left and a right from the hotel (which I used a city map to help me) I could direct how to get to Nanna’s house.
Dinner was Barnacle Bills, which is AWESOME takeaway seafood. It used to be in Victoria but they all left years ago, so now it is something we only get when we go to Nanna’s. I think I overate but it was so tasty I didn’t care.
We didn’t stay long after dinner, we were all exhausted from being in the car and wanted to go home and get situated and SLEEP.
Wednesday, December 22
In the morning we went back to Rundle Mall to look around. I needed bathers and we all needed workout gear so we could take advantage of the awesome facilities on the 4th floor of our hotel. I think we also all got goggles, very necessary for swimming.
We went to Nanna’s for lunch, which was just rolls with ham/lettuce/tomato etc. Tasty goodness that I pretty much expect for lunch when at Nanna’s.
After eats us 4 kids went to the river just down the street. There is a whole bunch of ‘exercise equipment’ there, the same quality as playground equipment, so it was all creaky and such. We tried out all of them, and then I ran off and played on the swings until my ass hurt (from swinging, not just because it was too skinny for my hips). There was also a huge amount of pigeons and ducks that were not scared of us at all, which was amusing. Every other time I’ve been there, they have run away from us approaching.
We had chinese food for dinner with the family at Nanna’s, and then we quickly went back to the hotel so we could go swimming in the pool. An hour and a half later we returned to our hotel room. Time zooms when playing in the pool or relaxing in the hot tub/jacuzzi. My favourite part of being in the pool was that I could carry Jake around. I would have no chance of being able to pick him up at all on land, so it was so much fun to be able to run down the length of the pool with him on my back, or to carry him in my arms like he was the world’s giantest baby. Also awesome about the pool (possibly TMI?) is that it cleared outa massive amount of disgusting coloured gunk in my ears. For as long as I can remember, they have been able to get blocked for weeks if just a drop of water got in them. Now, I don’t know how much water it would take, but it’s more than a drop! Plus, things are incredibly loud. It’s awesome.
Thursday, December 23
Zoo day!!
Natey and I took a combined 288 photos at the zoo. Click here to view them as a slideshow.
We got to the zoo at 9:30am. We had tickets to see the pandas at 9:30, which was also when the zoo opened, so that’s when we got there. We had been told by Dad and Nanna (and possibly Aunty Yvonne) that we wouldn’t be able to get a park near the zoo so we were crazy for not walking there, but we wanted to feel free to use all our energy walking around. Thankfully we got a park right in front, which was awesome (not awesome – we didn’t see that there were parking meters so we got a parking ticket… silly zoo). I made sure we got pictures of us with pandas in the background. Apparently we went to see the pandas when they were in Melbourne, but that was so long ago that Natey went but he hadn’t been born yet. So I would’ve been 3. Nanna kept saying that I should remember seeing the pandas, even though I kept saying my earliest memory was from 4 and a half years old and that if we had had our pictures taken with pandas in the background then I would at least have a memory of seeing the photo.
After the pandas we found the zoo shop and bought some sunscreen (one thing we had forgotten!) and then went clockwise through the zoo, looking at everything. Even the petting zoo, where I got to pat deer, which was awesome. We were done and back at the hotel by quarter to 1.
After a lunch of leftover Chinese from the night before, we went down to the gym to see what was there. There was 1 treadmill, which we took turns on, a rowing machine, 2 bikes (which hurt my knees, I think it was the 3 hours of non-stop walking at the zoo) and a few other weight-lifting machines. We worked out for an hour, then went for a walk to Rundle Mall again. I think we went almost every day that we were in Adelaide. It was right there, after all. I think we went back to Rebel Sport, and maybe to JB Hi Fi for a DS charger. We found an icecream place under Myer, so Jake and I got a coffee icecream which was SO GOOD (or maybe we got lemon sorbet… we went there the next day as well and got… whichever we didn’t get the first time). I don’t remember what Natey got, and Claire wandered off and got… something else from somewhere else in the food court. Good icecream.
Dinner at Nanna’s again. We were all exhausted from all the exercise during the day, so we devoured the delicious indian food.
Tomorrow…. more. I have to write up the days until the 29th. These 3 took 2 hours, so I’ll be done by… March.
Loved the pix!
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Wow that is an amazingly looking sandwich..thing. Wow yum. All the ingredients look so perfectly balanced.
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Being done by March would be awesome! Getting little snippety bits of your trip for like, 3 months would be enlightening and interesting and make your trip last forever! Or maybe I’m butarded. ~jo
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Lovely pictures as usual. You are talented!!
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I think I spent as long looking at zoo pictures as you spent at the zoo!! Great pics! Pandas climb trees??!!? The first one of the wallaby (or rock wallaby or kangaroo) had a ‘kangaroo paw’ in the foreground. Loooovve the photo of you being a tiger with your tiger t-shirt! Clever of the tapir to show us how its colouring acts as camouflage in the dappled light between trees. Much fun!
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fantastic entry, I really enjoyed the Adelaide Zoo when we went – oooh 5 years ago now, wow, our first trip away together!
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Great pics and a very fun entry. I love the image of you toting Jake around on your back like a big koala.
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I am LOLing at you carrying your Jakey around like a giant man baby! ~L
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