Of course we have done a few things during busy season
- Enjoyed a weekend stay in the Barossa Vally during the Gourmet Food and Wine Festival
- Took a master hip-hop class with the current winners of America's Best Dance Crew - the Poreotics (not sure why they came to Adelaide, but hey I'm not complaining)
- Booked all of our other vacations that will be coming up including: home to Denver, vanning around New Zealand (where you rent a van and just drive), the St Paddy's day horse races in Broken Hill, and girls spa weekend in Dayelsford. Granted these aren't coming for awhile, but when you are stuck in busy season it is good to plan...
On a brighter note, Miss Anne Gabel came down under for a holiday recently. I was able to take some much needed time off and our adventure began. We first stuck around Adelaide for a few days to take in the sights and allow her a few days to get over the jet lag (which didn't take long). Our day trips included McClaren Vale for the red wine tastings and late lunch, Norlunga for a walk on the jetty, and Glenelg for some coffee and beach.
The next day we hopped on a jet headed for Sydney. Got in and out of our hotel room first thing in the morning and took a nice stroll around the Botanic Gardens. Quite a few nice plants and flowers, but the craziest part were the bats. Not sure why the place is full of them, but it is - and they just hang out in the trees making loud noises (unfortunately I didn't have my camera in Sydney so no photos of them...). Then it was around the Opera House and the Circle Quay before heading back for a nap before dinner.
Luckily, in Hyde Park close to our hotel, they were having an international food festival. This was advertised with banners showing pictures of different country flags made out of their local food. For example, America's flag was made of blueberries where the stars are and the red and white stripes were made from hot dogs in buns - Mexico's was made of green jalapenos on one side, white rice in the middle, red peppers on the right and some basil and small chili in the middle. There were lots of these and it was fun to guess which flag was which country - which I think we did alright with. But as I mentioned there was a Mexican flag, so I was thinking to myself this might prove to be the best dinner in Sydney yet...unfortunately there was no Mexican that night - just a lot of Asian dishes.
The rest of our dinners proved to be the highlight of Sydney for me (rained on us at Bondi Beach, Darling Harbour had quite a bit of construction, and our roof top hot tub was more like a roof top warm bathtub). Anne found great places to eat each night in Darlinghurst. One a Vietnamese hot spot called Phamish where we had to wait for 40 minutes and the hostess would continually walk around and ask people to leave once they were done with the meal. A second place (I forget its name) which served Spanish tapas and had great Sangria. Needless to say, we ate very well on the trip.
On Sunday we headed out - which was perfect as the weather was turning cold and rainy - and made it up to Cairns (said like "cans"). Oh Cairns, warm sunny Cairns. What a perfect way to spend a holiday. We lathered up with sunscreen and walked around the very touristy city centre. Once Mark joined us (he was coming from Adelaide), we booked a diving/snorkeling tour and the next day were off to Port Douglas to catch the Poseiden ship to the outer Barrier Reef. After an hour boat ride we were at the Agincourt Ribbon Reefs which are long narrow reefs located along the very Outer Edge of the Great Barrier Reef, flushed out at every tide by clear oceanic water welling up from the Coral Sea Trench nearby. Coral thrives in this clear water, creating spectacular gardens and a huge variety of marine life.
Mark and I did two dives on the boat and a third snorkeling with Anne. The dives were amazing - went down to 18 meters for 40 minutes each dive. Saw so many different and colourful fish from the Clown Fish (aka Nemo) to some whitetip reef sharks (not dangerous). Mark and I did get an underwater camera, but the film has to be developed, so not sure how the pictures will turn out...
The next day we rented a car and drove back up to Port Douglas to find some good swimming beaches. You can't swim in Cairns as the water is extremely muddy from building the port but Port Douglas has some great swimming beaches, so we picked one and stayed for the day. A very relaxing day which was needed after the dives.
On our final adventure day we jumped on a boat for Fitzroy Island about an hour out of Cairns. Upon our arrival there was a nice sea turtle swimming along in the lagoon by our boat, which we figured was a sign to the start of a great day. From there we hiked to a beach for some snorkeling. On our way we say quite a few geckos - one was in the middle of catch his mid-morning tea and eating a fly - really cool to watch. The beach we were at was gorgeous, with very few people there. Mark and I were able to walk out to the water and start snorkeling. There was still so many fish close to the beach it was a great adventure.
Sadly, we had to wake up early the next morning for our flight back to Adelaide. But once we were back, we still had a few days to show Anne around the town. We got here up to Gorge Wildlife park to cuddle the koalas and see the Kangaroos. Also, hit up Haundorf for some good German sausage and finally dinner with the friends (so she didn't think I just hung out with Mark all the time). All in all, a great way to get away from work for awhile. I have generated some major vitamin D which will hopefully last me until Adelaide starts to hit summer.
Next up - Thanksgiving!!!
