Australia 9

We have only two days left here in Mallacoota, then three travel days (one car and two plane), before we will be home.

We are very settled here. As I type, the kids are playing on the deck and the lorikeets are eating (not entirely undisturbed, but they aren't flying away) from the feeder just a meter (notice my use of metric measurement!) away.

Yesterday was our first rainy day and we spent it hanging out in the flat playing games. We brought the card game Bang! - sans the phallic container - it's a great family game if you're not bothered by shooting imagery. David and Emory have also played LOTS of YuGiOh, much to Emory's delight.

We've had nice beach days several times during the visit (including today), but two days ago was a perfect, hot, clear beach day. It was glorious. The water is clear and, I kid you not, turquoise when the sun is out. It's warm enough to play in the surf without the searing cold of Pacific off of CA (the place I usually encounter the ocean). I can't remember the last time I body surfed, but I'm pretty sure I was less that 16. We coated everyone pretty thoroughly with sunscreen, and none of us got badly burned, but the kids got minor sunburns in their eyesockets (where we hadn't put sunscreen because who wants it in their eyes?) due, I think, to reflection on the water.

Another day this week was devoted to a visit Genoa Falls where the frill-necked lizards hang. We think we saw them, but they never frilled at us. I guess that's good since they only do that when they're scared, but we were a little disappointed because unfrilled they look like iguanas (not that I see wild iguanas on a regular basis, either, but when you're promised frill-necks, you want to see some frilled-necks). In fact, we're still not 100% sure what we were feeding weren't iguanas - though everyone says that there are so many frill-necked lizards in that area that you can't miss them. Other highlights of the Genoa Falls trip were finding it (the directions included counting overhead power lines and looking for the "unmarked siding" road off the highway) and Freya falling off a large rock and nearly giving David a heart attack. She wasn't hurt beyond some scrapes, but David saw her fall and from his perspective she shrieked and disappeared; he had no idea whether she'd fallen two feet (it ended up being only three or four) or twenty.

We all are a little sun tanned and/or freckled and I feel like we've ample vitamin D stored up for the remainder of the dark, MN winter.

Australia 8

Emory's teacher asked him to focus, in the daily journal he's keeping as his homework, on what is most different. I thought that merited a post here, as well.

In truth, the most striking thing, difference-wise, is the lack of difference. Here we are on the opposite side of the globe, hanging out in a culturally western, English speaking country. That's weird. Though I suppose the US and Canada are a good distance from the seat of the English language, too. We're all operating in a cultural world fundamentally shaped by European colonialism.

Anyway, so the different stuff. One of the most striking differences is the driving on the left, which I've mentioned a couple of times. I'm not doing it at all. David is doing all the driving. I feel wimpy about this, but I'm a nervous, uncomfortable driver in unfamiliar territory even without the major shift. I'm certain I'd be, at best, miserable and at worst, incredibly dangerous. The thing that gets him (and even more would get me) are the knee-jerk reactions. It's not that hard to drive on the opposite side and pay close attention and remember to turn into the correct lane and so on, what's really hard is to keep the difference in mind when you're reacting quickly to something surprising. We had some mini crisis in the car on the way over here (trunk open or some such thing) and David pulled across an empty lane of traffic to pull over on the right hand side because he was distracted. It was no big deal because there was no traffic, but it's exactly that kind of thing that freaks me out.

The next big, daily difference is metric weights and measures. This is actually very neat and I'm enjoying trying to somewhat internalize the metric units. It's so much nicer and more orderly. The small c conservatism of the US in hanging onto the English system (while even the English now use primarily the metric system) is a pet peeve of mine. Measuring veggies in grams is easy, trying to convert the temperature to C is harder.

Another big difference is the topsy-turvy seasons and north/south temperature gradations. We're here in late February and it's effectively late August. When you head south in Australia, the weather generally gets cooler and more temperate.

The final difference I want to note is the money. This would seem to be no big deal. The Australian dollar is pretty close in value to the US dollar, they use cents, etc. The reality is that I have a hard time remembering which coin is which and look like a big goob as I'm pawing around trying for correct change. Another thing they have that I wish the US had are one and two dollar coins in common use and NO DAMN PENNIES!

Australia 7

It's been five days since my last post. I've had less time to noodle on the internet because with David off we've been doing fun things and also because since leaving the Saint Kilda (Melbourne) flat, internet access has been less regular and convenient. We now access the internet through the nationwide mobile broadband. We have a USB stick that stores our login and payment info.

Thursday, the day after the conference ended, we took the tram downtown. Our first stop was the Melbourne Itasca office. This took much longer than I'd been led to expect - David mentioned something about saying hello and touring the office. In face it involved over an hour of him talking work with various people and me trying to keep three squirrelly kids entertained and relatively quiet in a loft-style office with ever so many cords and lovely glowing CPU power buttons within easy toddler reach. I also had a double shot of very strong espresso immediately before we got there; it's possible I wasn't a model of calm easygoingness. The kids played a game we'd brought along and did fine, though, in truth. I nursed and rocked Astrid to sleep eventually.

Then I dragged the family to a well-reviewed Spanish restaurant called MoVida. It was not the least bit kid-friendly and the kids hated the food (savory cheese custard with grated truffle on top served in a real eggshell didn't float their boats) but I loved it and the wonderful food and glass of wine I enjoyed there put me right in the holiday mood. David had some absolutely amazing steak tartar and a glass of rum, so he wasn't displeased, either. He did take the kids out and leave me to finish my wine and deal with the bill at the end of the meal for fear that the kids were bothering other diners, though I don't think they were at all.

After that we hit a few nearby sites - a couple of bridges and the "Sky Deck" at the top of on of the tallest buildings in the area. It was quite warm and Emory complained again about the heat.

We separated around 4pm so David could take the tram north to pick up the rental van and I took the kids back to the flat. FOUR HOURS later, David made it back to the flat with the van. The traffic coming home killed him, then the crazy street layout near the flat and lack of parking added yet another 45 minutes or so.

The next day we packed up and headed about 1 1/2 hours south to Blairgowrie, on the peninsula southeast of Melbourne. Our friends Dave and Bre-Anne, from Itasca Melbourne, had rented a "cottage" - really an extremely beautiful and luxurious house with a gorgeous view of the water - for them, us and one other Itasca friend to share for the weekend. Dave and Bre-Anne have two daughters a little younger than Mo and Freya, so everyone had good company. We ate good food (Matt, the other friend from Itasca, did all the cooking and it was wonderful) and relaxed and saw some local sites. It was a nice, relaxing holiday weekend.

Sunday (yesterday) we got up, packed up, and headed for Mallacoota. The weather was rainy, the narrow winding roads (and don't forget the left-side driving!) made me nervous and Astrid screamed off and on the last two of the seven hour trip, but we made it and it is well worth the trip. This place is amazing. David and Bre-Anne recommended it. It's an Australian vacation destination, but not an international one, and we're past the end of the school holiday summer season here, so it's wonderfully peaceful. The Adobe Mudbrick Flats (http://www.adobeholidayflats.com.au/index.html), where we're staying, are gorgeous, hand-built works of glorious hippy art/architecture. I'll post pictures on Facebook shortly. Our two balconies look directly out onto the "lake" (which is really an ocean incursion of some sort - bay? straight? inlet?) and the colorful local birds (again will post FB pics) are a constant presence at the bird feeder. Last night we went to sleep able to see *from our bed* both the nearly full moon and its reflection on the water.

Australia 6

Today, Wednesday 16 February, is the last day of the conference. Monday and Tuesday were substantially similar to one another. The kids and I hung out in the flat in the morning, then went to the beach in the afternoon. In the evening, a babysitter came and David and I went to a conference function.

Today we mixed it up a little. Some kind Itasca friends (who weren't needed at the conference during the day today) offered to take the tram (the above-ground rail public transport here) to downtown Melbourne and go to the aquarium with us. We enthusiastically took them up on the offer. They met us at our flat and we walked the 1/2 block to the tram stop (now a pause to gush again about how perfect this location is). A six block or so walk from the main downtown terminal got us to the aquarium. It wasn't a spectacular aquarium, but it was really neat to see the array of Australian fish. We saw some amazing sea dragons and some big crabs and other sea "monsters." The sharks and mantas were also a hit. Emory, entirely spontaneously - I wasn't even sitting near him, asked a question at the end of a presentation and was wonderfully clear and articulate and didn't sound the least bit uncomfortable or nervous to be speaking through a microphone in front of a good-sized crowd. Isn't it neat when your kids totally surprise you? Emory and Freya both had a great time. Astrid was a horrible pain in the rear more or less from start to finish. She was tired when we left and didn't quite fall asleep on the way (too much interesting stuff going on). She screamed in the stroller, screamed on my back and required one person's full-time attention to be on the ground. Fortunately our friends helped a huge amount so we all made it through. Astrid did finally fall asleep after we left so we were able to eat a peaceful lunch.

It's hot and muggy today and Emory is having trouble with the heat. We, and he in particular, are pretty cold-weather adjusted, so I think he really is suffering some, not just whining for the sake of whining. Our flat is nicely air-conditioned, so we're back there now recovering. After we're cool, maybe we'll still make a beach run this afternoon. Freya left her pretty sun hat on the tram and had a 20 minute howling celebration of sadness over that, but is recovered now.

Australia 5

We woke up on Monday 14 Feb, our second full day in Australia, only slightly later than the first day. I think it was around 4:30 when Astrid woke up and pooped - in three separate installments. By the time we'd finished dealing with that, David decided to just get up. This was the first day of the conference, so David left around 7am to go to the hotel. I wasn't thinking about it being Valentine's Day, so we didn't do anything to mark that.

In the morning, the kids and I hung out in the flat and I did a little laundry - we have a nice, European washer here, so I ran a load and then hung it out on a rack on the balcony.

It was the warmest day yet (near 80F, I think), so we headed down to the beach so the kids could swim. Over the previous two days of short visits to the beach, all the kids had acquired minor sunburns on their faces, so I coated them with sunscreen. They loved being able to go in the water and the beach is very flat, so even quite far out the water only came up to between knee and waist level on them. Unfortunately, the sunscreen didn't seem to work well and it quickly became apparent that they, Freya in particular, were getting burned, so we left. We stopped for ice cream and then at a convenience store for more sunscreen and tp on the way back to the flat.

I cooked the kids some rice and chicken for dinner and we all felt right at home when I set off the smoke alarm in the flat, as that is what happens nearly 100% of the time when I broil things at home.

We had arranged for babysitting on Monday and Tuesday evenings with a babysitting service so that I could attend the icebreaker cocktail hour on Monday and the banquet on Tuesday. Anita, our babysitter, arrived at the flat at around 4:30pm and we all immediately liked her.

David and I enjoyed the cocktail hour at a restaurant on the pier (http://www.stkildapierkiosk.com.au/restaurant.html). I ate many more oysters - I think this will be my oyster vacation. We were also served delicious little lamb chops with mustard and an assortment of other heavy hors d'oeuvres. Poor Astrid had a hard time going to sleep with the babysitter, in part because I didn't give very good instructions, but the bigs had a wonderful time and were happily hearing a bedtime story when we got home at around 7pm. Anita will come again Tuesday evening so I can attend the banquet.

Australia 4

I woke up at around 4am on Sunday morning. Astrid and David followed shortly. The bigs slept until close to six.

Our first full day in Australia coincided with a huge street music festival in this area (one of the reasons finding a hotel had been difficult). The streets in the entire area were blocked to vehicle traffic and there were bands playing at various places along the beach and in the streets and nearby park. It's exactly the sort of thing we avoid like the plague ordinarily.

Sunday was our only day to get things done before David started the conference. We took the kids and the stroller and walked the four or five blocks up to the nearby grocery store. As I mentioned earlier, this was a pleasant surprise. The store was full of quality food and had many, many organic and gluten-free products. We filled both the basket and the seat of the stroller (I put Astrid on my back) knowing that all the places we stay while we're here will have kitchens, so buying things like salt, spices, honey and hot sauce makes sense. We'll just take these things with us to our next abode. For about $200 (the cost of a meal and drinks for two at one of the seaside restaurants) we bought good food for the five of us for at least three or four days.

After the grocery store run, we navigated the crowds and went down to the beach. It was crowded, but not crazy right on the beach. We picnicked, ran into a friend from Itasca and the kids played in the sand. On the way back to the flat, I lost the rest of the family in the crowd and was briefly lost with no purse, money or phone (all of that was with the stroller, which David was pushing). It was a strange feeling, but I quickly found my way and reunited with the family back at the flat.

The registration for the conference and a gathering at the home of the Itasca Melbourne consultants took place that evening. The kids held up remarkably well as we (probably irresponsibly) kept them out until nearly 9pm. Walking back home through the, by then, very loud and drunk music festival crowd, we got some strange looks. I'd have wondered what we were doing out there with three small children if I'd seen us, too.

Australia 3

We settled into the flat a little on Saturday afternoon when we arrived. The bigs and I bathed and we discovered that the flat has a very small supply of very hot water but that it recovers fast. You can take a fine shower as long as you keep the water pressure very low. We'd already planned to stay up to six or so then an all go to bed and sleep through to morning, so we had about four hours to kill. We were also hungry. We walked down to the beach and the kids ran around and played in the sand while David and Astrid and I sat at a beach-front cafe. We all had a little food, though the kids didn't like most of what was on the antipasto plate I ordered for them. This was our first discovery of the gluten-free friendliness of this area. We asked about gluten in the food and they cheerfully substituted gluten-free bread. I enjoyed a half a dozen oysters on the half shell.

Our mission in going out, beyond killing time until bedtime and eating, was to procure some European-Australian outlet converters, of all things. David had assumed that Australia used the European standard and all our power converters are European. Fortunately the difference between the European and Australian outlets is just shape, so we only needed outlet converters. We were still able to use the European power converters we brought. We found them at a little hole-in-the-wall electronics store and headed back to the flat. I used most of the rest of gf bread and cheese and hard salami we had to top off the bigs' and David's tummies and then we all collapsed into bed. It was 6:30pm local time - about 36 hours after the beginning of our journey.

Food here is expensive. It's hard to tell exactly how expensive because we're in an upscale, seaside resort area - food would cost a fortune in a seaside resort in the US, too. We should get a better idea on this on the way east to Mallacoota http://www.visitmallacoota.com.au/ next week - while Mallacoota is a park/tourist area, the places we'll pass through on the way are not.

Australia 2

The 14-hour flight from San Francisco to Sydney was full, so Astrid had to stay on my lap the whole time. We had last checked a day or two before the flight and there had still been an empty seat next to mine, so I'd had high hopes that we'd have some extra space. No luck. The teenage boy who was seated next to me was not friendly, but he wasn't as unfriendly as he might have been considering the number of times he was kicked as I nursed Astrid. I tried to keep her feet away from him, but it was a long flight and she got her licks in despite my best efforts.

All three kids went to sleep within an hour after we took off. David and I had less luck. I have a hard time sleeping sitting up to start with, and between Astrid sleeping on my lap and the large TV screen just a row in front of me brightly playing an assortment of movies, I struggled to sleep for even short periods. It wasn't too bad, though. I'd gotten a decent night's sleep before leaving and I'm a chronic night owl, so it mostly felt like staying up late - something I'm probably too comfortable with.

None of my babies have been newborns who require being held to sleep (lying next to me on the bed with easy nursing access has been adequate), so my only entire nights of holding a sleeping child have been holding Astrid on this trip and holding Freya (at nearly the same age) on the flight home from France. It's an intensely cozy and intimate experience, being someone's bed.

The second half of the flight the bigs watched movies, ate, colored and took trips to the bathroom. Astrid slept off and on and a couple of times I tucked her into the wrap and walked the aisles with her. All the kids did incredibly well. The movie selections were pretty dismal and I didn't watch any of them. Megamind, the only movie really appropriate for the kids, was shown right in the middle of their sleeping period, so they missed that. Thank goodness for the portable DVD player we brought. We didn't even break out the books on CD, so we'll have those for the driving trips and the flights home.

Oh, on movies, they showed Unstoppable on the flight from Mpls to San Fran. This is a light weight movie with a better-than-average-for-a-B-movie cast (Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson) about a runaway train. Emory was RIVETED.

We arrived in Sydney at about 7am Saturday local time (2pm Friday Mpls time - 23 hours after the start of our trip) and a kind airport employee scooped us up and rushed us through security. We didn't have to do customs until we got to Melbourne for reasons I'm not entirely clear on, but I think having to do with the fact that we didn't change airlines - anyway it was was handy since we didn't have a very long layover.

We gate checked Astrid's carseat and stroller without asking if there was extra space on the plane because I was tired and didn't think of it. The flight ended up being mostly empty. Astrid was exhausted and having the seat would have been very convenient. Next time we'll remember to ask EVERY flight.

We arrived in Melbourne after a quick hot (they were having problems with the AC) flight. We collected our luggage, went through customs (my apples and hard-boiled eggs were confiscated), bought cheap, local cell phones and caught a cab to our flat. We had too much stuff to consider taking the tram (which went from the airport practically to our doorstep), but it would have been nice to manage that, because the cab ride was very expensive (made more so by how generously we tipped, which it turns out isn't appropriate here - better to err on that side than the reverse, though).

I reserved the flat months ago when we realized that staying in a hotel was going to be both inconvenient and ridiculously expensive because of the rules about how many people they'll let you have in one room. Having a kitchen is essential for us because of the diet limitations of most of the family and the general difficulty and expense of eating out for three meals a day with a family of five. We really NEVER do this. Even when we are traveling without access to a refrigerator, I carry fruit and snack food and we only eat out one meal a day. The flat is perfect. It has two bedrooms (the bigs are sharing a double bed and Astrid is sleeping with us in a queen-size), a decently-sized living/dining area and a nice little kitchen (and a bathroom, of course). We are located just blocks from both the hotel where David's conference is happening and from the beach. There are shops and restaurants and even a nice-sized grocery store (carrying lots of gluten free and organic food - we lucked out that the conference hotel is in a sort of chichi-hippy resort area).

The trip to Australia

The trip went amazingly well. We left the house at 3pm sharp, when an airport taxi (minivan) picked us up. We packed as lightly as possible but still had one large, one medium and one small bag, three back packs, two car seats, one car seat base, one booster seat, one violin one stroller frame (for the infant seat that Astrid still uses) and one grocery-size cloth bag full of food. We carried all three backpacks, the food, the infant seat and the stroller with us onto the plane,so we were pretty loaded down. We gate checked to stroller and the carseat.

Our first crisis came when our big bag was 5# over weight (we don't own a scale so had no way to check this). The easiest way to lighten the bag was to take out the toiletries, but then they couldn't be carried on because they contained large liquids (and we didn't want to cart 5# extra around anyway). I cannibalized the zippered, insulated bag that I was so proud of having used to create a refrigerator section in our food bag and we checked that as a teeny fourth bag (fortunately we had lots of wiggle room in our number of checked items - United allowed two free checked items for each ticketed international traveler).

Astrid was cranky and restless during the Mpls to San Fran trip but the bigs were fine. We felt like it was past midnight when the flight for Sydney departed. All three kids went to sleep relatively quickly and slept for five or six hours pretty solidly.

Continued soon.