That is one big rock!!

A Selfie with the rock in the background

The weekend began on Friday when I played in the Ladies Breast Cancer golf day. It was the same team as last year minus a few key players that could not participate this year. Our team, Batman's Bitches wore pink capes, wigs, bat glasses and a fun black shirt that had a pink bat with boobs on the front.  The golf buggy was decked out and we were ready to have some fun.  Most of the day was spent drinking and hanging with the local firemen- we only actually teed off 4 times.  Our team won Best & Fairest this year, which means overall winner - obviously golf scores are not a consideration in this tournament.

We headed down to Ayers Rock (Uluru) on Saturday with our friends, the Gapinski's.  This was our first time to see the rock, plus we were excited to have a weekend away. Unfortunately JD was not feeling 100%, and by the second day he really felt bad.

Our first night was spent at the Sounds of Silence dinner, we hired a sitter for the kids and started getting ready. We were picked up by bus an hour before sunset and taken to look out on top of a sand dune. We were greeted with champagne and canapés, it was only after I ate a few that I was told it was kangaroo- yep, I ate my first roo!  I then decided a few more glasses of champagne might be in order to cleanse my pallet!  After watching the sunset and taking tons of pics, we walked down the dune to a beautiful table with a view of the Olgas.  We were very focused on who they would seat us with, so I promptly told the person assigning tables to seat us as far away from the children as possible so we would not offend anyone- worked like a charm because we were seated with a very fun group!

We were offered Kangaroo Tail soup (more wine, please) followed by a buffet of crocodile, kangaroo, lamb and thank God chicken!  The food was actually really good but Cheyenne and I were a little distracted by the termites hopping around our table (more wine, please).  I will have to say the dessert table was quite good, which made up for my lack of food so far.  The evenings entertainment was a man playing a didgeridoo, a group of men performing traditional Aboriginal dances and an astrologist explaining the beautiful night sky.  During the star talk, everyone was paying close attention- everyone but our table only because of the 2 very funny gentleman sitting across from us, making Cheyenne and I laugh at every comment- oops.  I was unaware that anyone was irritated until we boarded the bus to head back and were met with those looks of unapproval that my sisters and I know so well. We enjoyed our table mates so much that we actually scheduled a dinner party for when they continue to Alice as part of their vacation.

Ayers Rock with the Olgas to the left.

The next day we headed out to the rock, poor JD who had not been feeling great, now had a fever. He tried to hang tough but walking around the rock proved to be too much so the day was cut short. We were all impressed with the beauty of the rock, as well as with the scale of it.  We headed back to the hotel for a little pool time, the kids were loving it even though the water was quite chilly. We then went to one of the resorts aboriginal dance shows where the ladies got to dance along, by the way we were acting like emus- it was hilarious! 

Monday morning the Gapinski's went out for a sunrise camel ride and we headed back to the park to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful! JD then wanted to complete a mission, 27 years ago he brought a small rock home after he had climbed Ayer's rock- only later to find out that it is considered very bad luck to pick up the rocks, let alone take one (think Brady Bunch, the Hawaiian idol episode).  There is even a sorry book located at the cultural center where people have returned the rocks with letters detailing their bad luck. Mission accomplished, the rock is now back where it belongs- we will let you know when we win the lottery!

We made it to see the sunrise, 6:31 AM

Before we left the resort we attended 2 demonstrations this morning, the kids got to throw balls at a rolling tire and throw spears in a field but the big event was learning how to throw a boomerang. It was a great weekend and as usual I am impressed with the Australian landscape.

Oh Sweet Adelaide!

It was definitely time for a girl's trip so my friend Heather and I began the planning, we decided on Adelaide for the shopping, dining and wine country. It began at the business lounge at the Alice Springs airport, you see due to our last minute planning we were forced to fly business - can I hear a collective aaahhhh.  While in the lounge, where they have free alcohol - we poured some wine and decided to get the first "girl's weekend" photo for FB - what we did not realize is that on the table, in the corner of the magazine, there was a headline about being gay - and of course our FB post read - GIRLS WEEKEND BEGINS!, you can imagine the comments!

We arrive in Adelaide a few cocktails later and head off to the Crowne Plaza - we were fortunate enough to have booked our trip during the Fringe Festival (highly recommend) and everything was located within walking distance of our hotel.  We began the evening with a margarita at a pop up Mexican spot.  What is a pop up spot? Why it is a bar that takes over empty buildings, fill them with old furniture, park a food truck out back and serve drinks - only open during the 4 week Fringe festival.  We then ventured to an Italian restaurant for dinner, where apparently Heather thought we were at a table for 6 by the amount of food she ordered - I was in charge of drinks and I cam back to the table with the largest, fullest glasses of wine allowed!  We then headed off to the theater (a pop up theater) to see a female comedian - she was hilarious but one of the best parts was that someone had brought their 14 year old son to a raunchy, female comedian show - in a room with only 25 seats he stood out like a sore thumb, you could tell he threw her off her game

One of the Pants Down performers.

.The next day was a shopping frenzy - I could almost imagine the Australian Gov sending us a personal thank you for stimulating the economy.  We went crazy after the lack of shopping we have had here in the Alice!  We then headed to the main area for the Fringe festival, the Garden of Unearthly Delights - where we had tickets to the Pants Down Circus (sounds more exciting than it was).  We bought a bottle of wine for the show and headed in - it was a lot of acrobats and laughter - great time.  We walked around the Garden for a while, checking out the scene - it would be fun to go this event every year!  Then came a Mexican restaurant for dinner - queso - yes, please - enchiladas - yes, please - rice - yes, please - oh and a pitcher of margaritas!

Whispering Wall

Can you hear me now???

On Sunday we had scheduled a private driver to take us to the Barossa Wine Valley - we started with a trip to the Whispering Wall, where you can stand on either side of the wall, a good 200 feet away,  and hear each others voices.  We then went to get a bird's eye view of the valley before we began the wine tasting.  Our first winery was Kellermeister, and after tasting just about everything they had to offer we had purchased a case of Boots Cider as well as a case of wine.  We then headed to Chateau Tununda for some more tastings, 2 cases later we were on our way to lunch - thank God - food!  We stopped at  Artisans of Barossa , where you have gorgeous views, lunch and wine from 7 vineyards.  Our view pretty much stopped at Simon, one of the vineyard owners - who did the tasting of 12 wines for us personally.  At this point, I think I am a comedian saying brilliant things like "Simon says, drink more wine" and Heather is intently listening to all of his talking points - we bought more wine.  At the last stop, Rockford wines we saw some amazing antique wine barrels and old machinery, oh and then we tasted wine and bought a case!

Kellermeister winery

Barossa Valley

Hanging with Simon.

It is our last night in Adelaide and we decided on Chinese food for dinner - we hop in a cab to Chinatown and begin our search of the perfect place for dinner.  We stop at one place that looks nice and grab a table - we look at the menus, look at each other and quietly get up and leave - not sure what the menu said but it had pictures that looked awful!  We finally decide on a spot - just busy enough to know it is good - but not so busy that we could not get in.  The fact that there were dead animals hanging in the window did not bother me at all at this point, I just sat in the chair facing Heather!  It was actually very good Chinese food.

Sydney

Our first day in Sydney was spent walking around Circular Quay, where the Opera House and Sydney Bridge are located and the Rocks area where we were staying.  The area around the opera house was full of street performers, we stopped to watch many but the favorite was the "girl in the box". Dillon and I both loved watching the birds, not sure what the long beak bird was we kept seeing but we got a pic. We then headed to Darling Harbor, by ferry, to walk around and visit the Sydney Aquarium.  It seems our family has subconsciously decided to visit a zoo or aquarium, or both on every vacation we take.  The aquarium was quite large and so was the crowd, I think JD's mom loved the 3 stories of ramps to get to and from the shark tunnels (by the way, that is a joke!).

Girl in Box street performer.

For dinner we decided to go to The Hard Rock Cafe, JD had heard good things from other people visiting Sydney.  Disappointment does not begin to describe this meal, I first ordered a margarita and actually had to send it back - those who know me know I can drink almost anything - then my burger came out raw and that went back also - while the second margarita was OK the second burger, not so much - my vision of a margarita and a burger in an American chain had vanished.  After dinner it was a beautiful evening so we walked around the harbor - there we saw the "World's Largest Rubber Duck" that was on display for the summer.

Darling Harbor and the Rubber Duck

Zorbing

Day 2 started with a visit to the Rock's markets, a little light shopping was in order and we even ran into some friends from Alice Springs there.  Later, we took the ferry over to Manly Beach.  Once we got off the ferry and exited the terminal the boys spotted the zorbing area and the bungee swing, so we delayed our short walk to the beach just a little longer.  The boys, who are pros at the bungee swings, thought that was fun, but they loved the zorbing!  How funny it was to see the boys stand in a ball and watch it inflate around them.  The beach was beautiful and packed, we walked to the water's edge and put our feet in to find the water incredibly chilly, this did not stop the boys at all though - they swam for a good hour and a half. I was excited to see a small Mexican cafe  on the boardwalk, it has been sooo long since we have had Mexican food - well the excitement did not last long, I think it was too much expectation placed on a Mexican restaurant in Australia.  I will say though, that sitting in an outdoor cafe, facing the ocean, palm trees swaying, listening to music while drinking a Corona was as close to perfect as I could get.  Walking back to the ferry we came across another outdoor market with street performers - one of the dance crews picked Jake up and carried him out to dance, he lasted a minute or two before he decided he was done!

Manly Beach

Jake and the street performers

Our view from the Mexican cafe

The dino that sprays.

Day 3   We took the ferry ride over to the Tarunga Zoo, once you arrive you take a gondola ride to the top of the zoo to then begin your descent down.  The zoo animals get some of the best views anywhere in Sydney, you could see the opera house and Sydney bridge from many locations.  It was a beautiful zoo, I swear we walked 5 miles at least - it was huge.  They had animated dinosaurs everywhere with one that sprayed water on the kids - boys loved this one!  The seal exhibit was the best I had ever seen, they had indoor and outdoor viewing areas - Jake and Dillon spent most of their time taking pictures of the animals with their new Christmas presents for Nannie and Papa - Ipad minis.

The Seal Theater

Bondi Beach

Day 4 began with a hop on hop off bus ride through Sydney.  We made it three stops before we hopped off for some shopping, I was hoping to find a fascinator for the upcoming races back in Alice - but even an experienced shopper like myself was overwhelmed with the 9 story department stores so we hopped back on our bus.  We were able to visit many of the famous landmarks, including St. Mary's Cathedral - very impressive! We drove through many of the ocean front suburbs and then arrived at Bondi Beach, another hop off point.  We headed to Hurricanes for lunch and it was perfect, a cold beer and sharing a delicious burger with JD while listening to the surf!  We walked over to the beach, there were not many people swimming due to the high winds and rough surf - I can honestly say I have never seen an ocean with so many waves and white foam - very hard to capture in my pictures..  After our walk we hopped back on to head to the Sydney opera House for a tour there - even the boys enjoyed the tour  - the architecture and history behind it was impressive.

Inside the opera house

St. Mary's Cathedral

Inside the Opera House.

We spent our last night enjoying dinner with Carolyn and Bob before they would be heading back to the U.S.A. and us back to Alice.  Then JD and I hit up the Fortune of War bar, the oldest pub in Sydney, established in 1828 while Carol and Bob watched the boys.  Soon we would be at the airport headed home but not before picking up a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts  - you see there are no doughnut shops here in the Alice!

OMG the flies!

JD and I at Kings Canyon - of course wearing fly nets!

This weekend we decided to try something new, we went camping. For the past year our neighbors and friends have told me over and over how much fun it would be. So with all those conversations in mind and in an effort to make my husband and kids happy, I agreed to camp. You see, I have never camped in my life unless you count girl scout camp one year, which mostly involved sleeping in cabins, swimming and cookie sales training. JD actually enjoys telling everyone that my idea of camping is a 3 star hotel and that being said, he was actually a little worried about me going this weekend, between the heat and the fact that the flies are worse than they have been in years - he was concerned it may not be a great first time experience.......

Me and my fly net, pretty much had it on from dawn to dusk!

So after spending the entire morning preparing food, getting bedding ready, packing coolers and then packing the car we headed off caravan style with our friends to Kings Creek Station near Kings Canyon. We would be camping with 6 families for 2 nights. We spent 3 1/2 hours getting there, on some paved and about 100 kilometers of gravel roads. Now it was time to make camp. Our campsite had a grassy area with trees, a covered table with a counter and sink, a built in fire pit and a bathroom and showers about 50 yards away. As soon as we got out of the car we all immediately reached for our fly nets, what is a fly net you ask- why a screen you put over your head to hopefully keep the flies off your face. Add a little fly and mosquito spray to your arms and legs and you are now ready to enjoy the great outdoors! We spent 2 hours unloading the cars, putting up tents, blowing up air mattresses and setting up the kitchen. At least now the sun was going down which means the flies go away, so off went the fly nets- yeah we can eat! We had burgers and hot dogs and a campfire going and after a long day, we could finally sit down and relax. While checking out the amazing night sky where the stars were plentiful, we also managed to spot the flying beetles, they were a mere 4" long, hanging around our campfire- believe it or not, of all the insects this weekend, these were the least bothersome.

The fire pit.

The tent in the middle, with the blue shade cover is ours.

So after this first day of "fun" the boys and I decide to go to bed. I am laying on an air mattress (24" high) in our tent and the boys are laying on the floor in sleeping bags beside me. We are all just staring at the ceiling for quite a while as Dillon is saying he is nervous that a dingo will come into the camp (did I mention we were camping about an hour away from where "that dingo ate my baby" happened!) They finally fell asleep when Jake awoke with an allergy attack, so needing medicine from the car, I unzip the tent, exit, put on shoes, zip tent, use flashlight to go to car, go back to tent, take off shoes, unzip tent, enter, zip tent back up. Of course this is also the procedure when you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. So after Jake's allergies calmed down he then said he was afraid of the howling wind so I told him to get in bed with me- JD was still out by the fire. Finally we fall asleep but then wake up about an hour later, the air mattress was leaking. At this point, my butt is on the floor but my feet are in the air- Jake and I look like we are on an adjustable bed gone bad! So I exit the tent (following procedure) to go get JD who is still by the fire, hanging out with Kevin and Captain Morgan! JD inflates the mattress again, it is now 2:30, so I can sleep.

If you look closely at the middle of the pic, you can see people - Jake is one of those people.

Steve helping make breakfast.

I made it through my first night of camping, even in the "little tent of horrors", of course my mattress is close to flat again at this point. The sun has risen and we are up and out- and the flies are back! It is our families turn to make a meal, but with my kitchen assistant sleeping it off I enlisted help from Steve and Ian. Soon we are dressed and heading to Kings Canyon for a hike. Half the group went for the 6 km canyon rim walk (starts off with a steep climb to the top on Heart Attack hill) and the other half did the 2k walk into the canyon. I chose the latter for a few reasons, namely the heat, flies and the fact that during set up I dropped our 10 x 10 shade structure on my shin,getting it out of the car, and now had a baseball sized knot just below my knee. Jake went on the long walk with Steve and his kids and Dillon went with us. I asked Jake what he thought and he said "it was long", no appreciation of beauty from him.

Heart Attack Hill

Inside the canyon.

Another canyon view

Jamie and Dillon always staying in front.

Heather and the boys taking a rest.

The scorpion in the bathroom.

After our walk we headed back to camp for lunch and a swim in the campground pool. The water felt amazing, nice and chilly. The kids and adults played games and splashed for a few hours- everyone enjoyed the pool time. We were all soon back under the shade, just relaxing while the kids played until dinner time. The star gazing was once again plentiful, JD even spotted a satellite and many saw falling stars. Heather and I headed off to the bathroom, this time though we were greeted with a scorpion between stalls 3 and 4. Of course we had to bring everyone from camp to come check it out. The second night in the tent was much better, everyone was sooo tired falling asleep was pretty easy (I took Tylenol PM just to be sure). Of course, we woke up around 1:30 so JD could re-inflate the mattress.

One of the beautiful sunsets.

When we woke Sunday morning, it was a quick shower, a quick breakfast (the flies were so bad this morning I actually told Jake he could have cheese balls for breakfast) and then time to pack up and head home. While I will say camping just might not be my thing, spending time with good friends is always nice. The boys loved it and it makes me smile seeing them be able to run around so freely.  I can actually laugh about the flies now that I am home and about to sleep in my own bed.  So here comes the million dollar question- will I ever camp again? And the answer: only time will tell!