Sunday, December 31, 2017

We are thankful!

Aussies don't celebrate Thanksgiving, which when you think about it should seem obvious.

We had a visitor from the US during the time of Thanksgiving (Julie's oldest brother, Marc) and some amazing American friends who were super keen on hosting a blowout meal. Whoa! The hostess and I split a lot of the cooking so no one person was overwhelmed.

Sourcing traditional Thanksgiving food is not an easy task.

Turkey, for starters, is a very uncommon meat in Australia. Finding a kosher turkey felt daunting! But I (Julie, for future reference as you're reading) asked the kosher butcher a month in advance and he told me he stocks turkey in the freezer year round. Bingo!

I had never cooked a whole turkey before (I know, what kind of Jewish woman am I?!?) but it was quite delicious!



Our friend found IQF cranberries that worked a treat for cranberry sauce. She drove ~45 minutes each way for these! That is insane dedication.


My brother brought us (contraband) corn meal from the US so we could have corn muffins. They were a bit hit!



Putting all the food out, complete with labels identifying each item.


Once we started eating, I didn't take many pictures. Here's J and A with full stomachs and happy hearts!


We are thankful this year more than ever for our friends who are like family all over the world. We are also thankful for the support of our family; our good health; and the adventures of life!

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Canberra, part 2

After our crazy journey getting to Canberra, we were ready for a few days of FUN in Canberra!

First stop was Questacon with our friends.

Wow! Questacon is amazing! Questacon is the National Science and Technology Centre. There are more than 200 exhibits to see, touch, experience, interact with, read about, explore and more. We spent an entire day at Questacon. Highlights included:


  • Robot hockey where you compete against a robot / mechanical arm in a game of air hockey. The robot outscored the humans ~8 to 1 the day we were visiting.
Here's a terrible pic of E vs the robot
The robot whomped human in almost every match
  • Free fall where you experience the thrill of weightlessness for a brief second. I'm not much of an adrenaline junkie but I really enjoyed pushing myself for this! No one else in our group tried it that day.


If you're thinking about going to Questacon but aren't sure if it's worthwhile, let me assure you -- it is. We spent the whole day there and probably could've done another half day. Wow!

The next day we learned it was a public holiday -- Family and Community Day (only observed on this day in Canberra; and 2017 was the last day it was observed in the spring) -- but were still able to visit the Royal Australian Mint, shop at Costco, see a movie and make Build-a-Bear stuffies.


Making coins at the RAM
The fruits of our labour
M is worth about $450AUD

Interesting fact from the RAM

The boys loved Costco, though they kept saying they'd been there before. We determined it felt just like Sam's Club in Bentonville!


Very thankful we didn't build one of THESE giant bears!

Final stop of day 2 was a shopping mall for Build-a-Bear Workshop. We also caught a movie (read: nap!) and had a nice dinner.

They love BABW!
Our final day was reserved for Floriade. Floriade is a month-long music / arts / floral festival. I wasn't sure what to expect and it did not disappoint!

We started with a train ride to take you through the event and gardens. There were food trucks, artists and crafters, activities for the kids, reptiles to see, live music, beautiful flowers, garden demonstrations and so much more! We didn't plan to, but ended up spending the whole day at Floriade.




A beautiful floral display, as seen from the ferris wheel

I tried far too many times to get a nice picture of these two!

Floriade, as photographed by E
Bubble bowling on water (E)

Bubble bowling on water (M)
They couldn't get enough of this potato sack slide!


Truth: this trip happened in September. It's now December. Lots has happened between now and then. I'm working on getting caught up!

Canberra, part 1

During the most recent school holidays, the boys and I took a 4-day trip to Canberra. Canberra is Australia's capital city. It is a planned city, much like Washington, DC. It was chosen as the capital in the early 1900s as a compromise in distance between Sydney and Melbourne. Again, much like how Washington, DC, was chosen as the US capital. (At the time of its choosing, Washington, DC, was the very near the geographic center of the country!)

Before I can tell you about our adventures in Canberra, I have to tell you about our adventure getting to Canberra.

Like many humans traveling by car to a new / unfamiliar place, I popped the destination address into the car's GPS and off we went.

Traveling along the motorway in Oz is quite different from the US. There aren't billboards promoting McDonald's, Starbucks or Subway at the next twenty seven exits. There simply aren't billboards or advertisements. Every so often there would be a directional road sign, but playing the ABC game along the Aussie motorway is a no-go. There are emergency phones every kilometre with small directional signs between them so you know which way to walk to the nearest phone. That's about it.

At some point along the route, I saw some mobile signs warning that the Hume highway was closed. I paid little attention to these signs as a) I thought "they can't just close the one motorway between Sydney and Canberra!"; and b) I didn't know the motorway I was on was called the Hume. You know where this is going...

When we hit the backup, I was still perplexed. We had passed some rural fire brigade trucks waiting (presumably) to be called into action. We had seen the signs of the motorway closure. And yet still, I was perplexed. I was quite focused on safely getting to Canberra before the boys became too unruly. And before dinner. And before our petrol ran out.

At the point of the standstill we happened to be near an exit. I figured we'd take our chances. The GPS lady (in her brilliant Aussie except, no less) kept telling us to "turn back where possible." I had a hunch, though, that we had to stay the course. And then the road became unpaved. The anxious child was growing very concerned. The adventurous child was loving the bumps and uncertainty.

Whenever the GPS lady told us to turn, the road would be blocked. So we just kept following the few brave cars ahead of us. Through the dirt and mud, the ups and downs, the Aussie hillside. When we were nearing what looked like a paved road ahead, I realized we'd just driven through a sheep farmer's land. He was standing at the gate waving drivers through his gates.

Once we were back on the Hume, it was smooth sailing. And suspiciously almost no cars on the motorway alongside us. It wasn't until we reached our hotel in Canberra that we learned of bushfires along the Hume that had forced its closure.
Photo courtesy of the Canberra Times / Lisa Martin

The road was reopened later that evening; I heard only one lane in each direction for some time to help control the massive backups. 

I'm quite thankful we arrived to Canberra safely with only some delay. I'm even more thankful no people were hurt and no homes destroyed. 

More on Canberra next...