Sept 1991: Adelaide with Adelaide

September 1991
THE 1991 GRIMM FAMILY VACATION
When Dorothy's mother told her that she was coming to visit us in Australia, Dorothy thought it would be a good idea for us to show her some of the country. Since Dorothy's mother's name is Adelaide, Dorothy said she had to see the city of Adelaide, which was the jumping off point for the "1991 Grimm family vacation." Dwight spent his summer vacation here, so was lucky enough (?) to share in the excitement. The plan then, was for all five of us to fly to Adelaide, rent a car and drive to Sydney. There, Dwight and Adelaide would leave to return to the U.S.
i Since we have visited a number of these sites before and since I
don't want to bore you with too many details, I will in some cases
summarize our visit to a particular city.
Before I start, I'd like to comment on the perpetual problem that I have trying to find somewhere for my family to eat when we are on the road outside of the U.S. Dorothy doesn't eat Italian, Mexican, or many other spicy or highly flavored foods. Toby will eat Italian and Mexican foods, but nothing else exotic, nor standard beef, or pork dishes. Dwight doesn't like seafood. (Adelaide was no problem - she always found something to eat.) Add to that, Australia has very few "family" type restaurants which have an extensive menu with something for everyone. Also, in the smaller towns, there are usually no fast food restaurants, and if you arrive too late, you may find nothing open. Taking all of that into account, you can imagine all of the problems I face trying to find somewhere to eat each day -I won't bore you with the dramatics.
We left Alice Springs Friday, September 6th. For some reason, Dwight had a business class ticket - typical. Since we'd been to Adelaide before, I had no problem finding the flat (owned by the U.S. govt, which we can rent). That evening we made arrangements with a friend of Toby's to meet us the next day and spend the weekend with us, and Dwight went off to spend the night with some friends. We spent Saturday shopping - Dorothy's main objective was to go into the new department store with a roller coaster on the top floor. The building is a complex containing the department store and shops which surround a court which is as high as the building (6 floors). On the top floor are rides, arcades, a Lego store with an incredible collection of large Lego-build displays (some of which are built with over 100,000 pieces of Lego), and, yes, a small roller coaster that runs over the court.
We also visited Glenelg, a shopping area on the coast, went to a book sale I found advertised in the paper, a flea market (do I have to mention all of the comic shops and book exchanged that we visited on this trip? - No, OK, I will tell you that except for the first evening and the day the boys went skiing that Toby managed to buy some comics every day on the trip). We also went to the Adelaide


*-5%fc^ *-** .Wf * r-


Botanic Gardens, which we had not been in before. I wanted to see the
building with the simulated rain forest containing native, Australian
plants from the Australian rain forests which are also disappearing
along with others in the world. All in all I think Adelaide was
pleased to finally see the city that she had heard about in geography
class many years ago.
We left Adelaide Monday morning and drove northeast through the Barossa valley, an area settled by Germans and now the most famous wine growing area in Australia. I took a back road in order to get to a lookout of the area and it was worth the effort, but in doing so, I missed a picturesque town with a lot of churches and German influence which we had visited on a previous trip. We stopped at one well-known winery and look at the displays there (including one showing all the different size wine bottles). - A piece of trivia - there are larger sizes of wine bottles, even past the 'magnum.' Some of the names are: jeroboam, rehoboam, balthazar, melchior, methuselah, and nebuchadnezzar. I am not kidding, but I don't know if the large sizes are actually used currently.
Leaving the Barossa Valley, we spent two days driving through the Riverland area, much of which follows the Murray River. During those two days we stopped to visit a former classmate of Dwight's, stopped in a town called Monash to see a large intricate playground with all sorts of equipment most of which was more suitable for adults, stopped for the night in Mildura, where we saw the world's longest bar (91 meters - just under 300 feet), and stopped the second night in Echuca, where a friend of mine who lives in Melbourne met us for drinks and dinner. Both Mildura, and Echuca, as well as Swan Hill, which lies between, are all old port towns which used to be used by paddlewheel boats. Some remain to provide rides/tours, but as far as I know, none actually carry freight anymore. The drive through the Riverland was not real exciting, although it was very green from recent rains. We saw lots of sheep, some cattle, some horses, and many sulphur-crested white cockatoos. (I was at least impressed by the birds because we don't see them here - just the gray and pink galahs and black cockatoos).
From Echuca we drove east, eventually over some winding mountainous roads over a fairly high mountain. It was foggy on top, but we were able to get glimpses of a beautiful lush green valley below, where the town of Mt. Beauty lay. A friend of mine, and her daughter both live there and they kindly offered to put us up -Dorothy, Adelaide and myself at Rosemary's, and the kids at her daughter's. I don't know what the elevation of Mt. Beauty is, but it was cold, and within an hours drive up another mountain is the Falls Creek Ski Resort. It is a beautiful area, with many colorful birds, and we finally saw some wild kangaroos. Despite the impression you may have gotten from TV and ads, kangaroos are not bounding all over the place. We have rarely seen kangaroos in the wilds. I believe there are places that you can routinely see them if you are driving at sunset or at night, but they don't move around a lot during the day, and certainly not that much in the Alice area.



The longer we stay here, the harder it is to deal with cold weather, so at least some of us (OK - so I complained a lot on this trip) minded the cold, and living in a house with no central heat was difficult, but we survived. Dorothy and the boys left at 7:45 Thursday morning by bus to go up to the ski area. Dorothy was determined to say she has skied in both hemispheres. On the hour bus ride up the mountain, they saw one field where there were 40 or more kangaroos, and Dwight said he saw a lyrebird just off the road.
They arrived at the ski area about 9 a.m., and left about 5:30. The weather was outstanding with fresh snow and warm sunny weather. The top of the mountain was lovely (Dorothy’s comment). Dwight skied almost the entire time, Toby did not quit until about an hour or so prior to leaving. Dorothy was another story. According to Dwight she almost wiped out the Grimm line. While trying to get on a ski lift, she fell, knocking both boys down, who then got trapped under the chair of the ski lift. The entire line had to be stopped while the boys were extracted. Dorothy finally made it to the top of the slope and managed to get off the lift gracefully. I'm not sure if the description of Dorothy's subsequent actions, qualify as "skiing." She skied, walked, skied, fell, skied, rolled, ran into a fence, etc.. This slope was named the Wombat Ramble, and it sounds like Dorothy tried to emulate the name. The boys were nice enough to help their mother (taking shifts for the hour it took her to descend one slope) before going off to ski in other areas. Toby tried one that he soon found too steep and had to walk back up, Dwight took one slope that led him to another area from which he couldn't figure out how to get back to check on Dorothy. He eventually caught up with her three hours later. After Dorothy (completed?) her one run she spent most of the rest of the day in a shelter watching the boys' tennis shoes (there were no lockers). She did try skiing along a road for awhile (I did not tell her to go play in the traffic), and encountered an interesting elderly bush walker. They returned to town exhausted, but in good spirits (except that Toby had a headache probably due to the sun glare and not due to the lack of his daily comic input).
While they were skiing, Rosemary, Adelaide and I toured the valley and drove part of the way up the mountain to have lunch at a small village. It was a beautiful day and fantastic scenery (especially for those of us who live in the dry outback).
The next day (Friday) we journeyed on to Canberra. By coincidence, the motel I had booked was beside a golf course and also right beside the motel where Toby had stayed while in Canberra for a bowling tournament. Dwight managed to the play the 'back nine' (which actually consisted of ten holes! of the golf course - the first golf course other that Alice Springs on which he has ever played. On Saturday, Dorothy, Adelaide, and our friend Ronnie, who lives in Canberra and works in the office of one of the government Ministers, went to the National Art Gallery. Meanwhile, the boys and I went to the National Science and Technology Center which is one of those new marvelous 'hands-on' museums. We spent three hours trying many of the 120 interactive exhibits.

3


1 f !• t


On Sunday, Dorothy, Adelaide and I drove to the Tidbinbulla tracking facility about 25 miles south of Canberra. This station is part of the worldwide Deep Space Network and was involved with Voyager during its tour of the outer planets. I was impressed by the large dish (230 feet) they have there and also a smaller dish which had been moved from a nearby facility and which had been the receiving antenna which intercepted Neil Armstrong's words when he stepped on the moon.
Meanwhile, we had dropped off the boys at Ronnie's and she took them to the National Aquarium where they took an hour and a half course in fly-fishing. They thought that was pretty neat (even during some showers). Afterward they were able to fish in the stocked pond there, but the fish are older and wiser (having probably been caught numerous times). The instructor said newer, dumber fish were due the following week. Since they were still fishing when we returned to Tidbinbulla, we picked up Ronnie and visited the National Film and Sound Archives. It was OK, but would mean more to an Australian. We then went to the new Parliament House and Ronnie got us passes to get into the non-public areas. We sat in on talks by tour guides in the House of Representatives and the Senate and then took the elevator to the roof. The most unusual feature of this building is that the roof over the central portion slopes down to ground level and is covered in lush green grass (as the guide said, probably the best cared for lawn in Australia).
The only other items of interest was a flower festival at a park on the lake which basically cuts Canberra in half, a drive through the area with the majority of the embassies, and the Lodge (the prime minister's residence) and a drive up to and elevator to the top of the Telecom (the Australian version of AT&T) tower on a hill overlooking Canberra, which provides some great views of the city and surrounding area. We also visited the bowling alley where Toby had participated in the Australian National Junior Ten-Pin Bowling Championships.
Finally it was on to Sydney and traffic that caused me great distress. Fortunately, we stayed at a motel in Kings Cross which allows easy access to the subway and hence most of the town - so I didn't have to drive for several days. Kings Cross is a very interesting place with lots of activity, numerous restaurants, and a real cross section of humanity, including strip shows and prostitutes. We have always stayed in the Cross when we are in Sydney, but I was a bit apprehensive about staying there with Dorothy's mother. But Dorothy said since her mother was used to New York, she was sure that the Cross wouldn't phase her. The boys were introduced to this type of environment early (at 5 and 10, respectively, when we stayed in Pig Alle in Paris in 1981 on our way to Australia the first time).
Dorothy and her mother did quite a bit on their own - touring the Opera House (where I joined them one day to see a play), going to the National Art Gallery (Dwight joined them to see a collection of (missing from transcript)
Our last day in Sydney we drove to several flea markets close to the motel, then to a comic shop out in one of the*western suburbs, then on to a giant Sunday market, stopped on the way back to the motel for one last meal at one of the Sizzler (same as in the U.S.) restaurants. I took a long detour back to the motel so I wouldn't have to go through city driving again.
For a change, there was no trauma getting to the airport, dropping off the rental car and having plenty of time to make the plane. The trip was uneventful and we arrived in Alice to an overcast sky and later even some thunder and a bit of rain. All was well at my house - our friend Chris had survived with the animals, and vice versa.
Dwight hopes to get a summer job in the U.S. next year. If so, this really may have been the last of the famous Grimm family trips. Only time will tell. There is a chance (although Dorothy is threatening me not to participate) that three of us will drive across the country in January to drop my Buick off with Dwight. So stayed tuned . . .