Tamborine Skywalk

I needed a little distraction last weekend. Tony was out of town and my sister was having her first wedding shower.  I was sad to miss the shower, so I needed something to keep me occupied. Boy, did I find it!

Several people have remarked to me at how wonderful Tamborine Mountain is and that I should visit the Rainforest Skywalk there.  My decision was made: Rainforest Skywalk, here we come!  We were all loaded in the car, only to realize that the GPS would not locate the Skywalk.  I was determined and did not let this minor hiccup get me down.  I located the skywalk on my phone, mapped it out, and tossed the phone to Ellis, my navigator.  We were on our way!  We approached our exit and our first round-about.  No problem.  We get to the next round-about and it wasn’t quite that easy. For those of you that have seen European Vacation, I may have chimed in with the quote I happen to say quite a lot when I am driving, “Look, Kids, there’s Big Ben. Oh, look kids, there’s Big Ben.”  Yes, we circled the round-about before finding our correct exiting point.  Ellis read out the next direction.  I kept driving, and driving, and driving.  It finally dawned on me that I might should stop and look at the map.  After reviewing, I realized that it would have been a good idea to explain to my navigator that the blue line on the map is our route and the blue dot represents our car.  The blue dot should ALWAYS be on the blue line.  Perhaps just tossing the phone to my eight year old wasn’t the wisest decision on my part. Yes, our blue dot needed to find it’s way back to the blue line.  The rest of the way, I was a broken record, “Is the blue dot still on the blue line?”  A bit further down the road, we reached the trek to take us up the mountain.  Just as I was hasty in throwing the phone to Ellis, I started to realize my entire decision to drive somewhere that included the word “mountain” was a bit hasty and a little insane.  Driving on the opposite side of the road, on the opposite side of the car, UP a mountain is a little bit intimidating and nauseating. I should apologize to the line of cars that had to follow me on that stretch of road! After many curves, we approached the sign, “Rainforest Skywalk” (cue the choir singing).  I whipped the car in…okay “whipped” may be a little exaggerated. I slowly pulled the car in and parked. As I peeled my white knuckles of off the 10 and 2 on the steering wheel, Hannah Grace threw herself out of the car yelling, “I need air!”

The drive there was enough adventure for me.  We were there, though, so off we went to purchase our tickets.  As we rounded the corner, I got a good view of what I was about to step on.  That brings me to hasty decision #3.  I am not sure why I thought it was a good idea to visit something called SKYWALK when I am terribly afraid of heights.  Three steps on to the grated, steel walkway and Ellis is jumping for joy, Hannah Grace is saying, “we are going to die” and I can hardly keep it together.  I inform Ellis to WALK slowly and I tell Hannah Grace, “Just don’t look down.” Of course she did. Ellis charged on down the walkway, while Hannah Grace and I held onto the rail, walking as briskly as we could.  Meanwhile, we are passing heaps of people taking in the beautiful scenery. I’ll have to take their word for it.  We weren’t at a total loss, though.  The trail ended on solid ground alongside a rolling creek.  So, our lovely nature walk that should have taken an hour, lasted about 30 minutes.

 

Lucky for us, the GPS recognized how to take us home.  Just so you know, it wasn’t even close to the way we went to the mountain.  Oh well, it was an adventure.  Next time, though, maybe I’ll put a little more thought into it.

 

 

 

It took all I had to let go of the rail to capture this picture!

Hannah Grace and I liked the solid ground much better!

 

Feel free to visit www.rainforestskywalk.com.au to see more scenic pictures.

Sydney, Australia

I am in love!  Yes, of course with Tony, but also with my new favorite city: Sydney. My opinion may be through shaded lenses because the weather was PERFECT and having a vacation with just my family was priceless!  I wish these pictures I am going to share with you came close to capturing the beauty of the city.  They don’t, but I’ll give you a glimpse, anyway!

The Bridge walk:  There are several options for the bridge walk. You can just walk from one side to the other on the pedestrian pathway, you can catch the view from the brick pylons, or you can do the actual bridge walk (no thank you!).  Walking from one side to the other was enough to take my breath away!  We did go to the top of the pylons, which had amazing views of the city!  I was quite frightened at the height, but the views were worth it!

 

 

 

Notice the bridge climbers. Yeah, I am not in that group!

 

My family was impressed I made it this high!

 

 

While in Sydney, we were able to catch up with a college friend at Manly Wharf.  It has been about sixteen years since we last saw her. It was so great to catch up with her and her brand new baby!

 

 

Our views from our ferry ride home after seeing Kirsten. Beautiful!

 

 

Taronga Zoo:  I couldn’t decide whether or not to make a trip to the zoo. So many people insisted, though, so we decided to give it a try.  The views from this zoo are what set it apart from other zoos!

A ride in a sky safari takes you to the top entrance of the zoo.

View from the sky safari.

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of our trip was filled with lots of walks, food, street markets, and a gazillion pictures of the opera house!  We had a ball!

 

The weekend street markets with local vendors and artists.

Ellis and I loved listening to this local musician.

 

 

Chilling at the Opera House Bar

 

We took a tour of the Opera House.  I loved seeing the different rooms and listening to the history! Thanks for the tip, Bhanu!

 

Bondi Beach

Too bad we didn't have our Clemson shirts on this day!

Our final toast to a fabulous weekend! Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

Bulimba State School has a program for Years 4-7 called the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. Throughout the year, the children learn how to grow, harvest, and prepare fresh seasonal food.  On Wednesday, Ellis’s class had their turn in the program.  During that time, the children learned about preparing a garden for planting potatoes.  One group of children worked hard to dig and prepare the trenches for the potatoes, while the other group gathered vegetables from the garden to use in the salad they would prepare later in the kitchen.  The classes in Years 4-7 shared responsibility and worked on the potato garden at different times throughout the week.  Once Ellis’s class was done with their portion of work in the garden, they moved into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, five stations were set up. The children were divided into groups to prepare a different part of the meal for the day.  Two stations prepared homemade pasta, one station made pesto, another made a pumpkin sauce for a pasta dish, and the last station assembled the salad and made the dessert.  It is really amazing to watch the kids at work.  They are given a recipe and, with the help of a parent, create their dish.  I should note that the vegetables and herbs used come straight out of the garden that the children planted and harvested. Before beginning the program a few weeks ago, they were given a lesson on how to use the knives (yes, they use real knives), behavior in the kitchen, and keeping the kitchen clean.  The expectations for a class of 8/9 year olds are high and it works! 

 

Ellis and Tom working hard to gather the compost.

 

I was happy to stick to picture taking!

 

Hauling the compost to the potato garden. Go Muscles!

 

 

One of the sweet girls digging the trenches.

 

Where the lettuce was gathered for the salad.

 

 

Ellis starting the process for the pasta.

 

The children gathered together to enjoy the lunch that they put together.

I know that it isn't the best picture, but wanted you to see their view.

 

Time to wash the dishes!

 

Don't forget to fold the dish towels!

 

 

Ellis loved making pasta so much that he wanted us to get our own pasta machine.  Too make sure he was really interested, I asked him if he wanted that as one of his birthday presents. When he said yes, my heart melted! In a day where electronics “rule”, I couldn’t wait to get my buddy his own pasta machine.  I love my little chef!  With the help of Hannah Grace, we tried it out tonight. We made a mess (good thing Tony wasn’t here), but we had fun and we enjoyed a yummy, made-from-scratch dinner!

 

 

 Trying out his new pasta machine!

 

 

The end result!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lawn Bowls

We have started a new tradition in my family at Christmas.  We pile in the car and head up to the local bowling alley.  Hannah Grace and Ellis choose their teams, while I keep my fingers crossed that I am not the last one picked.  I stink at bowling. That does not stop my competitive side, though. I desperately want to win. I just don’t provide much help for my team.

The team on the right was the non-winning team.

 

 

That competitive streak stretches all the way here in Australia (so does my lack of talent)! This past weekend, thanks to Janelle Gelaude, we found a new game that we love. Well, it is a love/hate relationship with me! We gathered together for a friendly game of lawn bowls.  The best way to describe lawn bowls is to compare it to Bocce ball. Instead of playing in the sand, though, you play on nicely manicured grass.  Another difference is that you roll the ball as opposed to tossing it like in Bocce ball. Throwing would definitely be frowned upon! The point of the game is to get your ball closest to the smaller white ball.

Once we got the children playing in their “lane”, the competition began amongst the adults. We were divided into two teams: boys vs. girls.  Just like in regular bowling and Bocce ball, I stink.  Perhaps I am not really THAT bad, but Tony is THAT good. He loved to rub it in, too.  The final score ended up being 29 to 1.  Janelle scored our only point.  Besides being irritated that the girls lost, I was also mad that I failed to score a single point! I do believe the girls will skip our next lunch outing and head to the local lawn bowls club!

Here are some pictures from our outing on Saturday:

 

 

Here is Hannah Grace on her first roll.

 

Ellis may have had a little more toss than a roll in his shot.

 

Ellis's team scores a point!

 

Ellis's team wins!

 

The boys talking strategy.

 

Janelle scores our only point.

 

 

Once again, I am on the non-winning team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm walking on sunshine!

 

I was 12 years old when the song, “Walking on Sunshine” hit the airways.  Twenty-eight years later, I find myself singing that tune quite often. I walk to almost anywhere I need to go in Bulimba. With the beautiful weather, songs like this pop into my head. Luckily, I contain my urge to dance and sing as I walk (although, you might see me lip synching every now and then). The last two weeks have been a bit wet and gray, but I should not complain. I have lived here for almost seven months and the majority of my days have been filled with blue, sunny skies.  Now that the fabulous weather is back, my routine of walking the children to school, walking to the grocery, or anywhere else I need to go are back! I thought I would try and capture some of what I see on my daily walks. I hope you enjoy!

 

Bulimba Uniting Church

Here is where we go to church...when we are in town.

 

The grocery store is located in the middle of Oxford Street.

 

I am a regular at this bakery. It is a good thing I walk alot!

 

Here is one of the many coffee shops in Bulimba.

 

These trees line the park where the children love to play.

Ellis's favorite thing to do is climb the trees. They remind me of when I was little

and I would climb the tree at Memama's house with my cousins.

 

 

Just another view of the tree-lined park.

 

When I first saw this place, I was thrilled to see a store devoted to wine.

A chocolate store (not pictured), a bread store, and a wine store on one street...

I pretty much have it made!

 

I love to hear the chatter and the "clanking" of dishes as I walk by the Jetty.

This place is busy, no matter what time of day!

 

A view of the City Cat as I walk a portion of the riverwalk.

 

On occasion, I can walk to the ferry stop at the end of my street and catch

a cruise ship at the port across the river.

 

 

                   YEP, I AM WALKING ON SUNSHINE AND IT FEELS GOOD!