Adelaide

Yahoo! - in Adelaide. Time to catch up with family!

Arriving back in Adelaide mid week, and few days earlier than expected we decided to pull into the
Adelaide Shores Resort Park for a few days, prior to calling in the 'family favours'! This was a nice time of feeling like we didn't need to be tourists/trippers anymore and we could relax into being 'nearly home' - not quite, but nearly!

Our first afternoon back in Adelaide we caught up with our "big boys" - visiting Jake, at the house he began renting while we were away and seeing some of the beautiful, wooden furniture he has made while doing his TAFE course. Daniel was also in Adelaide, as he is doing the Intensive Care Paramedic Course. So he will be doing a bit of backward and forwarding to Adelaide for study. Catching up with him was a good excuse to go out for a meal together. Over the next few days we saw the boys a few times.

I was very thankful that my Mum had "survived" the time we were away - I was all prepared to have to be flying back from 'somewhere'. However, it was pleasing to see her looking exactly the same as when we had left in January! "Oldies" can become quite tactile and Mum was trying to tug Lily's hair - fascinated by all those blonde locks! Lily also spent some time playing "balloon volleyball" with a some of oldies, as they sat around in a group. (I think she was actually being the 'ball girl' and collecting all the stray hits).

Adelaide was also a time for catching up with more family - we managed to catch up with 3 sisters, 3 brother - in -laws, 1 brother and 1 sister -in - law, 7 nieces, 1 nephew - in - law and 2 great nieces. This was at 6 different "events" over the weekend and we had a lovely time catching up on all the Forrest and Mills gossip over meals, drinks and even a few 'free' nights in real beds - LOVELY!! I did manage a walk to the top of Mount Lofty with some of the 'rels' too.

Reunited with Isabelle and Mia - opening Isabelle's late 4th birthday present! 

Some of the 'sisters' and 'nieces', and even nieces that are sisters!

     

Also time to catch up with "Trip Friends"

• We also made time to catch up with the Orr's - Mark, Ev, Jeremy and Tyler, from Seaford. We had travelled quite a bit of the WA coast, south of Exmouth, encountering the Orrs and the O'Sullivans along our various spots, but hadn't seen them since Kalbarri. The kids were of a similar age to Jed and Lily and had a "grand ol' time" together while away, and also when they kindly invited us for dinner. It was great to see them, and their home and reminisce about holiday times!
• The Southwells, from Canberra, had made similar stops to us across from Kalgoorlie and we arranged to meet them while we were both in the Adelaide Shores Caravan Park. They are great fun, and related really well to the kids as well, and "Happy Hour" had become a bit of a tradition - so we met for what we thought would be our last happy hour (until we get to Canberra for a holiday!!) and they promised they would make their way to Mount Gambier, via Keith, so they could check out our home town. As it turned out, we caught up with them for another Happy Hour at the Mount Gambier Big 4  and ... they thought Keith was a nice looking little town (well, that's what they told us anyway) and they enjoyed their Henry & Rose coffee! We look forward to catching up with them one day.

Adelaide, as part of our trip, was also memorable for another couple of reasons:

• our last 2 bikes were stolen! Only two days to go, camping in public places, and nearly home and the "****'s" (cheeky blighters, was all I was going to say!) managed to get them. We hadn't been able to find the bike lock when setting up and so they got stashed just behind the caravan for the night. Oops! Bad decision. So there probably won't be any problems deciding what will be on the Christmas lists this year!
• We tidied up the van and took some photos, ready to list it for sale. None of us are that sad for the nights in the confines of the caravan, to be nearly over. The van has been great for the purpose, and has lasted us magnificently, with no major dramas - but "Oh, for some space!"

Cleaning up the caravan ready to advertise for sale.

Then to top off the weekend, Nicole and the 'Dear Delights' had arrived in Adelaide also. Of course they came to Adelaide to see us, it just happened that their Dad was there too!? It was 3 months since we had seen them in Darwin and they had grown and 'grown up' in that time.
Although we were prepared not to see them for the whole time we were away, it made the year much more bearable for Narnie & Pop to see Isabelle and Mia midway through the year. And it was pretty good to see Daniel, Nicole and Jake during the year as well. Thanks guys for making the effort! xx