Don't Mind if I Doo

 

Doo Town is a quirky little place on the Tasman Peninsula.  The story goes that back in the 1930s, an early resident of Doo Town placed a name plate reading "Doo I" on his weekend cottage.  He started a trend, and creative townspeople have been naming their cottages ever since.

Here's a pictorial tour of Doo Town's clever cottages.

One of my favourites:

What doo you think?




Please take a moment to vote and keep me in the Top 25 over at Circle of Moms:

Jervis Bay

Last weekend we took a family road trip down the south coast of NSW to a beautiful area known as Jervis Bay.  It's about 200 km (125 miles) from Sydney.  All the brochures state it is an easy 2.5 hour drive.  I guess they mean it is 2.5 hours if you have only adults in the car and you leave at 11:15 am on a Tuesday.  Friday afternoon with three kids makes the trip a lot longer.  About twice as long in fact.  But, after 5 hours in the car, we arrived at this lovely holiday apartment in the town of Vincentia.

There is always a flurry of excitement when we arrive at our destination.  The kids run around, check out their room, open all the cupboards, explore the place and, in general, send me into a panic that something will be broken before we even unload the car. 

Luckily, no knick-knacks were harmed on this holiday!

We were up bright and early Saturday morning and set off to explore the town of Huskisson.  We had an uninspired breakfast at the Husky Bakery- which is only worth mentioning because they had an actual McDonald's playplace in the back of the cafe.


We had just enough time to book a dolphin watch cruise on The Extreme.  We thought the fast 1.5 hour trip would be perfect for the kids.  So we headed to the dock, armed with motion sickness tablets and armbands for the Little Princess.  We were all amazed to see large pods of dolphins jumping and swimming right next to the boat.  Of course, the dolphin watching was overshadowed a bit by the melt down and near panic attack suffered by the Little Princess.  She completely lost the plot (as they say here) and was terrified by the boat ride.  Afterward I asked her if it was all worth it to see the dolphins up close.  Her reply was a resounding, "NO!"  Oh well, I thought it was thrilling.

Jervis Bay is known for it's gorgeous beaches.  Hyams Beach claims to have the whitest sand in the world.  It is nearly pure silica and squeaks when you walk on it. 

The next day we took some time to explore Booderee National Park.  We bushwalked to Green Patch via the Rock Platform and saw lots of Neptune's Necklace in the tide pools.  The views were stunning (Would you expect anything else?  This is Australia!)


We also spent some time at beautiful Murray's Beach.  We saw more dolphins and even a stingray swimming very close to shore.  The water was absolutely crystal clear and still warm even though it is early Autumn.  It was a perfect place to spend the afternoon.  None of us wanted to leave.

But, as the weekend drew to a close we had to load up and head back to Sydney.  I wish we could go back during whale watching season, but I'm afraid that won't happen.  Too many places to see and, sadly, not enough time.

A Friendly Reminder

And now a friendly, and not so subtle, reminder from the state of Victoria.













All of these were seen along the road on our drive from Warnambool to Avalon airport (a trip that only took a little over 2 hours). I didn't even bother to snap pics of all the repeat signs we saw along the way.

I wish I had thought to take pictures of all the "warning" signs we saw on this road trip. There were some really graphic ones on Phillip Island persuasively telling us about the dangers of motorcycle riding. But the above signs are a pretty good representation of the government of Victoria looking out for your safety on the roads. Get the message?

The Great Ocean Road- Part 2

The final leg of our Great Ocean Road trip started in Port Campbell, a sleepy little town of about 500 people. It is a good place to stay only in that it is very close to the 12 Apostles. Other than that, it doesn't have much to offer. After our experience in Lorne, the information centre in Port Campbell was a real disappointment, but we did pick up a few maps with lookout spots designated on them. And so we were off- on the road again!


There were so many gorgeous, marked places to stop along the road. The photo above shows the "London Bridge" so named before the first arch fell down into the sea. Below: After a short hike down to a near by beach we spotted heaps of penguin footprints in the sand. A colony of Little Penguins lives in this area!


Another beautiful lookout was "The Gorge". My sweet husband hiked down a ton of stairs to see if it was worth the view, and since it was I hauled my big pregnant self down there where a nice Uni student (from Wisconsin!) snapped this family photo for us.

We drove on to a cute little town called Port Fairy for a delicious lunch and then backtracked a bit to Tower Hill, a state game park reserve. There is an extinct volcano at this site, and the Little Princess really wanted to climb to the summit. However, I wasn't really up for that, so we all enjoyed an easy rainforest bushwalk and spotted some wild emus and even a little wallaby along the way.


From there we headed to our final destination; Warnambool. This small city is located along the "Shipwreck Coast" and featured a recreation of an 1800s fishing village called Flagstaff Hill. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to see the village during the day, but we went back at night for a lantern walk and a cool laser show recreating the shipwreck of the Loch Ard. We all really enjoyed the show and left with a real appreciation for the brave travelers who made the daunting journey to Australia in the late 1800s. We would have liked more time to explore Warnambool, but we were up and out early the next morning for an easy 2 and a half hour drive back to Avalon airport and our flight home to Sydney.

We can't recommend this trip highly enough. We all loved it! It was such a great mix of beautiful scenery, amazing wildlife, interesting new experiences, and fun times together as a family. It's a trip we'll always remember.

The Great Ocean Road- Part 1

The final leg of our Australian holiday was a tour of the Great Ocean Road. It is often described as the most beautiful coastline in Australia, and after seeing it I have no doubt that description is true. It was absolutely amazing!


We took the ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff to start our tour. It was the first time we had ever been on a vehicular ferry. It was a lovely experience, and we were glad we chose this route instead of driving back through Melbourne.

Once in Queenscliff we set off on the Great Ocean Road. Our first stop was the famous surf spot, Bells Beach. We happened to show up in time to see part of the Rip Curl Pro surfing competition. What luck!



We also stopped by the Anglesea golf course to see the wild kangaroos. They were all over the course! That night we stayed in Aireys Inlet, a lovely little town with a charming lighthouse and a local "hotel" (this generally means bar in Australia) with good food.

The next day was probably the highlight of the trip. We drove through Apollo Bay and stopped at the information center in Lorne. There, we got great advice about places to stop with the kids. We headed for Teddy's Lookout, a beautiful spot with more picturesque views.


Then on to the Kennett River walk. We drove about 5km down an unpaved road and, sure enough, spotted several wild koalas up in the gum trees. This was quite a thrill! We were able to get so close to these adorable Aussie icons.



At the end of the road we discovered a hidden rainforest. It was amazing- huge ferns, a beautiful rocky creek perfect for throwing stones.



We were also able to squeeze in a little bushwalk at the Maits Rest Rainforest. Notice the big "holes" in the trees. Giant trees fall over in the rainforest and other trees grow around the fallen trunks. Eventually, the fallen tree deteriorates, leaving a large "hole" in the living tree.


Just before sunset we arrived at the Twelve Apostles; an amazing collection of rock formations jutting out of the sea along the coastline. This is probably the most photographed spot along the Great Ocean Road, and I can understand why. It's simply beautiful.


After a very full day we were happy to settle in for the night in Port Campbell. Part 2 of our Great Ocean Road Adventure to come . . . .

Melbourne Here We Come

As part of our ongoing quest to see as much of Australia as possible, we took off on Easter Sunday and flew to "Mel-bin" for the first leg of our week long family holiday.

There was a near disaster at the car hire counter when the frazzled attendant informed me that the full size car I had reserved was not available and I would have to take the equivalent of a 2-door Speck instead. As you can imagine, this didn't go over well with me. Fortunately, another car showed up just as things were about to go from bad to worse, and soon enough we were heading toward Melbourne and ready for adventure!

After checking into our hotel (isn't it funny how kids are ALWAYS excited about a new hotel room?) we decided to take a walk through the city and grab dinner in Chinatown. Let's just say it looked a lot closer on the map, and my big pregnant self was seriously struggling to keep up! We finally found the restaurant recommended in our guide book and decided to eat there even though it was way too quiet and fancy for our crabby, tired three year old. Predictably the dinner ended with a minor meltdown and a sleepy boy in the taxi back to the hotel. I vowed to seek out kid friendly restaurants for the rest of the trip!

Checking out Carlton Gardens near the Melbourne Museum

The following day was packed with sightseeing in Melbourne. Everyone enjoyed riding on the city's tram system. We visited the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail) which was seriously creepy, and the Melbourne Museum which was full of great exhibits. (Somehow we missed the stuffed race horse Phar Lap- bummer). We even took in a How to Train Your Dragon at the IMAX (which was the perfect place for the Little Buddy to get his afternoon nap).


We finished the day with a stroll around Federation Square and a trip to the Skydeck of the Eureka Tower for stunning night time views of the city.



The next morning we headed straight for the Royal Botanic Gardens. My kids love Botanic Gardens (they would be thrilled to spend every weekend at the one in Sydney) so we knew this would be a big hit with them. What we didn't know was that the Melbourne gardens have an amazing Children's Garden. It is filled with streams, pathways, bamboo hideouts, tree "caves" and water features. We couldn't drag them away. It was little piece of paradise right there in the city! Yes, we are those kind of parents who let our Little Buddy run around in his underpants when his jeans got soaked. But- hey, we weren't the only ones!


Unfortunately, we never got to see the rest of the Royal Botanic Gardens. We had to head out to Phillip Island to catch the Penguin Parade that night!

Too Good to be True

I've been in Australia for nearly 11 months. And for 11 months I have been queuing up inside the petrol station whenever I need to fill up my tank. That's right, there is no pay at the pump in Australia. You can imagine what a pain this is, especially for those of us with kids.
And then today, while driving home from the SupaCentre, the low fuel light went on in the car. I pulled into the nearest petrol station and was shocked to see something called ePump! Yes, there were what appeared to be credit card machines attached to the pumps. I was so excited!
However, as I read the instructions I realized that I had gotten my hopes up for nothing. The ePump only works with their special everyday money credit card! All the poor saps (like me) with regular old bank credit cards are completely out of luck.


So, after all that, it really was too good to be true. I had to stand there, pump the petrol (by the way there are no little levers you can use to hold the pump for you either), and then go inside to pay for the fuel.
The only person happy about this arrangement was the Little Buddy, who scored a pack of gum from the mini-mart.
No pay at the pump- just one more reason why I try to get my sweet husband to fill up the car as often as possible!

Who Would've Thought . . . It Figures

It's been 6 weeks since I became the owner of a shiny new Toyota Kluger and well, she wasn't looking so shiny any more. And, since my mom is coming to Sydney tomorrow (woo-hoo) I figured it was time to try out the local Crystal Car Wash.

$42.75 later ($40 for the car wash and $2.75 for a M&M biscuit that the Little Buddy promptly gnawed the M&Ms off of) I left feeling a little ripped off.

It's not just that the car wash here is nearly 4X the price of a good car wash in SoCal. It's that I didn't even get Armor All on the tyres or that overpowering "new car" scent sprayed inside.

The good news: This is Australia so the guys with the chamois don't expect a tip.

The bad news: Looks like it's gonna rain again.

It figures.

Mama Did a Bad Bad Thing

Those of you who have been a passenger in a car whilst I'm driving will find the following story difficult to believe. But it's true.

I came home today to find the following notice in the letterbox:



Yep. I've been caught on camera driving 74 km per hour in a 60 km zone. (The equivalent of going 45 in a 37 mph zone). I didn't even see it coming.

Some of you are probably laughing out loud right now because I am actually such a slow driver. In twenty years of driving in the U.S. I never got a ticket. Not one.

I've been in Oz for less than 2 months. And I've already been nabbed. I rarely see actual police cars here. I guess they let these speed sensors in the roads do the work for them.


On the bright side, since I don't have an Aussie driver's license I couldn't care less about the 3 demerit points I'm racking up for my moment of crazy speedy driving. Lesson learned!

Fitting Right In

The Little Princess and I have an ongoing competition trying to one-up each other in a little game we like to call "Who is More Aussie?" She seems to think she is more "Aussie" than me because she uses words like "heaps"and "ta-mah-to sauce" and calls me "mum". Usually she wins, but last week I trumped her with the holy grail of Aussie-ness. Parking.

I've noticed that Australians love to back their cars into parking spaces. I think it is actually their preferred parking method. Back in the U.S. I only backed my car in when absolutely necessary. (Like when going to see Elmo Live on Stage at the Civic Arts Plaza when a million other mothers with sleepy toddlers would be trying to exit the parking structure at exactly the same time. If you didn't back in you would never be able to get out!) But here everybody backs in all the time. I've been intimidated by all this backing in. The parking spaces here are very narrow, often bordered by cement pylons or cinder block walls. To make matters worse, street parking often involves stopping traffic on busy roads to parallel park. I have walked blocks out of my way to avoid parallel parking on the street. I've had nightmares about long lines of hurried drivers behind me honking while I try unsuccessfully to squeeze my big new Toyota Kluger into a tiny spot on the street.

But now that has all changed.

First, I backed my car into this tiny space at Woolies (the grocery store where you can by 2 12pks of Diet Coke for the amazing sale price of $16 this week).




Then I parallel parked my car on Military Road perfectly on the first try! I was too busy gloating about my amazing Aussie parking skills to take a picture of the perfect parking job. But trust me, it was spot on. Even the Little Princess had to concede. I am so Aussie. I fit right in.