One
weekend we decided to walk around the parklands that surround the city.
In the south parklands is a small Japanese garden where this gem
was to be seen. Gerald captured it beautifully. It was a
very peaceful setting and a nice rest during the long walk.
The TOUR DOWN UNDER
An
international group of riders competed in this annual (this was the 9th
year) week-long bike race around Adelaide and its environs.
Stages are as long as about 150kms/
90 miles and the terrain varies from
the hills and countryside outside Adelaide to the city streets (where
we watched the last stage, pictured below). About 14
international teams of 8 riders battled it out in some cold and rainy
weather. It was incredible to see how closely they ride to each
other and how fast they go, even around tight turns!
CRICKET SEASON!
Summer
arrived and with it came cricket season! Every 18 months
(alternating between hemispheres) England and Australia play the
"Ashes" series. This is a series of five five-day (yes, five
DAYS!) cricket matches. One of the Ashes series' matches was
played in Adelaide. On day three, we discovered that the series
was NOT sold out (as rumoured), so we got two tickets for the fourth
day. At that point England had played so well in its first
innings (551 runs) that the best Australia was expected to do with
the match was to pull off a "draw." Since we figured day five would be
a complete waste of time, we settled on day four. It ended up
being a beautiful day and fun to be in the cricket ground and to watch
the match amongst a friendly and enthusiastic crowd. Little did
we know that on day five Australia would pull off a completely
unexpected and thrilling come-from-behind victory! It was a
once-in-a-lifetime day at the cricket, and we missed seeing it live. But we did get
to watch the
finish on a big screen in the middle of the city, which was fun.
Needless to say, the Aussies were a bit excited (apparently many offices emptied out around 3 p.m. on day five when folks left work to watch the match's finish).
England pretty much collapsed after that, and Australia swept the
series 5 - 0 (first time since the 1920/21 Ashes series).
We also went to a one-day State game with family friend, Leo. In
this game the teams are each limited to 50 overs (6 bowls (pitches) per
over), so the strategy is different from the traditional five-day matches where
they are playing against time. The game we went to was between
South Australia and Queensland. South Australia hadn't won a game
yet, so we weren't very hopeful for a victory, but they played pretty
well during their inning. In the end, SA needed six runs off the
last bowl to win. The only way to do that is to hit the ball over
the boundary (without it first hitting the ground), which is pretty
uncommon. But the guy did it! Needless to say the crowd
went wild! (Gerald's dad said he heard the cheer from their
apartment about 1/2 mile away.) It was very exciting.
Elyse's expectations of cricket are now unrealistically set on
nail-biting finishes!
Here are a couple of pictures of the Adelaide cricket ground during the Ashes series test match.
On the left is the 100+ year old score board. Note that
people sit IN the scoreboard and change names/numbers by hand. On
the right is Shane Warne about to bowl (pitch, but with a completely
different motion). During this Ashes series, he broke the record
for most test (five-day match) wickets (getting someone out), earning
his 708th wicket before retiring from cricket at the ripe old age of 38
years. On a separate note, do you see how close the fielders are
to the batter? ARE THEY NUTS OR WHAT???? At least these two
have helmets on -- not always the case.... The guy crouched down in the
middle of the picture is fielding at a position called "silly mid-on".
Weekend Get-Away
The
two of us decided to take a few days together in McLaren Vale (an early
birthday celebration for Gerald). We had visited the area often
to go to the
wineries, but had never spent a solid block of time there. We
found a
great B&B right in the town of McLaren Vale and spent the days
walking, eating, drinking and - a special treat - biking. The day
we
biked was spectacular - just cool enough to be comfortable and to help
us survive some of the bigger hills. As beautiful as this area is
when
seen from a car, it was even more stunning from a bike. We ended our
few days' trip with a superb lunch at the Salopian Inn. We sat
outside and had
the view in the picture below from our table. Not bad!
BEACH TIME!
The city of Adelaide is about 5 miles from the coast. We made it to Henley beach a few times while we were there.
It takes about 20 mins. to get there from town (or about 45 mins.
when we biked along a path beside the river), and is a beautiful spot
to spend the day or to watch the sun set. The pictures below were
taken from about the same spot on the jetty, so you can see how the
"mood" changes. We had fun watching the kite-surfers on the gusty day -
they were having
a great time "flying" over the waves! We also went on January 1st
to celebrate Gerald's birthday. Not a bad way to spend a
birthday. Our last week in Adelaide we met (brother) Patrick and his
girlfriend, Claudine, and some friends for a fantastic Greek dinner and
then took a swim at about 9:30 p.m. The water was warm and it was
fun to try to play catch with a tennis ball by moonlight!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GERALD!
After a day at the beach, we had a
family dinner with Dad, Mom, Claudine, Patrick, the birthday boy in his
new Australian soccer shirt (bright enough for you?), Jacqui (sister)
and Derek (Jacqui's husband). Some extra good wine was had by all. Oh, and
some good food, too. Glad to have an excuse to be with the whole
family! We miss them already....
