Australian Holiday - Adelaide - 24 Oct 2006

Dan and Brian spent few minutes together this morning before Brian headed for work; Sarah and Rhonda rose at 8:30 AM and we had breakfast; toast with Nutella for Sarah; Semolina for Dan and Rhonda. Dan also had a piece of toast with Vegemite. Brian had picked up a single serving container at a restaurant. It is a yeast extract; supposedly a health food; very salty; tastes kind of like beef bouillon. Sarah said they scrape it from the bottom of beer brewing barrels. Mmmm...
After breakfast Sarah took us on a driving tour of Adelaide. It is a city of about 1 million; the downtown area (called the central business district or CBD) is surrounded by parks and the suburbs stretch from the Gulf St. Vincent on the west to the Adelaide Hills on the east. Adelaide has a reputation as Australia’s quiet town. Our shuttle bus driver in Sydney said, “Oh! A whole week in Adelaide, eh? What you gonna do?” However, we found it a beautiful place with lots of attractions, though Sarah says they do roll up the CBD sidewalks at 6 PM.

At lunchtime, we met Brian at the Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) Systems Centre just a few blocks from Brian and Sarah’s house. Brian gave us a quick tour of the high-tech looking center, which his company, Gibbs & Cox naval architects, shares with Raytheon combat systems engineers, ASC/Bath Iron Works shipbuilders, and the Australian Navy AWD Defence Materiel Organisation. Brian has a Steelcase work station (made in Grand Rapids, Michigan) complete with dual computer monitors and photos of family and friends decorating the walls.
We had a picnic lunch in the park next to the AWD building, with lamb yiros from a local shop. Brian and Dan finished it off with baklava. Little flies showed up, too, which delighted in landing on our faces. We hope they are short-lived.

After lunch, Sarah took us to the Adelaide Art Museum, where we took a tour of the galleries containing the classic collections going back to the Australian colonial days in the early 1800s. Our tour guide was an Italian woman (we suspect) with a French accent, who pointed out that the state of South Australia was founded by free citizens, not convicts; a matter of pride for the modern day residents of SA.

Brian grilled steaks for supper, with which we enjoyed a very fine, local red wine; Rockford Barossa Valley basket press (first juice out of the grapes) Shiraz 2003; a very fine gift from Brian and Sarah! The steaks and wine were delicious, and we could feel the relaxing effects flowing through our jet-lagged limbs. After eating, we retired to the living room where Rhonda viewed photo albums on the couch with Brian and Sarah while Dan sat back in a comfortable recliner and began working a Sudoku puzzle. Brian put on a Johnny Cash CD and Dan was soon dreaming of sitting around the campfire with a group of cowboys, discussing wagon wheel repairs. The dream was short lived when Sarah noticed his slumber, called his name, and he woke with a start. We played a few hands of Uno around the kitchen table before hitting the sack at 9 PM.