Koalas and Roos

Adelaide, July 6

Rainy Saturday in Adelaide - Reinold and I arrived here uneventfully after transiting Sydney and Melbourne.   Our friends Sharon and Fiona met us at the Adelaide airport, and promptly took us to a pub for a glass of wine by a great fireplace, very cozy on a cool Friday afternoon..   Note that pubs here are not like pubs in the UK - they are more like restaurant lounges in the US.    When asked about dinner plans, they were both very cryptic - turned out they took pity on us missing July 4th, and along with our other friends here planned a 4th of July dinner party that evening, that included hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, ribs and mac/cheese.   We arrived at Fiona's to a scene of American flags hanging over the doorways, and a general red/white/blue motif on the table.   Food was very authentic, lots of good Australian wine, and tolerance for me playing the Star Spangled Banner on my ipad (sadly, the tolerance was short lived - no one wanted to hear Yankee Doodle Dandy...).   Lots of fun, I faded at 10pm, Reinold followed at 11pm, and we slept soundly until 8:30 this morning.

On a side note, one of my 51 year old assumptions was put to rest last night, when I was told Waltzing Matilda is not the official national anthem of Australia - it is Advance Australia Fair.   Who knew.....

It is mid winter here in South Australia, weather is very similar to what we experience during Winter in Northern California - high's around 56F, rainy, very green.    After a nice breakfast, we headed out with Sharon (who lives next door to Fiona) for a hike in the Adelaide Hills, hoping to see one or two koalas in the trees.....

We actually saw 24 koalas sleeping, eating, pooping and in some cases staring at us through a eucalyptus oil induced haze, complimented by kangaroos hopping around as well - outstanding experience.    All of the koalas were sitting in, or hanging from, gum trees (aka eucalyptus).  As soon as I figure out how to post pics to this blog, I will share a couple from our hike.

We are having a quiet afternoon, listening to the gentle sound of rain on the tin roof of Fiona's place, dinner tonight is Italian with Fiona, Sharon, and Sharon's husband Michael.    In case you are wondering how we came to have this amazing Adelaide connection - we met Fiona, and her son Tom, in Vietnam during a trip in 2007/8 - we stayed up late on a junk in Halong Bay playing scrabble with them.   The following year Fiona and Tom came to stay with us in SF, and then Fiona joined us in France last year for my 50th birthday bash.   At the end of last year, Fiona hosted Reinold and me for Christmas and New Years, and during that trip we gained an amazing group of friends in this very beautiful city.   Fiona and Sharon are headed our way at the end of August, hopefully many of you will get to meet them then, if you haven't already.

Reinold heads back early tomorrow for SF, probably time for a cozy nap on this fine winter day in July.   Fiona's yellow lab, Duke, is sleeping on his mat behind me, he was treated to authentic American milk bone dog biscuits yesterday, probably too many, but how often does an Aussie dog get to sample American canine delicacies?  Occasional indulgence makes life interesting!  Stay tuned for more.