Day 23: Grants in the City

...doesn't sound quite as glamorous or as exciting as Sex in the City, but as this is a PG rated blog, it is probably more appropriate.

So, we went to the city, we looked, we came home, would be the short version of today. However, it was much more exciting than that!

We went to the city (about 10kms up the road) and we found some parking that nearly flattened our budget for the day. $9.20 for 4hours! It wasn't even a gold-plated parking spot...but I suppose it did have a skinny branch hanging over the canopy of the ute for a bit of shade. Do you know how long it takes to feed 10c and 20c coins into a bloody parking ticket machine? I don't either, but it felt like a jolly long time. I had built up a bit of a sweat by the end there. (Some kindly lady even stopped to see if she could help, as Duncan was wrestling with the map at this time also.)

Andrew found the city absolutely thrilling...as you can see.

Adelaide is surrounded by beautiful parks. We know this because we walked through one to get to the CBD. The trees in the parks are BIG and the ROOTS are phenomenal (see pic). These are the sort of roots you only want to see in a park this size. The 'ooh' and 'aah' sounds that accompany one's seeing these roots would have a completely different connotation were they in your own garden (lifting up your house and blocking your sewage pipes).

Children-eating tree roots...don't try this at home.

Bucket-hatted and backpacked as usual, Duncan whipped out his camera (a rather swish Pentax) to give us some respectability, thereby transforming us into tourists, rather than a rather hobo-ish looking bunch. Thus bedecked, we set off for Rundle Street and walked the length of it looking much like a bunch of Tasmanian tourists. It being Shrove Tuesday, we soon bumped into the obligatory pancake stall where the boys were delighted to partake. We kept our eyes open for book shops because both Callum and Andrew have been reading so much (Hallelujah!) that they have just about finished all the books they brought with them.

Callum and the pancake guy

After much of this sort of meandering, even the guy in the pancake suit started to look tasty, so we headed back to the Botanical Gardens where we had a serene picnic under a big conifer. We'd done about 3hrs walking by this stage and Duncan announced the things he had chosen for us to look at in the Gardens, on our way back to the car. Callum and I were fairly alarmed by this and Andrew wisely chose to say nothing (as he has had a kick in the pants for ongoing whining before – which worked, obviously). Anyway, we girded our loins and set off after Duncan, who took many beautiful snaps of various interesting flora. It was not unpleasant, though we were all thrilled to see our ute in it's gold-plated parking spot by the time we were done.

A cool pool of shade for a picnic

The obligatory visit to Coles and a cool dip in the very cool caravan park pool sorted us out. Hamburgers on the BBQ and a bit of reading under the awning was a very pleasant way to finish off our day.