Where The Streets Have No Name

The Brisket on the Barby family made an important discovery this weekend....In Australia, you have to know where you are going before you get anywhere. This may sound confusing, but this is the land of streets that don't have names and major highways that just end abruptly with nothing but a roundabout. (Major highways...like the Pacific Highway....along the Pacific Ocean.... It goes around the WHOLE continent) We all headed out for a 3-day holiday to Port Stephens in New South Wales. The drive is a 2 1/2 hours...if you know where you are going. We were lucky enough to make it in 4 hours. It is only due to Big Dog Daddy's sense of direction and my knowledge that we should take any route that said "Nelson Bay" that we got there at all. Google maps is helpful only when the streets they list have the names actually posted on them. Anyway, we made it to Port Stephens and explored this pretty corner of the world. (We really did explore...we kept getting lost because the streeets were so poorly marked. Our sand dune driver said "Oh yeah...ya gotta know where ya goin' in this town. The streets won't hep ya.")

Port Stephens is a collection of bays and coves. Nelson and Anna Bay were the areas we visited. Nelson Bay was heavily fortified during WWII to protect the steel works in nearby Newcastle, NSW. General MacArthur also had training grounds built in Nelson Bay to practice for the invasion of Japan. The terrain and plant-life are similar. He also had a military hospital constructed for injured GI's. The hospital is still there....the trenches are gone since they were sand and the parade ground is now the town rugby oval.

Anna Bay is home to the Stockton Sand Dunes...the largest moving land mass in the southern hemisphere. It was fun to watch SurferDude and PonyGirl surfing on sandboards down the dunes. It was also hilarious to watch them have to climb the dune back up to the top. SurferDude reminded me of Peter O'Toole as he exits the desert on his way to Akaba. Sand really really sticks to sunscreen!!!

Another highlight of the trip was seeing the whales as they migrate to the Great Barrier Reef from Antarctica. The day was beautiful and the skipper of our boat kept us entertained. There was also free "Tea and Bikkies" to keep everyone well caffeinated. Caffeine, not petrol, is the primary energy source in this country. Perfect for me!!!!

We will definitely go again ...we have to .... we know how to get there.

The children start Term 3 tomorrow. The next break will be the last week of September. Surferdude will resume his rugby and will also start Australian Scouts. PonyGirl will begin her horseback riding lessons and start singing in the school choir. That's about all the driving OperaDiva is willing to do on a regular basis. My next assignment is to find a babysitter that we can afford. August 7th is our 15th wedding anniversary. We would like to go out for the evening at least.....wish me luck!!!!

Things I like this week:

1. The audiobook of Portugese Irregular Verbs by Alexanader McCall Smith - it's read by Hugh Laurie and he makes an otherwise average book absolutely terriffic!!!

2. Ugg boots - heaven

3. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum - she is the ultimate "straight man" in the world of Trenton crazies

Things I don't like:

1. Streets that aren't marked and the maps that don't seem to mind

2. Australian drivers who take your picture on the freeway because you aren't going fast enough (we were already5km over the limit) and they want to pass you. I guess honking incessantly just isn't enough for some. Do they report you to Big Brother????? I'm looking forward to the letter we get from this one...Do Aussie's have the right to confront their accusers like we do in the USA? Well, we're foreigners here...we don't speed. Stay tuned.

3. The Pacific Highway (They call it Hwy 1--sometimes, sometimes not, sometimes, sometimes not)