The Australia Day public holiday was on a Thursday this year, so Sara and I decided to take our first extended road trip!  We were off to South Australia – specifically Kangaroo Island and then the state capital – Adelaide.

We left on Wednesday night and made our way about 300kms to the Victorian town of Horsham, where we stayed in a old motel.  During our drive we received a call where they gave us our room number and told us the key would be under the mat.  The next morning when we checked out it was a public holiday, so no one was in the office so we just dropped the key in a key drop and hit the road.  So trusting in the country!

For most of the trip the road looked like the above.  A two lane highway with train tracks next to it and gum trees as far as the eye could see.

We had a scheduled ferry ride to Kangaroo Island at 7pm, so even after covering the last 500km of our trip, we had some time to kill, so we decided to stop in a town near the ferry terminal – Victor Harbor.   They had a nice waterfront area including the first horse drawn tram I’d ever seen.  We did a nice hike and got a late lunch / early dinner before heading over to the ferry.

Arriving late-ish into Kangaroo Island, we just headed straight to our hotel to relax and get ready for a long day of exploring the next day.

The next morning dawned and we set of for the other side of the island – Flinders Chase National Park.  It was about an hour and a half drive.  We made a mistake of using google maps – which tends to route you on the most “direct” route.  This was a problem since the most direct route involved unsealed (dirt) roads.  They were not kind to the Yaris and limited us to about 60kph.  Luckily we were only on them for about 9km.  Lesson learned – the tourist maps we had noted which roads were paved and we stuck to those from that point forward.

We arrived at the park and purchased our visitor pass, got some advice and also got breakfast at the visitor center.  Then we set off for a nice hike with stunning coastal views from Weirs Cove over to Admirals Arch.

After that hike we got back into the car to see the other main attraction at the park – “Remarkable Rocks” – they did not disappoint.  I decided to ride one and Sara did a really poor job of hiding.

After all the bushwalking and assorted adventuring, it seemed like a good time to head to the beach.  So, using our map, we found the only paved road that went to the north shore of the island – and to the town of Stokes Bay.  There we found the beach after a short trail through some rocks.  We relaxed and read our books and generally enjoyed the great day.

After exploring Kangaroo Island, the next day we headed back to the mainland via the ferry.  We stopped at the local pub in Cape Jervis and luckily just beat the 100s of bikies that had come to celebrate the holiday weekend.

After some nice fish sandwiches, it was off to Adelaide for the evening.  As per our typical MO, we found a local microbrewery and enjoyed some fresh beers.

Beer!

We spent most of the afternoon / evening just walking around and exploring the city.  The next morning we went for a run along the river before getting in the car for the 8 hour trip back home.  Luckily there were a few points of interest on the way home.

We acquired some good knowledge for future Australian road trips.  We now know we can’t rely on our experience driving around the USA when driving in Australia.  First, we learned that when you sort of need fuel, you should get it, because the servos are few and far between and not necessarily open 24 hours.  Also, food options are similarly limited  – not plentiful and not always open.   We will put these lessons to use on our next road trip.

Somehow 1 year 8 months and 18 days passed in the DMV without me and Jon. I am not sure how it got to be such a long time, but I am so glad I had a rare decisive moment and insisted on returning for Christmas 2016.

We left Melbourne at 11:30 am 17 Dec AEDT and got to my mom’s house in Bowie at 8 pm 18 Dec AEDT/4 am 18 Dec EST — 32.5 hours elapsed time, 16.5 hours on the clock. It wasn’t a quick, comfortable or smooth journey, but it was 1000% worth it. Randomly, we shared the last leg with Jason Werth and a former coworker of mine from Excella. When we got to my mom’s there was a Welcome home sign on the door and more welcome signs inside which made me feel so happy (and welcome!). We spent our first day in America trying to stop feeling upside down, feasting on foods we’d been missing – biscuits, my mom’s enchiladas and more.

Here are some highlights from the trip…

FAMILY! We keep in touch with family via Skype which is fantastic, but getting to catch up with family in person is even better especially because you can’t play Mario Kart on Skype, can you Adam?!

We spent lots of time with the Matys/Fishers.

I loved getting back to our holiday traditions after spending last year feeling homesick at Christmas time. Jon and I quickly remembered how to play Mario Kart and then proceeded to play for hours on end with everyone but my mom getting sucked into the non-stop action.

We took time out from Karting to eat lots more food – fondue for Christmas Eve and a roast on Christmas and tons and tons of cookies, of course.

We got to celebrate Jon’s 40th (belatedly) and my still not 40th with the family. For Jon’s birthday we checked out the new MGM Grand which is quite a spectacle to behold. Somehow there are so many people who can “afford” to gamble for $25/hand that the minimums quickly shot up to $50/hand. Waaay to rich for my risk averse self! Instead, we had a blast playing the penny slots. Since I’m not so old, we opted for the younger person activity of brunch and a movie, Rogue One – the 3D version, possibly a first for me since Captain EO (which may be dating me – oops), for my birthday.

We spent a few days in Raleigh, NC with the Handels, gathering some important insights into kids these days by spending time with Jon’s sister, Natasha, 18, — applying to college is still painful, but exciting — and brother, Nick, 13 — teenage boys love tanks or maybe that’s just Nick 😉 We also got the latest on the snowbird farmer set from Jon’s Uncle Don and his partner Dana — everyone should winter in Florida – happy hour starts at 4. Jon’s dad and stepmom are doing amazing work running the food bank at their church and we welcomed the chance to help out a bit during our visit.

FRIENDS! We miss our American mates and really enjoyed getting to catch up with so many friends (unfortunately we didn’t get to see everyone!). Our only Australia visitors, Mike and Katy, were our first stop since they were jetting off to Paris after Christmas. We dined at Ray’s the Steaks, an old neighborhood favorite and our usual spot for Jon’s birthday celebrations. It still holds up as a fantastic steak place. Jon’s been missing American Chinese food, specifically General Tsos and the Cubellos came through by ordering an enormous amount of it for him. After we visited the Cubellos, my nephew Adam asked how I knew Zach and Tyler’s mom, so I recounted the time Amanda’s (aka Zach and Tyler’s mom) mom accosted me as I biked around my new neighborhood just before the start of 5th grade. Adam was very impressed that I’m still friends with someone I met when I was his age. I am impressed too – much love Amanda! And a shout out to her fantastic husband and loyal blog reader Kris for suggesting the addition of a like button.

The Herionimi joined us for our night at the MGM Grand and to ring in 2017 with the Braly’s in Irvington, VA. Note to self, the 6 kid to 6 adult ratio doesn’t work all that well when some, not saying who, of the 6 adults should count as kids. Chris, Jon and Rich attempted to set the town on fire and Jon did some real life Mario Karting around the Braly’s backyard in their golf cart while the serious adults, Becky, Holly and I, dissected and gossiped about the latest Gilmore Girl episodes. Good times.

It was great to see the Cutlers, including Mason, who is still a cutie even though he insisted on wearing that hideous Hokie jersey, and the latest addition Chase who we hope will have less affinity for Hokie flair.

My book club ladies are still going strong and have put in a good effort toward the next gen book club with two lovely baby daughters born since I left. It’s great to get to pretend I am on par with their intellect and smarts when we get together.

I spent a lot of time at the start of the trip worried that I would get sick since that is all anyone seemed to be talking about. I managed to avoid it until the last week of the trip, but I hadn’t had a chance to see one of my oldest pals. Luckily, it worked out that I got to grab dinner with Jessica and somehow several hours flew by without us even talking about so many things that came to mind after we met. (I can’t believe I didn’t even ask how your brother is doing!)

Jon was a champ, driving all over Northern Virginia to get to see Erik, Amir, Popowich, Drew and Colin. I wasn’t there so I can’t share any heartfelt memories of the visits, but I’m sure there were many touching moments.

It’s always hard to answer the question of what it was like to be America and what’s different about it from being in Australia, but some top things I enjoyed while being there are…

1. Not having anyone comment on my “accent”
2. Getting to eat all my favorite foods (Kashi, please start exporting to Australia!)
3. Cheap beer and lots of it
4. Insulation – yes it was colder, no I wasn’t freezing
5. Driving on the right side of the road

But of course, the main things aren’t things at all, but people – FAMILY and FRIENDS – we loved getting to see you, miss you much and hope to see you again soon.