Sunday Drive to the Mountain

Today we drove to Mount Tamborine - my German friend
Heike had mentioned that she had been there a couple of weeks ago, so I decided that is where we should go. I didn't feel like going to the beach (too much work convincing Ellis - plus the mountain was supposed to be cooler). We finally made it out of the house around 9. I had sent Cyp the coordinates for where we were going the night before, thinking he might plug them into his GPS - but no, he seemed to be doing this as we drove down the street. Asking things like "Where are we going?" Argh. After our somewhat rocky start, we found a route and were driving down the wrong side of the motorway (ok - wrong if we were in Canada). It felt slightly odd - "which lane is the fast lane?" "the right one" hmm. Motorways are boring the world over we decided. The only amusing part of the drive for me was whenever Cyp would try to change lanes - instead of putting on the turn indicator, he would put on the wipers. He was still tending to drive like it was a race, so I kept repeating - we're out for a Sunday drive.

We went to the skywalk in the forest and it was not bad - pretty good actually. It was $18.50 each and Cyp said it was miles better than the one at UBC ($25 each). Ellis kept trying to ditch us and finally I had to chase him, stop him and say "if you can't see me, you're too far away." Oddly, that seemed to work, however, it did become a bit of a game - he would test how far he could go, but at least I could still see him.

At the end we landed up in the gift shop (of course) and he said "I want one of those balls mommy" (chocolate). It seemed easier than arguing so I went to get one (they were only $2 as opposed to

muffins here that are an astonishing $4.50. I went to order it and the cashier said - those are filled with 40 proof alcohol. Oh - I was still tempted - might knock him out for the drive, but she pointed out they had some $.95 smartie cookies. Even better.

We hopped in the car again and drove around aimlessly - cute area - lots of wineries, bed and breakfasts, cheese factories, but it was too much of a pain to get out, so we just looked. I started to feel like we were missing something so we stopped at the information kiosk to talk to someone. I mentioned that we have a three year old and 8 month old. "hmm" said the woman manning the desk "there's not really much round here for kids - you could hike into see the falls" So we went back and did another walk. As is typical with waterfalls - the one of the brochure looks more spectacular. So after walking 1km through the forest, we came across the trickle. Took the standard picture and hiked out.

Jumped out at a roadside stand and got some "avos" or avocados and then we headed home.

Stopped at a historical tunnel - thought we could just drive through it, but no - it was really historical - used to be an ammunition dump during the war. Ellis was suitably impressed, so even though it was a pain to lug El and Ro out again, it was worth it.

By the time we got home, we were all beat (it was only 3). I started to make dinner and Cyp drove out to the airport to pick up a friend that had been here for a conference. Our first visitor! It was great to see someone from our area (Seattle - close enough) and she was happy to get some vegetables. We haven't eaten out a lot here, but I guess most places are heavy on meat. We're going out next Sunday for dinner, so we'll see if this is true.