After a couple of very fun weeks with the family in Belgrave, I headed off to Adelaide to visit my friends Aurelia and Brian, and their 18mo old son Orlando. I used to work with Aurelia at Reed, but a couple years after I moved to the Bay Area, they moved back to Aurelia's home town of Brighton (or as Brian calls it, Bri-Town :-) ) a beach suburb just south of Adelaide.

And what a beach it is - so idyllic! Long sweeping golden arc of sand with warm, shallow water, not a lot of big waves (it sux for surfing) and only the occasional shark. But more on the beach later.

Brian, Aurelia, and 'lando met me at the airport where 'lando immediately took a liking to Tripper.  In fact for most of the three days I was visiting, Tripper was occupied entertaining him, but they  were so cute together, it certainly wasn't a problem! They whisked me off to their cozy house by the beach, and once settled we wandered down the street to explore the town and the beach, and found ourselves at a local pub to cool down with several pints of Coopers.

On the next day, we went back to the beach for a refreshing morning dip in the sea. I've generally never been a fan of swimming in the ocean, but thats mostly because 1) the water is always very cold in the places I've lived, and/or 2) the surf is pretty strong, with big waves and lots of vertical motion, which I've never really gotten used to swimming in. But in this part of Australia, neither of those are true! The water wasn't as warm as I remember it years ago in Thailand, but it was like getting into a non-heated swimming pool in the summer - chilly at first, but you get used to it in a couple of minutes and it feels great. It was a wonderful way to start the day, and I'm envious - Orlando gets to do it almost every day!

Aurelia had to head in to work for a while, so Brian and Orlando showed me some of the sites of downtown Adelaide. We visited a couple of parks, including one full of cool scultures of oversized everyday object, like a clothespin and a flip-flop (a.k.a. jandal, or thong). Orlando and Tripper both had a great time climbing around on them.  We also checked out a few cool markets and I managed to buy a few small jars of NZ Marmite (not the British kind) which I'm still enjoying these days.

That afternoon I spent a good chunk of time exploring the back yard with Orlando, in much more detail than I ever thought possible. We visited the same flowers, trees and lawnchairs over and over and over, resulting in constant entertainment for us both. Aurelia's mum, who lives nearby, joined us for dinner. Orlando went home with her for a sleepover at grandma's house, giving us an evening to head out to a local night spot for a few drinks.

We got up the next morning and once 'lando had rejoined us, we drove north a couple hours and explored a little of the Barossa Valley - South Australia's wine country, similar to the Napa and Sonoma valleys just north of the Bay Area. We stopped at the Jacob's Creek winery and before sampling their wares, we found a wonderful shady spot under a tree and had a lovely picnic with yummy pears, crackers, bread and mmm....stinky cheese! After lunch we sauntered into the tasting room, where Orlando found the corner with the coloring books, and the adults (and Tripper) enjoyed sampling the local vintages.

I was sad to depart on the following day - it was so good to see Aurelia and Brian and finally meet Orlando. I really miss them and all my friends from Portland, so it felt great to catch up and see where the world has taken them.

(All the photos from Adelaide are in the photo gallery at http://notlost.org/gallery/v/chris/travels/Oz08/adld/)