Mum and Fred "Down Under"

Can you believe we have been living in Australia for an entire year and my dad and mum come to visit us only 4 days apart. They were even in Sydney at the same time. Once again, Mike went to the train station to pick up my mum, Judy, and her husband, Fred. It only took them 2 weeks to arrive in Australia via a class reunion and a tour through New Zealand. This is my mum's 3rd trip here but Fred was a virgin.

As with all of our guests, we served them more Aussie food: snags on the barbie, leg of lamb, pavlova, sausage rolls, meat pies and their favorite, vegemite. Don't worry, we are planning on bringing some vegemite home so you all can have a go. These are a couple of shots of them 'enjoying' it.

Judy and Fred signed up for the sports tour, although they started out with separate excursions. The first morning Fred was here, he had to leave at 5:15 in the morning with Mike and Kyle to drive 3 hours north for Kyle's 2 day basketball tournament. Kyle played 4 great games without one minute on the bench. I know Fred wanted to ref the games but he stayed in his seat. Not all of our guest got to see an Australian basketball game, so Fred should feel pretty special. Most Australians haven't even seen a basketball game.

Judy's sport excursion was a little more active than Fred's. We did an hour and a half beach walk from Old Bar beach to the next beach called Wallabi point. Then we did an hour bushwalk keeping our eyes open for snakes. They are just coming out of hibernation and are ready to mate so they can be a little nasty now. Next, Mariah, Jake and I took my mum 30 minutes south to the town of Forster. It is a beautiful beach town. We enjoyed the big white pelicans, eating ice cream and more exercise, hiking up to a lookout.

While Mike worked (someone has to), I played tour guide and took them to the Koala Park to pet the koalas and feed the roos. We took the long road home to see Ellenbourough Falls. It was raining so much we got out just long enough to take a picture. Their sports tour included a hike to the bottom but we decided to leave that for next time.

The next day, the sport tour included the horse races. The Melbourne Cup, like our Kentucky Derby, was running. We could not fly to Melbourne, but we drove to our local horse track and pretended we were there. Everyone got all dressed up and even wore fancy hats. There were local horses racing and you could watch the Melbourne Cup on the telly. My mum and I both won money on Purple Moon.

The following day, the sport tour headed to Sydney so Mariah could race in the state athletic (track) meet. After Mariah ran a personal record in the 800m (2:29), it was time to head to the airport. Saying good bye was another emotional time. Seeing all of our guests has been like a special gift from home.