Chevrolet Rise & The Alcorettes

Wednesday night I went to Ding Dong on Market Lane in Chinatown to see my friends' band Chevrolet Rise. Liam, Liam, Rumi, Tom, and Joe started their band about a year ago and I haven't seen them play in nearly as long, so it was a real treat to see them again.


Tom got stuck right into singing!

Liam sings backup in this band and another.

I was pleasantly surprised by the next band, The Alcorettes, who I'd seen before and really liked.

Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale

Sunday morning I rallied all available energy to tour South Australia's world renowned wine regions. I headed north to Barossa Valley first, passing through North Adelaide and this beautiful cathedral.


The valley was not overly green, but it still looked very dominated by vineyard after vineyard.

Another shot of the vines.

My first stop of the day was at Chateau Yaldara which had amazing chevre goat cheese. I was not overly taken by their wines.

The Yaldara buildings were very castle like with a very green garden and vine covered walkway.

Next stop was Jacob's Creek Winery. I had to stop just because the label looked too familiar. Their wine is sold in the U.S. and they are known for a low end, affordable $6-9 bottle of wine.

I wasn't particularly looking forward to the tasting as it's not a wine I repeatedly buy.

But I lucked out. I went straight for the mid level shiraz, which told the sample giver I knew something about wine, at least what I liked and didn't like. He showed me all the higher end, more expensive 'not available for tasting' shiraz wines as well, which were lovely. The Gramps $18 shiraz was best value but the Centenary Hill shiraz was superb at triple the cost.

The guy of the couple I tasted next to was doing a school assignment regarding wine tasting in the tourism industry and interviewed our sample giver and me about who goes wine tasting, for what purpose, who knows anything about wine, etc. It was interesting to get a bit educated in the process. Before finishing up, the sample giver recommended I stop by Two Hands Winery which is known for their shiraz. Tipping on other wineries...hmm...I don't know if that is allowed.

This sign reminded me a bit of Margaret River, which was even more dense with wineries. They were everywhere!

Despite chintzy samples from Two Hands and their fru fru $100+ bottles of wine, I knew I needed a break from wine tasting if I was to continue driving. Where was my driver? Clearly the answer was to set off towards the other wine region on the opposite side of Adelaide. Barossa is about an hour north and slightly east of Adelaide, while McLaren Vale is about an hour south and slightly west of Adelaide.

I arrived in McLaren Vale just before all the wineries closed up shop for the day. I had to capture yet another familiar label.

My first and only stop in McLaren Vale was at Simon Hackett winery, where I became fast friends with the woman behind the counter, and even spoke for a while with Simon Hackett himself. The wine was quite nice and the woman kept offering me full pours of the finest one. I had to cut her off, reminding her I had to drive back to the aiport that evening, but I did appreciate the generosity. A guy from Napa Valley wandered in while I was there, and she was beside herself that two Americans could be at the same winery each of their own accord.

Lots of kangaroos went hopping through the vines. Simon said they were not at all a nuisance and he has never seen one trip. We even saw kangaroos boxing! In all the souvenir shops, they sell stuffed kangaroos wearing boxing gloves and fighting shorts and I have never understood it, but apparently it is a common activity among kangaroos and I finally witnessed it with my own eyes!

A glimpse of the vineyards in McLaren Vale. This is an outstanding wine region. Every red wine I've ever purchased from McLaren Vale has been delicious, never a disappointment.

Flowers lined either side of the road along the vineyards. I used up every bit of daylight in McLaren Vale before returning to the city and hopping on a return flight to Melbourne.

Anna's Wedding in Adelaide

Today was a landmark day with South Australia marking my last of the states. I've now been to all 8 states of Australia in the past two years, many multiple times. It's been a good run. I have one more trip through the outback on my wishlist, and then I'll have seen and done everything I wanted. This trip was prompted by my friend Anna's wedding. Anna used to always give me rides home after our urban life group Thursday nights until she moved back home to Adelaide to get married and settle down. How she could choose Peter over me I will never understand.

I had the earliest flight ever and arrived in Adelaide about 7:15am on Saturday morning. I drove straight to Glenelg Beach to start some sightseeing. Dawn was just giving way when I arrived to a nearly deserted beach and street full of closed shops.


The Glenelg tram was running empty. No one else was foolish enough to be out and about quite so early on a Saturday morning.

Glenelg Town Hall sat just back from the beach front.

A few loners stroll along the water's edge.

Whoa! Are those people?? Playing volleyball first thing in the morning, that's dedication!

I walked along the storefronts but was reduced to window shopping as nothing was even close to open.

I drove up the coast to West Beach, which seemed prettier but likely because I saw it in the full light of day after an hour nap. Seriously, how can a person be expected to function that early in the morning?

I then toured around downtown Adelaide, taking in all the sculptures and old historic buildings and churches.

The Adelaide Railway Station was one among many historic buildings.

I can't recall showing this picture before - these are all over the Melbourne CBD as well. It's called a hook turn. When cars wish to turn right across oncoming traffic, they must pull to the far left lane, wait for all traffic to clear in both directions or for the light to turn yellow, then quickly pull across the intersection.

There were about 5-6 main streets running east-west through the CBD.

Part of the main drag was off limits for cars as a walking mall.

Several bands and musicians lined the walking mall, spaced just out of range of each other throughout the street.

After quickly checking into my hotel on Wakefield Street in the CBD, I headed out to Tea Tree Gully to see Anna and Peter get hitched.

Anna and Peter exchanging vows.

I've now been to two weddings in Australia. At both weddings, the signing of the legal marriage certificate and documents was part of the ceremony. I've never seen that in the U.S.

Peter and Anna greeted everyone just outside the church after the ceremony. People threw potpourri looking flowers in Anna's hair as they walked by.

A shot of the bride and groom.

Anna had a wrist full of trinkets, mainly horseshoes and a shoe with messages folded up into them. Apparently it is some kind of tradition but even Anna didn't know if it was unique to Australia or Adelaide or her family. I've never seen it before.

me, Natalie, Mia, Anna, Carly, and Mia's mom during the cake and coffee reception following the ceremony.

I decided to start and end my day at Glenelg, so back I ventured to the beach when what to my wandering eye should appear but a truck bed and two camels of course.

The sunset was beautiful, and so was my big night of rest to follow. Regrettably, I have no concept for nightlife in Adelaide as I was quite sick and could not muster the energy to push through for one Saturday night in a new city. I was in bed at 7pm Saturday night.

Roadtrip to Sydney

The final day of our trip, Austin and I made a 10 hour drive from Byron Bay to Sydney feel like nothin'! Imagine that, two talkers and 10 hours to chat it up. We stopped at the beach and for lunch in Coffs Harbour (home to Jade and Dan).


We arrived in Sydney around 9pm and by 10pm we were on our way out in Surry Hills with Austin's friends Daniel and Beersheba. No rest for us! We went to a couple neighborhood bars, Titanium and Clock, and headed home when the bars closed (not that late considering it was a Tuesday night). The next morning, I boarded an early morning flight back to Melbourne, and headed into work. What a fun trip!

Bluesfest

For some inexplicable reason, my camera died just before Bluesfest. Sadness! So all of these photos are ripped off the Bluesfest website to try capture some of the day's events. Mind you, any photo with sunshine was not from Monday, the final day of the five day festival and the only day Austin and I attended. Bluesfest is notoriously wet and rainy but Monday went down in history as the muddiest festival day ever. Above is a shot of a few of the six stages at this ACL-like festival.

All of the major performances were covered by massive tents. People were pretty chilled, and it was fairly easy to work our way up close to the stage.


This photo does not begin to capture the magnitude of mud during our day at the festival! Austin and I arrived unprepared and without gumboots. Rather we both showed up to the festival in flip flops. As I trudged through ankle deep mud, I had to yank my foot up behind me, which sent mud sailing up my back and over my head. In no time at all, we were carrying our thongs and slopping through mud and puddles that were mid-calf deep in some places.

The theme of the day was definitely colorful gumboots everywhere you looked.

Let me paint a bit of a picture for you. This is a typical festival goer...

...and here's another one. Is this guy for real? Lots of festival goers camped nearby. I cannot imagine anything worse in the neverending rainfall throughout the weekend. We were oh so happy to return to our cosy little B&B at the end of the night.

We arrived to Augie March playing a familiar Aussie tune.

Some randoms posed for our crowd shot.

Look, there are the randoms behind us!

The next performer was Xavier Rudd.

Only Xavier would need three didgeridoos.

Next we were treated to one of my favorites, Missy Higgins.

Ah yeah, she's getting into it!

There was a big theme throughout the day, where many of the artists (above) used their voice to back the 'Save the Kimberley' campaign, which is the next and last place on my Australian travel list! It is a unique untouched part of the outback that is at risk for development. While I appreciate the cause, I did not appreciate the lengthy interruption of my limited concert time.

The artists get down with the photographer.

Jason Mraz erred on the side of bluesy for the first half of his set, but moved into some of the poppier, more upbeat tunes in his second half, which were much more enjoyable. Along with the majority of the festival goers, he seemed quite high during his performance.

A few snaps of the crowd...

Here are a few shots of the mud as we exited the festival in the pouring rain.

Austin found it remarkable that no one thought it strange that we were wading in near knee level puddles waiting for the shuttle.

Are we still having fun?? What is with the mud dribbling down my chin? We were so dirty and muddy and wet by the time we arrived back at the room, that we both bee-lined it for the shower and jumped in fully clothed. I washed Austin's back for him (the back of his t-shirt that is). What an insane mess! Rather hysterical looking back, and even then.