May 1, Saturday
This morning I woke up at 11 when Natalie called me about going to the market. By the time Natalie, Joey and I all got up and showered and were on our way to the Market it was a little after noon.
At the Market there was a creepy lady who was painted white and was in a long white angel gown. She was posing and when people gave her money she would bless them. It kind of weirded me out.
It’s funny because it always has the same booths every weekend but we still go back and always look at the same places. However we vary rarely buy anything. This week the only thing I bought was a flower to have on the bedside table for Momma. I got her my favourite kind of flower here...it’s called a Protea Pink Ice. I’m not sure if we have them in the States but they’re really cool looking.
On our way back home we stopped at Coles for Natalie to do some grocery shopping. Then we headed back to my house to drop off her stuff before going down to meet Momma and Curtis!
Natalie and I went down at about 4:30 to wait for Momma and Curtis to get in. They got to Wrest Point a little after 5. I was SOOO happy to see them! J We rolled their bags down the hill from Wrest Point and then up the hill to the Cottage of Nelson Road (aka my house).
As soon as we got back here I showed them around my house...the tour took a grand total of less than 5 minutes. Then I started cooking them dinner because after a long day of travelling they needed some food! I cooked them spaghetti. Natalie abandoned her vegetarian ways for the meal! I was so proud. We all relaxed and ate dinner and watched television.
Joey was at a party at Metz. Stacey and Marina were on a day trip to the Tasman Peninsula. So it was just Momma, Curtis, Natalie and I.
Mom and Curtis were able to stay up fairly late...I kept telling them to try to stay up as late as possible! Once they went to bed I wasn’t far behind them. I was SO tired from staying up late the night before.
May 2, Sunday
Hooray for having Momma and Curtis here!!
Today we woke up and went down to Sandy Bay to get breakfast. We ate at Banjos. It was pretty good...I hadn’t been there yet!
After that we went into Hobart and walked around for awhile. We went to the museum...they have a new modern art exhibit.
Then we went down to the harbor and looked at all the boats. There was a full rainbow...it was so beautiful!! We ate lunch at Mures, a fish and chips place on the pier.
We went to the visitor’s centre and got some information about what we can do to stay busy here! J We’re going to have lots of fun things to do.
That evening we just came back home and chilled out. I can’t remember what we did for dinner this night.
May 3, Monday
Today I had to turn in a paper so we went up to campus for me to do that.
Then we went into Hobart and got lunch at the mall.
That afternoon we went to the Cascade Brewery! The brewery is so gorgeous. It’s a huge sandstone building with beautiful gardens around. Cascade is the oldest brewery in Australia...pretty cool huh? At the end of the tour they gave us three tokens for free drinks. Momma tasted her first beer EVER. That was so crazy! Of course she didn’t like it but she tried.
Once we made it back to my house Momma and Curtis took their stuff to go check into their hotel room. We met up not long after to go and get dinner at La Bella’s.
May 4, Tuesday
This morning Momma came over and we went to my Gender Studies class. She wanted to see what my favourite class was! I think she enjoyed it. She got to meet my friend Angelique.
After that class I had a test so Momma went to the coffee shop on campus while I went to that class. I think my test went okay.
We then went to the hotel to meet Curtis. We went into Hobart to get some lunch at Dome. They had potato soup there and I was SO happy!
After lunch we just walked around town a bit.
I went back home to do a little homework and nap.
Momma and Curtis came over that night for pancake Tuesday! J Natalie cooked the pancakes as usual and I made some scrambled eggs.
After dinner we just watched a little television before Momma and Curtis headed back to their hotel.
May 5, Wednesday
Today I had a full day of classes so Momma and Curtis went on a day cruise to Peppermint Bay (this always makes me want to sing the Shirley Temple song “on the good ship lollipop...”).
I went to class all day long. I met with one of my professors about an assignment that I was confused about.
That night for dinner we went to Taco’s to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! Yum!
May 6, Thursday
This morning I had to wake up super early and meet Momma and Curtis at their hotel at 8. The bus picked us up there and we were off on our adventure!
We went to Cadbury first. It was pretty cool...we learned how they make chocolate. The chocolate here is so good because they use Tasmanian milk. Interesting, yeah? They just showed us a video and then took us to taste some chocolate. It was a little disappointing...I wish there had been more. But we had kind of been told that was what to expect.
After that we went on a harbor cruise. Momma had to run to the store to get some gifts for people because we realized we wouldn’t have any other time to do that. So Curtis and I went on that lunch cruise. It was pretty! Really cold and windy up on top of the boat but we were able to stay on the inside.
Next we went to Bonorong Wildlife Park. There was a baby wombat named Mable. She was 6 months old; her momma had been hit by a car and they found Mable still in her pouch. She was just precious. I decided that I really love wombats. I bought myself a little stuffed animal one! There was also a really funny Kookaburra who had a feather stuck on its beak. It kept hitting its beak on a piece of wood trying to get it off. I think it was jealous that everyone was paying more attention to the wombat than him. Momma and Curtis got to feed wombats and kangaroos! They also got to take a photo with a koala bear. They weren’t able to hold it but they got to pet it and all. J
Our last stop of the day was Richmond, one of the old towns here. There they have the oldest bridge in Australia. It was a pretty little town!
We got back into town around 5 and stopped at the store so Curtis could buy some crumpets...he had just discovered that he likes them. We then wanted to get some authentic Tasmanian dinner...so we went to Macca’s. At the McDonald’s here they have an awesome family box deal that they should totally get in the States!
Momma and Curtis went back to their hotel. I went back home to get my big coat and do a little homework.
At 8 I went down to the bus stop to meet Marc.
We then went over to the hotel and Marc met the family! We sat and talked for awhile and then decided to go downstairs to the casino.
Momma and Curtis had won $16 the night before so we split that between us to play with. Marc said he didn’t gamble though so we split up his share. Once we got down and were playing the penny machines Marc decided he wanted to play. We called him out on not gambling and he told us he was just being “ironic” earlier. Mom was like “ironic? Don’t you mean you were lying?? Haha.” So, that quickly became the running joke!
Marc ended up winning $20 off of $1 though...so that was good! I unfortunately didn’t do as well! It was still fun though!
May 7, Friday
This morning I had to wake up at 5:45 to shower, make lunches and breakfast for everyone today. Marc and I had to be over at the hotel at 7:15.
The bus picked us up there at 7:30.
The first place we went today was Richmond, the old town that we had been to the day before.We hadn’t realized yesterday but there is a really pretty old church there...the oldest catholic church in Australia.
The next stop was for a Tasmanian Devil road sign...the only area in the world where they have those. A lot of Tasmanian Devils have a cancer on their face that is spread when they eat. Many of the conservation groups try to collect as many of the devils as they can and heal them of the disease before releasing them back into the wild. The place where the sign was is an area where a conservation group had release a number of devils who for sure didn’t have the disease.
Next we went to check out the dog lines that were set up to make sure prisoners didn’t escape from Port Arthur. They set up lines of mastiffs what would attack the escapees if they tried to pass by.
We then made a couple of stops that had awesome scenery. We stopped at Devil’s Kitchen which was gorgeous. I don’t remember the names of the other places but they were all in the Tasman Peninsula.
Our last stop of the day was Port Arthur. We went on a cruise around the harbor to see the boys reform island and the Isle of the Dead, the place where they buried everyone who died at Port Arthur; 1100 people are buried there.
We checked out the houses of the guards and commandants, the church, the living areas, the asylum and the separate prison. A lot of the building has been burned down during bush fires so it was a little hard to imagine everything. I wish they would’ve built it back up.
They had a place where you could search to find out if any of your relatives had been sent to Port Arthur...it seems very likely that I could be related to someone there! We found John Lake, James Lake, Thomas Lake, and I think it was Henry Stephenson. Crazy!
They had a cool thing where we were each given a card and we could were all different convicts who had lived there. I was a soldier who had been sent there for stealing two saddles. Curtis just so happened to get a black guy...we thought that was pretty ironic!
On the bus ride back to the hotel we watched a video about Tasmanian Devils. I ended up taking a little nap! I was exhausted.
Mom and Curtis checked out of their hotel and we headed back to my house. I cooked chicken strips and mashed potatoes for dinner. I packed one of my bags to be sent home. We all went to bed fairly early.
May 8, Saturday
This morning Momma and Curtis had a taxi pick them up at 3:45 AM. Marc and I both got up to see them off.
Marc had to leave at 10:30. So I walked him down to the bus stop.
Once he left I went back to sleep. I’m not used to having so much excitement here...it wore me out.
Tonight I went to see How to Train Your Dragon with Natalie and her roommate Kris. It was a really cute movie!! I liked it a lot. I’m really excited about the Toy Story 3 movie coming out!
After the movie we got dinner at Dome. I’m so happy that I’ve found a place to get good potato soup! J Of course it’s got nothing on McAlister’s soup but it’ll have to do for now.
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