Adelaide - More than just Churches!

Once again, we have the pleasure of presenting a guest Blogger - Let me pass you over to the literary stylings of Colin's Mum:
 
The weather was overcast as we left Robe, which was great for driving. We made our usual stop, morning tea for Mum and breakfast for Colin and Melissa at a home bakery in Kingston.
 
We journeyed on through mainly flat countryside, stopping at one point to check on the great ocean road - yes, the sea was still majestically rolling onto deserted beaches.
 
Lunchtime, we arrived at Meningie and the landlord of the Pub, opened up the restaurant for us. We were led through to a huge function room - Wow! By the looks of things, the locals know how to enjoy themselves. The food was good and plentiful, but we had eaten too much earlier to do it justice.
 
Ever onward, now through flat saltpans and National Parklands, we came to the outskirts of Adelaide. We stopped for coffee and to check for directions from Sharon, Colin's cousin, who we would be staying with.  Back onto the freeway, down the hills and straight into peak hour traffic - No worries! In no time we arrived at Sharon's lovely home in time for our evening meal, with a bottle of red and kangaroo on the menu - "delicious" was Melissa's comment.  Is there anything so good as catching up with family?
 
In the morning, Sharon did her weekly watering of her garden - standard roses, tomatoes, chilies, eggplant, lemon, lime and fig trees.  The drought has Adelaide on level four water restrictions, yet it was hard to believe as we went sightseeing down wide, tree lined roads, past golf courses and park lands, all green and lush looking.
 
Sharon took us sightseeing to vantage points overlooking the city and showed us the Children's Hospital, where she works as a biochemist researching genetic diseases in children.  Onto Elder Park, where we saw some black swans, swimming on the Torrens River. We walked past the casino, the stately government buildings and down to the shopping mall where we had lunch.
 
Mum and Sharon opted to do a spot of shopping in the largest Myers in Australia.  Colin and Melissa decided that they would check out the Art Gallery and the mall.  Sharon challenged them to find and photograph the Silver balls along with the brass pigs, if we could find them!
 
With mission completed, we all met up later to rest at home, before going out to Amari Thai Restaurant for our evening meal.  Afterwards we took a stroll around the area and had some ice cream from the Cold Rock.

Next morning, Colin and Melissa took off to have some Brunch and explore the area downtown.  Meanwhile, Sharon took Mum for a drive down to Glenelg Beach - great beach, up market hotels and very British looking. Part of the road was cordoned off for cyclist teams to practice upon - it seems that everything would be happening on the next weekend:  Australia Day, International Cycling, Comedy Festival and Australia Vs India Cricket.
 
Back to Sharon's and Colin and Melissa had found their way home.  A check on the TV was made, to see how the Australia Open tennis was going.  Before we knew, it was time to make our way to the Airport, leave the hired car and board the plane to showery Brisbane.
 
We all loved Adelaide and would love to have stayed longer. Kudos to our excellent hostess Sharon!
 
Next Up: Back to Brisbane and then...