Adelaide Day 1 & 2

During the winter holidays we took a road trip to Adelaide. We drove inland from Melbourne, stopping overnight in the town of Naracoorte on the South Australia/Victoria border, which I wrote about here.

Day 1

We arrived in Adelaide around 2pm after a rainy but uneventful drive from Naracoorte. We stayed at the Oaks Liberty Suites, in the suburb of Glenelg. Glenelg is about 15 minutes from the city centre, located on the white sandy beaches of Holdfast Bay. I thought this might be nicer for us than staying in the city, as 1) the kids love playing on beaches, no matter what the time of year, and 2) I love being around water, even if it's way too cold to swim. 

I booked the Oaks because of its proximity to the beach and the main street in Glenelg, and also because it has an indoor pool. There was also a hot tub and sauna, but unfortunately the hot tub was out of order while we were there, which I was kind of devastated about. I had really been looking forward to nightly hot tubs while the kids played in the pool! So that was a bit of a bummer, but the sauna was a nice second best. 

We settled into our two bedroom apartment which the kids ran around excitedly when we first got in - probably relieved that it was a much bigger space than our motel the night before. If you've ever seen the episode of Bluey called "Relax" it captures exactly what it is like to enter your holiday accommodation with kids. They run around in a frenzy, discovering the most mundane of details ("hangers!" the girls on Bluey scream, when they open a closet door) and any minor detail different to their own house is cause for hysteria. You should see my kids when we stay in a house with more than one floor (stairs!!!). In this place Ella and Ollie were excited at the king size bed in their room that they would be sharing, along with the very big bathroom and the fact that we were on the 8th floor. I was less impressed than them; I'd describe our accommodation as "fine"... good location and met our needs but a bit tired in terms of the furnishings and decor. 

Once we had brought up all our bags we headed down to the beach for a play before it got too late. Every winter the city needs to pump sand from Glenelg to the beaches south as the wind and waves naturally move it south to north. Because of this, there were many diggers on the sand and big sand hills dotted along the beach. Not the prettiest sight, but  A LOT of fun for the kids, who despite the strong winds that afternoon, ran up and down the sand hills for ages before we dragged them away to get some food. 

We walked up Jetty Road where there was a huge selection of restaurants, fast food places, and other shops. I think the hardest part of going on holiday with the kids now is deciding what to eat every day. If Andy or I were on our own, we could happily eat just about anywhere. And although the kids are not super picky eaters, it is unlikely that on any given day they will agree on what they want to eat. We settled on a Mexican place, Beach Burrito Co., which was a winner. They served fish and chip for kids so the kids split that along with some cheese quesadillas, and I had an amazing deal of two tacos plus a glass of sangria for $10. I'm not joking when I say that must be the cheapest meal and drink deal I've ever seen in Australia. (The tacos were small but generally the kids have leftover food to be eaten so it was a good size meal for me!)

While we were on the beach the kids had caught sight of the Beach House, which was an indoor amusement park with arcade games, water slides (but no pool) and a very fun looking mini golf course. The kids were dying to go but it was a bit too late. We convinced them to just head back to the hotel pool, promising that we would visit the Beach House at some point in our stay.

On the way back home we stopped at a pretty cool playground across the street from the hotel. The sun was beginning to set and the park was overlooking a marina which was a lovely end to the day.

We spent the rest of the evening in the hotel pool... well I should say the kids spent the rest of the evening in the pool which was too cold for me to contemplate going in. I read my book and alternated time in the sauna with Andy. The sauna wasn't extremely hot so we found that it was actually a nice place for the kids to warm up in after their pool session before heading back up to our apartment. They loved staying in the sauna for about 30 seconds, and then jumping back in to the pool. Thankfully there was no one else in the sauna as it would have been pretty annoying for anyone wanting a relaxing session!

Family sauna session!

After a big swim in the hotel we headed back upstairs for a snack and then bed. The kids were sharing a king size bed which I always find so cute once they are asleep! 

Day 2

We woke up on our second day to Ollie exclaiming that this was going to be "the best day ever" because they were going on waterslides and playing mini golf. I guess that meant we'd be heading over to the Beach House!

I agreed to the Beach House in the afternoon if we could spend some time in the city in the morning. I was keen to check out a museum or a gallery but I was out-voted, so instead we settled on a walk around the Botanical Gardens. Adelaide CBD is really interestingly designed as it is an enclosed square completely surrounded by parks and gardens as you can see in the map below:

https://www.freecountrymaps.com/map/towns/australia/941125358/

I really liked this design, it gives a bit of a buffer between the city and the suburbs, and looked like it would be an easy city to get around by bike. When we drove in from Glenelg it was very rainy and it looked like our plan of walking around the gardens would need to be amended. But it took us a while to find a parking spot and by the time we did that the rain had cleared up.

We entered the gardens through a park with a funny smell... looking up we realised that the trees were completely filled with flying fox bats. 

The kids had their scooters and had fun scooting through the small streams of water that flooded the walkways from all the recent rain. There was a stream running through the gardens that seemed very high, and was rushing through at a fast pace. By the time we left a few hours later the water level seemed to have gone down and the water was much slower. 

We explored the Palm House, The Waterlily Pavilion and the wetlands for a few hours and by this time the sun was out and it was much warmer. We extended our walk a little more crossing one of the bridges over the Kirrawirra Parri (Torrens River) which separates the CBD from North Adelaide. After this we went back to our hotel for some lunch and a short break.

Next up, the main event... waterslides! Mini golf! Arcade games! Basically this place is my worst nightmare. But we indulged the kids, getting them changed into their swimsuits and ready for the waterslides first. Unfortunately Ollie panicked when he realised he would have to go down the waterslide alone. It was a long circular tube slide and although he's gone on a short version of this type of slide alone I think he got a bit freaked out by the size of the slide up close. Ella went first and reassured him that it was very slow and VERY fun, but there was no convincing him to give it a go. Ella went on about 7 or 8 times and we got Ollie back in to his normal clothes and let him play a few arcade games instead.

After we went out for a family game of mini golf. We all got a hole in one at some point in the game which was very exciting. Andy tried to compete with me but I was really no competition for him. And let's be honest, Andy should really beat me at golf. It was really nice and sunny out across the whole afternoon so it was nice to finish up the day with the mini golf overlooking the beach.

We had a low key evening, getting takeaway pastas from Pastagogo for dinner, another winner which was pretty affordable as well. The kids were pretty tired out at the end of the day - too tired to even ask to go to the pool!

In the interest of getting these blog posts published in a timely manner, I'll stop there and write about our next two days in my next post.