Forty Sixth Month

In Ethan's Forty Sixth Month he took a short break from Sydney with his Mum and Dad. He really wanted to go to Byron Bay but luckily his Mum and Dad were slow to make any decision on where they were heading and seeing the forecast realised heading North was not a good idea, most of Queensland has been flooded out... so they made a last minute decision to head South to the state of 'South Australia' (S.A.).

After a very early start (4:30am) finally the holiday really began after they arrived in Adelaide and made their first stop at Glenelg, a seaside town South West of Adelaide. Ethan made the stop, had a look around and had a lovely breakfast before continuing the drive South to Cape Jervis where he had a 12pm ferry ride booked over to 'Kangaroo Island'

Here is Ethan on that ferry trip, if your thinking he is looking a little green... you would be right. The water was very choppy and Ethan experienced his first round of motion sickness, all over Mummy. Made the rest of the trip a little less enjoyable for Mummy who usually suffers herself with motion sickness but luckily it was only a short trip (45mins) and then we were on Kangaroo Island (K.I.)!
Such a beautiful Island it is with more wildlife than residents (only about 4000 humans) and so much to see. The first day took Ethan to Flinders National Park where he went down to Admirals Arch with his Mum to watch the fur seals playing in the pool (behind him in the photo). Just like Taronga zoo but there was no one telling these seals to jump or play, they were doing it all on their own.

Quick stop at the light house, sorry Daddy, this light house was even taller than you...

Then a look at some remarkable rocks (actually named 'remarkable rocks'), they were pretty remarkable!

After such a busy first day on 'K.I.' finally we made it to our holiday home for the night, the Hanson Bay Homestead. We had our own room and bathroom but there were some other travellers sharing the rest of the house. Ethan has started his 'backpacker' lifestyle younger than most. Ethan found a Chess set at the homestead and challenged his Dad, Dad is looking rather challenged wouldn't you say?

Day 2 on K.I. started with a short drive and walk around Vivonne Bay. The water was beautiful and clear and some dolphins made an appearance but this was not Sydney and the water felt pretty cold this far down South. Ethan desperately wanted to get in for a swim and did get down to his undies but only lasted a few seconds before giving in to the cold currents of K.I.
Heading on next to our next K.I. destination, after a little pit stop :-)Ethan made it to 'Little Sahara' and climbed to the top of these HUGE dunes. We thought about hiring boards to ski the dunes but that sand does not look as forgiving as the snow in Canada so we stuck to climbing and then just hopping back down again.
Next stop was Seal Bay were 600 to 700 Seal Lions live. You can see them in the background, Ethan and Daddy were doing their beached whale imitations.

Ethan's last night on K.I. was spent in the town of 'American River'. A tiny little town not far from the ferry back to main land South Australia the following day. Near American river he went for a walk along the 'Red Banks' (below), climbed to the top of 'Prospect hill' and ate some of the local Whiting fish and Marron. So much to see on K.I. and maybe a bit to rushed but it was great and maybe worth another visit when Ethan gets a bit older.

After a much calmer ferry ride back to mainland on day 3 in S.A. Ethan made a detour with his Mum and Dad through the McLaren Vale vineyards and managed to find 'Coriole' winery, Mum and Dad's favorite from their last visit to S.A. He sat out and had lunch under the old Mulberry bush they remembered.

Ethan forgot to mention that actually... he has been to S.A. before, Mummy and Daddy realised he would be joining their family while they were visiting S.A. 4 and a 1/2 years ago. He would only have been a few weeks old and still in his Mummy's tummy so didn't remember much of that last trip... :-)

It was a great time of year to be visiting vineyards this time round though, they were harvesting this years crop and Ethan even got to taste some of the grapes.

After a few more hours driving Ethan made it to another very famous wine region, the Barossa. Ethan had had enough of 'whining' so was happy that this nights holiday home had a pool so he made a quick dip. It was MUCH warmer than the ocean in Vivonne bay!After a nice dinner in the town of Tanunda in the Barossa (home of Jacobs Creek and Penfold wines...) Ethan settled in for a good nights sleep and was ready to do a bit more wining the next day around the Barossa and helped his Daddy to stock up the wine cellar (aka 'garage') back in Sydney. What a treat when Ethan found 'Maggie Beers' farm and had a delicious basket lunch there! But then it was on to busier places, last night on holiday was going to be in the capital of S.A., Adelaide.
Ethan did enjoy the trams the city had to offer.

Walking along the river Torren was fun. But can you believe it, the Fringe festival just happened to be on!!! Not really much for a young boy to see but there were lots of interesting people in town and having dinner on Rundle Street Ethan felt very cool, this was the place to be obviously.
The one show Ethan did get to see on his very last day before catching a flight back to Sydney was 'Circus Oz'. No animals but lots of hanging people Ethan will tell you. That was the end of a very busy short break Ethan took this month...

But then that was only 5 days of the month... some other events this month included a pool party at Ethan's friend Tristan's house, the theme was 'Ben10' and Ethan is really starting to like Ben10 even though Mum & Dad have never even let him watch it (too violent...).

And Ethan made his 3rd annual trip down to Jervis Bay this month to support his Mummy in the Huskisson sprint Triathlon. He has been running every where this month, seems to have found his legs! He no longer walks, he races everywhere. Unfortunately he is not allowed in the 'Husky' race until he turns 7 so this year he just watched his Mummy cross the finish line but that tired him out enough... caught sleeping on camera! Ethan denies ever sleeping these days, every morning he will tell us he did not sleep, we thought this would prove it to him but he still denies, says he was pretending... :-)