Sparrow Lorelei and Robin Artemis photo gallery
Port Lincoln and the National Druid Assembly, 5-11 October 2011
Day 7, the last: Adelaide and the airport return leg
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Adelaide Botanic Park and Botanic Gardens
After some navigational amusement we managed to park at the Botanic Park, between the Zoo and the Botanic Gardens. Plenty of grass to lie on and run around on. We opted for snacks rather than lunch as we were going to have a very early dinner at the airport before catching the plane. So we had snacks, and Sparrow and I played with a ball, and Robin pushed himself way back off his mat (and got very green knees and toes in the process, why do I ever bother with white-ish clothing?), and James and Sparrow went looking for a geocache which turned out to be just coordinates for a different spot ten kilometres away. And rest was had.
Then seeing as we were right by the entrance to some really cool bits of the Botanic Gardens, we went in. The Rose Garden was there and I quite liked the rose "Great Venture". I'd have loved to go see the Museum of Economic Botany and its accompanying garden, too - I bet my grandpa saw it in his day. But we stuck with just seeing the Conservatory - a deceptively small-looking steel building that had a rainforest inside it. With woodswallows borrowed from the Zoo to keep bugs down, and coconut and date trees, and a jade vine (which really does have very unusual-coloured flowers, that's an uncommon pigment in the flower world), and many other delights seen both from the ground and in the canopy. The rainmisters came on while we were there and while you never really forgot that you were in quite a small space, it did make it much harder to see the edges.
The airport leg home
Unpacking the rental car and getting everything back into our bags no matter where it had been stashed :-) We'd already done most of this in Port Pirie that morning, but there are always things tucked in places. Plus we needed to change the contents of the day packs into flight-suitable packs. Luckily we had allowed a great deal of time for this, even having spent some of it in a car wash on the way to the airport (which freaked Robin out rather considerably - he will probably find it easier to deal with when he is sitting facing forward and can see what's coming).
Waiting to check in. Sparrow is reading "Drück den Traktor"while sitting in front of all the mechanical mobility aids.
After security, we just claimed a section of seats and sprawled on it. I did some last minute shopping (for Haighs chocolate), we had toilet stops and play time, found dinner, took Sparrow to the children's play area, changed nappies, did all that sort of thing. We'd allowed plenty of time here, and we used it to just not rush. Which worked well.Note to self: arriving at the airport two hours early when you have two small children is NOT overkill.
BAck in Melbourne. We've caught the bus to the car (to Sparrrow's delight) and now she and I are waiting with the bags while James goes and gets the car and brings it to the bus stop. She is flagging down a bus with her rice cracker, I think. We were going to take her home and settle her in, expecting a hard evening getting the two children to settle, but they were both asleep by the time we reached home. Poor little mites were well and truly exhausted.