I spent a mere two hours on the beach yesterday morning (it's finally sunny and warm here), and even with sunblock, I got sunburned. I had a nice chat with some of the surfers. Several were in their 50s.
We trekked into the wine country in the afternoon. Hunter Valley is Mom and Steve's favorite spot there. We had dinner at Scratchley's in Newcastle, which looks very like the Baltimore Harbor. The restaurant is right on the water, and you can watch the fishing boats heading out and coming in. I had the biggest prawns I have ever seen.
Thanksgiving dinner went off swimmingly. My contribution was rosemary-roasted sweet potatoes and apple crisp. I got a lot of questions about this tradition - "so this has something to do with the Mayflower and the Pilgrims and Indians and Plymouth Rock, right?" Turkey is not an overly popular food item here, so took awhile to find some, but Mom did manage to locate a turkey breast in a grocery store, so the day was saved. The 10-year-old son of one of Mom's friends was eyeing the turkey warily, and his mom encouraged him to try it (he'd never had turkey before), telling him it was very like chicken. He took a tentative bite, and his eyes popped open wide, and he said "this is way better than chicken!"
Some miscellaneous observations: peppers are called capsicum; McDonald's is referred to as Mackers, and you can get little packets of Vegemite, like you would get jelly; ta means thank you; they also say thanking you and good on you; white tea is tea with cream or milk; Aussies love their tea breaks, and they also love to put beet slices on their sandwiches, the way we put tomato slices on ours.
Vacations are always over too fast. We've got a quick stop at Bondi beach and the Royal Botanical Gardens, and then I'm off to the airport to go home. See you soon.
