It's Like We Know What We Are Doing

Monday, May 30th I love food tours.  On foreign trips, I take food tours to not only eat great food, but to get a better understanding about where I'm visiting.  But I don't travel with the parents often.  So I'm wasn't entirely sure how they felt about taking food tours.  During the planning phase of the trip, I told Mom, "If you don't help me decide on ideas for tours, we're going to take only food tours."  Mom's response, "Ok." Well then.  Let's do this. Our Australian Food Tour happened in Tasmania.  We were actually supposed to go on Sunday, but the weather was stupid and the folks at Pennicott Journeys said we could change days if we wanted to go on a different date.  We immediately signed on for the tour on the next day, fully expecting the clouds and rain to change into sun and maybe a little warmth. This was actually the best decision ever, because there was confusion with the actual tour we were taking.  Had we tak

Friday, May 27th So really, what is there to do in Alice Springs??  It's a small town in the middle of the Outback, seemingly a place to stop in between Uluru and Darwin.  But we weren't going to Darwin.  We arrived in Alice Springs specifically for our visit to the Kangaroo Sanctuary .  But that wasn't until the evening. There was a main drag where there were many places to eat and shop.  But that wasn't going to sustain us forever.  And we're in Alice Springs.  No one seems to go to Alice Springs.  We need to accomplish something . School of the Air Mom had asked at one point in the trip planning if we could visit a school.  Being a former First Grade teacher, she is always interested in seeing how schools work in other areas.  She also talks fondly about a group from Australia who visited her school back in the day.  I think they were in town with a reading program.  I could ask her, but that would involve work.  And I'm really tired today.  Frank

Friday, May 27th There was no reason Alice Springs should have been on the itinerary.  It's a small town in the middle of the Australian Outback.  Why go there??  And why spend six hours on a bus from Uluru to get to this remote place??   Several of my ridiculous shenanigans have come about because of TV.  I took Elias to Wales just because of the Doctor Who museum .  Most of the trip to Rome was planned based on Anthony Bourdain's journeys.  And we ended up in Alice Springs because of the glory of television. I don't know how it came about really.  I think I saw a picture online.  Or I stumbled across a post on TripAdvisor.  Around the same time, I saw a show on NatGeo Wild called Kangaroo Dundee .  It was about a guy who was a Momma to baby kangaroos. Now here's the thing.  I don't watch NatGeo Wild.  They come in my office once a year with the National Geographic Channel Upfront along with maybe the other Fox networks.  So I don't actuall