Happy Australia Day!

On the 26th of January, 1788, the first fleet of British ships landed in Sydney to establish a settlement.  January 26, Australia Day, is now a national public holiday in Australia, much like the 4th of July in the USA, only without having gone to war against Great Britain.  The 26th of January was a Sunday this year, so the festivities were spread over both Sunday and Monday, because it's no fair to have a holiday without getting work off on a weekday. 

After church on Sunday, we wandered out to experience our first ever Australia day.

Only once a year, on Australia Day, the governor's house opens for tours.  But the line to see the whole house was too long, so we just slipped in and took the guide-yourself highlights tour. 

Nearby, there were many booths set up in the park by local groups, and an old car parade, with cars from the 1920s to 1970s.  Incidentally, old cars may look cute, but their emissions smell really bad.  I am so very glad that laws have been passed to get them off the road.  I was feeling ill just walking past the cars. 

Aside from the cars, it was just like the 4th of July celebration in the park we attended in 2013 in Laramie, Wyoming!  There was food, activities for kids, music.  The only real difference was that we were in a city of 4.5 million people rather than a town of 32 thousand.  So there were more people and more booths and a larger park, and the food cost a whole lot more.  And I don't remember Laramie's Asian residents putting up as many booths, either.  Well, ok, you kind of could tell the difference between the events.  But same idea. 

This is Jonathan holding a duckling at the "pet the cute farm animals" booth. 

After wandering around the park, we headed to the Docklands for more festivities, and to find  spot to watch fireworks.  Early on we found a comfy spot on a bench, and then we didn't really move for about three hours. 

What, you ask, did we do for those three hours?  Well, about the same sorts of things you do while waiting for fireworks anywhere.  We watched people, listened to music, and were bored.

Jonathan made a kite in a booth further up the docks, and he played with that.

Tim and I did some people watching.  Apparently people are the same everywhere you go.  For example, after sitting around a while, who should wander by but tall Grandpa Earl with his accordion!

What a pleasure to see Earl in Melbourne.

And then finally we watched the fireworks out over the water.  And we went home in the dark, on a packed tram.

 

This morning, Monday, we met some people for a party at Wattle Park, far off in the eastern suburbs, about an hour away by tram.  This park was advertised as "50 hectares of bushland in Melbourne's suburbs", set aside around the 1900s to attract people to take a new tram line way out to the middle of nowhere.  The park is still very large and very dry and wild looking, but not so much in the middle of nowhere.  Even so, I feel like I have had my bushland experience, and I can check that off the list without more work.  In the park, there were many very tall trees, including eucalyptus, which they call gum trees, and acacia, which they call wattle trees.  Hence the name of the park. 

 

 

Tim had a go at playing cricket.  That means he tried it out.  Here he is with the bat, looking all Australian.  You can tell it is Australian cricket and not English because the grass is all dried out by the heat. 

 

 

It was hot again today, and it will be hotter tomorrow.  On the way home, I showed Jonathan how to style his hair to minimize the heat.

 

 

My mother wrote yesterday and hoped that we were all keeping warm.  Today it was around 39 degrees Celsius, tomorrow it is forecast to be 42 degrees Celsius.  That's well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  Don't worry, mother.  We are keeping warm.