This morning we finally went to the Indoor Crazy Maze. America must have these types of facilities, but in Australia they are extremely common. They are essentially indoor climbing places with pits full of balls. The guy owning this one was almost apologetic about how small his is, with only three stories of safe, padded, netted climbing and slides and so forth. To me at least, it looked like a fantasyland for kids Alex's age. And it was. He played with other kids and played on his own. He took the slide, face planted in the ball pit, climbed into a cylinder with controls and a steering wheel, and he did several other things that I could only vaguely see for about 2 hours. Good value on $8. Having a country that is sunny and hot as blue blazes for most of the year provides an incentive to keep those little ones indoors and in the air conditioning, so I can see why they exist. Many of the playgrounds (and pools) have tarps over them to shield from the sun while still providing an outdoor experience. Sorry the photo is nothing great, but he didn't really want to pose.Prior to my trip, I really had no intention of being a product tester for Australia's healthcare system. However, whatever I had in Perth I have again. Recognizing it sooner and seeking to have it eliminated before it could really impact my three days in Brisbane/Gold Coast, I did what I ought to do and went to the doc again. Third trip (between me and Alex) - third experience of relative speed, efficiency, and fair prices.
Instead of getting lunch out and about, we went to the hotel for a barbecue supporting the World's Greatest Shave. This is a big leukemia fundraiser going on all over the place (not sure if it is international, but I've seen promos for it before and something else is going on in town today). You could have your head shaved or colored. I was chicken, but Alex went for the head shave (sorry, honey, but he looks cute). The other thing I noticed with the leukemia fund raiser is that it seems that when they are not reversing letters (centre) or using an improbable combination of letters for a word (gaol = jail), these guys (and the Brits, and the Canadians) insist on adding one letter to nearly every word: aluminIum, coloUr, laboUr, leukAemia,...not everything America does is better, but I really do prefer our simplification of English. Oh, and no I did not shave Alex's head.
Next, we went downtown to see how things looked on a Friday night. Not a lot going on early and we were not staying late, so we headed back for dinner and a hot tub. Chilled out day - looking forward to a nice drive up to Brisbane tomorrow. Alex has been in a fun mood most of the day and we're enjoying ourselves... not good for photography, but a good wind up for the last week.
Next: Brisbane (the last Aussie city) then the Gold Coast
1 comment:
Jim - you absolutely got me with the shaved head trick.... I got quite worked up about it, went back to the top to better inspect Alex´s picture, and sent you a few thoughts! very funny
They had a similar play structure in Bulgaria as well - probably insurance costs in the US make them a poor business proposition. Sounds like a great concept and I can visualize Alex getting lost in his play
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