We are in Canberra

Last night, after our lovely presentation in the Barossa Valley, we caught a flight to Canberra. We really haven't seen anything yet, as we arrived after dark, went to bed, woke up, and walked 5 blocks to the library.

However, we have had more adventures in hotels! Last night as we were getting ready for bed, Nancy said, "Boy, this room is going to be dark. I hope we can get to the bathroom in the dark." Well, the room had this big, round, fluorescent light in the ceiling. I turned it off, though my bedside light was still on, and pointed out to Nancy that the fluorescent light looked blue. "That's kinda weird," I said. But when we turned all the lights off, the fluorescent light glowed like a big, blue moon! I've never seen anything like it. It was brilliant and hilarious all at the same time! We may try to caputure the wonder of it on a video camera.

Nancy and I got quite the jolt of adrenaline this morning when I got up to use the bathroom, and Nancy sleepily asked what time it was. We both squinted at the clock (as neither of us had our contacts in or glasses on), and it was 6:55am. We had put in a wake-up call for 6:00am! You have never seen two people leap out of bed as quickly as us! We were ready in record time. Who needs coffee when you can just oversleep by an hour?

The crowd here in Canberra is fantastic. They are so fun and ready to laugh and participate! Also, they provided a GREAT tea: lemon squares, scones, and carrot cake. Yum.

Adelaide

We are now in Adelaide! Let me tell you, as Nancy said, "Our up time is our downtime." It's so true. We all crashed on the plane! It was hard to get off! We took a cab to our amazing hotel. It's so upscale that Nancy and I could hardly figure out how to use anything in our hotel room. We are feeling very "friends in low places"-like. For example, we couldn't figure out how to put the drain down in the bathroom sink. It doesn't push down, twist down, or anything else we can figure out! We had the same problem with turning off the shower knobs. I mean, how many shower knobs do you know that, when off, are vertical, with one pointing up and one pointing down? We couldn't even figure out how to take the lid off the coffee maker! Nancy ended up putting water in through the spout! I'm tellin' ya, we feel like total ding-dongs.

But we are also feeling very snazzy. We opened the closet doors, and the closet automatically lights up, like our clothes are movie stars!

We are currently presenting and having a blast. I was told that, in Adelaide, there are three chocolate shops all within a two minute walk of each other. I asked our handler, Veronica, if they are nearby, and she will show us so we (or at least I) can go insane with excitement!

Adelaide looks very different from Sydney. It's shorter -- not so many highrises, and the highrises they do have are much shorter. Also, the cultural district is absolutely gorgeous. All of this wonderful old architecture for the university, museum, state library and other buildings. It's just beautiful. I'm excited to have the late afternoon and evening to walk around.