And Then She Crashed

It is the way of things, come the end of the school year.  I crash, and I crash hard.  It happens every year, beginning with the weekends leading up to me finishing up.  What this means is that daily naps are not-negotiable necessities.  And I am playing fast and loose with the term 'nap'.  Is it really a nap when it lasts 2-3 hours?  Every. Day.

The best possible place to do such end-of-year crashing is surely in Hobart, Tasmania.  When Dh suggested we go away for our wedding anniversary he raised Queensland as a possibility.  Unfortunately I am not much of a summer-loving person so the heat and humidity of the summer months was a huge deterrent to me.  No.....let's head south, I countered.  To Tasmania.  It is one of my favourite places in the world.  Small, quiet, unhurried.  Cool.  Dh has an aunt & uncle, and one of his cousins around Hobart so that's where we headed.

We ate at the Ball & Chain Grill a couple of times because the steaks were soooooo good!  Fish and chips on Constitution Dock and a meal with family were our food highlights.  We had a morning at Salamanca Market, with a cunning plan to get free parking fairly close.  The evening before, we found a little lane-sized street in Battery Point, just behind Salamanca Place with free street parking.  We decided that if we arrived early enough in the morning we should be able to get parking there again, before the market crowds began to arrive.  And we were right!  We took a short stroll through Princes Park and down into Salamanca Market.  Perfect!  We ate breakfast and then wandered through the market and were done by the time it started to get crowded.

Because I have a bit of a thing for Aussie history we also went through the Mawson's Hut Replica Museum and The Tench convict penitentiary.  I would have loved to have visited the Female Factory as well, but you can't spend hours and hours of your time napping and get through all the things you might want to do.  We'll just have to go back.

As always, we came home with a suitcase full of jam from The Richmond Jam Maker, who also happens to be Dh's cousin.  A double joy - visiting with family AND bringing home jars and jars of the best jam you'll ever taste.  The whiskey marmalade is particularly good for breakfast!

All that in between crashing hard and sleeping lots.  Tasmania is the very best of places to do so.  It really wouldn't be a chore to live down there.  Frequent visits will have to do us.  After a 25 year drought we've managed two trips in 12 months!