Coming of Age in Victor Harbor

Sometimes life brings you lemons. Sometimes it brings beautifully cut, flawless diamonds. Lately, I've been overwhelmed by the latter.

Being distracted with work, trip plans, and losing the Chardonnay gig, it took me a while to remember that I have a friend from Australia. Not only is she from Australia, but she is a second-generation anthropologist whose mother is a professor of anthropology and women's studies at George Washington University and has written about aboriginal women. On top of all that, her mother will be near one of my stops in Australia while I am there and wants to go on a whale watch.
I was amazed when my friend reacted to me saying I was going to visit Victor Harbor by saying that her family has land near there. It's a very small, off-the-beaten track place that just got its first car rental agency. Genevieve, who is very respected throughout Intel and will likely be our only female Fellow soon (a very big deal), also gave me lots of history and other information about the area.

Unlike the other parts of Australia I'll be visiting, the South Australia coast was settled by New England whalers. The continued presence of right whales in the area makes it understandable that Ishmael and friends would be there. The presence of the whalers makes the continued presence of the whales somewhat miraculous. That the settlers were American rather than the British explains why there's no "u" in Harbor. That they were from New England explains why the place is pronounced Victah Hahbah. These are the kinds of things I might never have realized without Genevieve although the pronunciation will likely make me feel right at home.

A couple of other minor updates. I'm now set to go on a whale watch on my very first day in Australia. It seemed like the right way to kick things off. The next day is my behind-the-scenes tour at the world-famous Taronga Zoo. The rest of my time in Sydney will be unstructured while I take advantage of my prepaid SeeSydney card that gets me tours, cruises, museum and aquarium entries and a bunch of other goodies.

The other change is that I'm taking an earlier flight from Adelaide to Brisbane than originally scheduled. This will allow me to take up an offer for a FOC (my favorite acronym- free of charge) visit to Australia Zoo. Doubt Steve and Terri will be there, but that might be a blessing.

The countdown is to just over three months now. Based on Genevieve's input, I need to buy a hat. That's about the only thing I have to do until it's time to pack. Then again, hats generally don't travel well. Maybe I'll pick one up over there.