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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane - Vacations Past

It's Wednesday, and time to go for another walk down memory lane.
If you would like to know more, click on the link above, join in, or just read other's contributions.
This week has been a week of discovery. I didn't discover anything I didn't already know, but I discovered just how hard it is to find winter clothing for a 3-year-old in Florida........in June. Sometime today I will head off to Burlington Coat Factory, they saved us when we were preparing to go to Canada last year. Silly me thought that the clothes I bought Samuel then, would fit him now for this trip.
HA HA HA and another HA!
Anyway, all these preparations for our trip to Australia has made me think about holidays past. When I was growing up, we didn't really go on holidays as a family. I would go camping and fishing with my Dad on occasion, I would go and spend a few weeks with my brother and his family, but that was about it, we didn't go on a "family" vacation. My Mum and I did go to a place called St. Helens on the East coast of Tasmania with a friend of my Mum's and her children one summer. That was a wonderful week. I remember teaching my Mum to swim! They had the most beautiful beaches. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share, but, have great memories of playing cricket, going to the movies and spending a lot of time at the beach!


St. Helen's

About once a year my Mum, Dad and me would climb in the car and do a tour. What kind of tour you may ask. My Dad was the tour guide and often my brother and his family would come along and I think my sister and her husband joined us one year as well. I have no idea why this was so exciting for my Dad. It certainly wasn't for me!!! Maybe there is a market out there for this kind of tour?? Maybe I have had the knowledge to make a bundle in the tourist market all this time and didn't know it???!!! Dams. Seriously. We would spend the day - I mean the crack of dawn day - touring all the dams we could fit in on that day. Tasmania has 84 dams. Mercifully, we didn't visit them all.


One of the things that did make the day more adventurous and exciting for me was that we were able to walk along the top of the spillway - provided water wasn't actually spilling over of course!


The reason Tasmania has so many dams is because that is the source of electricity there. Hydroelectric power. Pictured above is Lake Barrington, which is where many world class rowing teams come to train and they have many events there as well.



When the water is flowing over the spillway, it can be quite spectacular.

My Dad would often know the men working in the power plants at the dams and they would take us in for a tour. Last time we went back to Australia. My brother took Jim and Joshua on a "dam tour" and they got to go in and see how it all works. All Joshua remembers is that it was LOUD!


One of the dams used to have a rope walking bridge across it, just below the spillway. That was scary - walking across a bridge that swayed with every movement - it was called a swinging bridge for a reason!
So, on reflection, even though as a child touring copious amounts of lakes that were formed because of dams, the dams themselves and everything else that our tour entailed, didn't seem all that exciting at the time - but, it was, and it makes for great memories with my Dad and Mum.


Sally-Ann

10 comments:

Drahdrah said...

Funny how when you're creating the memory, it doesn't seem that exciting, but when you look back, it's pretty amazing. Great Pics !

Kari said...

Thanks for the comment on my blog. It's true, the memories of the 'boring' things we had to do when we were younger can bring us much comfort now and seem so special to us. I often wonder if we are doing the same thing to our kids :o)

Kelly @ Sufficient Grace Ministries said...

Great memories Sally Ann...love the pic.. of St. Helen's...

Lisa said...

84 dams! My goodness! But what beautfiul pictures! Such a sweet memory!

Unknown said...

Wow, you must a Dam expert by now! What great memories!

Julie said...

It does sound like great memories!

Lilyofthevalley - Tanya said...

Lovely pictures!

Linda said...

The pictures were pretty. My husband likes dams too. It must be a "guy thing". ((smile))

At least it was something you did together huh?

So, you are preparing to go to Australia for a visit???? That's neat. When are you going? I hope that you will have a great trip.

Thanks for your nice comments on my blog. You are a sweetie.

Love, Linda @ Truthful Tidbits

Unknown said...

The swinging bridge over the dam sounds exciting! I'd love to walk across that. .... Maybe....I'm getting a little more 'chicken' in my old age. hee hee

Thanks for sharing. Loved the pics!

Denise said...

Such wonderful memories.