Back in 2014, I had the opportunity to tag along with Ben as he traveled to various towns and cities in Victoria (and sometimes other states) for work. I loved exploring small towns and enjoying the beautiful, calm and sometimes quirky things they had to offer. As much as I love traveling to bigger cities (and for more intentional visits), my adventures of small-town "loitering" are one of my favourite memories of our time in Australia.
Ben recently had the opportunity to travel to Adelaide for a work conference, and all but insisted I come along with the kids. It's been a long hard winter of random crazy illness in our family, so a spontaneous week-long trip to a different state wasn't the wisest decision... but we ended up having a great time. Traveling around a small city with a baby and a preschool-aged child has its own challenges, but I'm happy to report that it's very doable, and can be quite fun at times.
family portrait at the botanic gardens
Ben, Arden and I have been to Adelaide once before, in September of 2017, but we were only in town for a three-day weekend and purely for vacation. Because this visit was longer and I had quite a bit of time on my own with the kids, I got to see a bunch of new and exciting things this time around.
at the Malls Balls, 2016 vs. 2019
Adelaide has many free museums, and even though some of them aren't the most child-friendly places, I visited a few of them with the kids. The South Australian Museum had a few exhibits that Arden enjoyed, including a large collection of stuffed animals, and a large Aboriginal exhibit.
The Migration Museum is small, but has some really cool collections as well. I really enjoyed "Island Welcome," a group exhibit featuring creative leis/garlands designed by contemporary jewelers to represent the theme of welcoming newcomers to Australia.
I would have loved to spend more time exploring the Art Gallery of South Australia, but the kids weren't really into it. I greatly enjoyed the few exhibits we did get to see.
the upside-down tree on the right actually spun around as an active exhibit
The Adelaide Zoo was definitely a highlight of the trip, especially for Arden. She got to pet a Quokka, saw her very first panda, and spent a lot of time at the lion and meerkat exhibits (she's currently obsessed with The Lion King).
petting a quokka
I don't usually like doing extensive research before trips to small cities (I prefer... wandering into travel experiences, rather than planning them), but of course things are different with young children. So ahead of this trip, I looked into playgrounds and parks that Arden might enjoy. And there were some really cool ones, including Twelftree Reserve College park, Princess Elizabeth playground, and the Marshmallow Park playground. The latter playground had a really cool water fountain feature, which was perfect for the uncharacteristically warm weather we had during our visit.
cool water feature at the Marshmallow Park playground
trampolines!
riding a playground wombat.
During the weekend, Ben was able to join us for some city-exploring. We visited the Botanic Gardens, found refuge in the Adelaide Arcade during a rainstorm, walked along the water by the Adelaide Oval, and visited an old playground we went to with baby-Arden a few years ago.
inside the iconic Adelaide arcade
a gorgeous walk by the water
a park we brought baby-Arden to in 2016
the botanic gardens
Rundle Mall, a popular pedestrian street mall in the heart of the city, was the perfect place to take the kids when we weren't exploring new playgrounds or museums. The department stores all have lovely parent rooms (places where you can easily change diapers, warm bottles or breastfeed privately, and some of them have toddler-sized toilets too), as well as fun street art (the "Malls Balls," a set of two orbs, and also "A Day Out," a collection of four pig statues that Arden loved playing on). We visited the City Library, which is tucked into an alley, and also explored some toy stores and boutique shops in the various arcades.
Arden's favourite pig statue, I think this one is named Augusta
the Malls Balls
the birds of Adelaide are no joke.
This was Logan's first time away from home, which we saw as a little practice run for our trip back to the States soon (although we all know that babies change a lot from month to month...). He adjusted well to the various modes of travel (busses, planes and taxis), the new surroundings, and the time change (which is half an hour behind Melbourne). We decided not to try bringing our double stroller on the plane, so we ended up taking our single-rider jogging stroller for Arden, while I carried Logan in the ergobaby carrier. It was pretty tiring to push Arden and carry Logan simultaneously, but it was an arrangement that worked well for the trip.
hanging out at the hotel
Both the kids were great during the short flights to and from Adelaide, even though we traveled during their bedtime/winding down time (and thus, actual bedtime was more like midnight... eek). Arden has been on over 30 flights, and we've had all kinds of experiences with her - amazing short flights, terrible long flights, vice versa... It's always a gamble, but the most important thing to remember is... all flights will end at some point, so just take it moment by moment. This time around, Arden was very curious about everything - asking millions of questions (usually a variation of "are we there yet?"), getting excited about plane snacks, and insisting on getting the window seat, much to Ben's delight as the default middle seat passenger.
a successful first plane ride for Logan.
Overall it was a really fun (second) visit to Adelaide, and it definitely rejuvenated my love for exploring small Australian cities. (Ben enjoyed his work conference, too!) I'm so glad we were able to go, and that we were all (mostly) healthy for the trip. It's a lot more work traveling with two kids, but totally worth it for the new experiences and fun memories.
