Adelaide

Last year we received news of the St Mark’s centenary gala dinner to be held on March 15, 2025. Given Lisa and I met at St Mark’s more than 25 years ago, and our 20 year wedding anniversary is in a few weeks, and the gala dinner aligned with the kids’ spring break, and the kids were overdue for a visit to see their Aussie grandparents, it wasn’t a tough decision to make the trip across the Pacific to Adelaide for the celebration.

The weekend when we were in Adelaide was jam packed with events associated with the centenary celebration: Friday night drinks at the Queen’s Head Hotel adjacent to college, the gala dinner at the Convention Center on Saturday, and an impressive brunch at St Mark’s on the Sunday. It was great to see so many familiar faces – a number of which Lisa and I hadn’t seen for more than 15 years – at both the Friday welcome drinks and main event on the Saturday. The organizers of the weekend put together an exceptional gathering with so much thought put into every detail, was really quite a memorable way to reconnect with old friends and reminisce about all the great times we shared at college. I also really enjoyed walking with Lilia around St Mark’s during the Sunday brunch, being able to show her the rooms where I lived during each year of my university studies and explain to the kids all the rules associated with living at college (Max was very intrigued about how one ends up being “ponded!”). Was a lot of fun to have my cousin Sophie in town from Melbourne as well; she began her college career some six years after I left St Mark’s in 2000 and I think enjoyed her time there just as much as I did. We wrapped up the weekend with a footy game at the Adelaide Oval: it wasn’t much of a game as the Crows delivered an absolute drubbing to St Kilda, but was fantastic weather and an excellent way to wrap up the weekend with the Littles, Pops John and Greg Halls. By the end of three days of celebrating my liver and stomach were pleading with me for a break!

We were lucky to be blessed with magic weather for most of our time Down Under, plenty of beach time and a handful of morning runs along the esplanade with TB to flush the cobwebs after prior evenings on the turpentine. Such a magic way to start the day: a morning run before the heat followed by a swim and coffee. Was great to meet the new addition to the Baldwin family a couple of times during our stay as well: last time we saw Celia and Todd was in Willunga in 2022 when Easton was a toddler and Elly was a bun in the oven. A seriously cute little spud with some of the best toddler hair I’ve ever seen!

We did have a couple of cooler days whilst in town, on one of them we made the trek up to Kuitpo Forest to use some Tree Climb vouchers Granny Jenni and Steve had given us as a gift. Always fun to spend a couple of hours dangling from cables and ziplines up in the canopy of the gums. A trip to Australia wouldn’t be complete without seeing some of the local wildlife, so post-Tree Climb we headed further south for lunch and a walk with Jenni and Steve around Myponga Reservoir, and as always there were plenty of roos lazing about in the shade alongside the hiking trail.

The mercury rose again for us during our last couple of days in Adelaide, great weather for some time on the Adelaide mid coast before we joined the grandparents and Stuarts for Lilia’s birthday dinner in Port Willunga. Temps were perfect for a bit of a paddle at the Onkaparinga River mouth followed by one of our favorite mid coast family pastimes – snorkeling on the Noarlunga reef – after Max managed to squeeze in one final meat pie at Beck’s Bakehouse.

As always, it was a whirlwind week in Adelaide but great to see so many old friends, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed being spoiled rotten by their grandparents! So thankful for the Stuarts’ generosity allowing us to bunk down in their abode in the city center, it made our visit so smooth with such a central base for all the St Mark’s festivities. Thanks Dave and Angie!