Today, the whole family went down to the Mornington Peninsula for wine and liquor tasting, lunch, and fresh local produce. The thing I always love about visiting wineries in Australia is how relaxed and casual they are. There’s no stuffiness or pretense. There’s no air of arrogance that they know far more about wine than you do (even if they do since they work at and/or own the winery). The tasting pours are usually generous (unlike the sad, tiny drops you get at the snotty and overrated wineries in Napa). They talk about the wine, the tastes, the flavors, and scents as though we’re all just everyday people looking to share something delicious together.

We visited one winery, one distillery room, a cherry farm, and in the middle of that, we shared a bottle of red and enjoyed lunch on the sunny patio at Abelli Estate Winery, which had a semi-outdoor kitchen setup and cooked up a delicious Greek-inspired feast for us. Another thing I’ve noticed that is common in Australia: a lot of the wineries here are not only beautifully constructed with large floor to ceiling windows that allow you to see all the vineyards, but they are also known for their gourmet, multi-course meals. Reservations are often required weeks if not months in advance for some of the most popular ones. Oftentimes, individuals and couples will have their special birthday or anniversary celebrations at a winery and share a bottle and a multi-course lunch or dinner. You rarely see that in wine regions in the U.S.: people go to wineries to taste and buy wine, then leave to go elsewhere to eat.

Wine doesn’t have to be an elitist interest or drink. It can be for everyone if wineries in the U.S. treated wine and wine drinkers the way Australians do.

While walking around the suburb of Collingwood the other day while pushing Pookster in the stroller, I came across the little free library cabinet and took a peek to see what children’s books might be interesting. I took out a book in almost-new condition called “I Am Grateful,” which I thought would be perfect since I was thinking about books that teach little ones gratitude. The book is beautifully illustrated with people of all shapes, sizes, and colors, and it starts with phrases about being grateful for what we may consider basic, like our eyes for seeing and our ears for hearing. It eventually branches out into gratitude for the people in our lives and the experiences we are so lucky to have.

Gratitude is not something that comes naturally. It really is something that needs to be taught and instilled at as early an age as possible. As I read this book a number of times to Pooks, who is loving it and asking for it “again” and “again,” I thought about my miserable cousin who now lives in Westchester, who is going to turn 50 next year, and exactly how ungrateful he is for nearly everything. He is constantly angry with everyone and everything. He is a victim of the world, and everyone is out to get him and his son. Generally, if you are not a Chinese American male, he hates you and thinks you’re a problem. A frequent text he sends to our mini group of his brother, our uncle, and me is “White people need to die.” Maybe my cousin could have benefited from a book like this when he was young so he wouldn’t be full of so much anger and hate today. He said that everywhere he goes, people are mean and awful to him. But in my own experiences, I’ve felt quite the opposite. While I may be upset about the state of polarized politics in the U.S., or the terrible atrocities that are happening in Israel and Gaza, for the most part, I feel that people at their core are good.

On our first day in Bundaberg on Sunday, I was thinking about how Chris’s dad told us to look for Bowen mangoes while in Queensland because they were not easy to source in Victoria (I have since corrected his information: Bowen is just another name for Kensington Pride mangoes, which are the most common and popular mango in all of Australia and thus extremely easy to find during mango season). So we asked around, and we found out that there is a stretch of road where mango orchards and and we could buy a whole tray of mangoes for just $15. Unfortunately, given we’re only here for 3.5 days, we’d have to beg the growers to sell us just one. Well, I didn’t even have to do that. Chris dropped me off at one orchard, where I met the owner and asked if I we could just buy a single ripe mango. He said he typically only sells by the tray (and all the mangoes were still green and quite far from ripe), but I told him we’d be leaving to go back to Melbourne in just 4 days. So he dug through his massive pile of mangoes and found one very ripe one, ready to be cut that evening. I asked him how much it would cost, and he waved his hand and said, don’t worry about it. It’s on me. I insisted and took money out of my wallet and said I had to give him something for it. He smiled warmly and said, “No, I can’t take your money. I hope you enjoy it and have a safe trip.” It was so kind and generous of him to do that — completely unexpected.

The experience I’ve noted above is not an isolated one. Everywhere we have traveled around the globe, people have extended warmth, kindness, and generosity. This was even before Pookster was in the picture. I’ve found that with a little smile, even with a language barrier, people generally are kind and always willing to help. I used to tell my cousin this, but it would always fall on deaf ears. “It’s because you’re a girl,” he’d always retort. Maybe. But Chris isn’t…?

Americans get made fun of as international travelers for always smiling — “You always know someone’s an American because they smile so much,” some Europeans have noted. But you know what? A smile is going to get you farther than a straight face or a scowl; it is a quick way of indicating good intentions. And a smile transcends languages and cultures. So it’s best to smile and have a good disposition: it won’t cost you anything, and chances are that more cases than not, it will get you a smile back. And we’d all be happier and less stressed if we were surrounded by more smiles.

Growing up, soda was always something that was in the house. It was there for everyday consumption and special events like birthday parties. I didn’t really love it, but I’d occasionally have it. But when I got braces (for the second time…) when I was 12, my orthodontist strongly said that he recommended all his patients stop soda consumption, as it would weaken my teeth and make them more susceptible to cavities especially with orthodontic treatment. I didn’t have any attachment to soda, so I just decided to cut it out completely. So since I was 12, the only rare times I have soda are when it’s mixed into a cocktail or on occasion when I’m traveling, and it’s an interesting brand/flavor that I find intriguing.

When I first came to Australia, Chris kept raving about how much he missed Bundaberg and ginger beer. I didn’t quite understand it until I had Bundaberg ginger beer and other flavors, such as mango (made only with Kensington Pride/Bowen mangoes grown in Queensland), passion fruit (I mean, this speaks for itself, right?), and the deliciousness (and rarity – still never seen it in the U.S.!) of their lemon, lime, and bitters flavor. There’s something special about the Bundaberg brand: they really want the flavors they are brewing to be pure and fully represented in the sodas they produce. So the brews, depending on the flavor, range in melding/processing time from one day (peach) to seven days (lemon, lime, and bitters) to extract just the right amount of flavor to be true to what they think is perfection. And they certainly have quite the range of flavors, which are all delicious: while they change them up (they’ve had apple in the past) and have seasonal specials (spiced ginger brew for the festive season), they have about 12 flavors that remain constant. The ones that are easiest to find in the U.S. are the ginger beer, sarsaparilla (root beer), and oddly, even the guava. The ones I never see in the U.S. are the red grape (Burgundee creaming soda, which I had for the very first time this visit), lemon/lime/bitters (brewed for seven days, made with cinnamon quills, clove buds, and gentian root, then mixed with lemon and lime juice and bitters for a flavor that could honestly pass as an alcoholic drink due to the bitters in it!), peach (the shortest brew at only one day), or pineapple coconut (brewed two days and made with fresh pineapple juice and coconut water).

We visited the Bundaberg Barrel on Monday, which is actually shaped… just like a barrel! The place is well decorated and appointed, with oversized exaggerated Bundaberg bottle caps topping each of their oversized bushes in front. And if that weren’t enough to convince us we were at the right place, as soon as we parked the car and got out, we could smell the heavily wafting scent of spicy ginger invading our noses! There, we had a tasting of about all twelve flavors, and the tasting fee included SIX cans of whatever flavors we’d like – what a good deal! So we optimized for the ones we couldn’t get easily, such as the creaming soda, lemon/lime bitters, and the grapefruit. We couldn’t cart all 12 back to Melbourne given our relative bag space, so we had to drink as much as possible on this trip. So this would most definitely be the most soda I’ve had in a short period of time — likely ever!

On Sunday after lunch, we stopped at Tinaberries, a strawberry farm that I had read about and added to our list of places to visit while in Bundaberg. Unfortunately, strawberry season in the area is from August to October, so while we’d be missing the pick-your-own opportunity, we’d still have access to their beautiful grounds, as well as their special fresh fruit ice cream.

The Tinaberries property is definitely one that would be inviting to families and anyone who is looking for a quiet, open outdoor space to relax and breathe in fresh air. They have a huge lawn that has plenty of shady cover provided by huge, blankety trees, along with beautiful flowers everywhere, marked by handwritten chalk signs with cute messages like, “If you are not a bee, please stay out of the garden.” The owners provide big picnic blankets for you to borrow and enjoy their lawn. They also have a number of play structures for little ones to play and run around. And given they grow their own strawberries (and presumably their own passion fruit), they allow you ample tastings of jams and butters made with their own fruit. We tried their strawberry and blackberry jams, which had far more fruit than sugar in them, along with a hint of lemon to even out the sweetness — these were delicious. We especially loved their passion fruit butter, which had a rich passion fruit pulp complete with passion fruit seeds, sugar, egg yolks, and butter. We ended up buying a jar of this to take home for Chris’s parents, along with their “lamington chocolate” macadamias, which were macadamia nuts covered in milk chocolate and shredded dried coconut.

If that was not enough, I especially enjoyed their fresh, churned to order soft serve ice cream. On Sunday, they had two flavors, strawberry and passion fruit, so we got both flavors in kiddie cup sizes. I’m not sure if it’s the Australian dairy that made these ice creams so delicious, but the creaminess and milkiness of the ice creams really stood out in my mind among the fruit ice creams we’ve had. They had plenty of passion fruit and strawberry to scream that they were extremely fruit forward, but it didn’t overshadow how creamy and rich the dairy in the ice creams were. Both the creaminess and the fruitiness stood out and did not outshine the other.

Food in Australia just tastes better overall than in the U.S. Animals have more space to roam around, get exercise, and eat what they are supposed to eat. Produce gets the TLC and nutrients they need to be more tasty and nutrient dense. From a food/eating perspective, I’m not sure why you would ever leave Australia to come to the U.S.; it’s like a downgrade in a million ways.

Every time I’ve visited Australia, I never get tired or bored of the seafood here. Given that Australia is an island country that’s pretty far removed from the rest of the world, it is not surprising that they have endless flora, fauna, and ocean life that is not only quite unique, but extremely delicious. And being up in Queensland, we’re in the midst of the tropics up here. And when doing research for this Bundaberg trip, I came across this open-air seafood spot that looked interesting called Grunske’s by the River. It’s one of just a small number of seafood processors in Queensland that also sells direct to the public via their little market, as well as via prepared foods and their casual restaurant setup.

Given that shellfish is quite expensive everywhere, we rarely have full-on seafood meals ever. But if you are going to do it, it should probably be here! So we had an indulgent meal at Grunske’s this early afternoon after our arrival in Bundaberg. We decided on the hot and cold seafood platter, which included crumbed local fish bites, sea scallops, and calamari; grilled scallops on the half shell with garlic butter; Coffin Bay (South Australia) oysters, local wild caught massive prawns, Moreton Bay bugs (basically like the lesser known but just as expensive cousins of lobsters!), cooked sand crab, and pear and rocket (arugula) salad. This was all served alongside chips (fries), tartare sauce, seafood sauce, and plenty of lemon wedges.

I still remember the very first time I saw scallops served on the half shell in Australia back in 2012 when I first came. In that moment, I realized I had never seen scallops in their shell, period, ever. So I had no idea they looked like that and was completely stunned, not only by how pretty they looked, but also my own ignorance for not even knowing what a scallop shell even looked like! It presents very well and almost even makes the scallops taste better because they seem fresher and more natural! These scallops were fat, juicy, sweet, and meaty. The sand crab was also surprising; it was served cold, and like Maryland crabs, most of their meat is in the body versus the legs. So I spent quite some time picking out all the meat, and it was definitely worth the effort. The flesh was also very sweet and meaty. The Moreton Bay bugs, as per usual, were delicious and sweet, and the restaurant made it easy to take the meat out of the shells by cutting each bug in half for us, so no cracking was needed. What may have been the most stunning in terms of presentation were the prawns, though. Although we do have easier and cheaper access to prawns/shrimp in the U.S., it is rare to see prawns of this sheer size — almost the size of my whole hand! These were also perfectly cooked and not even a bit rubbery. They were also a very deep, bright orange and red color. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have thought these prawns were fake, for display and not eating. But that’s how gorgeous and spectacular seafood is here in Australia!

Ever since I first started visiting Australia 11 years ago with Chris, I’d always hear comments from his parents and pretty much all his relatives about how bad the traffic can get to drive relatively short distances. They would make comments not only about the road rage, but also how ridiculous it was that it could take so much time to drive so little, and yet you’d still encounter endless cars. So that would be a (lazy) excuse to not socialize with friends/family who didn’t live on your side of town as often.

Although we’ve certainly sat in traffic at peak hours while down in Melbourne, I never really thought much about it until we were going through intense traffic this late afternoon to get to Rosanna to visit some friends and their two young kids, a suburb of Melbourne, from Highett, which is where Chris’s brother lives now. The distance is only about 26 km, or 16 miles, yet according to the Google Maps estimate, it would take 1 hour and 10 minutes to get there. We were supposed to meet at a playground at 5pm, and we left just past 4. And based on this, we’d be late.

Chris drove us over, and the entire time, I kept thinking… why is this taking so long? We’re all technically in the same city, so why does it feel like we’re driving an endless distance to get to ANOTHER city? Well, I guess they made the drive down to Brighton last year for Pookster’s birthday, so this drive is sort of like a “it goes both ways” thing, right? How could people do a drive like this regularly? How? At times, it almost felt like we were driving through LA traffic!

Well, we eventually got there… to find out our friends, who live just minutes away from the playground, were running late themselves. But we made it. It was fun. Kaia got to have her first experience with a cubby house in a backyard like a true Aussie kid (and threw a fit when I took her away from the play kitchen inside because it was dinner time). They had some kids time. It was worth it in the end. I may just never want to go back there again knowing how far it is, though…