Day 299: Nationals Win The World Series — Halloween With New Friends in Launceston
After breakfast and school at our hotel, we checked out and split up — Teddy getting a few hours to watch the World Series at a local sports bar he found, and the rest of us off to explore Launceston on our own.
Teddy said it felt surreal to be watching the game at 11 am in an empty bar. The few folks who did trickle in were the weekday work crowd who didn’t know/care about the game.
Meanwhile, Willa, James and I went to explore this amazing brand-new playground. We quickly decided it was the best playground of the year (and we’ve seen many).
James is still scared of heights but managed to navigate this beast of a climbing/slide structure. Willa was in heaven.
There were also these super fun swings:
While there they befriended a few little kids, including one who also turned up at the restaurant we chose for lunch later (Rupert & Hound).
We ended up chatting with her — Indy’s her name — and her aunt Renee and her grandmother Barb aka Marzie. They were lovely and fun to talk to. Renee’s lived here for 20 years with her husband and three teenage kids, while Indy was visiting from the mainland with her grandma since her mom’s about to have a baby back home.
The best part was that they very nicely invited us to go trick or treating with them that afternoon in Renee’s neighborhood, about 20 minutes outside of town. We said yes!
That’s when the day took on a bizarre dream-like feeling. Around that moment, the Nationals won the World Series, which was the first surreal thing.
Then we were in an Uber with an elderly driver named Raymond (who was wearing a black leather vest and matching hat), driving to Kmart to buy last-minute Halloween costumes.
Teddy met us there. We got the kids dressed — James was a wizard and Willa was Hermione from Harry Potter — and drove out to Renee’s house to be there by 5.
Strange for it to be warm and springtime — but also Halloween — going trick or treating in the afternoon — after the World Series game was over — a game which the Washington Nationals won. World felt upside down.
At Renee’s, a witch Indy greeted us, as well as a spider Eddie (their black puppy lab).
All of the houses out on this farmland subdivision estate are these contemporary, cool one-story homes made of stained wood, giant windows, charcoal gray walls and corrugated metal. I love the spare/clean/modern look.
Here’s a better look at the kids’ costumes:
She looks 15. 
We spent almost 2 hours on a loop around the neighborhood with Renee, Barb and Indy — waiting for the kids while they trick or treated, chatting with each other and with their neighbors, taking pictures, etc.
Did we mention we were trick or treating in rural Tasmania? It was extremely pleasant. Also random.
Oh! And we met a dog named Ellie who was a dead-ringer for Molly. Made us feel a little sad/guilty. We took a “family” pic with her.
Eventually we had to call it a day — we had a long drive ahead of us to our next destination. We were supposed to have arrived there by now for a dinner reservation but canceled it — so worth it to change the afternoon plan to make room for something so serendipitous.
We bid farewell to our new friends and got going. Teddy drove super slowly because 10 different people told us the drive was curvy, dark and most important, packed with wildlife. As mentioned earlier in this blog, Australia has a crazy roadkill problem. We didn’t want to add to that.
Along the way we did indeed see three giant wombats grazing on the side of the road, one wallaby and one possum. We didn’t kill any of them!
Arrived at our new home, a family cabin at the Freycinet Lodge by 10 and went right to bed.
MISC:
Some funny kids quotes from the day:
I took a picture of my oysters at lunch and James goes, “Mama, send that picture to daddy and say, ‘JEALOUS?’”
James also informed me that “Once I saw a dog that looked just like Misty [Teddy’s childhood golden retriever] but it didn’t have any fur and it had a bulldog’s head.” Okaaay.
The song “God is a Woman” was playing in the restaurant and Willa goes, “Is she saying ‘God is a wombat?’” Signs you’ve spent three weeks in Australia.
Still no breakthroughs or decisions on back-to-reality/USA life plans. Trying to decide if we hit the ground running hard in NYC at the beginning of Jan, or ease back in, whatever that means. Stay tuned.
