A notice from a public relations company just landed in my inbox. It's promoting family tours to several destinations, including Australia, at a price that seems a tad high to me. This is what is says, in part:
For family travel Australia . . . experiences ranging from kangaroo and koala sightings on Kangaroo Island to snorkeling along the Great Barrier Reef to tramping through the stunning UNESCO World Heritage Daintree Rainforest site searching out crocodiles and colorful kingfishers; the kind of animals you've dreamt of seeing since childhood. Due to Australia's location in the southern hemisphere, December travel falls in perfectly with the kick-off to summer. Land costs start at $300 per person per day/double for beyond-the-ordinary lodging, meals, transport and private guide.
This boggles my mind! That means a mom and dad and two kids would pay upward of $1200 US/per day! And still, your Air Costs are ADDED to this price. The whole holiday would cost the same as a new car! Sure, their price includes meals, but golly gosh-gee-willikers, how much can the little tykes eat!
That's fine for millionaires, but the rest of us? Way too costly. Go have a look at some of the tours/packages listed here ( Australia tours and package deals) and see if you can't get a better price in less than 10 minutes.
It's not often I get to mention nursing moms and rodeo cowboys in the same blog, much less the same blog post, but here we go! Both are descending on my little corner of the world (Mississauga, Canada) this weekend.
And given that these (expected) several thousand nursing moms with babes attached will be within a few blocks of my home, in the traffic-congested former village of Streetsville, I for one intend to lie low, remote in hand, and wait for them all to leave before I venture out.
These nursing moms are amassing in an attempt to break the world record for Most Moms Nursing Babies For One Minute At One Location on Saturday, September 30, 2006. The current record, set last May (not clear if this means 2005 or 2006) by The Philippines, stands at 3,738 mothers, and an equal or greater number of babies. (The mind boggles trying to compute the number of soiled nappies.)
And as for the cowboys and the rodeo, that's a few miles east of here: The Hershey Centre hosts the 4th Annual Dodge Rodeo Tour Mississauga Championships. Luckily, there's just 150-200 cowboys currently registered. (The attendant livestock -- bulls and horses -- present their own variety of 'nappy' issues.)
I only hope our garbage collectors can rise to the occasion!
