Visitors from the land far, far away (Part 2)...

During the next several days of my parents' trip we visited Melbourne.  I put my mom on a plane for the second time in less than a week, but only an 1.5 hours.  Once we all arrived in Melbourne we made our way to our little apartment hotel, which actually was bigger than our apartment in Sydney.  We had lunch in a cute cafe and walked around the Fitzroy Gardens nearby.  A quick change in to some warmer clothes we were off to St. Kilda beach to walk around.  We had dinner and the main event for the evening was to watch the penguins come home.  It is an interesting event that happens every evening at a dock in St. Kilda as the sun sets.  We had an awesome time watching them all come in, they were so cute!

View from our room.

Mark and I in Fitroy Gardens.

 Very interesting model of a Tudor Village in Fitroy Gardens.

An interesting tree in the gardens.

 St. Kilda

 Watching the sunset on the pier in St. Kilda before the penguins come in.

A little beach the penguins would swim in to.

Our second day in Melbourne we were scheduled for a tour along the Great Ocean Road.  If you are ever in Melbourne this is highly recommended.  The four of us enjoyed an amazing day of some of the world's most magnificent sites that will never be forgotten.  Absolutely amazing!!!  First stop of the all day tour was Bells Beach.  They have an annual surfing competition here.  Then we were off to see, what they consider the official start to the Great Ocean Ocean, marked by a magnificent sign.  A little interesting history on the road was that it was built by soldiers who had returned from war.  It was supposed to help them recover from what they had experienced during war!  The road endlessly weaves around and around and up and down, not exactly an easy road to build.  On our way to the coastal town of Lorne we saw one of the most unusual houses, called the pole house.  You can actual rent it out if you want for ~$2700/week.  Honestly, it doesn't look all that spectacular on the inside, but I guess it is all about the view.  After a brief lunch stop in Apollo Bay, we stopped at the Otway National Park where we saw some local birds and koalas.  We then got to walk through Maits Rest Rainforest where we got to see some of the tallest trees in the world.  We then continued on the winding road to the highlight of the trip, the Twelve Apostles.  Despite the rain, it was absolutely amazing.  We continued on to see Loch Ard Gorge and the remains of the fallen London Bridge; yes, the London Bridge really fell down.  The day was complete and we had to head back to Melbourne.  It was a long day and a bit of a rough ride on a bus, with a bus driver who wanted to take the multiple curves at a high rate of speed, but the things we got to see were incredible. 

 Bells Beach

 Great Ocean Road

 The magnificent sign :)

 The Pole House.

 City of Lorne

 This koala was way high up in the tree.  If you look real closely you can see it is holding a baby.

 Cape Patton Lookout

 Rainforest

 The magnificent Twelve Apostles.

 Loch Ard Gorge

 London Bridge before it fell down.

On our third day in Melbourne we were all set to go Victoria Derby Day, one of the biggest horse races in the country.  We got all dressed up, wore our fascinators to fit in, and went to bet on the horses.  There was some great people watching, fun races, but unfortunately we did not come out ahead on our betting.  We came back for some good Italian food on famous Lygon Street.

 Ladies on the train with their fascinators on.

The twins!

The next day we headed to Queen Victoria Market, a famous market in the city complete with everything from fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry, a deli, restaurants, to souvenirs gallore.  We walked the aisles for a long time, but found the family some good t-shirts to take home as well as a fabulous souvenir fence post decoration to use in our home back in the states.  After the market we headed to Melbourne Central, a shopping center that features Coops Shot Tower, an old shot factory.  We then were off to see the famous Federation Square.  The Queen of England was there earlier that week, so we had to go check it out.  It is used as more of a meeting space, so there wasn't really that much to do there.  Then we enjoyed an early dinner with Mark before he had to head back to Sydney, so he could be back at work on Monday.

Yummy pigs feet at Queen Victoria Market.

 Melbourne Central Shot Factory.

 

 Federation Square.

 The Trunk Restaurant where we had dinner before Mark left.

Conviently during our time in Melbourne, Qantas was on strike, which of course is the main airline in Australia.  Mark was supposed to fly home on Sunday afternoon, however, his flight was cancelled.  He was left with renting a car for a 10 hour drive or hoping on a train for 10+ hours overnight to arrive in Sydney early Monday morning.  He was able to get a ticket for the train and made it to work a little late on Monday.

The rest of us enjoyed a little more walking around Melbourne on Monday morning before flying back to Sydney on Monday afternoon.

Cute alley where we had breakfast.

Visitors from the land far far away...

It has been a really long time since I have posted a blog, so I have a lot of catching up to do.  My parents came for a two week visit at the end of October and we got to do some amazing things while they were here.  I managed to take over 1600 pictures, so keep your eye out for a couple posts.

My parents arrived early in the morning on October 24th, so I ventured over to the airport to pick them up.  When I say pick them up I mean lead them to the train for the ~45 minute trip back to our apartment.  It was a little bit of a struggle with their bags, but we managed.  We met up with Mark for lunch at a local place called the Moody Chef and introduced them to the famous chips of Australia (aka french fries) as well as traditional service in restaurants here....slow!  I didn't want to overwhelm them on their first day here, so I took my Dad to his favorite place, the mall of course.  He kept falling asleep so I took him home to take a nap.

Off to the mall!

Day 2 was a different story, we walked across the Harbour Bridge (~3/4 of a mile).  Great views, but very windy up there.  Once we got to the other side we walked around an area of town known as The Rocks.  Basically, a lot of really old buildings that have been turned into shops and restaurants.  It also is supposedly haunted.  After a quick bite to eat with some over anxious pigeons we headed to the Queen Victoria Building.  It was originally built as a concert hall, but has since been remodeled into an upscale shopping center.  I believe it is 6 stories high and I have been told that the higher you go up, the more expensive the shops.  The building features 2 large clocks, The Great Australian Clock and The Royal Clock.

 View from the bridge.

Arch 

 The Rocks

 The Great Australian Clock

The Royal Clock

Later that evening we enjoyed a lovely dinner down on the water with a view of the Opera House and the bridge.  Unfortunately, while we were rushing to make the train my Mom tripped and fell.  She fell at the entrance of the train and the edge of the tracks. Her injuries included scratched up hands, a chipped front tooth, and a bruised ego.  They were kind enough to hold the train until she was sorted.  Not a good way to start a vacation, but she was a trooper.  After 2 visits to the local dentist she was fixed up and ready to enjoy her vacation, even though she had to go an entire week trying hard not to smile and show off her chipped front tooth.

These pictures were taken just before the incident.

On day 3 we went to Featherdale Wildlife Park, which happened to be in the middle of redneck Australia.  There were literally Australian native animals in people's back yards.  Despite the interesting location, we had an amazing time.  A lot of the wildlife was just wondering around the park.  You could pet and feed the kangaroos and wallabies hopping around.  We even got to pet a koala.  There were probably 50 koalas in this little park.  They were so cute so I took about 50 pictures.  This was a highlight for me.

 We got to feed him, they liked the cones the food was in more than the actual food.

 This little guy sat, posed, and even talked to us.

This emu was heading straight for me when I zoomed in on his face.

Later that night we had to prepare for our trip to Melbourne and thankfully Mark got to join us for the long weekend away.  That will be the next blog...