Welcomed to Brisbane!

When we got to Jia and Nikki's house, Henry was excited to get hands on with Nia's toys!

The coming about of our friendship with Jia and Nikki all happened on my first trip to Australia. I was on a ferry in Sydney when a very friendly Barista wanted to talk to me about coffee, traveling, or as I soon came to find the way Jia's conversations go, just about anything! I then stayed with Jia and Nic for a weekend, hanging out and learning about coffee! It was "off the charts" fun and we have been friends ever since!

 Tiana meets Nia for the first time. She will be 2 in September, but that didn't stop her from having lots to say.

 And the fun begins, hard and HEAVY! Henry had a blast getting beaten up by Jia and Nia. I swear all 3 laughed and squealed with delight the entire time!

 I cant figure out how to turn this picture so that new born Ada is not upside down!

 Nic takes us to South Bank. It is a beautiful park area with shops, food, flowers, and an inner city beach! Henry was depressed to see a water play area and not have his swimsuit. He refused to go in his undies and we promised to return the following day.

 Another good thing about the South Bank area is that it is host to an AWESOME chocolate shop called Max Brenners. Maybe the richest hot chocolate I have ever had? Tiana made a good point about the chocolate banana crepe we ate, we sure got our monies worth as bananas currently cost about $14/kilo, which means 1 banana costs about $2!! Eat that "whole paycheck" complaining idiots! 

I think Nia intended that bite for herself! pictured tothe left is a small cup of pure chocoate, tothe right is a chocolate banana crepe with a side of dark chocolate ice cream (to help "cool" the palate of course)

What a happy family!

Our last day in Melbourne

Our last day in Melbourne was cold and wet. We road around of the free circle tram until we were inspired to go somewhere. We chose for a bit of history at the Old Melbourne Gaol, the jail that is famous for hosting many convicts and Bush rebel, Ned Kelly before he was sentenced to his death. The museum was really cute how it was set up, they even had visitors participate in recapturing Ned Kelly's trial. We also got locked up and yelled at by a jailer.

Henry tries on a childrens version of the armor Ned Kelly created to protect himself from several shoot outs.

After lunch, Asian fusion noodles of course, Tiana and Henry went to Luna Park to ride around on roller coasters and other rides, while I met up with Gerry for an Aussie rules Football game! Too bad the Bulldogs won, as I chose to support the Carlton Blues!

the Best and Brightest day in Melbourne

What a great day! It was warm, the sun shining, the sky blue, we met a kind Kiwi couple on the tram who invited us to stay with them in New Zealand, and we got to spend the entire day with Liz!

We met up at the Queen Victoria Market to check it out and buy snacks for a picnic at the Botanic Gardens.

We didn't eat any of the Fresh game, however Tiana did get a chance to taste "Roo" in Brisbane when Jia's friend Tim cooked some on the Barbie.

cases like these line parts of the market

Though we did not eat any of the items in the photo, we did eat cheese stuffed pickeled peppers....YUM!

Tiana got a proper market sized sausage with sauer kraut and mustard. She hasnt looked this happy since we were in Eastern Europe!

Our picnic was  awesome! Liz was such a great time. She spent the whole day with us, walking around, taking us through the Botanic Gardens, to  a cafe/pub (you can often get a beer at a coffee shop!) and then to dinner in China town where Joe met up with us for plates and plates of dumplings! (we ate them so fast, I didnt get a picture)

Fresh bread, brie, apples, pears, what an awesome sandwhich!

Nope, not corn on the cobb, this is one weird Aussie plant!

 

 

 

The loaf was large enough to share with the Magpies

Around, around, getting rounder!

In 2007 I visited Melbourne and fell in love with this city for the sites, the activities, the ease in public transportation, and the people! This city hosts some of the nicest people I have ever encountered! Strangers make eye contact with a smile while passing along the street, the young willingly give up a seat on the tram for someone more in need of a seat, and if you ever look confused, more than likely someone will just offer up help or a kind word. After my favorite Aussie breakfast: Poached eggs, toast, and coffee, preferably a macchiato (as shown in photo) or cappuccino, a young family asked Tiana where we were from and what our plans were for the day. She was excited to hear that we were on our way to the Melbourne Museum, and having a young child of her own, told us Henry would love it! She even told us the best and easiest way to get there!

The Melbourne Museum is awesome! It hosts an amazing assortment of local Dinosaur bones, a tour through the human bodies systems and mind, an area discussing Genetics and Darwin's findings. I am curious to find myself saying this, but the room hosting the few hundred taxidermic animals was extremely organized and simple to understand. Instead of putting a label next to each animal, there were automated screens to touch the pictures of the desired animal and would then bring it close up to see on the screen and list its level of endangerment.

It was pretty chilly outside, but that did not stop us from walking along the river. It is not easy to walk along the river and NOT see the giant ferris wheel at Birrarung Marr park, and towards it we went! It is a lucky thing we approached it the way we did, Henry found himself an awesomely dizzying hill to roll down, then continued the fun on a bungee trampoline, singing "Wee! Wee! Wee!" the entire time.

Sculpture "Angel" by Deborah Halpern

 
Even though it was a very long day with lots of walking around, Henry still managed to save just enough energy for a St. Kilda desert. It was a difficult decision with many to choose from, but declaired happiness with his overly stuffed Eclair!

Melbourne Aquarium

Our first day in Melbourne started bright and early. Actually, it was so early, it wasn't even light out yet. Henry passed out around 5pm the previous night and woke us up at 4am, ready to be up for the day. Tiana and I however did not get 11 hours of sleep and were devastated. Luckily for us, Aussies LOVE their coffee, and our day began at the Melbourne Aquarium. You too can visit the Melbourne Aquarium, and for a mere $36/person! Just that morning we heard on the news that it was more expensive to live in Sydney and Melbourne than New York and LA, so expensive that Australians were being advised to vacation outside their own country!

Henry stands in front of the King Penguins, a very proud and inactive penguin

They stood and watched us while we stood and watched them. I think we were more entertaining.

Henry teases the Gentoo penguins, finally a penguin willing to play along!

Yikes! a Shark! (what's the point of a visit to a $110 attraction without a few cheesy photos!)

The underwater tunnels are pretty sweet to see all angels of the sea life. The photo is a bit blurry as I respectfully snapped the shot without the flash on.

I find Melbourne to be such a lively and inhabitable city, they even have housing for the birds!

It was a long day of walking around and the day ended just as abruptly as it began. Henry was, again sadly, passing out around 5pm. Tiana and I didn't last too much longer, but first we had our go at some local beer in the hotel room, bought from the bottle shop at the end of the road.

 left to right best to ok- Coopers Pale Ale, Carlton Draught, and VB (Victoria Bitter)

Both these were just OK, the XXXX Gold is from Brisbane though.

The Land of OZ

We left Michigan around 6pm July 4th and arrived in Melbourne, pronounced "Melbin" around 8am on July 6th. It felt as long as it sounds, especially taking into account that the movies on the 14 hour flight didn't work for the first 6 hours or so. However, that was nothing compared to the fact that when we landed in Australia, our luggage did not. I have now learned an important lesson, one I think I already knew and chose to ignore: when flying to a destination that has a different climate from your current location, wear or carry on appropriate clothing!! At least we did not have to carry around our bags all day long as check in wasn't until 2pm.

We spent the day riding around on the Trams and familiarizing ourselves with the city. While buying some warmer clothes at a tourist shop, we caught some locals attention when trying to figure out which teams to support. "Oh, you HAVE to get the Magpies hat, they are sure to win," says one lady passing by. Another hears her, waits until she leaves and says, "I reckon you should stick with a less violent team like the Bulldogs, the Magpies might win but are too rough and lack respect for women!"

We had lunch at Shanghai Dumpling, fried mushroom and spring onion dumplings appear here with a bit of scallion pancake at the top of the plate. 

Our night ended rather soon and abruptly, poor Henry was so tired that we couldn't bribe him to stay away with coca-cola and he was even begging us to let him go to sleep!

We're on our way!

Detroit to Dallas was more than successful, we arrived 40 min early! The highlight for me was when a passenger asked the flight attendant for a blanket, was denied because she was sitting in coach, followed by the flight attendant offering to request the pilot adjust the heat. Once the passenger walked away, the one F.A. said to the other, "not!"

Next stop, L.A. and then... Melbourne Australia!