January 15 - A couple of Museums and some more Beer

I thought we would plan the day better and leave a little earlier. We could get a little more in this way. We still only left an hour earlier but we were experts at getting on the tram so there were no delays.

We headed to the Melbourne Museum. There is a really nice section about the Aboriginal community (although not so nice in the way that have been treated in the last century). I thought it would be nice for the family to get history and this was one of the easiest options. This part of the museum does not allow pictures so there is not evidence of that area. You'll have to come to visit and see that part for yourself.

We then headed upstairs to check out the history of Melbourne. I think Jaime may have been able to have a good look around. The kids got a little antsy at this point and we were all a bit distracted.

So off to the kids area we went, making Lilly the happiest girl on the planet (which was a good thing since she spent the entire time asking to go the the kids area). The kids played a while and we had to tear them out of there so we could head off to the next museum, or bar.






We stopped at the James Squire Brewhouse for a nice sample of beers. Very tasty. The food was a bit expensive so we opted to keep going.



In the end we grabbed cheeseburgers for the kids and sent Jaime to the next bar - Cookie. This place had a 20 page menu of beers. It was great! There were a lot of Australian beers to choose from. Jaime had his lunch here and then we figured it was time to let the kids see something besides the inside of a pub.



Oh yeah, the funny part of this pub was that it was on the second floor. Michelle was going to take the elevator with the kids and I thought about just running up the stairs with Lilly. Good thing I waited for the elevator to come because it wasn't wide enough for the double stroller. We ended up carrying the kids, the stroller, the backpacks and my stroller (Lilly was having a lazy day) up the stairs. It would have been amusing to watch Michelle try to carry all her stuff by herself, but I guess I was glad that I could offer some help.

Off to the National Gallery of Victoria - the art museum. There are two buildings to this and I've been to neither so I was looking forward to checking out the art. However, we got there 20 minutes before the gallery closed. We did head to the Australian part (the other building is the international gallery) so Jaime and Michelle could see something 'local'. We basically ran through two exhibits. I will be happy when I can go back through and take a better look. There is also a kids area in the NGV so I'm sure Lilly would be excited to take a look at that part.



From here we walked back to the north to meet Seth for dinner. We went to a cool place called Little Creatures. We had a sampling there and then chose our favorite(s) to have with dinner. I think we may have had pizza, but maybe not everyone did.




Back on the tram and home. Kids went right to bed, adults played more Mario. More yelling at each other, lots of laughing.

In case I haven't mentioned this, I think my niece and nephew are adorable! This pic is just funny because Jenna was exhausted and James was still doing his best to not miss anything!