January 18 - A bit of Sport

This was the closest we actually got to seeing any sporting events with the family here. I had planned on taking them to see the soccer but we were too late for that. This day we were going to arrange for some of us to go see the Australian Open but it decided to rain just long enough for us to change our minds. We passed the tennis courts on the way to our destination and I'm sorry to say this was as close as we got.



In the meantime, I figured what a better way to get to know the sports of Australia than to take the family to the National Sports Museum of Australia. This is housed in the MCG - Melbourne Cricket Ground.



I cruised through a big chunk of the displays and took some time to find out about the origins of Australian rules football. There was also a surfing exhibit. I probably could have spent a bit more time there but at this point we thought we had to get back so we could see the tennis.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the exhibits of course. But they have an interactive area where we had a field day.





(Notice James has his arms straight out in front of him as if he were driving a car. This was how he was running back and forth as well as kind of shaking his head in a weird random manner, it was a wonder he didn't fall down a lot!)

Jenna slept through this whole part and just as we were leaving we decided it wouldn't be fair to her so we woke her up to play with a ball (she walked around most of the time looking for balls at our house). This led to a lot more playing and races with the kids. I think we did a good job with wearing them out.




And when we went upstairs to head out and find a tram, is was pouring. We decided to brave it and by the time we got to the tram, it was a little tinkle. The clouds were still all around and we called off the evening. I'll give you three guesses as to what we did instead . . .

January 17 - A trip to St Kilda

We took our tram into the city and jumped onto the tram that takes us to St Kilda. They had a very nice Sunday market. The weather was quite wet so it wasn't completely enjoyable but there were some neat booths. Seth and I like to look at some of the art and talk about where we would put it, but we don't usually buy anything.



I thought we would get to the beach but since we did Brighton the day before and the weather was yucky, we passed. Instead we headed to one of the pubs on Jaime's list and had another sampling of local beers.



Just a little lovin':



We thought we would look at Luna Park since we weren't in a hurry to get back home. The cool thing about Luna Park is that it is free to walk in the gates. The bad thing about Luna Park is that it costs an arm and half a leg just to ride one ride. We decided to splurge and we bought three adult passes to the carousel. Since all the kids were under the height limit, they got to ride for free. So we had three kids riding, three adults holding them on and one adult taking pictures.






Let it be known that Jenna did not like the ride.

January 16 - Short and to the point

This one will be easy cause we don't have any pictures. Oops! I don't have anything from after we left the city. Jaime and Michelle might have some so you'll have to ask them.

Seth and Lilly went into the city early to see a free show with some of Lilly's friends (it was dad's day apparently). There was a story about a whale and pollution. Lilly hated the entire thing. She gets overwhelmed/scared of large costumes and I guess the giant blow up whale wasn't her cup of tea.




From there, we met met them in the city and went to Young and Jackson. Another famous pub in the heart of the city.

We then hopped on a train and headed to the beach. It wasn't the warmest day but it wasn't bad. Of course it was really windy and we had a beach tent that just sort of blew around (don't you wish you had pictures of us trying to set it up?).

The kids took a while to warm up to the beach. I think the water was a bit much, it was very loud and the waves were pretty good. At first James and Jenna didn't really want much to do with the sand but they warmed up to it.

Our original plan was to get back home and then go back out to a soccer game, but we just weren't organized enough to get it done. We went back home for dinner and got the kids bathed and to bed. What's better than the Wii and some beer?

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!

January 14 - Another trip around the city

Seth went back to work and I took the family to the big city! We had our first experience with 3 young ones on the tram along with backpacks and a double stroller. My goodness, that was difficult. It got better with time but the first one was a funny one!

Since we left a bit late and we didn't have a real plan, I thought I would take everyone down to the visitor's center and they could have a look around. Our tram goes right down by the center but there was a demonstration of some sort and the tram was rerouted. No biggie, I thought, we'll just get a bit of a walk. Well, it went a little further away than I thought and we did a bit more walking than I bargained for but we were going to walk all day, what was a little backtracking? In the end, it worked out well as we were able to walk along the Yarra River and it would be pretty much our only opportunity to do that.





We stopped for a bite to eat at a food court that I have been to a couple of times before.



With our bellies full we headed over to the Visitor's Center. Unfortunately I don't have much luck getting very good information from them. This was no exception. We found a map for a self guided tour of the Royal Botanic Gardens and thought we could kill a few hours doing that.

But wait, we had to stop and have a beer first.



Jaime had a couple but his favorite name was from the Moo Brew. I had tried this once before (I believe in Tasmania where it might be from) - ordered specifically for the name.

There is a really cute children's area in the garden and the kids got to run around and get a bit wet.




Finally we pulled the kids out of the water and headed into back into the main part of the gardens.




We tried to go on this self guided walking tour but it seemed the map we had didn't really match the paths that we were walking along. The signage was different in the park and we just got completely confused. As soon as we saw a main road we ended up walking along it instead of through the garden. Somehow we made it back to our tram and headed home.

We made dinner, put the kids to bed, and played a little Mario. That game is hysterical when you are trying to complete levels with four people. We got a good laugh and there was only a little yelling at each other.

FYI

Our router bit the dust. So I can't do anything on our home computer. I promise there will be loads of good stuff once we are back up and running!

Have a good one!