The best day yet in terms of weather greeted us on Saturday - warm enough for James to air his pasty white legs in shorts and hit the jogging oval once again. We were up to all of the usual stuff - tennis, gymnastics, jogging, playdates, and birthday parties with some footy playoff games thrown in for good measure. At tennis, Colin has advanced to the next level - needing as his instructor said, "A little more of a challenge". In gymnastics, Alex earned a certificate for his good work on rings and things. In jogging, James earned a few more blisters and some sore knees. Linton took the morning "off" having done her good deed for the year on Thursday volunteering at a district track meet - which the kids weren't even at!!!
Alex had a great playdate with his friend James who seems to be able to talk the language of Pokemon better than his parents could ever hope to. While Al was jumping on James' trampoline and bragging about his level 46 Palkia, Colin, Linton, and the other James walked up Royal Parade to Sydney Road to check out some shops and a section of the city we hadn't seen. There are literally miles and miles of shops and restaurants stretching in every direction in this city- with a hotel/bar and betting booth on almost every corner. I would be in deep, deep doo doo if I were a betting man here in Oz! Apparently, as the name suggests, one could get on Sydney Road and keep driving north until you hit Sydney 12 hours later. Reminds me of Yonge Street...at least in terms of its lengthy claim to fame.
We picked Allie up, and had a quick visit and latte with James's parents, and then waved goodbye to Colin who drove off into the night with a friend to go to another birthday party at the Melbourne Aquatic Centre. I could be wrong about this but it seems like Aussie's are a little more low key about kids birthdays - which is not a bad thing at all! Low key events, modest loot bags, and a lot of physical activity.
Sunday was a day of sightseeing, but after last week's marathon bus extravaganza we thought we might give the kids and our wallets a break as we trammed down to the Royal Botanical Gardens to walk among the spring flowers. Lovely day and we had a nice tea by the Ornamental lake with black swans and the eels! Then we were off to a really cool childrens' garden that Toronto could do very well to copy. Big, clean, full of indigenous plants and a natural play area - where kids can safely explore and have fun in a wide variety of environments. No teeter totters, slides, or climbers. Just grasses, trees, boardwalks, trails, and water. The Brick works or the new waterfront development would be ideal for something like this.
After several good sprints around the trails of the kids garden and a spirited visit to the Garden gift shop (of course!), we headed out of the park walking past many impressive war memorials and statues, the National Gallery, and an outdoor local artisans market. We strolled along Southbank and the Yarra river, past places we have now seen a few times but are nonetheless pretty or spectacular or pretty spectacular. An almost guilt-free gnosh at Mickey D's got us ready for another stop at the Aquarium to re-acquaint oursleves with the leafy sea dragons, 7-gill sharks, and all the other cool stuff we hadn't seen the first time. A bonus of today's visit was watching divers feed the sharks and rays in the tank! We trammed home on a new route, all the way up Elizabeth to Princes Park and then the short walk home.
The flowers have started to bloom in Melbourne and with a high of 25 Celsius on Saturday it is not hard to imagine our beach holiday looming in the distance. We are already packing, laying out the thongs (flip-flops, honest!) and shorts and trying to imagine driving a 20 foot, manual 6-speed winnebago down the wrong side of the road beach hopping from trailer park to trailer park for two whole weeks. In many ways it feels like a stretch for us but then I close my eyes and say as I have said many times throughout this entire experience - 'Why wouldn't we?!"
And so, with the sights and sounds of Melbourne comfortably viewed, photgraphed, logged, blogged, and brochured, (and twice on Sundays!) we will soon begin to "go walkabout", pushing past the parks and the beer parlours, making our way out to a part of the country that will prove to us, once and for all, that we're not in Kansas anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment