My parents, Peter and Jane, arrived in Sydney in early January ready to tackle an amazing itinerary that would take them north into Queensland, back west to Alice Springs and Uluru, south to Adelaide and then east, with us, to Melbourne. By all accounts their first three weeks were a very satisfying and successful mix of resorts and hotels with a long list of sights in between. Highlights, we were told, included Sydney, snorkelling in and a helicopter ride over the Great Barrier Reef, a visit to a working cattle station, holding a koala, a wine tour of the Barossa valley - and of course hanging out with us for 8 days! Dunh! Between dodging the snow in Vancouver, the cyclones in Queensland and the heatwaves in Melbourne - they deserve a medal just for negotiating their way through all of the sketchy weather!
Picking up from our memorable journey along the Great Ocean Road, we had a great time together in Melbourne and despite the record breaking heat we remained quite busy. On their own, they bus-toured through the city and took a boat tour of the Yarra and Docklands. As well as a couple of busy and boiling days at the Australian Open, we had booked them into a fairly rigorous itinerary. One night we had a fun dinner with Simon and Alex Davies and their kids at our place - complete with 40 plus heat! Another day we hit our favourite Pizza joint not so much for the food but for the fact that they had AC! On a Saturday we strolled Southbank in search of bucket hats and indigenous art and then hit the aquarium to check in with the penguins. After walking the arcades, we visited the creepy but morbidly fascinating Melbourne Gaol and were `treated`to a play about the infamous Ned Kelly who was hanged there. Colin was pulled up from the audience to play a turn as Ned`s brother Dan and did a smashing job!
On the Sunday we wandered down to the MCG, recently voted as one of the seven sporting wonders of the world, to watch Victoria and South Australia battle it out on the cricket pitch for the Sheffield Shield. There are more ìmportant cricket matches and trophies over the course of an Australian summer than you can shake a cricket bat at, and I was glad mom and dad had a chance to see the MCG. They even sampled the meat pies at the `G`washing them down with a cold stubby of VB which, in my view, might be half way towards a proper Aussie christening! Kinda like kissing the cod back home. There was a grand total of about 200 people in the stadium which I believe can hold 100 000. Needless to say, we had good seats.
Another night saw the adults dining down on the beach in St Kilda at one of Melbourne`s finest - the Stokehouse restaurant - while the kids endured the joys of a babysitter. This was the best meal I have had in Australia and the sunset, as pictured, was one for all time.
On the Monday before mom and dad left, the adults again headed downtown to do a few museums that were not high on the kids`list and we were all pleasantly surprised by the State Museum of Victoria and especially the Immigration Museum of which Linton has already blogged. After a few more looks for art, I dragged us back through the endless arcades seeking the perfect lunch spot as everyone graciously indulged my need to dine with the ``in` crowd. Unfortunately, my choice and the food were forgettable. As mom and Lint headed back up town to pick up the kids from school, I took dad over to a Dan Murphy`s just in case he needed any more wine.
That night we dined chez nous which, as we all know, is always better and cheaper than anything you could ever buy. I spent some time convincing my mom why we needed to send an extra suitcase home with them full of Halloweèn decor and as we giggled about what the customs officers might have to say, we supped another great bottle of wine compliments of dad. It had been a whirlwind eight days together and so it was with quite a surreal sense of sadness we hugged goodbye, hardly able to believe what had been so long in coming, was so soon ended.
Not 48 hours later we got a call from Peterborough, Ontario, Canada saying that they and our styrofoam Halloweèn skulls were back home safe and sound in the land of snow and ice. From 43 above to 20 below and all with a smile on their face. I am so impressed they came all this way to see us and so grateful for the time we got to spend together; unbelievably, in Melbourne, Australia!
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