A Ferry G'day, Mate, and O! What a Night!

Tuesday, 2 September 2009

Morning comes earlier every day!  We awoke to a bustling household, with Kerrianne's family getting off to school and the five of us getting off for our day in Melbourne (or meh'bun, as they say here).  Kerrianne's house was so cool - new and modern, with rooms that just kept on going!  We were all envious of her HUGE pantry!  One thing I have really liked about all of the homes we've been in here is how uncluttered and uncomplicated they are compared to our homes in the US.  Lines are sleeker, and knick-knacks are fewer - it made me want to go home and de-clutter - again!  Kerrianne's scrapbooking room was wonderful, too, mostly because of the copious evidence of her creativity!  My head was spinning with ideas, but I was sure I would forget them long before I got back home.

Kerrianne and Janice had tea and lots of toast and goodies for us, and we probably lingered a bit long over our brekky...at any rate, we ended up RACING to catch the Queenscliff ferry!  You would have thought someone was in labor or something.  Complicating matters was the fact that we were in two cars, since Kerrianne would be coming back home after dinner and Shelley, Rex, and I would be staying at Janice's.  Kerrianne and Shelley led the way, and Janice kept them in her sights and we made it on to the ferry, by the skin of our chinny-chin-chins!

Once safely aboard, we went up on the top deck of the ferry, which was completely empty save for the five of us.  It was a bit brisk, but the sun was out and the day was glorious.  We had fun taking 'selfie' photos in as many different ways as we could, and we tried really hard to conjure up the dolphins like the ones Kerrianne had posted, but they weren't coming out today - yet.  We had a nice morning just relaxing on the ferry and enjoying the ride.  As we left the port, we looked back on the town of Queenscliff.  One of the main buildings that I noticed was once a prison, but it was an architecturally interesting building.

Crossing the bay over to Melbourne was such a pleasant ride, and I was again struck by the changing colors of the water here - just gorgeous!  Once we arrived, Janice led us up to Arthur's Tower, which was high up on a hill where a ski lift-like tram used to run.  There was an overlook that allowed us to see Melbourne and the entire area, and we posed for lots of photos on Arthur's Seat.  There was a little pub there, but we didn't stop for morning tea (or afternoon tea!) - too much to see!

Our next stop was at Chapman's Point, where we got another lovely view of the bay and the city below.  It was a beautiful drive down into town, although I have to admit that I may have taken a little nap or two as we drove along.  Janice was a good sport, though, and hopefully Rex was staying awake longer than I was.  When we got to Frankston, we decided to stop for a bite of lunch, so we pulled into the carpark at the Frankston Lifesaving Club.  It was quite an experience trying to find a place to park, but we were finally successful and joined Shelley and Kerrianne in Waves, the restaurant there.  We had a wonderful view of the bay, and we were entertained by our somewhat cranky server.  We used her attitude to invent a whole story for her and some of the other servers and patrons.  Lunch was delish, by the way - I had a great salad!

From here we drove past the house that Shelley's family used to rent on holiday, and then we walked down to the very beach box that was her grandmother's!  I loved the beach box concept - they are little wooden houses (sort of like cabanas) that people could change in and/or store beach toys and equipment.  Shelley told us her grandmother's even had an outhouse next to it (highly illegal, but nontheless handy!)

Our next stop was to see the famous Brighton Beach Boxes, which are so fun and colorfully painted!  We drove past Janice's neighborhood and past a really high-rent district to get here, and we could see the skyling of the Melbourne CBD across the water.

By now it was sunny and warm out, and we had fun picking out our favorite beach boxes and posing in front of them.  We even saw our dolphin!  As we were leaving, there was a wonderful older gentleman sitting on the stoop of one of the boxes watching some children playing.  He wore a straw hat, rakishly tilted, and he just made me smile.

To Janice's house we went, with just enough time for tea (I even got to make some iced tea!) and to grab a change clothes for dinner.  We would be dining in the Conservatory at the Crown Casino in downtown Melbourne, but we still had lots to see before then! With only a teeny bit of trouble (just making sure we didn't miss any streets downtown) we got ourselves parked in one of the many casino parking decks, and we ran off to see the sights in Melbourne while it was still light.  We made our way through the maze of casinos and hotel lobbies until we found ourselves out on the broad sidewalk lining one side of the Yarra River, which bisects the downtown area.

Melbourne is dotted with cool sculptures and artwork - there seems to be a bit of a rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne as to which city is more cultural, but Melbourne claims to be the cultural and sporting centre of Australia.  Melbourne is also home to the Rod Laver Tennis Centre and Australian Open, Aussie Rules Football got its start here, and it's the birthplace of the Australian film and television industry.  A city of almost four million people, Melbourne is located on Port Philip Bay, and it has many parks and gardens.  As I mentioned earlier, the Yarra River runs right through the downtown area.  It's a beautiful city - not as dramatic as the Sydney Harbour area, but full of surprises at every turn.

We slowly made our way (because we kept stopping to take pictures!) to the tram that would take us on a quickie tour of the city, and we paid attention to the signs warning us from hopping the tracks.  Seems at least one of our group has had first-hand experience with some of the consequences of breaking that rule (it wasn't me!)  Soon, the red tram car pulled up and we piled on for our free tour.  We made a large rectanglular loop of the CBD and here are some of the fun buildings and sculptures we saw:

Once we finished our trolley tour, Janice hustled us past the "clocks" at the train station and directed us over to another fun artsy place, then we walked down by the river where we caught a glimpse of the Tennis Centre and the football stadium.  We were on a bit of a timetable, not only for our dinner reservations, but because of the 'dancing buildings' that were alleged to be happening later.  Hmmm.  There were scullers on the river, and we could hear the bats (they are following us, too!) chirping under the bridges.  Night was falling and the lights were coming on - everything was so beautiful as it was reflected in the water.

It was getting a bit cooler, so we walked back towards the car through an upscale shopping mall, but we resisted the impulse to shop (dancing buildings, you know!) and we still had to change clothes before dinner!  We did stop to look at a huge globe of the world hanging in the shopping mall - Australia looked just right, but check out America.  The east coast has sprouted boobs!

Now we were RUNNING back to the car, getting a teensy bit turned around in the maze of hallways and lights and glass of the Crown Centre, and since we had not passed any restrooms along the way, we opted to change clothes in the cars!  Sorry, no photos...oh, and I might mention that Janice just changed in between some cars!!  It was pretty hysterical!  So we fluffed and primped and soon we were respectible enough to go to dinner.  By now, Janice and Kerrianne were PULLING and DRAGGING us along so we wouldn't miss the big show.  Just in time, we found ourselves looking up at giant fire-breathing structures.  Now are these cool, or what?

When not in the middle of a drought, there is water running down the sides of these tall chimneys, and there must have been at least a dozen of them lining the walkway next to the river!  Best of all, once we made it into the restaurant, we were seated at a window right in front of one!  Every hour they erupted in a ball of light and heat and fire!  So fun - much better than dancing buildings!

Dinner at the Conservatory was entertaining all on its own!  It was a HUGE buffet - sushi, appetizers, salads, main courses, side dishes, pasta and rice dishes made to order, soups, and of course, dessert...  We just ate and ate and ate!  And I had the good fortune to snag a Chocolate Dome, which was by far one of THE BEST desserts I've ever had.  Oh. My. Gosh!  I wasn't good at sharing, but everyone got a kick out of me and my "O" face!  And then, out came the iphones, and Kerrianne and I shared our new toys from the night before with Rex and Janice.  Shelley managed to stay on good behaviour.

Once we were so stuffed that we could barely move, we waddled through the hotel, past the tanks of rock lobsters, through the mirrors that made us skinny (we loved them!) and into our cars.  We bid sad goodbyes to Kerrianne as she headed home for the night, and Janice delivered us safely to her wonderful home where we fell into bed - it would be another early morning as we were flying back to Sydney.  Our wonderful trip was drawing to a close...

Visions of sugarplums (well, chocolate domes, anyway) dancing in my head,

Jan

The GREAT (Awesome, Fantastic, Gorgeous) Ocean Road!!!

1 September 2009

I remember very little about our flight from Perth to Melbourne, so I must have gotten some sleep!  I know I was tired enough that I should have!!  We landed in Melbourne at about 5:30 AM, and lo and behold, there to meet us at baggage was Janice!!  She had no problem finding us (Rex tends to stand out in a crowd) and the airport crowds at 5:30 AM are not dense.  So off we went!  I have to admit that I snoozed a bit on the ride from the airport to Kerrianne's house in Geelong, which is about 50 miles southwest of Melbourne.  Geelong is the second largest city in Victoria, and it's also a port city.  I think something like 90% of Australia's population lives on the coast, so it's no surprise that almost all of the women I've met live near the ocean.  It was fitting, then, that today's adventure was a drive along the Great Ocean Road!  We picked up Kerrianne and Shelley, who had flown in from Sydney to play with us, and we all squeezed into Janice's car.  It was so fun to be reunited with three such fun girls, and of course, it was Rex's first time to meet Janice and Kerrianne.  Off we went!

The Great Ocean Road begins in Torquay, which is only about 10 miles south of Geelong.  It won't surprise you that almost all of today's photos will be of the magnificent Pacific Ocean, but what may surprise you is how different it can look!  The weather in this part of Victoria is constantly changing - although the overall climate is temperate, the winds and weather coming north from Antarctica can cool things off in a flash!  Janice and Kerrianne had been warning me that the weather was cold and rainy, and I'd been promising them I'd bring the good weather with me, so I was glad that the day was mostly sunny and just a bit chilly.  Janice had gathered up some warm jackets for us, even finding one that would fit Rex, and there were times we were glad we had them!

The Great Ocean Road was built by 3000 returning servicemen (called Diggers) as a memorial to their fallen comrades who were killed in World War One.  It was begun in 1918 and finished in 1932, but it was proposed as far back as 1864!

Here are some of our first glimpses of the ocean:

You can already see how different it looks - from deep blue crashing waves to light teal gentle waves lapping the beach.  Our first stop along the Road was the Split Point Lighthouse.  Amazingly, the paparazzi found us here!

The four of us girls posed for a picture and Rex got the shot for us.  I was intrigued by a couple of things - the 90 km Surf Walk that follows the Great Ocean Road and this simple gate that was outside a house next to the lighthouse.

Can you tell how quickly the weather was changing?

Our next stop was Lorne, and this is its new rebuilt pier.  I loved the ladders that went down to the water, and the color of the water in this shot was brilliant!   After a bit, we decided to have a bite of lunch at a little cafe.  Well, we girls had lunch, and I'm not sure whether Rex had breakfast or dessert, but it sure looked good!  He wasn't sharing... 
....but he did make sure we had plenty of chips - he ordered two orders of them, not realizing that we all got some with our steak sandwiches! 

And of course, this was all after Janice had broken out one of her Australian treats for us...  I was glad we had this handy signpost to let us know where we were - isn't it fun?  And again, look at the changing weather!

Back on the road, it was a bit of a struggle to stay awake, between our overnight flight, our early morning, my full tummy, and being in a moving vehicle!  But the scenery was awesome and Janice made sure to stop at all of the places where there was something good to see, like this rainforest!  We went for a bit of a hike in a futile effort to work off our chips!

 Here's a good shot of the road - Janice did a fantastic job keeping us on it and playing the tour guide.  She and Kerrianne both were wonderful ambassadors for their breath-takingly beautiful state!  One of the things I remembered most from some of the pages they had posted on facebook was the Twelve Apostles, an incredible group of rock formations created by the pounding surf.  We were about to see them in person!

There was no way I could leave out any of these photos, so just sit back and enjoy.  Pay attention to the light and sky - rain and sunshine, serenity and savagery, colors and greys - all mixed together!

It was time to head back to Kerrianne's house for dinner, so Janice steered us over to the regular highway for a faster drive back.  I'm not gonna lie - I slept through most of that ride, and I have a feeling I wasn't the only one...at least Janice stayed awake!  But I did stay up long enough to get a chuckle over this sign!

At Kerrianne's house, we were in for another treat - a bit of a barbie!  Darren had things well under control, and Janice had brought some of her yummy chocolate slice, and soon there was quite the spread in front of us - prawns, burgers, sausages, potato salad, green salad, and more! Yum!!

Kerriane's men were so cute - Liam was a snuggler, Riley is the true tweener, and Darren was a love - even washed the dishes!  Which reminds me, so did Bob up in Geraldton - a nice trait these Aussie men have!

It was another full day of new experiences and stunning scenery, to say nothing of good times spent with new friends.  This has got to be the BEST vacation EVER!!

After dinner, Kerrianne, Shelley, and I stayed up and played on facebook and with our iphones - we had such a giggle over our newly acquired (well, I'm not sure Shelley got it, but Kerrianne and I did!) Atomic Fart apps that I thought we would wake up Janice and the boys!  But we eventually gave it up and got some sleep for another big day tomorrow!

Rocking and rolling with the waves,

Jan