Hotel life

In between the Australian Open, we were able to show Papa John some of the things that make Melbourne so AMAZING.

Road Trip 1: Phillips Island. This is where you can watch the penguins come out of the water and run to their natural habitat. They make the run during the evening so we got some fish and chips for dinner and waited for the sun to set!

Road Trip 2: Grants Picnic Area--Dandenong Mountain Range. Here we drove about 45 minutes north of the CBD and found ourselves in a national park. It is a rain forest and has lots of exotic birds that like to eat out of your hand. If you pay $3.00 you get a bucket of bird seed.

Grandpa John is straight out of Mary Poppins..."feed the birds!"

Olivia has pretty proud of herself for getting the green parrot to come over.

Since the birds were wild there were quite a few bites.

after feeding the birds we went on a short hike with the kids through the rain forest. There were lots of beautiful trees, ferns and again, birds!

Grandpa John and the grand-kids.

Just to put it in perspective...see little Olivia below?

Road Trip 3: The 12 Apostles!

This was a day trip on windy roads, so this time I just took my dad and left the kids at home.  We walked quite a few beaches and had a few great talks.

Pictures to come...on my dad's computer....

In addition, to the Australian Open & our three road trips; Papa John was also able to experience Australia Day, and a blue grass festival.  He also managed to babysit for Stan & I on two occasions so we could get out. The first date was at a nickle arcade (I think we got back at like 1:00am) and the last date was for a friends wedding (Scott Broadaway & Annelisa). It was really good to see 6 people from high school in Australia for this wedding!

 it's a bad picture, but we tried 6 times!

 Scott and Annelisa Broadaway!

At the end of the month, we got our keys to our house--moved in (separate post on that) and then my dad left a few days later to go back to the USA. Although it was a weird visit (being in a hotel and in a new town) it was good to see my dad and re-connect!  Thanks for coming out to Oz dad!

Papa John & the Australian Open

So although we were able to secure a lease on the house of our dreams, the house would not be available for 1 whole month! During this month my dad came out to visit (the last time he came over was when Thomas was born while we were living in England). He had been backpacking in New Zealand for a month, and had to re-rout his trip to Melbourne from Sydney (since we were no longer living there). It was great to see him, he had the pleasure of bunking with us in our hotel for a couple of weeks; which I know he didn't mind since it was within walking distance to the tennis courts during the Australian Open!

I had the pleasure of going with my dad one day, day match (11:00-5:00) and then Stan & my dad went another day. My dad also went to three additional day matches (some by himself or with other friends); which overall was quite a bit of tennis!

During my day match we happened to have Victoria Azaranka, Kim Clisters, Maria Sharpapova, & Petra Kvitova all play on the court we had seats too!

Victoria!

Here is a close up of Victoria Asaranka (she won the Womens singles--and is known for her really high squeak when she returns the ball).

After the womens match we saw Roger Federer and Del Potro 

Roger Federer --an older pro in the tournament but someone I had been hearing about since I was in high school!

after being at the tennis all day we ran into someone who was getting  rid of their night tickets, Rafael Nadal was hitting next (another high school favorite!) We took them but had to give them away to someone else in the end for a lack of a babysitter. The match went into 2:00am, and was arguably the best match during the whole tournament!

The next night, Stan and I saw an evening match and saw Djokovitch (who won the mens singles a few days later) and Ferrer. Since those tickets were from Bain we also got treated to a really nice dinner before the match, it was fantastic--no better way to kill time before a house move right?

 Thanks Dad & Bain!

Overall--we LOVE tennis!

Hello Melbourne!

We have now been in Melbourne for nearly a week and things are starting to fall into place. After rushing to Melbourne to see this open house on Thursday, Stan and I secured a lease on the property the next day!  It must have been destiny because the house is AMAZING….and it is 10 minutes from the BEACH, the school is a dream come true (free public schools in Victoria compared to the $10,000 we would drop each year in New South Wales) and the ward is like a deja vu from America. 

I am in the same ward as a kid I went to high school with, from Bozeman Montana. Miles Scheere and his wife and three kids!  In addition, there are 6 other friends from my high school graduating class who live in Melbourne, Australia and are all willing to help me move my family in and hang out with me! I couldn't be happier, these people are all people I was pretty good friends with; and so for the first time since being in Australia, I am starting to think it just wouldn't be better in America! I am living in paradise and surrounded by friends! 2012 is going to be a good year!

Bendigo

After visiting Broken Hill we were ready to make the long drive up to the dead center of Australia, to see Ayers Rock in Ularu. Interestingly enough, we got a call from our relocation consultant advising us of an open house that we should see the next day.  Pretty much a house in our price range, in the area we liked, about twice the size of the other houses we had been considering. We turned the car around and headed straight to Melbourne. 


After 7 more hours of driving we stopped off in Bendigo (an active gold mining town), just two hours outside of Melbourne. We woke up in the morning and saw the first mining tour.

Unlike most touristy things, this gold mine was fully operating. Our tour guide was late to work so the manager of the mine took us through. The kids got to operate the machinery...which I am sure is not routine! We all put in ear plugs and the kids hammered away. 

once above ground we panned for gold.

The tour guide liked olivia so much he gave her a rock with gold in it! He called her his little geologist because she loved identifying quarts, pyrite and gold and could tell the difference!

panning for specks

Before heading out we also saw the Chinese Museum. Bendigo's gold rush was only made possible by the huge Asian migration during the 1800's. The Chinese were the labour force during this time period and still make up the majority of the people in this town. After Bendigo, we finished our outback tour and hit Melbourne with an hour to spare before the open house. 

Here Stan is showing the kids how to climb up the plastic lotus flower. Almost there Melbourne!

Broken Hill

After touring White Cliff we drove 2 hours west (further into Australia) to see Broken Hill. 

The road to broken hill!

Broken Hill is an isolated mining city in the middle of the outback of Australia. Broken hill is famous for two things. (1) Silver mines, they produce more silver, lead, zinc ore than anywhere else in the world!

Here we are touring the silver mines...they had a giant bench!

and (2) art!  Broken Hill has the famous painted desert sculptures, which I am sure you have seen on the cover of any Australian Tourist book. They have aboriginal art, desert art, and a famous art school. We toured the museums and were very impressed! Here are some pictures from visiting the painted desert!

Olivia in the middle of the painted desert!

 

Below is probably the most famous sculpture

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Leaving the desert....a storm is coming!