Brisbane & Our trip home

We arrived in Brisbane around noon and checked into our Marriott. Once settled, we walked to a nearby mall and ate lunch in the food court.

Next, we walked through the botanical gardens - we visited the ponds and saw an eel and a huge lizard, we saw lots of pretty flowers, and we did a pretty walk along boardwalks through a mangrove area. We found a playground, where Geoffrey had a blast playing.

Next, we took the public ferries up and down the river just to see a different view of the city.

For dinner, we ate at a BBQ restaurant across the street from our hotel. Geoffrey liked this place because they had free popcorn!

On Saturday morning, we dropped off our rental car and checked in to the airport. Our flight was long, but went well. Geoffrey watched some TV, ate dinner, and then took a nap for about two hours. When he woke up, he did some coloring, watched a little more tv, and then played with play-do for a long time! After which, breakfast was served, and then Geoffrey fell asleep for the last our of our flight.

We arrived in LA at 7 AM Saturday morning, 4 hours before we left Australia!

What an amazing trip. I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity to spend time with Grant, Geoff, Gary, and Blake. Thank you so much, Gary and Donna, for this amazing trip of a lifetime!

Last few days in Coolangatta

On Wednesday we had a nice easy day, sticking close to home. We went down to the beach, swam, and played in the sand. We warmed up in the jacuzzi. We walked to the mall and did some shopping. Geoffrey napped. We had dinner at the surf club (or maybe tonight was the night we did the repeat of the macadamia nut snapper, and tuna - and Blake made mashed potatoes and I made sauteed spinach with garlic and macadamia nuts.) Just a nice, relaxing day!

On Thursday we went to the North end of the gold coast, the touristy area known as Surfer's Paradise. We bought some souvenirs, had some lunch, and walked around looking at the area.

We stopped at a meat market and got some food for the teppenyaki grill that we have access to back at the apartment we are staying at.

For dinner, we had chicken, steak, lamb, rice, and noodles all grilled up by Blake and Grant on the teppanyaki. So good!

On Friday we left Coolangatta and drove north to Brisbane!

Lamington National Park

On Tuesday, we visited Lamington National Park. The drive was about an hour and a half, with about half the drive taking us on windy mountain roads. We arrived around eleven at O'Reilly's Rainforest retreat. We did the sky walk, which was a fun elevated walk through the tree tops on shaky suspension bridges! Fun! In the middle there was a ladder that took us up even higher into a tree on a platform to take some more photographs. We took turns on the ladders, while Geoff had fun on the bridges.

Next, we went in to the botanical forest garden, which had lots of winding paths. We let Geoff take the lead on this one, and he roamed about the garden, leading us all over!

After this walk, we stopped for lunch at O'Reilly's. We ate out on the patio where lots of parrots (and the occasional bush turkey) flew up to try to get snacks from patrons' lunches. Geoffrey enjoyed feeding his french fries to the parrots.

Before heading back, we took a 3km hike through the rainforest to a scenic overlook of a valley and a waterfall.  The hike was beautiful, with thick trees, hanging ferns, and chirping birds.

We finished our hike and then headed back to our condo. After a brief rest, we went to the Coolangatta Surf Club for dinner - Geoff had a corndog, Gary and Grant had dishes with fishes, and Blake and I had bacon wrapped scallops. Then Grant and I took Geoff to the playground while Gary and Blake played slot machines in the gaming room for awhile.

Walking back to our unit, Blake pointed out that Glee! the 3-d movie concert was starting at the movie theater in 5 minutes. So I took Grant's wallet and went to watch the film (I was the ONLY PERSON in the theater! Ha ha!) The boys went back to the condo and watched tv and put Geoffrey to bed while I sang along and enjoyed my private screening.

Monday - Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

Today we went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. We set off around 11 and looked at some of the exhibits, like the snakes, gliders, and turtles. Next we looked at Koalas. There are tons of Koalas here! And they were very active, too!

After lunch, we walked into the main part of the park, where we stopped to play at a fun playground. Then, we walked over to the kangaroo area where we got to feed the kangaroos! It was this large enclosure where you can walk around with free roaming kangaroos! Grant, Geoffrey, and Blake enjoyed feeding the kangaroos and I pet one. Such an awesome experience!

We hopped on the cute little train and took it a few stops. We got off and looked at dingos, wallabees, and tazmanian devils.

Back through the kangaroo enclosure, we went up into the rainforest aviary, walking by the crocodiles and more free roaming emus.

On our way to the big Lorikeet feeding, Gary and Blake stopped to get their picture taken holding a koala. Their koala's name was Barbosa. Unfortunately, Geoff was sleeping, so we couldn't take our pic. We went over to the lorikeet feeding and watched as hundreds of lorikeets flew in to feed nectar out of pans all the visitors held. We all took a turn holding the pans as lorikeets landed on our heads, arms and pans to eat! At 4:30, we woke Geoff up. To get him in a decent mood, we stayed for about ten minutes with the lorikeets nefore heading over to the koala pics. Our koala was named Abby. She was so soft! She was as cuddly as she looked!  We got a decent picture with Geoffrey at least looking towards the camera! (o:

On our way home, we stopped at a fish market and got some snapper and some baramundi, which we grilled at home. The snapper was delicious - Grant and Blake coated it in macadamia nut crust. It was so good! We also had green beans and rice. Yum!

Now, we're going to drag Geoff away from the TV and walk over to the playground to play a bit before we go to bed! Night!

Sunday in Coolangatta

I think I have spelled Coolangatta 100 different ways! Ha!

On Sunday, we had a fun, relaxing day. We walked down to the beach where there was a farmer's market set up. It was busy! THe stands were similar to the swap meet. We got some produce, and Geoffrey played at the playground. There was a small group of Hare Kirshnas walking around playing music, and another couple that looked like they very much missed The Carpenters - they were maybe around 40 and they were rolling around with a microphone and speaker on a cart singing songs... classic.

 We went to lunch at a pizza place and enjoyed the open air dining area and atmosphere. The weather was nice - low 70s, and sunny. WE decided to go down to the beach for a bit.

The area in front of our hotel is neat - the low tide made a large area where the water was less than an inch deep - a wonderful place to play with gloopy wet sand, and almost no surf. We played for a bit (we had bought some sand toys at a nearby mall) but shortly after we arrived the sun went behind the clouds and it got cool pretty quickly. Geoff got really cold, so we headed back to the hotel and warmed up in the jacuzzi.

We decided to bbq at home tonight, so Gary, Grant, and Blake went to get food while I attempted to put Geoffrey down for a nap. Although he had some quiet time, he never did nap!

For dinner, we had steak, chicken, sausage and shrimp, pineapple, beans, and yams. Delicious! It was a good thing we ate at home, because while we were eating, it started raining - then pouring - then we even had some thunder and lightning! We enjoyed watching the rain and watching movies.

I put Geoff to bed a little early - I was tired, too, and the room we are in gets bright in the morning so I didn't think Geoff would sleep in long (I was correct, by the way!)

Friday / Saturday Port Macquarie to Coolangatta

On Friday morning, we found out we would not be able to check into our Coolangata apartment early, so we made arrangements to stay another night at the Wyndham Vacation Club. There were no one bedrooms available for the night, however - but there was a three bedroom, so we all ended up moving down a few doors. It was nice, because we got to see a one, two, and three bedroom unit! (Trying to look on the brightside of having to move.)

After moving, we picked up some subway to have a picnic in a nearby national park. As we drove closer, the rain started. By the time we got up there, it was pretty wet. There were picnic tables with covering, so we still ate, and Geoffrey got soaking wet splashing in the puddles and playing in the rain. It passed quickly, but stayed cloudy and foggy - very poor visibility - but we went ahead and did a short loop hike anyway, and got a quick view of the beach far below between patches of thick fog. THere was a peaceful, mystic quality to the foggy, wet rainforest. 

Next, we drove to Grant's beach to see the view, and then went to a totally awesome playground. The playground had this swing that was a large blue disk that was on bearings so it kept going and going - so fun. It also had an old-school merry-go-round that we had fun spinning on.

Next, we drove to a light house, (Geoffrey fell asleep on the way). It was super windy, and we saw a double rainbow (actually, the third rainbow we'd seen today!)

Back at the apartment, Geoffrey finished his nap. While he slept, Grant and I took a walk down to the beach (stopping at a book store where I got a couple of used books). After our walk we went back to wait for Geoff to wake up, and we watched the rest of Indiana Jones with Blake. For dinner, we had Italian take-away. Then we watched Wall-E and went to bed.

The next day, we did the long drive (5 1/2 hours) to Coolangata. Not much to say about the drive. We learned that a milk shake is pretty milky, and you have to order a "thick shake" if you want what we would consider a shake in America.

We finally arrived and checked into our apartment. The unit is beautiful - Blake has a room with two double beds, Gary has a queen, and Grant, Geoff and I are sharing the master which has a king - it has two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a very open layout. Unfortunately, it is on the third floor - the lowest floor possible - (the pool and gym is on the second floor just outside our windows, which means that at night, anyone out there can see right in if we haveour blinds open, which we do, becaue we have the windows open.) Gary is not happy about the low floor, so we're not unpacking tonight because Gary is going to see if we can move higher tomorrow....

We went to dinner at a Malaysian restaurant which was really good. Then we played at a playground and got some ice cream on our way back. The weather here is very nice - warmer then south, of course - cool but not cold. Similar to HB.

Thursday

Today we left Sydney and drove to Port Macquarie.

When the bell hop came to get our bags, Geoff was throwing a little fit. The bellman (Abdul) said he would try to find Geoffrey a kangaroo to take with him. When we got down to the lobby, he gave Geoffrey a cute little kangaroo and a koala bear to "remember Australia." These stuffed animals were nice, too! They are small, almost like beannie babies. He is amassing quite a souvenir collection just from hotel bell men!

The minivan we got is the same kind we had before - a kia carnival.

Our drive was 4 1/2 hours, ish. Blake drove about 2 hours and then stopped at a gas station / rest area for lunch (subway). Grant drove the 2 hours ish left into Port Macquerie, where we checked Wyndham Vacation Club - Geoff, Grant, and I have a one bedroom unit and Blake and Gary have a two bedroom unit next door. The units are nice - kitchens, sitting rooms, separate bedrooms - a washer and drier!!!!

We really like this location. We had scheduled an extra day to get to Coolangata, but we agreed we'd rather lump the driving and get there faster - so we're going to drive the last 5+ hours in one day. If we can get our Coolangata apartment for an extra night, we'll drive tomorrow and settle in for a week. If we can't get in, we'll stay here another night (rather than pack up and move again) and drive up on Saturday.

Once Geoff woke up from his nap, we ate Italian take away in Gary and Blake's room and then went to swim in the jacuzzi. The pool was really nice - a zero entry, huge baja reef, a little island - but of course it was freezing cold. The jacuzzi wasn't too warm (maybe 90?) so I could stay in as long as I wanted (I was hoping for warmer, but of course of it was too hot I would have had to get out after 10-15 min). It was about 50 degrees outside.  

We just got out of the shower and we're watching Mary Poppins - the boys are so cute sitting on the couch, eating popcorn, Geoffrey bobbing his head along to the music. It is a precious sight.

Tuesday and Wednesday in Sydney

Tuesday -

Today we toodled around the city. We started by walking around the Sydney Opera House and through the beautiful botanic gardens.

We then hopped on the ferry to have lunch at the Sydney fish market. Out on the wharf, where we ate, there were a ton of seagulls trying to get at everyone's lunch! One couple got up and LEFT THERE TRASH ont he table - it was immediately swarmed by seagulls. The guy keeping the wharf clean ran over and told them to get back and clean up there trash - it was ridiculous!

Next, we took the Manly Ferry out to Manly beach. We walked along the pedestrian area, called the Corsco, and down the boardwalk, watching the surfers and the volleyball players. Half way down the beach we found a playground which had a cool spinning thing - a big circle that you could sit on and it spun like a merry go round. Geoff had fun playing on this, the slide, and the also the spinning poles. We went farther down the beach and watched the surfers catch waves on this insane patch of beach where the waves crashed right on the shore! Geoff played in the sand and we watched the ocean as the sun set and the sky faded!

We walked back towards the Corsco, stopping again at the playground for Geoff to play. (He hadn't fallen asleep yet for a nap, and he was starting to nod off - at this point, we wanted him to stay up for dinner). We ate dinner at the Steyne Hotel at the Corsco before heading back on the Manly Ferry - Geoff fell asleep on his way to the ferry, which was about 7:30 PM.

Back at the hotel, we all made it an early night because we planned to get up early in the morning. Geoff never woke up, so we hoped he would sleep until at least 6:45.

Wednesday

He did. He slept until I woke him up at 6:45. We got up and out early - got McDonalds by 7:45, on the subway by 8:00, at central station by 8:10, and on our train to the ZigZag railway in the blue mountains by 8:24. The train ride was 2 1/2 hours there - but it went pretty quickly, actually.

It was 42 degrees in the mountains. The train was shorter then we expected, but fun. Parked near the station was a James engine from Thomas the Tank Engine, so that was fun to see. We enjoyed hot chocolate and ate lunch on the train.

After the zig zag, we hopped back on the city train (after Grandpa Gary got to wave it down with the green sign) and took it about 45 minutes back towards the city to Katoomba. Katoomba is very touristy. There is a hop on hop off bus that is $25 a person - no way were we going to pay that for an hour and a half. We thought we'd take a taxi, which was reasonable ($10), but it only held four of us, and we would have had to wait for a taxi with a car seat to be called for us. We walked a bit into town and sure enough there was a city bus - $2 per person per trip. Perfect. A nice lady (a retired nun and teacher) spent time helping us with the busses, and then, once Geoff fell asleep and the boys went to a bar to wait for the bus, spent some time talking with me about teaching and her order of nuns.

We took the bus to Echo Point, and then a hike across the canyon rim (with me, and then grandpa, and then uncle blake carrying a sleeping Geoffrey and Grant carrying the stroller  ) to Scenic World. We took an ariel tram with glass floors across a section of the canyon 1000 feet high! The views of the blue mountains here was spectacular - covered in amazing trees, an amazing waterfall - just beautiful.

After a trip to the bathroom (and a free game of frogger on an old school video machine) we took the bus back to town. We had about 40 minutes before our train to Sydney left, so we stopped at a woodfire pizza place and shared a small garlic and cheese pizza to tide us over (we weren't due back in the city until 7:30.)

After a long train ride back to the city, we walked back to "The Rocks" to find a place for dinner. WE decided on a kitchy German beer hall, complete with an oom-pah band!!! We dined on pretzels and schnitzel, and Geoffrey bobbed his head along in time to the loud music. Fun!

After a loooong day, we decided to hit the hay, and pack in the morning!

 

Sydney Sunday / Monday

When last we met, this traveling group of Benedicts had just left Cockatoo Island (Should have been called seagull island) and were settling into our digs at the Sydney Marriott.

Once Geofferton woke up, we headed for dinner at "Fish on the Rocks," which was a seafood resteraunt in "the Rocks," a section of Sydney... (not just a clever name.) The food was delicious - I had snapper on a bed of spinach and potato salad. Very tasty. While we were waiting for our food, a firetruck parked in front of the restaurant and they let Geoffrey look in the cab. He was shy, but talked a lot about it afterwards.

After dinner, we took a ferry round trip from circle quay just to see the harbor at night time.

Monday

On Monday, we took the ferry to Toronga Zoo - Probably one of the best zoos I've ever been to. I really liked it! Now, of course, it is a Monday in winter when schools are in session, so the zoo was practically ours - but wow - great exhibits, and the views of the Sydney Harbor provided an amazing backdrop to this lovely zoo.

The animals were active and easy to see for the most part. This is the first time that Geoffrey was really into seeing the animals at a zoo - he was very into the exhibits, (the fact that they were active and easy to see helped!) and several times we had to hurry him along because he was so into what he was looking at!

Some of our favorite spots included the reptile area (Geoff got to pet a snake and a lizard, and there was a huge python there, as well!), the Giraffe enclosure (they were so close, and the Sydney Harbor was right behind them! Plus, some zebras came out to join them while we were there), The chimps (one young one was intrigued by Geoffrey and kept jumping up to see him in the window!) The Australian outback (which included a free roam area that you could walk in that had a giant emu that had Geoff intrigued, as well as exhibits on kangaroos, wallabees, koalas, and tazmanian devils!), and the kid zoo (play ground and petting zoo). 

We had lunch at a cafe overlooking (what else?) the harbor, and were visited by several brave and apparently hungry lorikeets. One took a chip right out of Geoff's hand!  Geoff fell asleep shortly after lunch, but we enjoyed the rest of the zoo - the elephants, the big cats (lions, foxes, etc. The male lion was right up next to the glass and you could see him beautifully!) the gorillas- Just a great day all in all.

For dinner, we ate at a Churascaria - Brazilian BBQ. We got to take a bus to get there and a train to get back, which made Geoffrey very happy! The food was good - my favorite was this grilled pineapple that was dusted in a cinnamon (and perhaps nutmeg?) mixture - so good - and of course, the meats were delicious. At one point, they brought out a macaroni dish that was essentially mac and cheese - a staple of Geoffrey's diet that he had not had since we arrived in Australia! I even tried a chicken heart (too salty, thank you.) Geoff ate one, too, but I noticed he didn't eat the second.

After our oh-so-filling dinner, we walked to the train station which was a bit farther away than the bus stop. As we walked through Hyde Park, we saw that there was a winter festival in front of a church. (Everytime Geoff sees one of those big fancy churches, he calls it a castle. Adamantly. (Geoff, that's a church. No its a CASTLE! Very reminiscent of his insistence that trash trucks are trash trucks - not garbage trucks or rubbage trucks. It is a Ter-ash Ter-uck!)

We went to check it out - they had a lot of German/chalet style booths (despite being way too full, I got an apple struedal - thank goodness i took that zantac before dinner - sorry baby #2!) as well as a large ice skating rink set up. We stayed for about 20 minutes before heading back through Hyde Park to the subway stop. As we made our way down the steps, we were greeted by the bright lights of the subway station and loud music pouring out of the station. We were greeted by about 5 or 6 bums, in what was apparently their living room - complete with a double bed, a couch and a TV! The gates to the main part of the station were closed and they kindly directed us to the other entrance on the other side of the park. Friendly bunch.

Sydney - sort of

We found a deal at a Courtyard 8 miles outside of Sydney, so instead of breaking up our driving we decided to do it all at once. SO on Sunday we drove 3 1/2 hours from Canburra to Sydney. Geoff fell asleep around 3 as we pulled into the Marriott, so we checked in and rested while Geoff napped. There was a rib place called "Ribs and Rumps" in the parking lot, so we ate there - which was really good. We made some tentative plans for the next few days and then headed to bed.

On SUnday, we checked out of the courtyard and into the Sydney Harbor Marriott. Our location is awesome - less then a city block from the ferry terminals! Our rooms were not ready, so we ate breakfast and returned the rental car, and then took the ferry to Cockatoo Island (which shoulrd have been called seagull island - the place was covered with them!) Cockatoo Island was once a prison, then a reformatory school. We roamed around for about an hour before taking the ferry back.

The ferry is fun - it is public transportation, but it offers great views of Sydney Harbor - we saw the Opera House, the bridge, Luna park and lots of neat buildings and charming houses. Geoff thought it was great fun to watch all of the big boats in the harbor!

We are back at the hotel now. Our rooms were ready, so we got our bags and Geoffrey is now napping!! More later!

Canberra

Today we spent the day in Canberra, Australia's capital. We got a later start and were on our way around 11. We headed for the capitol and visited the House of Representatives and Senate chambers - they were not in session today. You can also go on the roof of the capitol building and get views of the city, which was very neat.

Next, we had lunch at Red Rooster, a fast food place here in Australia. Molly Ellett had suggested I go and get the chicken parm sandwich and I was excited because it sounded good - but they didn't sell them anymore (and hadn't for, like, 10 years... ahem...) Oh well, it was pretty good anyway!

We spent the afternoon at the National Museum exploring the history of the Australian people.

The museum closed at 5, and we were back at our hotel by 5:15 - and still, no nap for Geoffrey. Yikes! So we went back to the room, but by 6:15, it was clear he was NOT going to nap, so we decided to brave dinner. My stress level was through the roof at thinking of managing Geoff's behavior at dinner and finding a loud enough place without making everyone eat crappy food court food. Luckily, he fell asleep at 7, just as we were looking for a place. We ended up eating at Babar, this Italian place two places down from Sammy's (where we ate last night.) It was delicious also! I got pumpkin gnocchi, Grant and Blake shared pizza, and Gary got calamari. We walked around the mall - Geoff woke up briefly and cried for about 10 minutes but then went back to sleep.

We went to the grocery store for more milk and my yummy fruit and nut cadbury candy bars, and then to Target for diapers. We headed back at 8:30, and woke Geoff up by putting his stroller chair vertical - and he woke up happy. Back at the hotel, he ate some pizza and apple and he's watching TV now - he's pretty mellow so I think he'll fall asleep normal time... here is hoping!

Tomorrow, we head to Sydney!!!

Wednesday / Thursday Drive to Canburra

On Wednesday, we set set out for our long trek to Canburra.

We started out having lunch at McDonalds - so that Geoffrey could play in the play place. We at lunch, again, at McD's for the play place, and finally made it to Corryong, where we spent the night.

It was neat watching all of the changing landscapes out the windows - from rolling green farmlands, to tree lined forests, to the grassy footlands of the hills and mountains. We saw lots of sheep and cows and really pretty birds.

Corryong was 1500 feet. It was a small town, with two hotels. We stayed at the Corryong country inn. Our room had a double bed and three twins, and Gary and Blake's had a double and a twin.

When we first got to town, after checking in, we walked to the park so Geoff could play for the last 30 minutes or so of daylight. Grant and Gary checked out the information building. We then took a walk down to one of the restaurants - which was located much farther than we thought, and then ended up walking back to the other one in town because Gary said it was better. Dinner was hard tonight - it took over 45 minutes to get our food, by which time Geoffrey was so tired and frustrated that he wouldn't even touch his food.

Back at the hotel, Blake, Gary, and I went out to look at the stars, in particular, the southern cross, which you can only see in the southern hemisphere. Then we relaxed in the hotel - enjoying the fact that our room had a bath tub!!!

The next day, we finished our drive to Camburra. We drove through the mountains to a ski resort called Thredbo and had lunch. The weather was nice, (despite all the skiing on the mountain) and we spent about an hour playing on the playground while Gary and Grant made some phone calls. (Incidentally, I didn't feel great this day, probably a combo of the pregnancy and the mountain driving - I feel very fortunate that I've mostly felt pretty well pregnancy-wise on this trip!)

We reached our hotel - the Novotel in Canburra at around 5:30. Geoff was happy to play with some blocks they had in the lobby for kids, and a bellman came by with a box of toys and let Geoffrey pick one- he picked a stuffed panda. After settling into our rooms (right next door to each other) we headed out to dinner - Sammy's - a Chinese restaurant a few blocks away. The food was DELICIOUS - even Geoff at a ton of it - and the food came out quickly. The bill - not so much.

After dinner, we went to - get this - a chocolate restaurant for dessert. Gary got an ice cream martini, which was basically a sundae, Blake got hot chocolate and a chocolate plate sampler, and Grant and I got a chocolate sampler for two that came with two drinks as well - I got a chai hot chocolate and Grant got an iced chocolate that came with espresso, icecream, chocolate shavings and chocolate sauce. Geoff loved the ice cream that came with ours, and the mousse was heavenly!

After that, Grant and Blake went to watch Harry Potter in 3d (they said the seats were huge and comfortable, assigned, by the way, and the popcorn and soda were reasonable. We have noticed that places that have an admission - like the movies or Sovereign Hill, for example, don't jack up the prices because you are stuck inside like, say DIsneyland or other such places at home. Which is nice because things are super expensive here. Sodas are $3.50 - 4.00 (for a bottle, no refills), most entrees for dinner are around $15 - $30. Candy bars cost $1.50 - $3.00. Everything costs twice as much as you'd think it would. (And of course, in the first time in forever, the American DOllar is weaker here!)

Anyways, Gary, Geoff and I headed back to the hotel and settled in for the night!

Tuesday - Sovereign Hill

Today we visited Sovereign Hill, which is like an amusement park that recreates life in the gold mining camps during their gold rush era (late 1800s).  In a sense it reminded me a lot of Greenfield Village.  We started out looking at some of the camps that were set up including tent shelters and mining cabins.  Geoffrey's favorite activity was fining rocks and various locations to throw them, such as the creek, at trees, down wells, or in mining carts.  We did a self guided tour through a mine where one of the largest gold nuggets in the world was found.  Geoffrey wasn't sure about the dark tunnels at first, especially with all the special effects (sounds, voices, etc piped in) but he enjoyed it as we went on.

Next we checked out the Chinese mining camp before going to watch a gold smelting presentation.  At the presentation, the gold smith showed process by which gold was separated from mined rock, purified and then melted down into gold bricks.  He actually poured a brick of molten gold worth $140,000USD at the end.

We looked a some of the shops along the main street and were pleasantly surprised at the prices.  In most places in Australia, we are blown over by how expensive things are, but here we found them to be quite reasonable which is ironic considering we are inside a theme park.  No complaints from us!  We bought some chocolate covered licorice and some hard boiled candy from the candy store.

Next we went on our 45 minute guided mine tour.  In order to get into the mine, we took an inclined tram about 100 meters down into the mine.  It took about 60 seconds and was pitch dark the entire time.  We thought Geoffrey might get nervous about the dark, but he did great considering we WERE on a train.  Because we had already done the self guided mine tour Geoffrey was used to the tunnels and this tour was led by live people (as opposed to audio piped in through speakers).  This tour focused on describing what life was like in the mines for miners that worked for mining companies including the dangers they faced.  Then they contrasted it with independent miners and how their lives and mining experiences differed.  The tour was quite interesting and of course Geoffrey was happy that it ended with another train ride up to the surface.

After a quick lunch at the cafeteria, we walked around to look at some of the other buildings. There were houses recreated to show what miners, mine owners, etc. looked like, including their farms. barns, and gardens. There was a boiler room, churches, schools, and places of business like wheel makers, tin smiths, and candle makers. We bought candles and a brass money clip, as well as more candy - those boiled candies were very tasty!

Another cool thing about Sovereign Hill is the field trips they offer for classes who visit. Of course, rhere is the standard tour, but there is also an option where students come and dress in period pieces (authentic, provided by Sovereign Hill). They wander about the village touring it in small groups, after receiving lessons in how to deal with the other guests that visit (to greet us politely, etc.) They add a whole dimension of ambiance for visitors like us becasue they increase the number of people we see dressed in period costumes, making the experience more authentic. Also, when you visit the school houses, there are often whole classes of children int here doing "lessons," which you don't often get to see. What an awesome experience for those kids - a win-win for all!

We finished our adventure mining for gold. Geoff had a blast playing witht he shovels and the pans and the rocks and the water. Both Gary and Blake found a few gold flakes each. We really had fun here!

Across the street, there was a gold museum included with our admission- we popped in but didn't spend too much time as it was already four. Geoff fell asleep here, and we had driving to do so we hopped int he car and drove an hour and a half to Bendigo.

In Bendigo, we checked into two rooms at the Quality Inn. We drove downtown and had dinner at "Grill'd Burgers," and then walked around the quiant downtown area - lots of pedestrian only areas to walk in, cute fountains, statures, and charming buildings (we encountered this in many of the towns we drove through!)

Back at our hotel, Grant, Blake, Geoff, and I went to the indoor pool/jacuzzi and swam for a bit before heading off to bed! 

Sunday/Monday - The Great Ocean Road

On Sunday, we checked out of our hotel in Melbourne and headed west on the Great Ocean Road. Along the way, we stopped at various view points to marvel at the amazingly beautiful Australian coastline.

Our mini van is a Kia Carnival. It has plenty of room for us and all of our stuff. Grant and Blake are doing an amazing job driving - staying on the left side of the road, navigating turn-abouts. I am impressed. Blake is doing the bulk of the driving.

We stopped in Anglesea and had lunch at a bakery. I am loving the meat pies at the bakeries, but Grant is finding them tasty but too salty. We got some ice cream at the grocery store before continuing on our way. 

On Sunday we spent the night in Port Campbell. We had a two room loft set up - Downstairs, Grant and I slept in a queen bed, Geoff in a twin, and Blake in a twin. Upstairs, Gary had a queen plus there was a kitchen and a small living area. Conveniently, there was a playground (a slide and two swings) right nect to our unit - like in our "side yard" which was nice for Geoff after our long drive.

Dinner was at the Room Six Cafe, located next to our hotel.  We all agreed that this was one of our best meals in Australia so far. 

On Monday we explored the coastline some more.  The limestone cliffs are soft and the ocean waves carve pillars, caves, inlets and all sorts of interesting formations.  We visited the Arch, the London Bridge and the Grotto among other sites.  We also visited the 12 Apostles, which are another series of pillars. 

All the stops took much longer than we anticipated so by the time we were actually ready to get to our next destination it was already late in the afternoon.  We fed Geoffrey a snack and he promptly fell asleep in the car.  We enjoyed watching the ocean scenery fade away into hilly farmland and forest landscapes as we made our way north. 

We stopped at a small town and grabbed a quick snack to tide Grant, Blake and I over until dinner then we headed towards Ballarat.  Here we stayed at a 3 bedroom serviced apartment (larger apartments that are run like a hotel) and the unit had a kitchen and a living area.  Despite being 3 bedrooms there was only 1 bathroom.  We ate dinner at the Ballarat Steakhouse and the Grant and Blake did all of our laundry.  Woohoo!

Saturday - Scienceworks

On Saturday we had rain scheduled, so we took the train out to the scienceworks kids museum. We saw the lightening room show, and geoff really had fun running around looking at the exhibits! There was an exhibit on how things work in the house, a sports exhibit, and a large play area called kid city. Geoff had a blast building sculptures out of large tinker toys, lifting cargo onto a ship, putting bricks in buckets, and watching-over and over again- a video of the trash truck picking up a trash can.

On he metro ride to the museum, there was a drunk/crazy man pestering a very patient and very nice Australian man sitting near us. Geoffrey kept laughing because he thought the loud crazy man was being purposely funny. He kept asking me, "is that man funny? Is that a funny man?"

After resting at the hotel, we went to the casino down along the river. We walked along the river and then ate dinner at the strangest buffet ever - the line to get food took 20 min! Needless to say, we piled our plates high since we were only going through once!

The men checked out the casino while I waited with Geoffrey, who was not allowed to go on the gaming floor. They said the casino was smoke free and completely packed!

We are checking out tomorrow and heading north.