Melbourne

Okay I am finally wading through all the pictures. So rather than overwhelm you with our whole trip at once I thought I would break it up.

Justin and I started our trip in Melbourne. We got stuck in the airport in Sydney because Melbourne was fogged in. That meant we missed a whole day of playing with Courtni and Family.

We finally arrived in Melbourne, these our some statues outside of the airport, and Cournti picked us up. We got to meet cute Abby, who is the tiniest thing you have ever seen. That night Courtni made us a yummy dinner and Brian had us try GingerBeer. This is a soda that is Ginger flavored, a little weird for my tastes. They also introduced us to mint slices, think thin mints with a junior mint on top, and Tim Tams. Yummy. After that we hit the sack after 30 hours of travel we were pooped. Brian and Courtni live on a great street and can walk to the bakery and Fruit and Veg. We took advantage of the bakery while we there to have some yummy treats.

On Weds we headed to the Healesville Sanctuary. The drive to Healesville was so beautiful. It was a little weird to be riding on the left side of the car, I panicked a few times. We saw some beautiful birds along the road, they don't have Robins they have Cockatoos and parrots.

It was so fun to see them. At Healesville we saw lots of Australian animals, including Platypus, Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, Koalas and Kangaroos. They Kangaroos and Wallaby's we being a bit lazy that day and didn't want to play with us, but it was fun to see them. The best part was the sign on the Dingo exhibit that said they were out for a walk with their trainers. Well they weren't lying. We turned around we saw the dingos heading for us, on leashes. The trainers walked them right through out group, luckily they didn't take our baby. After we headed home we rode the train into the city to meet Brian for Dinner. Brian works in a beautiful building, where I got in trouble for taking pictures. Oops.;) We wandered around the city a bit then headed over to Federation Square to eat. There we had a very yummy, but very tiny dinner. Then we headed home, because J and I had a serious case of jet lag.

On Thursday we headed out on a tour to the Twelve Apostle via The Great Ocean Road. We stopped at an aboriginal center and heard our first Didgeridoo music. It was amazing to watch and hear.

We had thought about renting a car and driving this road, but Courtni convinced us we would have more fun on a tour, not to mention be safer. She was right it was great that we were able to just enjoy the views and sites along the way. One of the highlights was seeing a huge herd of Kangaroos bounding across a field and Koala's in the tree along the side of the road. They almost looked staged, but I don't know how anyone could get as high and these guys like to hang out.

We stopped at an incredible rain forest and were able to walk through it. It is pretty sad, you hear about the rain forest being cut down for the wood, but to actually see it was stunning. All over this area were stumps of what used to being majestic trees. The people down here had completely raped this country for over one hundred years. Finally the government stepped in and stopped the practice. Now if they want to cut down a tree they have to plant it first. I hope that this beautiful area will recover.

Finally we arrived at the twelve apostles. Justin and I decided to take a Helicopter ride. It was so amazing! We went right out over the ocean and saw the most incredible views. The coast line of Southern Australia is amazing. After the helicopter ride we headed to the London Bridge portion of the coast. Just in time to see an amazing sunset.

I have to tell you the story of the London Bridge. These rocks used to be connected, about 10 years ago the bridge suddenly collapsed. Well it turns out that two people had hiked over the bridge and were now stranded on the wrong side of the rock. The only helicopter that was available to rescue them was a news copter, which of course meant reporters. Which would have been fine except these two people had called in sick to work that day. They were also happily married, to other people. When the helicopter got there the people actually tried to hide in the bushes. Man some people are so clueless.

After seeing the London Bridge we headed for home quite exhausted after such a long day.

On Friday we headed back into the city. Courtni took us past this incredible graffiti. I could believe the work the somebody went to deface these buildings. The artwork was really amazing. We went to the Victoria Market. This was such a fun place, where you could buy anything for cheap, cheaper than the rest of the city anyway. It was fun to wander around and check out the yummy foods and local fare. After a hard day of shopping we headed over to the Eureka Tower and the highest observation tower in the southern hemisphere. It was so cool, but a little freaky. Justin got totally freaked out when he tripped walking up to one of the windows. I have never seen him back away so quickly. After being thoroughly freaked out we headed over to a yummy restaurant for dinner. We were very happy with the amount of food this time. Although I asked for Lemonade and got Sprite I was very surprised. Apparently they think these are one and the same.

Courtni had a made a pumpkin pie for her babysitter. Apparently they don't get to enjoy this yummy treat down there. Well she only had one pie pan so she made the second pie in a square baking dish. While it looked very unconventional, it tasted yummy.

Thanks to Brian and Courtni for entertaining us in Melbourne. We didn't even mind sleeping on your deflating air mattress. I loved having someone to show us the ropes before we headed out to the rest of Australia.

Next stop, Sydney.