Tassie

Many of the people we've met in Oz told us it was a must-do, so we planned our 5 day Tasmanian excursion for this past weekend while Dick and Debbie were here visiting. We're so glad we did. After flying into Launceston, we started the drive to the east coast and stopped for lunch in Campbell Town. It, like most of Tasmania, has an interesting history rooted in the mass transfer of convicts to Australia, many of whom ended up in Tasmania. Lining the sidewalks of the the main street in this quaint town were bricks with the names of convicts who were sent from Britain to serve their sentence. The punishments given were harsh for seemingly trivial offences. One example is described on the brick below. Life sentences were handed out for something as relatively benign as stealing one sheep.

We spent the first 2 nights staying at a great cottage in the Freycinet National Park. Granna and Zaidie were game for a hike to see the famous Wineglass Bay. It was spectacular. We had no wildlife sightings on the hike itself, but there were wallabies waiting (for a food donation) in the parking lot when we got back. On Sunday, we were off to Hobart for the second half of our trip, but not before a stop at Kate's Berry Farm for some yummy treats. In fact, yummy treats were plentiful throughout our stay - Tasmania is trying to revamp it's dark history (criminals, devils, etc.), by becoming a premiere wine and food destination - based on what we tasted, they are succeeding.

Wineglass Bay

In keeping with the convict theme, we spent a day exploring Port Arthur Historic Site on the Tasmanian Peninsula. It is the most visited historic site in Australia, and it was easy to see why. Much of the original prison and surrounding buildings are still standing, there is an island just off the coast that you can visit this site where several hundred convicts are buried (and ghosts still occupy?), and it is well organized with ferry and walking tours so you can soak up much of the info it has to offer.

Port Arthur

No Taz trip would be complete without seeing some Tasmanian Devils, so on our way home from Port Arthur, we stopped at a devil conservation centre and made it just in time to watch feeding time. Yikes - they are mangy and vicious little guys. Georgia didn't seemed bothered by them at all (despite the hissing, growling, and bearing of teeth), but did not want to be anywhere near the cute talking parrot in the park...

Tasmanian devil

Our little devil

Another place checked off our 'to visit' list and a great way to cap off our visit with Granna and Zaidie. Next up: Sydney, here we come.

Welcome Granna and Zaidie!

It's been a busy but great week+ since I wrote last. Gladys popped down to Melbourne again last weekend. We spent a lazy Sunday on Brunswick Street, enjoying another great Melbourne brekki and then meandering through some of the neat shops that line the street.

On Monday, we were very happy to welcome Granna and Zaidie for their 3 week visit down under! Although Georgie is the main attraction, we spent the week showing them some of our favourite haunts around the city. It was chillllllly last week, but the weather picked up this weekend, making for some beautiful fall days. We're really enjoying our visit (and some parenting relief!) and Georgie is loving lots of extra attention. So much so, in fact, that her fake cough which developed 2 weeks ago, has mysteriously disappeared. Thanks to our great babysitters, yesterday Scott and I had our first date since we left Canada. We spent the day on an Epicurean wine tour in the Yarra Valley and enjoyed dinner out last night on vibrant Acland Street.

In other news, Georgie had her first swimming lesson this week. Although the youngest in the class by a few months, she kicked and splashed with the best of them.

In these pics: Granna, Zaidie and Georgie at Brighton Beach, G sporting her swimwear pre-class, and Scott and I in the Yarra Valley sans baby.

Bunny in Barossa

We took advantage of the long Easter weekend to explore the Barossa Valley, about an hour's drive north of Adelaide. We did the 45 minute flight from Melbourne to Adelaide on Friday (flying with G at 6 months was very different than at 3 months...I'm already having anxiety attacks about our transpacific flight back to Canada when she is 15 months!) and stayed three nights at a neat motel in Lyndoch. The place was quaint and very much what you might expect from a wine country accommodation - the atmosphere was casual and laid back and the people (owners and guests) were passionate about great food and wine. A good bonus was that they offered to walk our meals across the grounds to our room each evening so we could eat their delish cuisine on our deck, allowing G to sleep soundly (in her pack-n-play which we strategically placed in the bathroom).
We spent the weekend exploring the beautiful countryside and tasting some great wines. Barossa is the largest and most recognized wine region in Australia, best known for producing some punchy Shiraz. It has an interesting history - many of the people living here are descendants of immigrants from Prussia, so it has a very European (and specifically German) feel about it. There are some big name producers here, Jacob's Creek, Wolf Blass, and Penfolds to name a few. They are fun to visit because of how recognizable they are, but we most enjoyed the smaller producers. Our favourite stops: The Willows (a winery started by a physician who also built and ran the first private hospital on the same property) - loved the Bonesetter shiraz here, and Torbreck.
The Easter Bunny tracked Georgie down in the hotel room and left her a couple of gifts, but no chocolate this year. I, however, ate enough chocolate for the three of us. After all of the goodies this weekend (wine, chocolate, and more wine), I turned over a new leaf when we touched down in Melbourne. Here's hoping it lasts...
In these pics: Scott sampling the famous (and very pricey) Penfolds Grange, Georgia cleansing her pallet, picturesque Barossa

Food, Footy, and Fast Cars

Georgie tried 'real' food for the first time this weekend. The picture says it all. Initial reaction: what the...?! She got onto it pretty quickly though, and now is wanting more. Messsssy.
Otherwise, it was pretty low key around here. Scott was invited to watch a Footy game (Australian Rules Football) on Saturday afternoon in a box with some people from work. I was supposed to tag along, but unfortunately our babysitter had to cancel. Footy (a game unique to Australia - kind of a mix between football, rugby, and soccer) is hugely popular here, so Scott was pretty excited to check it out. The game was one sided (Hawthorne beat Melbourne by a substantial margin), but the crowd (about 40,000 and the stadium wasn't close to full for this match) was lively and the free food and drinks more than made up for the low key game. Spectating from the same box as Scott's crew was one of the most famous footy players in Australia - Chris Judd. Scott said watching the match with him would be the Canadian equivalent of watching a hockey game with Matt Sundin. While he had no idea who the guy was, the other people there were totally starstruck.
On another sporting note, the Formula One was in town this weekend. The venue was Albert Park, only about 5 km from where we live, but it sounded like the cars were racing in our neighbourhood. Because of the insane noise, we couldn't take G down to check out the action, but the city was abuzz with the events of the weekend. On the topic of fast cars, a speeding ticket came in the mail for us this week - $140 for going 67km in a 60km zone. Ouch. Apparently the 'ok up to 10km over' rule in Canada doesn't apply here.

First Date Update

I've had several people ask me how my friendship first date went in Feb (see Feb's First Date post). I'm pretty sure the woman, though lovely and very helpful, is a recently retired stripper from Las Vegas. I think she thought I was pretty lame, especially when I told her I what I do for work. I also felt that we are travelling in very different fashion circles - I wasn't showing enough skin and have no idea where one would go to buy hoop earrings that size. So, I soaked up some good info from her about baby groups/health clinics etc., enjoyed a delicious chai latte, and then we amicably parted ways, both pretending we would be in touch with the other again soon. There have been no attempts by either party to make contact since then. You win some, you lose some.

Welcome Gladys!

It has been a long time since Matt, Rach and Family were here, so we were really excited to have a visitor this weekend. Gladys (an ortho resident with Scott in London who is now in Sydney doing a fellowship) popped down to Melbourne for the weekend. It was great to see a familiar face and show her

around the city. Georgia loved her and was glad to have someone else

to hang out with besides Scott and I! On Saturday, we went back to the Queen Victoria Market to explore more of what it has to offer. Despite another few hours spent wondering around, we still haven't seen it all. That afternoon, we visited Brighton Beach. It is only a 5 minute drive from where we're living in St. Kilda. What sets this beach apart from the numerous others in the area, is that it houses the most expensive real estate in Melbourne (per square foot), and arguably the most colourful as well. These neat beach shacks are passed down from (wealthy) generation to generation and are used to store beach gear.

On Sunday, we took Gladys to the Yarra Valley. We had a great lunch in Healsville and stopped at a winery on the way home. It appears from the picture the Gladys took of us in the winery, that Georgia has inherited our growing love of wine (we're hoping we don't have a little boozer on our hands, so we're trying to encourage her to master drinking water from a sippy cup before she develops her wine tasting skills). That night, Gladys and I went to the St. Kilda Pier to watch the fairy penguins come back to their nesting grounds after a busy day of fishing. Who knew this happened almost in our own back yard? They were as cute as ever.

Monday came too quickly - time for everyone to get back to our usual routines. I find it interesting that, even though I no longer have a work schedule, Mondays are still total downers.

Gladys - it was great to have you. Thanks for a fantastic weekend! We'll look forward to exploring Sydney with you in May.

Off to the Races

This one's for you, Dick! To say the Aussies love their sport is

an understatement - they are sports fanatics. Second only to Footy, is horse racing - so it made sense we had to check this out while we were here. On Saturday, we got all dolled up and joined one of Scott's staff, Tim, and his family at Flemington Park for Family Day. Tim is a member so we spent the day in the 'members only' area of the track (translation: it is a pretty up-scale event). It was a fun afternoon - the kids enjoyed picnics and pony rides, and there were several big races with purses in the hundreds of thousands. We walked away with one winning ticket and a total prize money amount of $1.60. But we weren't there to make money (at least I wasn't!) - my favourite part of the experience was stalking two 'Dame Edna' like ladies sitting just across from us - the pic of them says it all. It was too much! G had a blast. There were 6 little girls who played with her for much of the afternoon. As you can see in the last pic, she enjoyed every minute until she finally hit the wall (on my shoulder).

This one's for you, Swatty! The other activity of the weekend was getting some bedroom furniture for our guests. This task was made much more exciting when we met, and eventually bought a mattress from, the Australian version of Swatty! The overall resemblance and personality similarities were uncanny. He was super friendly and helpful. We told G it was almost as good as having a visit with Gramps himself.