We flew over on Thursday night on our first Emirates flight --man oh man, that was the coolest plane we have ever been on. Unless you've purchased one of the exorbitantly-priced first class 'suites', you don't get access to the upper deck of the plane. However, when you walk on on the paltry ground level you can look up the staircase to see personal waiters and a full-on lounge waiting for guests. Maybe someday?? Anyway--we were late taking off, but arrived easily in Melbourne late Thursday night and because of the heat, our hosts decided to whisk us off to their family beach house in Sorrento which is about an hour south of Melbourne. We crashed pretty easily that night and woke up refreshed the next day.
Friday morning was already a balmy 85 when we woke up and the temperature just kept on climbing from there. We met Amy's parents and went on a walk with them while James fixed 'brekkie' for us. We got to see the cute beach town we were visiting before it got too miserably hot. We had breakfast on the back porch and James made sure to have Vegemite for us to try--and it honestly wasn't that bad. He was nice enough to give us our own tube to bring home--yippee!
We drove to a nearby beach, the boys jumped off the pier and we laid on the beach for as long as we could stand it. Then it was time for ice cream at a local cafe and then back to the house for lunch. Because it had gotten so hot at that point we opted to hang in the air conditioning and watch tennis and cricket for the rest of the afternoon until it was time to leave.That night, we arrived back in Melbourne to drop our stuff off at their flat and then headed over to the Australian Open. We got to walk through the beautiful botanical gardens and across the famous Tan Track--which we learned is a bit of an obsession for Melbournians.
The tennis was super cool--and even if you're not a big tennis fan, it's a definite must-do if you ever get to that part of the world. We walked all over the grounds, checked out the Querrey/Fognini match on one of the big courts, then met up with some of their friends and family at the Heiniken tent before a random torrential downpour. We grabbed some dinner at food stand and just enjoyed the atmosphere.
Saturday, we got up and walked to a nearby cafe for breakfast. Then we caught the tram into the heart of the city. We walked around for hours and ended up at the Queen Victoria Market. Drew finally got his kangaroo skin that he's been eyeing every time we've been to Australia. Amy put her bargaining skills to work and scored us a good one for only $50! Drew thinks that hideous thing is actually going to be displayed in our new house....
That afternoon we all crashed for a bit before getting ready and heading to the botanical gardens for Moonlight Cinema. We picked up some amazing breads, cheeses, meats, dips, and drinks at the market and took it to the garden to have a picnic. The tickets we got included individual bean bag loungers and it was a really fun thing to do! The movie that night was 'Gravity' which was ok--not great, but still ok. We ended up with jackets and blankets on--who would've guessed we'd end up with that scenario based on the weather the day before!
Sunday morning we packed up, had brunch at a lovely cafe down the road and then we all headed to the airport. Amy & James were heading off to Japan to go skiing so we all got to hang out in the airport until it was time to leave. We did not have the best flight (our first time on Qantas), but we made it back safely and that's all that matters.We had a wonderful time with our wonderful friends and truly hate that they literally live a world away from us. We've already started dreaming of future travel plans with them and can't wait until they come visit us (hopefully) in the US!
Cheers,
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