Fed Square

The final thing on our ‘Melbourne list’ was Federation Square. Many of our new friends recommended at least a quick stop. Which is what we did, a quick stop.

This is a huge shopping complex… with lots of little tasty shops, cultural events, and interesting unique stores. We walked around the outside and loved the bridge and the sculptures depicting Australia's immigrant history

We got some coffee and muffins from the food court before we left. It was a nice way to say good bye to Melbourne.

Melbourne,we loved our time with you. We will miss you, but we will always remember the amazing time we had, the great people we met and the wonderful food we shared while we stayed with you. The weather was drippy and cool, but the people we amazingly warm and kind! They were so friendly and helpful. Sydney- here we come!

A few more pictures also coming from The Older.

Benches

On the way to the bathing boxes, we noticed these little benches. Many had a funny little plaque in the corner, so we decided to have a little fun! Here is the ‘FAMILY Chair’

The ‘TOGETHERNESS Chair’

The ‘BIG IDEA chair’

The ‘HEALTHY LIVING chair’

The ‘COUPLE’S Chair’

Don't you love our 'cute couple.' There was a couple sitting (well, they weren’t actually SITTING, but they clearly didn’t want to be disturbed) in the ‘INSPIRATION Chair’. I guess they didn’t know there was actually a COUPLE’s Chair or perhaps they were INSPIRING each other?!


The ‘PRAYER Chair’

The 'CELEBRATION Chair'

The 'GRATEFUL Chair' (in case you can't tell, they are saying thank you in sign language.)

There were a few empty spots that seemed to missing ‘chairs’… so we decided it was the DISAPPEARING Chair’ or the ‘INVISIBLE Chair’, or perhaps it was the 'STOLEN Chair' or maybe it was just the 'LOST Chair'... HA Now you see us...

Now you don't!

Clearly, we were giddy to be out and about in relatively warm, non-raining weather!

Bayside Bathing Boxes on Brighton Beach

There was a break in the rain and we decided to try to find the ever elusive, Bayside Bathing Boxes.We ventured back on the walking path, but went in the correct direction this time. YAY!

We saw KITE SURFERS on the way... this was so amazing. The wind whipped these guys back and forth and when they got going really well, they could lean back on the tow lines and flip or twist. It looked so fun!! Lessons are very expensive and so is the equipment.

We also some cool birds... we think these are cormorants and they do this fun dive thing to catch fish... but we could be mistaken. (Notice the huge ship out at sea.)

We walked just a bit and TADA... there they were!

There is recorded evidence of the Brighton bathing boxes as far back as 1862. A large number of applications for bathing box permits and construction occurred in 1908-1911. Interestingly, Brighton did not become an incorporated city until 1919. So I don’t know exactly who issued the permits??

 I think there were about 86 of them- all very pretty and no two alike.







We each chose our favorite and got our picture taken in front of it. Which one do you like best?

Essie couldn't choose which ONE she liked... so she has two pictures. The box was not crooked, the picture is wonky... sorry.
And we thought it was appropriate to take a pic of the Australian flag box...

We did a little more research and found that the city sold 2 of these cute little boxes to raise $400,000 – no kidding! The city retains the land, so the owners then have to pay $500 a year rent for the little rectangle of beach on which their box sits. HHHMMM?




I guess it would be convenient to have a place to change and store your beach gear, but really… $200,000 for a 12X12 painted shed??

You should check out some of the cool things The Older with photoshop.  His bathing box pictures are much better than ours... www.theramblingstone11.blogspot.com 

Time Well Spent?

In our ‘new’, smaller space, we were able to spend a lot more time TOGETHER. Like, ALL our time together. There was no yard, lots of people living around us, rain most day and only 3 rooms- well, there was a door on the loo!
What did we do you may wonder? How did we not damage each other? We spent hours each day writing and memorizing scripture, we decided to write our own in depth study of Revelation and then memorize the entire book of Phillipians. We also, of course, have read “How To Make Brothers and Sisters Best Friends” and so we had continual bliss. BWAHHAAHHH! (I will not translate that as hysterical laughter or frantic weeping! You decide!)

Honestly, there were moments, when I questioned the sanity of this whole thing. I mean really, there are not families as large as ours here. The wonderful folks at church were very surprised the ‘whole mob’ came. J When we go to a coffee shop and ask for a table for 6, they look at us like we are crazy- really. BUT, those doubting moments are few and far between and have usually come after spending more than 24 hours in the same room with 4 other people!

And, please don’t think I am complaining about the rain. We love the rain- it reminds of our dear, dear friends north of Seattle. We still miss you.

So what DID we do really?

We honestly did have some great scriptural discussions after our morning studies and we ARE attempting to memorize some scriptures.
We are all reading something. We have colored pencils and paper, so drawing is a favored activity.
The Older and The Tall One both have ukuleles…Don’t ask! (That is another post)
We have done laundry.

We have played the favorite games (see previous post) and have added few new games.Here’s the ‘low down’ on them:
Yahtzee Hands Down- modifies the dice game to be played with cards…please note this game can take a long time to play.

In a Pickle- which the Older loves. You play your noun cards in order of smallest to largest. Sounds easy, but some of the nouns are tricky, like love and hope and some can have multiple meanings, like log. So you have to make a case for your order. It requires some creative thinking.

And PIG- thanks the recommendation T! Essie LOVES it!

We had sock fights- yep, seems to be a family tradition on our vacations. When the big boys were little and we traveled with Traveler, I found nothing makes little boys happier than throwing things- ie socks- at each other. We haven’t broken very many things over the years. – hee

This place does have a massive flat screen TV. The techie people here with me figured out how to play movies, from our computers on it. And we watched movies. Not more than one a day, but an hour and half of ‘down time’ has been nice!

And when the rain stops, we dash outside and walk!One day we stopped at a cute little coffee shop, had a spot of tea, and looked around.

Essie wanted to get her friends each one a stamp set and tablet, so they could write letters in code. : )

Looking for Bathing houses...

We looked at the weather for the week- it was supposed to rain all week long- except Monday. We had a few things we wanted to see and Google maps indicated that the Melbourne bathing houses appeared to be within walking distance of the apartment, so we set out. It was about 2:15. We walked through Bayside and then through a very affluent neighborhood-LARGE houses, high fences, electronic gates- to the bay.

We took a right turn on the walk way- these go everywhere, there is usually a footpath AND a bike path and sometimes a bridge. They are very wide and well maintained.

So we walked, we talked, we had a pretty good time playing around. We found a kids park, we played a little.

We walked a little farther….We saw some cool things…

Then we noticed we had walked all the way back down to the Luna Park area- WHAT?

That wasn’t supposed to happen, that is about 3 miles down the bay??? So, we thought we just miss read the google map, we didn’t have the map with us, but we thought that surely the bath houses are just around the next blind spot in the bay… or the next one… or the next one. We kept seeing more interesting things… but we were pretty tired and hungry. So we got some gelato (hello to our Italian loving, gelato loving friends!) We got lemon sorbet, mango sorbet and mint chocolate chip. It was just what we needed and so we continued, ‘just a little farther’.

Then someone asked, “What time is it?” The answer: “Almost 4:30-that can't be right!” Since it was overcast, we had totally lost track of time. It would get dark in about 40 minutes and we still hadn’t found the bath houses! We called our Traveler… “What time are you planning to come home? Should we grab a cab back to the apartment?” He whipped out his cape (aka windbreaker), jumped on white horse (or in the blue minivan depending on which source you choose to believe) and came to our rescue! Here is where the rescue took place (This is true- The Victoria Hotel) doesn’t it kinda look like a castle??

Then he took us out to dinner. (And just for the record, he then went back to the plant and programmed until the wee hours of the morning... we feel grateful and loved).

Bath houses would have to wait for another day- And IN THE OTHER DIRECTION up the bay! Google map calculations estimate we walked at least 6 miles!

Humpback Whales

Their scientific name is Megaptera novaeangliae.
They travel the great distance of 10,000 kilometers or 6,213.71192 miles. There are different ‘branches’ of humpback whales and they usually follow the same migratory route-1) Hawaii to Alaska and the western coast of the Americas, 2)The eastern seaboard has a group that moves down to the Carribbean and up to Maine, and then3) the Antarctic and Australian group.

Humpback whales eat a ton of food a day (literally), usually krill, plankton, sand lance (in Maine) and other small fish- herring, mackerel, and squid. Krill, which are very small only 6 centimeters or 2.36220472 inches long, have large eyes for such a small body and are mostly clear but have a reddish orange section on their back. They can breed more than once during the season and they can lay up to 10,000 eggs at once.

Although these whales are big(max 16 Meters or 55 feet and Weigh 40 tons or 80,000 lbs), they are not the biggest whale.

Shortly after Europe colonized Australia the Humpbacks were hunted for their oil and baleen (or ‘whalebone’). Harpoon guns and steam-driven whaling boats made hunting more efficient and cause d the humpback o come very close to extinction. They have made a strong comeback.



Humpback calves stay with their mother for 11-12 months, but during this time, they are often attacked by killer whales or sharks. Although we heard there was a calf born in the Sydney Harbor while we were there, we did not actually get to see it.

Humpback whales can be identified from the shore by their ‘blow’- the spray of water when the come up to breathe,

photo by http://www.mersea.com/humpback_info_page_2.htm 

by the shape of their back when they ‘surface’,

by their ‘fluke’ or tail,

Photo from http://www.uq.edu.au/whale/humpback-whales

by their pectoral fin or when they ‘wave’,

and of course if they ‘breach’ the water- or jump- it is easy to tell what kind of whale you are seeing.

(photo by http://www.familyadventuretravelworks.com/tag/humpback-whales )

We saw all of these except the breach.

It was an unexpected treat to see these whales as we were driving down the Great Coastal Highway. Photos are ours, unless otherwise noted.

NOTE: My apologies to Beej for not posting this report earlier. I just missed it.  And as an addendum, we can now see whales from our balcony - Unbelievable! Stay tuned for more... Mom