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Melbourne, Australia
Jan. 7th - Picnic with John and Noreen
 Cool
and rainy day. We were not prepared for the cool, mentally or
physically. It’s been hot for so long. We drove out to Donvale,
an eastern suburb, where John and Noreen Westley live. We were
on the ferry with them in the Chilean fjords. They were great
company. Look for their photos on the website in the Chile
section. They had a picnic planned for us. John and Noreen
live in a heavily forested area in some of the farthest
reaches of the city.
Their son, Peter, his wife, Debbie and their two children,
Jacob and Corina came along with us. Jacob was AD’s age. The
two of them played for most of the day together. It was
perfect to have a playmate for AD. We drove out to an area
near Healesville. There are lots of vineyards and wineries out
there. We ate at a park where one of the Melbourne reservoirs
is located. It was lots of fun chatting away the afternoon
with their kids about our travels together in Chile. We also
enjoyed feeding the Kookaburras. They are amazingly brazen
birds and will swoop down and steal your meat right off a
grill if you let them.
 By
mid-afternoon it began raining quite hard, which damped our
picnic. Peter and Debbie took AD with them back to their house
while we drove to John & Noreen’s. We spent a few more hours
talking at their home and looking at photos. They are really
easy people to be with. It was shame we had made other plans
for the evening when we begged our departure. We were in
charge of dinner at Michael’s house tonight.
Jan. 8th - Melbourne Museum, Victoria Market
The end plans for the trip are coming
together for us. My Mom has agreed to come and meet us in
Europe in April. We also hope to see some friends, the
Kettingers, in Paris. They are spending Easter break there.
Chris’s great grandfather helped build the Eiffel Tower and
she wants her girls to visit it. We were on the phone early
again with both of them to coordinate plans. Our final
airfares had never been booked out of India so it’s time we
did it.
 It
was mid morning by the time we went to Melbourne on the train.
We walked around the Parliament Square. Then up to the
Melbourne Museum. It is a wonderful Science and Natural
History Museum. AD was fascinated by some of the human body
exhibits. I was surprised at how long he lasted in the museum.
 Afterwards
we walked down to Victoria Market to find lunch and our last
souvenirs in Australia. We found JW’s slippers and something
for Ashley and Nicole. The Market is full of clothes vendors,
junk and food. Melbourne has a free circle tram that loops
around the downtown. We took a trip on it to Flinders Street
train station and then went back to Toorak.
Big night out planned tonight. We went to Strike Bowling lanes
after having dinner at a Malaysian restaurant. Food was great.
The bowling alley is an entertainment center with videos and
music blaring. Roz, a friend of Michael’s met us for the
evenings fun. Bowling was a great time. I had high score for
both games but it wasn‘t anything so great to write home
about. AD has developed quite good form and could be a pretty
good bowler. He got upset by his scores but I thought, he did
pretty well.
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My parents took me to Sovereign Hill
which is an old fashioned mining town. When we first
came into the town a man handed me a scavenger hunt, for
stamps, that allowed you to pan for gold at the end of
the tour. While we did the scavenger hunt we got to see
all the sight of the town, including the old fashioned
bowling alley. In the bowling alley they had waist high
alleys and a heavy ball with no finger holes in it. It
was hard to grip the ball and throw it with accuracy.
The lanes were grooved from years of use.
 In
the gold mine we took a audio guided tour. It took us
underground walking through old mine shafts and showed
us how they found the second largest gold nugget in the
world. The best part was panning for gold in a stream
bed. A guy standing next to me helped me learn how to do
it. You have a pan that you fill with sand and rocks
from the stream bed. First you remove the bigger stones.
After you sift it a couple times you then put a little
water in the pan, shake it back and forth and the gold
sinks to the bottom. Then you remove the larger pieces a
few times, add more water and spin the pan so that the
gold goes to the edges and is easier to find. Gold sinks
because it is so heavy. After that I had more gold than
his kids in only five scoops. We bought a small glass
jar filled with water to keep the gold flecks in.
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