Lunch with Vanessa

We all rushed out of the house this morning. We took the train into the city again and walked around the center. I wanted to find some used guide books and checking in a number of used book stores I soon realized that…everyone else had already looked too. So we bought $90 worth of new books for Thailand and India. The weight of the books we carry is unbelievable. Between guide books, school books and casual reading books, we must have 12 pounds among us.

Melbourne has worked hard to develop an entertainment district along the Yarra River. One of the center pieces is a strange area called Federation Square. It is ultra modern and we felt it too hard to capture in photo. Across the river is the newly renovated National Gallery of Victoria. Unfortunately most of the galleries had just been closed again because of a construction problem resulting in a falling glass ceiling. We took the train back to Toorak after visiting it.

Michael’s sister, Vanessa, had invited us for lunch. She came and picked me up first for a trip to the post office and supermarket. Then we returned to the house for AD and DW. Her home about 10 minutes away. Vanessa has two girls, Emeline 12 and Ainslie 9. Vanessa served up a wonderful lunch for us. We sat and talked about each other’s life and looked at photos. The kids played with the pets and basketball. Vanessa drove us back around 6. I made Sauerkraut, Brats and a boiled dinner. We wiled away the evening on the patio drinking delicious wine, talking and laughing.

AD Journal

The Melbourne Museum is located in Carlton Gardens in the city center. In the museum you can walk through a forest gallery where they show you wildlife, plants, and trees of Australian forests and creeks. In the main entrance, there is a blue whale skeleton. It is huge. There's a Dinosaur too.

The Mind and Body gallery showed a movie with the birth of a baby. It also had displays on the human body’s organs, muscles and bones. There is a cylinder representing a person’s DNA that you turned to search for one red bead out of 30,000 beads which determined skin color. It showed how hard DNA was to find.

Australia

Australia 4

Melbourne, Australia

Jan. 9th - Lunch with Vanessa

Australia