Steppin' Out

The Royal Botanic Gardens are on our doorstep here, and they are a place that we have come to love strolling around at all times of the day. The park is massive, and one of our favorite areas is the Children's Garden, which appears as though it is straight out of a storybook. Whit wanted to send out a little something for the ladies while we are away in New Zealand for the next week and a half, so he asked for some shots of him in his adorable seersucker suit amongst the flora. Cheers until then!

True Australian Weekends

I have a new favorite sport to watch - Australian rules football (tenderly referred to as "footy"). Imagine if football and soccer had a love child that was raised by their crazy neighbor rugby, and you have footy. The Australian Football League is HUGE in Victoria, especially Melbourne. With 10 local teams, you can imagine that the rivalries have the potential to reach epic levels. We took in a match last weekend at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) stadium, one of the largest stadiums in the world (among umpteen other records). We were in the riffraff section, but it was super fun to watch the three teams compete: Hawthorn Hawks, Melbourne Demons, and seagulls that regularly invade the field.

This past Sunday, Andy and I were blessed to be invited by one of Andy's Aussie co-workers on a wonderful day in the Australian Pyrenees. We started in Daylesford, a little over an hour outside the city. Known for its natural healing waters, it has a great park where you can drink from all sorts of different springs, each with a very distinct taste from the next based upon the minerals in its aquifer. I love sparkling water, but rarely buy it because I am a punk who thinks water should be free. So, this stop at mother nature's open bar was a dream come true for me. And if my bones are now as strong as steel and my blood pH is finally balanced after all these crazy years, well, bonus!

Andy, Mark, Eric (Mark and Eric are here from Minneapolis as well) and Ian (the 6' 7" Aussie) at our Hepburn Springs non-alcoholic tasting

Next, we stopped for lunch at the Moonambel Inn in a town the size of a hiccup and had an amazing lunch, including my first taste of Australina pavlova, which is a dessert of soft meringue topped with cream and fruit - pure bliss.

Then we were off to wine country. First stop was Warrenmang with the adorable Italian winemaker Mr. Bazzani. He is a chef who started making wine simply to accompany his dishes, but eventually found himself running an inn surrounded by a full vineyard. He is ready to retire now at the young age of 72, and tried a couple of times to sell us his vineyard while he toured us around his unique winemaking process. Is it bad that I considered it for a moment? Until I remembered that I'm not a Rockefeller and don't have that kind of money...

Next stops were Summerfield, with it's bubbly hostess who raved about her three-month stay in California; Eurabbie, with it's eccentric burly owner and his packs of dingoes; and finally St. Ignatius, with its endearing Argentinean owners that are some of the only ones in Australia that make Malbec, the wine that became our favorite when we travelled in Patagonia.

We have been so fortunate to meet some wonderful Aussies and Americans during our time here so far. Whit has also made a special friend in Susan, Andy's co-worker who played with him while we were at the Grand Prix and Pyrenees. She sings Australian nursery rhymes with him and he exhausts her with his energy. She's a saint!