Just Another Day

Born June 27, 3:02 a.m.

8 lbs 14 oz, 20 inches

Mommy, Daddy, and Baby are all doing great!

What fun it will be to have a close cousin!

Bill and I finally gave up trying to sleep around 3:00 this morning. The bonus of jet lag is that we got to see a beautiful sunrise this morning.

Our travels home were fine… a little long, and LAX was a bit of a nightmare, but we made it safe and sound.

Since we’ve been here, I’ve got to snuggle with my sweet Kate, relaxed with Lo, gone swimming twice, played with Stacy and Dylan…

and…

waited for news on our latest baby!

Dare I say that Wilsons Promontory is my favorite spot in  Victoria, Australia…? We have seen so many beautiful spots, but I think this one tops the list.

To back up just a bit… we headed to Phillip Island on Sunday. There we got to see koalas and penguins. Unfortunately, cameras aren’t allowed at the “penguin parade” because it scares the little guys. It was so much fun to watch them waddle up the beach, though. I’m glad we went.

From there we packed up and headed back over the bridge to the main land. (I was sweating it at this point, as our gas light was on, and I imagined us stalling on top of the bridge!)  We made it safe and sound out to Tidal River in Wisons Promontory. It is BEAUTIFUL there!

We hiked to Squeeky Beach and Picnic Beach, and we sat on Norman Beach right outside of the camp site. Bill’s got more pictures (and video) of our adventures there.

Yesterday we drove from Wilsons Promontory to Portsea and took the caravan on a ferry over to Queenscliff. From there it was a quick 30 k back to Portarlington to spend our final night in the camper. We really liked Portarlington as well. We stayed at the same site we spent our second night of the trip at and had the whole park to ourselves. I fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore just 50 ft away.

Today it was time to drop our camper off back in Melbourne. That was pretty simple. Then it was off to our airport hotel and a trip on the free shuttle to a local mall to kill some time. (Saw Land of the Lost… there’s a couple hours of my life I wouldn’t mind having back.) We’re about to grab a little food from the hotel restaraunt, then it’s time to repack and get ready for tomorrow’s travels.

It’s been an incredible few weeks. I look forward to coming back here some day.

You’ve got to check out the link on Bill’s Koala post to see a darling little Koala playing in the trees. (I made him title it Koala Magic…) 🙂

We had some nice hiking trails to play on while we were in The Grampians. The paths on the way up were as spectacular as the view from the top. The campground we stayed at had an abundance of kangaroos hopping around, so that was pretty cool. I think, though, that we had our coldest nights in Halls Gap. While I really enjoyed staying at campgrounds and having the caravan to base out of, the midnight bathroom runs got a bit chilly!

We’re in Melbourne! We got here yesterday after our stay in Halls Gap in The Grampians National Park. The internet is slow and expensive, so I have to choose only one picture to share with you…

If you can’t read the sign, it says “cool chamber” – and let me just say’ that is me at my coolest. 😉

Anyway, I don’t want to go on and on about the past few days without some pictures of the beautiful sites to accompany my drivel. So, the quick update goes like this:

We spent two nights in Halls Gap which is a very cute little town amongst several hiking and walking trails. We managed to take in 3 of the big attractions. Yesterday we drove into Melbourne for the beginning of our penguin quest. We stopped at an historic winery along the way and made it into town with plenty of daylight to navigate through the city streets. (Bill is doing a phenomenal job of driving our caravan, by the way!)

Today we went to the Queen Victoria Market to check things out. We took a city bus down town and walked around for a couple of hours. When we figured we’d seen as much “city stuff” as we needed, we grabbed the bus back to our camper park. Now we’re doing laundry and getting things in order to head to Phillip Island tomorrow morning.

Adelaide is a city along the coast of South Australia. So far we’ve stuck mostly to small shore side communities, so here we needed to take advantage of some of the “city life”. On Sunday we took a bus into the city center and walked around for a bit before jumping on another bus out to AAMI stadium. There we watched the an Australian Football game between the Adelaide Crows and the North Melbourne Kangaroos.

Australian football is nothing like the NFL. The field is a huge oval, and there are nearly 20 players from both teams out during the game. The players run, pass, and kick the ball down the field to their teammates in hopes of kicking a goal in the end. Play doesn’t really stop… there’s always something going on. Even as their carrying an injured player off the field, the clock is rolling and the players are running and tackling each other. Given the option, I’d watch “footy” over football any day!

The fans are very passionate about the game; most everyone wears the teams colors, and there are flags everywhere!

After the game it was time to call it a night in order to be ready to head out Monday morning for the Barossa Valley.

Barossa Valley is wine country, and you don’t have to drive far when leaving one winery to find the next and do a bit of tasting. We started out at Jacob’s Creek since it’s a brand we enjoy at home. It’s definitely a big operation. We chose to grab a couple of bottles that can’t be bought in the states and then moved on to a couple of smaller stops.

On our way back to Adelaide we stopped off to grab a little lunch. It was really nasty and has me thinking that it’d be a good idea to grab some more groceries today and stick to some “home cooking”. Aside from those heavenly scones, food here has been a bit of a bust.

Alright, It’s time for me to go and shower before we make the day’s drive over to Halls Gap. I hear it’s finally warm in MN, and I fully expect those of you there to be in the lake enjoying it!

I had the most amazing scone in Portland yesterday morning. Until then, I’d say the food we’ve encountered here has been pretty mediocre. (To be fair, we haven’t done all that much dining out.) But I am sold on Australia’s scones. Yum.

Now the sites we’ve taken in – they have been breathtaking!

In Portland we visited a lighthouse and  hiked through an “Enchanted Forest”, and the trees are really something. This hike was right alongside the ocean as well. Bill braved one of the steeper trails down to take a look from the flat rock.

Later in the day we decided to drive out to the seal colony. The sign claimed it would be a 2 hour return hike, and we were just getting ready to go at 3:00 in the afternoon. It gets to be dark around 5:30, so I was a little leery of the adventure. I’m so glad we went, though, as this became our first real encounter with kangaroos! There was a group of them right along the trail as we hiked our way out to the seal colony.

The seals were pretty lazy on the rock below, and we weren’t able to get that close to them. It was a nice walk, though.

We still had some daylight when we finished the hike, so we swung out to see the “petrified forest” and the blowholes.

The next morning will forever be remembered as the Morning of the Scone. And then we hit the road for Adelaide. We spent most of the day in the car making just a stop for gas and one to do a little cave exploring.

We found our campsite in time to walk down to the beach and catch a glimpse of the sun setting.

We’ll stay here another night or two. Today we’re heading to a footy game and tomorrow hopefully we’ll find a couple of wineries. From Adelaide we plan to leave the coast and head towards the Grampians. More to come…

Bill and I are sitting here listening to our laundry spin around in the dryers after a full couple of days.

Yesterday we landed ourselves in Apollo Bay for the night. We got some fish & chips and then walked down on the beach and counted the waves. It was a gorgeous afternoon.

Today we stopped at a number of beautiful spots along the road (as you can read below…). Our escapade did include a 50 km roundtrip drive out to a winery that we found closed and a stop at Cheeseworld (because when you drive by a place named Cheesew0rld you HAVE to stop!)

I’ve found that I no longer have cell reception, so my plans of knowing the minute that April heads to the hospital to deliever my newest niece/nephew are foiled. Internet has been spotty as well, and the time difference has me a bit on edge over that little ones arrival. Not to mention, Laura refused to let me bring Kate on this trip, so I’m missing her a bit! I’m excited, though to, share my pictures and stories with the babies some day and maybe be the cool aunt who gets to take them traveling all over the world…

Anyway, we wrapped up the daylight down by the ocean as the sun was setting. It’s been wonderful so far!