Great Ocean Road

On Saturday, we packed up and headed out in our rental minivan to drive the Great Ocean Road. This road hugs a windy coast between Melbourne and Adelaide, and takes about 15 hours to drive. Given that we had limited time and four girls with us, we decided to only drive the first five hours to Warrnambool, a mid-sized town along the coast. The highlight of this part of our trip was seeing the Twelve Apostles (actually there are only 9 left), which are breathtaking sandstone stacks of various colors towering out of the sea.

The low point of the trip was when Marina "lost her breakfast" due to a bad case of gastroenteritis combined with windy roads. This picture was snapped about an hour after she was cleaned up--poor, exhausted thing!

The foliage is also very unique, and much of this area is a rainforest. During our drive we saw koalas in the wild for the very first time, fulfilling one of Marce's dreams before returning home. Meagan snapped a great picture of an alert koala, shown at left. This is highly unusual, as most koalas sleep or rest about 19 hours a day. And we sighted not just one, but four climbing trees in the same area! Our stay in Warrnambool ended with Thai food take-away and a “dinner theatre” watching "The Princess Bride". Our trip home to Brisbane was uneventful (except that poor Marina was still suffering from the flu bug), and we were glad to be back to our balmy tropical climate. Even Michelle, who was the only one in our family who seemed to thrive on the cold and damp weather, was glad to return to the Brisbane sunshine. It was the first time in almost two years that we had been in such cold weather and Marce and I realize we are becoming weather wimps!
-Marc

Seattle Weather Down Under

This morning we woke up to wind, rain showers, and temperatures which had plummeted to 8 C (45 F). They say if you don’t like the Melbourne weather, wait 15 minutes. We learned that it changes often and drastically, with the potential for hot air coming from the northern deserts, or the icy cold winds blowing north from Antarctica. The phrase "four seasons in a day" is part of the popular culture. We spent the next few days both in and outdoors, depending on the weather.

One of our favorite spots was Queen Victoria Market, an open air market filled with a diverse range of inexpensive merchandise--over 1000 stalls worth! We checked out Federation Square, an irregular-shaped piazza with distinctive modern buildings. The architecture is striking and peculiar in design and seems to lack the warmth needed as a public centre and meeting place. We also enjoyed walking through Southbank, visiting the various ethnic districts, and patronising Starbucks, which was necessary to help us warm up between our cold outings. Yes, with the weather being so much like Seattle, more Starbucks exist here than anywhere else Down Under. -Marc

Flinders Street Station

Funky Federation Square

On to Melbourne

We made a brief visit to the National Botanical Gardens this morning, which were lovely, before arriving at the airport for our noon flight to Melbourne.

Perfect weather greeted us on our mid-afternoon arrival, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the upper 20s Celsius (~ 85 F ). We checked into our 2 bedroom apartment overlooking the water at an area called the Docklands. It was new, modern and very nice with restaurants located along a promenade below us. We quickly dropped our luggage off and headed into town via one of the many trams that are used for public transport. Melbourne is definitely a tram city, with many modern electric trams which are used for transport in and out of the city.

We soon learned why Melbourne is called the shopping capital of Australia, as it has everything from fashion houses, to major department stores (one, in particular, that even rivals any we've seen in America), and unusual souvenir shops. It has the most European feel of any Australian city with many alleyways and old stone buildings. It is also the Southern Hemisphere's leading cuisine capital with a host of ethnic restaurants. We found ourselves in the Greek district where we enjoyed a delicious Greek dinner and scrumptious desserts--Marc and I agreed the tiramisu dessert was one of the best we've ever had. We walked home in balmy weather, still in the upper 20s Celsius. We discovered (not surprisingly!) that Melbourne has twice shared the top position in a survey by The Economist of "The World's Most Livable Cities".

Marce

Our view of the Melbourne Skyline from the Docklands

Parliament House Tour in Canberra

We started the day off with a visit to the new Parliament House, which has a tall, aluminum structure visible from most of Canberra. On top flies a large Australian flag. We didn't know what to expect given that most of the Parliament House is actually located underground, so that symbolically the people can walk over the government. Once inside we all agreed that the building exceeded our expectations in terms of size, grandeur, and beauty. It is a modern building with a unique mix of old and new architecture. After having lunch at the new Parliament building, we finished the afternoon at the very modern National Museum of Australia containing numerous exhibits about Australian society and history, and an entire wing devoted to aboriginal Australian culture.

Parliament House

We also stopped by the U.S. Embassy where we took the below picture. It was Sunday afternoon and all was quiet at the guard gate. Not 30 seconds after taking this picture, we were surrounded by security who had noticed us at the front gate. Obviously, security is high at all Embassies around the world! -Marc

High atop Mount Ainslie with a bird's-eye view of Canberra

Canberra Attractions

Today we went to Qwestacon, the national science centre for kids. It is very similar to the Seattle Science Center in that it contains a host of hands-on activities for all ages. One of our favourites was a free-fall slide where you hang from a metal bar before letting go to find yourself free-falling for a split second before being whisked away by a smooth metallic slide. They also have a motion-based simulator where we rode a simulated cartoon roller-coaster.

Following Qwestacon we went to the famous Fishwyck vegetable market, which was like Pike Place Market on steroids. The people, and hustle and bustle were a bit too much so we just plowed through the people to get the few items we needed.

We then finished our day with a quick trip to the Old Parliament House, which started operation in 1927 and stands in front of the new Parliament House, which was opened in 1988. There Meagan tried on a wig while sitting in a chair for the House Leader. -Marc

PSAT jitters

Last night at 6PM we boarded our Virgin Blue flight to Canberra, the nation’s capital, for an eight day family trip to Canberra, Melbourne, and the famous Great Ocean Road. The impetus for the trip was Michelle taking her PSAT, which was not offered in Brisbane. We decided to seize the opportunity and turn it into a family holiday. Canberra (pronounced Can-bra) is located in the Australian Capitol Territory, which is akin to the District of Columbia, about 100 km away from Sydney. This location was selected in the early 1900s because the long history of rivalry between the two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, meant that neither could become the national capital. Prior to its selection as the location for the nation's capital, it was just a sheep paddock. After our 90-minute flight we quickly checked into our hotel- the Griffin Hotel, named after the American architect Walter Burley Griffin. In the early 1900s Walter Burley Griffin won an international competition for the design of Canberra.

Michelle and I were up early Saturday morning to have her out to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) by 8:45AM. The AIS is a large complex on the edge of Canberra where many Australia champions are born. Seeing all the monuments and large complexes for training gave us a real sense for how much Australians value sports. There were only seven PSAT test participants, which was being administered by Judy Freudenberger, the U.S. Embassy Sub-regional Coordinator for Educational Advising Activities in the South Pacific. She ended up being a talkative resource of information for us, and may help us line up some Advanced Placement and SAT exams in Brisbane next year.

We moved onto the Australian War Museum, which we all agreed was a fantastic museum. The War Museum is very large and it would probably take two days to get through it all if you read everything. We focused on the major items- the tomb of the unknown solider, the wall of names of every soldier who has died in service, an exhibit on Gallipoli, the Great War (WWI) and two movies. One movie was on WWII air raids in Germany and the other was on three Japanese submarines which snuck into Sydney Harbour during WWII. Here is a picture of Madeline looking at the wall of all the names of the soldiers killed during the Great War. -Marc

Homeschool Art Co-op

Homeschooling, as many of you know, is not a common practice in Australia. The church we have been part of the past 10 months is unique in that all of the families with children under the age of 9 homeschool. Two weeks ago, three families, in addition to our own, started a fortnightly Art Co-op. It is geared for 6 to 7 year-olds and Madeline takes part in it along with Abbie, Gabrielle, Natalie, Tyndall, and (alas!), the only boy, Parker. He's a great sport and cheerfully joins in with the girls in their activities.

Today we hosted the 2nd Co-op, with Michelle and Meagan stepping in to be the primary art teachers--and enthusiastic ones, at that! The program started with the kids doing a traditional show n' tell, followed by recitation of the Matthew 5 Bible passage they are memorizing, and moving on to a 60 minute art lesson. There were two 'Big Ideas' the children learned. The first: "Shapes combine to show pictures". And the second: "Lines can show movement and action". All the moms agreed that Michelle and Meagan did a fabulous job teaching the lesson! They finished the afternoon off with a rousing game of beach volleyball in the backyard, while the younger siblings played in the sand pit. We are thankful to have such wonderful families to support us in our schooling endeavors and are excited for the delightful opportunities of fellowship.

Marce

An Inconvenient Truth

On Sunday Marce was not feeling that "flash" (an Australian term) so I decided to get the girls out of the house so she could enjoy some peace and quiet. First I took Madeline and Marina to Replay, which is a children's shop with games similar to a carnival where they earn tickets depending on their score. In the end, they get to redeem their tickets, which today earned Madeline and Marina a bracelet, lip gloss and a few pieces of candy. Upon returning them home to show off their hard-earned treasures, I decided to take Michelle and Meagan to see the Davis Guggenheim movie on Al Gore and Global Warming. Although I am not a fan of Al Gore, I have to say this is one of my favorite movies. I think Davis Guggenheim does an excellent job of using music, still photography, and home movies to compliment the slide show developed by our former Vice President. In addition to the creative cinematography, I also found the story compelling enough to make me think more green. Find out more about the movie at http://www.climatecrisis.net/ I would recommend you see the movie, or get the DVD which comes out 21 November. Following the movie Michelle, Meagan and I had dinner at the Pig & Whistle restaurant in the middle of the outdoor Queen Street Mall, shown at the left. We had a nice meal while we watched people strolling up and down the mall--the weather being around 80 degrees. September and October is the best time in Queensland, with warm days, comfortable nights, and blossoming tropical flowers.
-- Marc