Winding Down (Melbourne – January 1-4)

We got to our Hotel in Melbourne late in the afternoon on New Year’s Day.  We went to the harbor area where there was a free entry theme park and lots of restaurants.  Do you see a theme “Free” and “Food” were the words of the trip…which seemed to cancel each other out since food was sooooo expensive.  We spend over double what we would spend at an equivalent restaurant in the States…I will never again complain about prices in America.  If we were taking this trip from NC instead of China I would have bought a loaf of bread and some pb&j to pack for lunches and we would have only had ice water to drink.  However we were coming from a land where even the Italian restaurant is basically Chinese and not the best Chinese.  We were also excited (actually I think Adam was more excited then I was) that I was able to eat a full adult meal without vomiting, gagging or taking 1 bite then leaving the rest because the first bite ruined all food for me.  I had new restaurants to choose from (not ones with memories of the gagging or smells etc… from the past 6 months) and I actually wanted to eat.  Adam mentioned a couple times that he liked watching me enjoy food and he showed me how much he actually liked it by allowing me to stop at overpriced cupcake and ice cream shops whenever my eyes got big.  We probably spend double what we thought we would spend on food this trip but it was worth every penny and if I had to do it again I may have enjoyed even more. 

Back to Melbourne…I think the coolest thing we did here was on Jan. 2^nd.  Adam and I went to a Cricket game.  I thought Cricket was a lot like baseball but neither of us really knew anything about it.  Adam “wiki’d” it as we were sitting in the stands waiting for the game to start and it was still very confusing to us.  I apologize to any Cricket fans out there but we both found the game strange and boring…even though we truly enjoyed the experience.  What happens is each team gets 20 overs, 1 over is 6 at bats.  The same batter will hit until he gets out (which happens if you hit the wicket before the runner gets there or the ball is caught.  The bowler (pitcher) keeps changing for each at bat.  The teams don’t change places until the batting team finishes their 20 overs.  Get it…yeah I still don’t.  This was (I am guessing) the equivalent to a minor league baseball league, but we happened to be in the state (we had to root for the home team) with the best team, they had been the champs for the past 3 years or something like that and they totally creamed the Queensland Team…Go Victoria!!!!

January 3^rd was a holiday and museums and what not were closed so we took a free trolley tour of the city and tried to stay out of the cold wind, and went to a mall.  We took it easy strolled through the city, took some maternity shots at the park and ended the evening by ducking into an arcade.  We saw a Deal or No Deal game and decided to use up some of our coins.  I picked suitcase #11 and won the Jackpot…200 tickets!  Too bad it wasn’t the actual game.  We took a major risk because my last 2 cases (mine and the one left) were the highest (200 tickets) and the lowest (1 ticket).  I stuck with mine and bam…I was the big winner.  We gave our tickets to a little boy who was very happy to be able to pick out some quality junk from the ticket counter.  Did I mention we stopped at Krispy Cream for breakfast…yeah what are the chances our hotel was one block away from a Krispy Cream!

at the cricket match

Christmas on the Beach (Noosa Beach – December 23-26)

We arrived at the Brisbane airport at 10:30 in the evening.  We had been told by the concierge at the hotel that we could catch a bus straight to the hotel (which was about an hour and a half away).  We made sure they knew that we would be coming in late and double checked that the bus would be running…we were assured that it would.  I know I should have done more research but I didn’t and for sure the bus wasn’t running after 9:00 pm.  Our only option was to take a taxi for about $350 or hire a private car for $300.  I negotiated a better deal with the taxi driver and we ended up spending $250.  Our taxi driver was hilarious.  We couldn’t understand a word he said but he kept talking to us…he had the redneck version of an Australian accent.  At one point he pulled over at a gas station to use the bathroom.  He then got lost.  I think he may be the only person I know that doesn’t have a cell phone so Adam called the hotel to get directions, the driver was talking to the hotel and couldn’t read the road sign so Adam read it for him but the driver totally got it wrong on the phone…it took everything in us not to burst out laughing at him trying to describe where we were by mispronouncing everything.  Thank goodness he said the directions out loud because he forgot them and Adam and I had to direct him to the hotel.  It was one of those situations where you wonder if you may be on Candid Camera. 
Unfortunately the weather reported rain for the entire time we were in Noosa and Brisbane, so our first full day there was wandering around the beach shops and eating some amazing food and gelato.  We had Christmas eve dinner at a wonderful little pizza place called Zachary’s. 
Christmas morning we woke up to SUNSHINE well a small amount of sun poking through a lot of gray clouds.  We got up to go to the beach before the sun went away and forgot our sunscreen…I assumed that we would be OK for a short time and I didn’t want to risk losing the one bit of sun by running back for sunscreen.  We both ended up Christmas red after an hour before heading up for lunch (and to pick up the sunscreen).  We sat at the pool under an umbrella for the rest of the afternoon.  The popular thing to do on Christmas day is to go out for a big lunch; we decided to go out for a big dinner instead.  We came back to the hotel and watched White Christmas.

can you see the rain?

Christmas Eve Dinner at Zachary's...next year we will have Christmas Eve Dinner WITH Zachary