Weekend in review

We had quite a busy weekend here.

Saturday my parents, myself, and the kids headed downtown to the Aquarium. We spent the moring there showing Grampy and Grammy all the fish and turtles. This trip the kids were much more into it then the first time we went which was shortly after we arrived. Highlight was definitely the large room at the end where you are surrounded on all sides by floor to ceiling glass and you are circled by the sharks and rays.

Next we headed to the Victoria Market to check that out. While my dad went off to collect his motorbike my mom and I treated the kids to lunch at a MacDonalds...sad I know...but the always have two high chairs and you can be in and out quickly. Key things for having a successful lunch. The market is basically a huge huge farmer's market and flea market all under one giant roof. The market itself is then surrounded by a cirlce of permenant shops. My parents bought a few souvenirs but other than that we managed to fight off the alure of 5 dollar watches and 2o dollar jeans.

Sunday I had bigger plans !

We piled into the van and headed for the Healesville Sanctuary. It's basically a zoo but with a functioning animal sanctuary/hospital on the premises.

The drive out there was great once we got out of the city...which took at least 40 minutes ! This is the wine growing area known as the Yarra Valley. Picture bright green pastures and small vineyards surrounded by small mountains on all sides. Very pretty !

Eventually we got to the zoo. In the end we liked it as much if not more then the Melbourne Zoo. We managed to see all the big Australian animals that you would expect..Kangaroos, Wallabees, Koalas, Dingos, Echidnas, Platapus etc. Not only did we see them but you were pretty close and they seemed interested in all the attention. It's clean, very well laid out, and pretty big.

We then had lunch back in Healesville at a nice cafe and headed for Marysville which was through the Yarra Ranges National Park. We hadn't been up that way before and it turned out to be far better than we expected. The road wound and climbed and dropped as we crossed over the Yarra ranges. The trees here were about 100 feet tall and the road was almost never straight. A good practice run for the great ocean road next weekend.

Once we made it out we thought about going home a different way and doing a circle but decided the risk of getting lost was too high. Since we enjoyed the drive out so much we were all content to turn around and go back the way we had come.