Jan. 24: Melbourne to Broome

S woke up early for some reason (5:30 am) but Ii and C and G kept sleeping. She and I therefore decided to sneak out to an early-morning coffee shop. We found Platform 1 Cafe, located right at the Camberwell train station. I never would have thought to get a soy latte at a train station, but I have learned that soy lattes here in Melbourne are good anywhere!!! So I got a soy latte and S got an OJ and a toasted cheese / tomato / avocado sandwich. We headed back to Helen's at 6:30 and found the rest of the family waking up.

Next, we all headed to Nonna's for more of her delicious, home-made buttermilk pancakes. C and G walked down, which Ii, S and I drove. We were borrowing Nonna's vacuum so we could clean up Helen's house and wanted the car to get it up the hill. After breakfast and fun playing with Lyra, we headed back to Helen's to get ready for the day.

Nonna then met us down at the junction. We ran into the bank and then two cars and the 6 of us headed to the National Gallery of Victoria. There was a Julian Opie exhibit on, including a kids' section where the girls got to create their own Opie portrait. A crowd pleaser, though, was right at the entrance of the gallery: the wall of water. The girls had fun sticking their hands and fingers in the water as it ran down the wall. Another crowd pleaser were these electronic art pieces featuring motion. Outside was a girl running, and inside were galloping horses and clucking birds.

After we explored Opie, we headed outside to the garden for some snacks and climbing. Then we all headed back to Camberwell. The girls snoozed in the car. After we relaxed at Helen's a little bit, we headed out for some ice cream in Middle Camberwell (the girls all got "rainbow" flavor) and then to meet Nonna at the park at "Mailing and Matlock" that G discovered. They had such fun playing on the spinning teacup and the 4-sided seesaw. We then headed back to Helen's for a bath while G cleaned out the fridge and made delicious egg burritos with all the cut up / fresh but not used pizza toppings from a few nights ago.

G did bedtime while I took a load of stuff to Nonna's (for when I head back to the States in February) and to return her vacuum. She and I had a glass of wine and a chance to chat without kids around. Then I headed to get "petrol" in the car so it's ready to return to the rental car spot at Melbourne Airport. We head to Perth and then onto Broome tomorrow morning, first thing! Alarm was set for 6am today. I got up, headed to take a shower, and checked email on the way. Uh oh, our flight was delayed 4 hours. It actually sounded better as we now would only have 1 hour in Perth instead of 5 hours (we had been talking about storing luggage and heading into Perth for a few hours). So we made the most of it: everyone other than me kept sleeping and when everyone woke up (after 7am, which was the time by which we were supposed to leave), we decided to "nam out." G found a great spot called Mr. Hendricks, so we unloaded part of the luggage and drove there. It was in Balwyn, just past the Maling Road area we know and love. On the way through, G sadly noticed that his beloved independent book store there is no longer open. Mr. Hendricks was incredible. The girls had banana waffles and I ordered zucchini fritters with mango salsa. Mmmmm!!!! The girls also and their first frothed, steamed milk and Ii pretended it was her coffee. After breakfast, we headed back to the park at "Maling and Matlock" and played for about 30 minutes before heading back to Helen's to load the car again. We headed to the airport to enjoy the Virgin Australia idea of fast check in: get rid of all the people, do it all by computer, and then watch as the computers shut down and nobody knows how to deal with the crisis. HA! We finally got checked in and headed to our plane.

Pictures coming when I have a better internet connection.