Crying, Waiting, Hoping

   That's what we were doing Saturday morning: waiting at the airport for Gram to arrive, hoping she would come soon, and crying with happiness when our very first visitor arrived in Melbourne. 

  

   All in all, it wasn't too bad a trip for her. Long, to be sure, as travel time was almost 24 hours door to door. She had a pretty tight connection at LAX, and by the time she got to the international terminal it was less than an hour till departure, so they gave someone else her seat. She complained, as she'd paid extra to book her aisle seat, and thankfully they found her another one a few rows back. Five movies, a nap, a few meals, some trips around the cabin, next thing you know you're in Australia! Okay, a slight exaggeration, but it's doable people!

   She made it through immigration and customs, though the beagle did sniff out her bacon sandwich she'd forgotten about. The agent asked if she wanted it, but it was over a day old, so she tossed it. Probably a wise choice, although if she knew you can't get American-style crispy bacon here, she might have made a different decision! Thankfully, she made it through with five big boxes of z-bars, some real marshmallows, cans of green chilis, some Halloween oreos from Great Grandma Nalda and a few other food items.

   She also packed a few other goodies. I'd had some clothing shipped to her house from Kohls, so she had jeans for me, undies, and socks for the girls. Not to mention a new curling iron, oil of olay, breathe rights, Dramamine, and 87 books for the girls!! That should hold Alanna for a day or two.

New books, and Aliya's new obsession: basketball!

  

 After unpacking and eating lunch, we headed off to the park to get some fresh air and exercise. Aliya went to a "Come and Try" basketball day and loved it, so she was eager to shoot some hoops. Alanna was happy to do tricks on the monkey bars. We pointed out the magpies to Gram, giving them wide berth. We've been told they can be very aggressive in the spring, and will swoop at you if they think you're getting too close to their nest of babies. 

   Except for a trip with Andy to buy a basketball system, Aliya pretty much attached herself to Gram for the rest of the day. We made Gram stay up all day (tough love, but it's the best way to get over jet lag) and they both went to bed about 8:30. 

   The next day, today (Sunday here) we headed into town. Our destination was the Tutankhamun exhibit. We got off on a rough start though. When Aliya found out that her beloved Carlton footy team had lost the previous night in the quarter-final playoff round, she burst into tears! We were shocked at how upset she was. Loyal fan there, or at least we though, until she suggested that she'd pick a new team for next year! 

   We cheered her up, got to the local station, and as we were buying Gram's ticket, the train departed. First of three trains we just missed today. This was a bummer, especially as the next train wasn't for another 30 minutes. So we headed back home to get the water bottles we'd forgotten, and stopped for a strong flat white and hot chocolates for the girls. Back to the station, and caught the train.

Gram and Aliya on the train

    Finally starting to look like spring! It's hard to get used to the seasons being reversed, but needless to say we're really happy it's starting to warm up a bit. We headed to the Melbourne Museum.

Walking through Carlton Gardens 

We checked out a few exhibits, then headed downstairs for the IMAX (3rd largest in the world, so they say) 3-D movie, Egypt: Secret of the Mummies. We though this would help them better understand what they'd be seeing later in the King Tut exhibit. You can see the level of enthusiasm, a precursor of things to come:

Waiting for the movie to start

   Okay, that was just for fun. We pretty much had the theatre to ourselves, as you'll see in the next picture: 

Future's so bright, we gotta wear shades

   After the movie, we went to an outdoor play area to eat the lunch we'd brought. Not so much the girls, who'd filled up on Shapes (Aussie crackers, closest thing to goldfish) during the movie, so they just played tiggie (tag.)

   Then we headed to the exhibit. Our tickets were timed for a 1:30 entrance, and you only have a 30 minute window to enter. This prevents over-crowding at the most successful exhibition in Australian history, which had its 500,000th visitor last month. That's a huge number, especially considering Melbourne has a population of about four million. The kids were getting tired out though, and because it was thankfully not a busy day, they let us go in early.

   Kids enjoyed it at first, but quickly got bored, despite having the audio tour to listen too. Andy went through at a faster pace with the kids, letting Gram and I take a more leisurely tour. It's quite amazing to see artifacts that are 3000 years old, and the level of artistry was simply incredible. Couldn't take any pictures unfortunately, but there are some preview pics here. 

   All in all, a nice day, and it was wonderful to be able to share it with Gram. We're so glad she's here.