Last weekend we headed to Ballarat. We wanted to do something special and fun for Gram's last few days here, and what a great weekend it was! Our plan was to spend a day at Sovereign Hill, a sort of Colonial Williamsburg-type park that tells the story of Australia's gold rush, which started a couple years after the California gold rush. After picking up Andy in the city, we drove another hour, still amazed at how quickly you leave the city behind and get into very rural areas. Upon arrival we checked into our accommodations, the Comfort Inn at Sovereign Hill.
Playground and gymnastics apparatus by day, beds by night
Sign outside our building
It was actually a private bunk room, not exactly the penthouse suite, but it had a number of advantages. The kids loved playing in, on, and around the beds. It was insanely cheap for five people on a weekend, and best of all, it was immediately adjacent to Sovereign Hill. That had two bonuses: we could walk to the park, and we got an extra day's admission. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived, so we simply walked over to Sovereign Hill.
View outside our building. Made us feel better about our accommodations!
We spent a day and a half at the park. There was so much to do, we could have spent even more time. We were all a bit surprised how much the girls enjoyed it.
Front entrance. We actually had our own entrance at the
back with our hotel, letting us avoid the queues.
Male peacock trying to impress the lady
Loved the cute billy goats
Alanna strikes a pose on an old-fashioned settee in one of the model houses
One room schoolhouse
Girls were glad they didn't go to this school, which ran from 9 - 5.
They loved the calligraphy lesson though, and we came home with a set of pens and ink.
Scenic view
Church, fire brigade, and bowling alley
Inside the bowling alley
Unfortunately the proprietor couldn't help the girls
View of some businesses. On the right is the candlemaker's shop
Candle dipping
Final results
The "Diggings" area
Panning for gold
Still searching for gold
Wait, is that a glint of gold? Oh, just Andy's wedding ring.
You could take a carriage ride...
...so we did.
Gram and Aliya
The main street of town had all sorts of shops and businesses including a bank, post office, and bar.
Alas, it wasn't open for business yet
Fortunately the other stores were open. A friend from Ballarat originally (now living in the US) tipped us off that the bakery made the best pies. Andy was thinking cherry pie, but she meant meat pies of course. She also recommended the raspberry drops. We got some of those (but not the musk drop ones, which sounded pretty awful) along with chocolate covered licorice.
We renamed the raspberry drops "Red Tongues" for obvious reasons.
There were lots of costumed characters roaming around, adding drama and interest.
Rowdy bunch of entertainers
A goldsmith at the Gold Works shop
Pouring a $140,000 bar of gold
Friday night we went out to a restaurant that had a great genius idea, IMO:
No more arguing over what food to have! Italian for the kids,
Indian for Andy, and Thai for Gram and Alexi
They even provide party hats. What? Those weren't hats?
Aliya chose the Bailey's Cheesecake...so yum.
You can't go wrong with chocolate, hazelnut, and ice cream.
Saturday morning started off with breakfast in the common kitchen. We had bought supplies the night before, and were able to use the fridge and kitchen to make a nice, and inexpensive breakfast. So much easier than going out for a meal. Plus we were able to head into the park right when it opened, through the super-secret green door!
We had a full day at the park, though we did leave for a while to visit the Ballarat Gold Museum. Because it was still the school holidays, they had a lot of extra activities and shows. At the Museum, they had a treasure hunt for the kids, which made it a lot more interesting. Once they successfully completed the quest, they were given some treasure, i.e. a chocolate coin wrapped in gold foil. Back at the main park, we also went on two tours into the mines, and saw two productions in the theatre (including a thought-provoking version of the story of King Midas) and saw a demonstration of wheel-making.
Much later that night, after a simple dinner of pizza, we headed back into the park for the Blood on the Southern Cross show, which tells the story of the Eureka rebellion. It's really hard to explain the show, which involves various sets of scenery/stages, lights, and sound narration, but no actors. This clip should give you an idea of it though:
It was quite interesting, I thought, and well done. Andy, ever the morning person, had a bit of a tough time staying awake. And despite my trying to explain the storyline ahead of time to the girls (even checked out a bunch of books from the library), I spent most of the show answering Aliya's whispered questions.
One good thing about being out so late (the show can't start until dark, and Daylight Savings had kicked in) was that we were so tired, we were able to fall asleep despite the incredibly loud noises from the boiler in the hotel.
The days with Gram are flying by too fast. In between the big trips and outings, it's the little things that really mean a lot. The girls have been enjoying every moment with Gram.
The particular show we saw turned out to be rather inappropriate for family viewing, which was a huge shock and rather upsetting, especially as my friend called specifically to ask about the shows. Afterwards though, we walked down the street to a lovely Thai place for dinner. Our friends have two daughters the same age as ours, and their grandma was also in town, so we enjoyed great food and friendship.
Another day we took Gram to visit Brighton Beach. Her plantar fasciitis is really bothering her, even though she had a cortisone shot right before she left. So we've been trying to find activities that don't require too much walking. Sitting at the beach fits the bill!
Unique display of Aliya's shell collection
Aliya and friend Hannah
This is a true water girl. Even in the cold water, she goes swimming!
Gram boxing at the beach boxes
I already blogged about the Brighton Beach boxes here, but thought I'd throw in a few more pics for posterity.
Not that there was every any doubt, but Gram is truly babysitter extraordinaire! We had two friends sleeping over one night. In the morning I went to the gym. When I came back, she had them playing the silliest, simplest games, like trying to pick the correct marker color from her hand.
Playing Uno
Playing "Button Button, Who's Got the Button"
Melbourne has lots of indoor pools, some of them are wave pools, which the girls love. We went swimming one day, another great activity since Gram loves water too! Pics with her didn't come out so well. Rest assured she was swimming, playing games with the kids most of the day!
It's been so nice having her here. Aliya enjoys stealing whatever Gram makes herself for lunch, and playing endless games with her (although Gram might stop playing with her now that Aliya can beat her at Gin Rummy). Alanna enjoys eating Gram's Challah bread french toast as fast as she can make it, and they both like to curl up together at night and read.
Almost forgot to mention, on Monday night the four of us did a Zumba class together. Our gym had a kids Zumba class, and since we were the only ones there (we're on the second of a two week school holiday) Gram and I did the class too. It was really fun, and the girls picked up the moves quickly. Now they want me to change their piano lessons so they can do Zumba every Monday now. We'll see how that goes.
Well, I need to wrap this up. We're headed to Ballarat tomorrow, should be another good adventure. Planning to visit Sovereign Hill, the Wildlife Park, and the place where Ben got his start with Opto 22!!!
Thanks to some free tickets from a friend, we all hopped on the train and went to the Royal Melbourne show on Sunday...
along with over 75,000 of our closest friends:
The crowds and queues were just insane, in part because the previous four days had been quite rainy. Also, the day before was the AFL Grand Final, the Aussie version of the Superbowl. And, the show was ending on Tuesday. All of that added together meant a very crowded day.
The people on the left in the photo above are queuing up just for the privilege of entering the Show bag pavilion so they can spend anywhere from $5 to $249 on bags of crap stuff. Thankfully, our kids agreed it wasn't worth the wait in line, which extended down to the exit gate and then back up to the pavilion. I'm not sure I can convey how big a deal they are here. According to this article from the local paper, show bags are a "must" and kids won't be happy without one. Most people on the train afterwards had them, many people were carrying multiple bags. There were 370 different ones to choose from. Most were geared for kids and had cheap toys or candy, er, lollies, in them. Often they are themed such as Smurfs, Simsons, Barbie, Hello Kitty, Bakugan, Camp Rock, etc. Plenty are for adults though, such as ones sponsored by magazines, sports teams, and there's even some gourmet food ones. Really random stuff, such as a teapot show bag and the Bacchus Espresso Cowboy show bag. Okay, so we didn't do the whole show bag thing. We did let the girls have a chance to be video stars like their mom. At one booth they were recorded giving the local weather report:
Behind the scenes view of teleprompter and camera for my video techie friends
They even emailed the videos to me.
If I had to use one word to describe the show, which really was similar to a small OC or San Diego fair, it was *expensive*. Rides were pricey at $8, so the girls were limited to two each. Both did the Fungee Bungee:
Alanna also did the Gravitron, a spinning ride where the floor drops out from underneath. Don't recall the name of this ride, but Aliya loved every minute:
We also checked out some of the animals. Not the animal nursery to see newborn lambs, the line was just too long. And not the petting zoo, where there was even a line to get out! But we did see these colorful creatures:
We weren't able to find out why their owners did this to them,
but hopefully dogs are indeed colorblind!
Really wish there wasn't a pink heart carved on my butt.
with "Whiskers" the cat
It was an exhausting day, but we're still glad we went. Would we go back again? For our money, we'd much rather do the OC Fair.
Monday was devoted to the spectacular scenery of the Great Ocean Road. Thankfully we had a nice sunny day, unlike the last time we attempted this.
The steps of Gibson's steps
It's become tradition for Andy and the girls to play follow-the-leader on this beach. It's really fun when there's "fresh" hard sand and the girls have to try to fit into Andy's long footsteps!
Follow the leader
The girls' footsteps
Spot the typo? (Click on pic to enlarge)
Free parking, free entrance, amazing!
Actually only 8 limestone stacks remaining, not 12
Other direction from 12 Apostles, looking back towards Gibson's Steps
Snack break at 12 Apostles
Loch Ard Gorge, where clipper ship Loch Ard wrecked in 1878
Down in the gorge
View from below
View from above
please, no more boring scenery
What it used to look like (click the pic to read the story)
What it looks like now
Alrighty, that just about sums it up. Pictures don't really do it justice, it's something you need to see for yourself...hint hint!
