We are just wrapping up a fun and relaxing weekend. Actually, I'M wrapping up a fun and relaxing weekend. Peter has unfortunately been working pretty much the entire weekend, so I'm not sure he would call it particularly fun or relaxing. 

On Friday night, I met my blogger friend (now real life friend) Courtney from Alkeks Abroad. She and her husband Travis moved from Texas to Brisbane around the same time Peter and I moved to Melbourne last year. We connected online through blogging and have been keeping up with each other's adventures ever since. Courtney and Travis were in Melbourne for the evening on their way to the Great Ocean Road, so we finally met up in person and got some drinks! Sadly we didn't get any pictures, though.

On Saturday I met Katie for brunch at Rustica Sourdough in Fitzroy and had an awesome avo toast with tomato, feta, and ham.

We spent the afternoon walking around Fitzroy and doing a bit of shopping. We passed this window display, which I thoroughly agree with:

This Minnesota Wild jersey was displayed in a thrift shop. So random that it's there and even more random that they decided to put it on a mannequin. 

Since it's basically a crime to pass up Gelato Messina when in Fitzroy, we stopped for some ice cream. 

My white chocolate raspberry concoction. It was sooo good. This place is the real deal. 

Today I met a few friends for drinks on Ponyfish Island, which is a bar under the pedestrian bridge linking Southbank to Flinders Street Station and the CBD. It was a beautiful 73 degree day, perfect for an afternoon drink. 

Tonight I went with some friends to see the movie Wild at the outdoor movie theater in the Royal Botanic Gardens. The Moonlight Cinema attracts a pretty big crowd so we arrived an hour or so early to get a good seat and eat a picnic dinner before the movie started. 

Lauren brought chutney, which is some sort of jam-like substance. I'm actually not exactly clear on what it is, but it was much better than the Marmite she made me try once that she swore was way better than Vegemite. Spoiler: it's not.

Katie preparing the cheese plate, a vital part of any picnic dinner. Katie's friend Hannah is visiting from the U.S. so we had another friend! 

Our feast

Katie's genius invention-a cup holder for her wine using Hannah's shoe. My friends are innovative. 

As we were eating and waiting for the sun to go down, a kookaburra landed on one of the speakers. I think this is the first one I've seen in the wild so that was kind of exciting! 

It was a bit chilly once the sun went down. And when I say chilly I mean 65 degrees. It is fall, after all.

Right before the movie started. 

I'm not a huge movie enthusiast which might be weird, but I generally find them too long. Wild was good though, and I enjoyed being able to watch on a blanket versus a movie theater chair. Mainly, I really just hate movie theaters so the outdoor setting was ideal! 

Wild is about a girl (played by the one and only Reese Witherspoon) whose life is essentially a mess, so she sets out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail by herself. My friends came away from the movie inspired to go camping, while I was more inspired to continue my 26 year streak of NOT camping. 

Most days in Melbourne involve good food and today was no exception. For once, I actually made something decent:

Bruschetta for lunch! 

I met some friends for pizza tonight at Tazio downtown. Getting there was a bit of a challenge though. Ever since Melbourne adopted a free tram policy in the CBD at the beginning of this year, I've gotten measurably lazier. Previously, I couldn't justify spending $3.00 to take the tram a few blocks when I could walk for free. Now, I find myself hopping on the tram to travel embarrassingly short distances, like today for example. I grabbed the tram with the intention of riding it for a few blocks because I was lazy but that plan backfired almost immediately when the tram got into a fender bender with a car. It was a minor accident, but the tram driver and the driver of the car had to exchange information and assess the damage and it quickly became clear that we weren't going anywhere soon. So, I got off the tram and ended up walking those few blocks anyway. I'll take it as a sign.

Here's the margherita pizza I ordered: 

It was really good! Margherita pizza here is different than in the U.S. It's essentially just extra cheesy cheese pizza with basil sprinkled on top. It's good, but I still prefer the kind I'm used to with slices of tomato, basil leaves and mozzarella cheese. I just now noticed that I basically had the same thing for lunch and dinner in different forms. YOLO. 

After dinner we went to N2 Extreme Gelato, of course! 

On a completely random and unrelated note, I love this koala stamp that came on an envelope the other day. So Australian! 

Last weekend was a long weekend due to Labour Day on Monday. I think it's pretty much the same concept as the American Labor Day, except of course with a "U". The Moomba Festival takes place every year during Labour Day weekend and consists of a lot of family-friendly carnival activities and rides, water sports on the river (wakeboarding, etc.) and the annual Bird Man Rally. Basically, people create "wings" and attempt to fly off of a platform into the river. The person who goes the farthest wins money for charity. We got to the event an hour early and it was already packed; I guess there's a certain entertainment value in watching people attempt to fly. There were some hilarious contraptions, including this person below dressed in a bird costume with about 30 balloons attached to his back. 

None of the contestants were able to fly all that far...go figure. Below is another contestant jumping with some umbrella-like device and the lifesaving boats waiting to swoop in. Apparently it's not easy to swim to shore with wings:

Overall, the Birdman Rally was super entertaining. I don't know how they choose contestants, but I'm considering entering Peter next year. I would do it myself, but the Yarra River isn't exactly clean, so Peter it is! 

I took this picture of St. Paul's Cathedral (across from Flinders Street Station) while running some errands this week. 

On Thursday, I met my friend Katie for dinner, as she just returned from a trip to New Zealand with her family. After hearing about her travels, I am more motivated then ever to book our flights. I've heard from so many people that New Zealand is amazing! 

We went to Peko Peko in Fitzroy and started with sushi. 

We then split this delicious soba salad. 

We intentionally didn't stuff ourselves at dinner because Gelato Messina, which I'm convinced makes the best gelato anywhere in the world, is conveniently located right down the street. We really have a knack for choosing restaurants within walking distance of award-winning dessert. Totally coincidental. 

The big news of the week: we FINALLY got a washer and dryer! Our apartment is rather...cozy, so we have been using the laundry closet for storage up until now. We finally decided we had had enough of dragging our clothes to the laundromat so we caved and purchased a washer and dryer earlier this week. 

Peter's golf clubs, rendered homeless by the washer and dryer, have now taken up residence in the bedroom, which I'm super thrilled about. Anyway, the washer and dryer were delivered and installed today and I've been happily doing laundry all day! That's a first. 

Next, I made a potentially more damaging conversion error. The washers here (at least the one we bought) have the option to manually select temperature. There isn't a warm or cold setting, it's just cotton, delicate, etc. So I chose cotton, which had about four temperature options. I decided 95 degrees sounded nice and warm so I went with that. I pressed start and the timer showed 3 hours remaining in the cycle. That seemed a bit long to me, so I decided to check with my friend Lauren to see if their cotton cycle ran that long. I'm glad I did! Turns out, 95 degrees would have almost boiled my clothes and probably shrunk them to infant size. So, after Lauren educated me on appropriate temperatures (something I somehow haven't managed to learn yet), I put my clothes in at 40 degrees, which is "warm". Shoutout to Lauren for saving my wardrobe! 

Now I'm off to move the golf clubs to the balcony...sorry Peter! 

We have been returning to "normal" life after getting to spend nearly the whole month of February with my mom and grandparents. Peter was able to work mostly from home last month, so he is readjusting to his regular work schedule now that the school year has started up. Our guests kindly hosted us for essentially every meal, whether at their hotel or in a restaurant, so our fridge pretty much sat empty all month. I've been reminded of what a chore grocery shopping is here, as I can only carry a few bags at a time. I avoid buying milk and juice at all costs. SO HEAVY. My friend Lauren finally broke down and got a granny trolly (probably not the technical name) to pull her groceries. I'm considering jumping on the bandwagon as well. 

Anyway, it was so much fun to be able to show my family around Melbourne. I've slowly been posting pictures from all of our adventures both around the city and in Phillip Island. Next I'll post about our trip down the Great Ocean Road-definitely a highlight of the trip-but for now, here are some more pictures of our time in Melbourne. 

My grandpa trying on authentic Australian hats at a shop in the Botanic Gardens. 

We took a golf cart tour around the Gardens, which was a good way to see everything without having to do tons of walking. 

The river cruise we took down to Williamstown. It rained on and off all day, but luckily the boat was covered.

The view of Melbourne in the rain, on our way back into the city. 

A cronut-type pastry at Adriano Zumbo. I think we should get an award for being last month's most frequent customers.

We enjoyed brunch at Two Birds One Stone, a cute little spot next to Adriano Zumbo. 

I ordered the avo toast, of course!

Their hotel in South Yarra was just down the street from a steakhouse called Squires Loft that was SO GOOD. 

Chocolate brownie mouse cake at Ganache Chocolate. 

We went to the Crown Casino (located across the street from our apartment) and looked around. It's HUGE and quite nice. 

We played some $1 slot machines. I won $4, which might be a personal record. Generally I lose $1 and then quit. 

Stay tuned for pictures of our day on the Great Ocean Road!