Warmer days of early Spring

During Mom & Dad's stay, while Jason was at work during the week, we checked out a variety of parks and older buildings of the city, and took a tour of Rod Laver Arena, where tennis' Australian Open is played. On Friday we went to see Mary Poppins at the theater and really enjoyed the production. On the weekend we visited the Werribee Mansion--here's a pic of the grand estate at Werribee Park. It was built by two Scottish brothers in the mid 1800s and was the largest home of its kind in Victoria at the time. It looks more English probably because they built it for the wife of the younger brother who was from England. They employed around 400 staff at one time, and it is now owned by the Victoria Parks Dept. and was free to walk through--beautiful!

The next day we golfed at the Anglesea Golf Course where there were quite a few kangaroos just hanging out along each hole. You can see they were pretty tame and didn't seem to mind us being too close to them by this pic of Jason swinging away just a few yards from one. We golfed with a coworker of Jason's and my parents. As my belly's getting too big, I just finished out Mom's holes by doing her chipping and putting.

We bid them farewell early last week, and had a warm week after they left. Desi and Steve and Jason's other coworkers threw me a baby shower on Wednesday which was very nice. Baby got lots of cute pink clothes and other thoughtful items. Friday was a scorcher and record-breaker in Melbourne, topping off at 84 degrees. I went to the beach with Desi and Megan and her kids but got quite burned on my legs as I failed to put on suntan lotion early enough. I guess this part of the world has the highest rate of skin cancer due to the hole in the ozone and their lack of sunscreen use. Lesson learned! That night, Jason met me down at St. Kilda beach where we had dinner, saw a movie, then went back to the beach an hour after sunset to check out the mini penguins coming back in from their daily swim. They were very cute, but hard to capture on camera as you can't use flash photography and they moved around quite a bit.

Last of the highlights, but certainly not the least: Jason went surfing on Sunday! His coworkers and son took him out and taught him in the cold waters of a beach in Torquay. That's right, it's a beach just down the way from Bells Beach, where the world surfing championships are held every April! Not to worry though, the waves were much smaller compared to those (I was worrying at first when he said where we were going). He had a great time and I recorded the feat from the sunny beach (though I wish I could have been out there--after baby comes maybe!). He did awesome and seemed to be a quick learner! They wore full wet-suits and for the most part stayed warm except for the feet which went numb after about a half-hour into it. Jason had a blast, but I think I would enjoy it more in the warm waters of, say, Hawaii :).

Well, that's all for now--Grant & Jessica fly in this morning, and we'll tell you about the adventures with them soon!