Melbourne Trip-Day 2!

Thursday morning we woke up and noticed hot-air balloons floating over our hotel. It was so beautiful to watch them floating as the sun was rising. We were all really excited to see the balloons. Funny story: Barry had a Fulbright gathering to attend later that evening and Lydia asked me where he was. When I told her where he was she then asked me "Is Daddy in a hot-air gabloon?" She often replaces the letter b with a g, such as gamana for banana. It was hilarious that she thought of that 12 hours after she saw them and we all had a good laugh!

Hot-air balloons, Melbourne, February 26, 2015

Balloons over Carlton Gardens

View from Mantra on the Park Hotel

We started out our day at The League of Honest Coffee having a little brekkie before we headed to Melbourne Museum. This cafe was so busy and full of business people, so we knew we were in the right place. Always good when you find it full of the locals. Plus, the name is awesome!

Coffee shop

A little brekkie

Lydia likes coffee....errr, milk!

After brekkie, we headed to Melbourne Museum to spend the day. This is by far one of the best museums I've been in! It was just loaded with amazing exhibits and had a great children's gallery. Some of the exhibits we spent time in were: Dynamic Earth, Dinosaur Walk, Wild: Amazing Animals in a Changing World, The Mind: Enter the Labyrinth, Bugs Alive, Marine Life: Exploring our Seas, Forest Secrets, and 1,2,3 Grow (which was in the Children's Gallery).

Before we entered the Children's Gallery there was a pygmy blue whale skeleton from a whale that washed up on the beach in Lorne, Victoria 20 years ago. They had a video of how they hauled it in and cleaned it up for exhibit. It was gross and fascinating at the same time.

The Children's Gallery was chalk full of neat exhibits for kids. Our kids enjoyed the puppet show area, the musical instruments, the outdoor play space with hula hoops and jump ropes, and the exhibit about how animals grow.

Legos in the Children's Gallery, Melbourne Museum

Lydia swinging the jump rope

Puppet show

Music makers

The marine exhibit had many interesting facts about marine life in Australia. There was a preserved giant squid in a case in this area with a video of how a whale catches a squid to eat. It was very interesting. Hannah really enjoyed the marine exhibit-this might have been her favorite area!

Marine World area, blobfish

Lydia fell asleep in the stroller and Barry sat in the forest exhibit with her while she napped. There was a forest inside the museum. It was pretty impressive! Kiernan, Hannah and I spent a lot of time exploring the animals in the Wild: Amazing Animals exhibit. They have a stuffed version of most animals from around the world. They were sorted by region of the world and there were neat touch-screens that you could use to read more about what each animal was and more about it. It's an incredible collection of animals.

Wild: Amazing Animals exhibit

As much as I'm freaked out by spiders and bugs, the Bugs Alive exhibit was one of my favorites. We spent a lot of time in this exhibit. They did a great job of having live displays and lots of information. There was a whole display about smuggling tarantulas into Australia to sell as pets. They had several types of LIVE tarantulas that had been confiscated by Customs and Border Protection. Some of them were huge. Imagine the job of being a customs agent-YIKES!

They also had a display of common spiders in Australia...and yes, plenty of Huntsman spiders. Maybe they aren't so bad?!

Lydia being a spider

Ant bubble cave n the Bugs Alive exhibit

There was an exhibit of stick insects that must have had 50+ live bugs. Wow!

Stick insects, Bugs Alive exhibit

The mind exhibit was a bit weird because it took you through a bunch of displays about emotions, etc. It was only weird because we had kids with us and at times it seemed kind of creepy. There was a room of optical illusions and lots of mazes and information about dreams. It was a very neat exhibit that I haven't seen anywhere before.

Kiernan figuring out a maze in the Mind exhibit

After we left the museum we walked to the Italian district of Melbourne. There were tons of great looking restaurants to choose from. We found this little ice cream shop and each had a treat. 

Ice cream shop, Italian area of Melbourne

Kiwi and mango pavlova ice cream-YES, it was amazing!!

Summer goals-check!

Barry got back from his Fulbright gathering in time to share a bottle of wine with me on the balcony of our hotel room. The traffic was quite loud but it was fun to experience the nightlife (at least a little bit-ha). Having a drink at a bar with some live music may have been a bit better, but such is life with kids in a country far from home!

Nighttime at Carlton Gardens

We were exhausted, but it was a memorable and fun day! Day 3 was our last day in Melbourne. Look for the blog post about it soon!

Sarah