A little bit of this, a little bit of that

I guess I am going to start out with the Queen Victoria Market.  We loved going to the market.  If you received any souvenirs from us it was most likely from this market.  The Queen Victoria Market is the largest open air market in the southern hemisphere.  We lived with in walking distance and would walk up to it every once in a while.

 You could pretty much get anything you wanted here from fruits and vegetables to shoes, souvenirs, toys, clothes, even fabric.

The fruits and veggies were pretty reasonably priced. Towards the end of the day all of the food vendors were marking everything down. We didn't get a video of it, but they would be yelling out the price discount and trying to out due the other vendors. Pretty cool to watch. We liked to wait until the afternoon to get the good deals. 

 Port Melbourne Primary School.  This is where Emma went to school.  It was a good experience for her. She was able to do a swimming course and learned to swim on her own.  She participated in the school play "The Lion, The Witch and the Walk-in Robe".


 To the left is Fred the crossing guard who helped us cross the street everyday.

 It was formally known and Graham Street School before becoming Port Melbourne because it was located on Graham Street.  It was a pretty old school.  They had recently undergone renovations and added new buildings. 

 We love IGA...
IGA was located at the bottom of our building where we lived. It was a small grocery store where you could get almost everything.

The name of the street on which we lived.

 Our garage door.  About 100 other people also used this garage door to our parking garage. 

Our Boeing friends who happened to be coming out of their apartment just when we were out taking pictures.  They lived in the building next to us.

 Medici's restaurant.  This was the first place we went the morning we flew in.  We had breakfast there.  It was one of the many restaurants along the boardwalk underneath the apartments where we lived.  We really like Medicis.  They made the best sticky date pudding.

 So I have no idea why this is side ways.  I rotated it and it shows up rotated but then I load it onto blogger is does this.  So this is the gelato stand also on the board walk.  We went there way too many times.

 Just a picture of the walk way below where we lived.  We walked up and down this all the time.  Usually with the girls on their scooters and Cooper in the stroller.

 A look up to our balcony.  We have the grill on the end.

 The front entrance to our building.  It was very secure.  You couldn't just walk in.  If we got a package in the mail the mail man had to call up to our apt and let us know to come down and get it.  Or we had to push certain buttons on the phone system to open the door for them and let them up on the "lift" or elevator. 

 Waiting for the lift. They got very used to this.

 We lived on the 13th floor

The hall down to our apartment

 Again.. not sure why this isn't turned.  Emma and Dottie with their friends from church Brooke and Becca.
 This is what they were usually doing in between classes.  Chasing each other around the building even though I told them not to.  The only interaction Dottie had with kids was at church so she was not very reverent at church.  Oh well.  They were happy to have the girls in primary as there was only 10 other kids. Lots of singles with no children in that ward.

 Around the City.  This was taken at Federation Square in the City.  (Also where Oprah did a public appearance, if your into that).  When ever we went into the city we walked.  It was just easier that way.
 Of course you could rent one of these cool bikes.  They had these all over and you didn't have to return it to the same place you got it from.  They had one of these by our place as well.  We never did get one though, ha.  To much trouble with the kids I guess.  I am not even sure how expensive it was.

 Flinders Street Station.  This is the main railway station in the city. Always very busy on this corner.  Lots of people.

And of course Burger King.. I mean Hungry Jacks.  Everything was the same except the name.  Click on the link to read more about it.

Sunset

 (Click on the picture to enlarge)

The view we had every evening, when it wasn't raining.  Have to admit.. I am missing this one.  Glad to be home but I am going to miss a few things.
photo credit- Jordan Erickson

Great Ocean Road continued..

So I guess I am going to have to re size all my pictures that I want to post.. very annoying.
Cute little bugger! At the Koala cafe.

Here are the 12 Apostles.. these pictures don't do it justice.  These were so cool to see.  Only a couple of these remain some have fallen already.  Click on the link .. it shows some much better pictures.

One of Jordan's panorama shots...  it was a gorgeous day.. well worth the drive.  I had to re size it, sorry it is so small .
*After looking at it, I guess the pictures are sized just right*

Great Ocean road trip..

Well it's about time I blog again.. but I am having problems getting the pictures on here.. it's not wanting to let me load them up for some reason..
We have driven down the great ocean road before but didn't go to far. This time we wanted to make it all the way to the 12 apostles. Also last time we went it was winter and this time it was summer.

Playing on the beach in Lorne, VIC

Cooper thought it was fun until the water actually touched his feet.

Further down the road in Kenneth River we stopped by the Koala cafe for lunch again and to see all the wild Koalas in the area. Only this time they all had babies with them. Very cute site to see.

A Kookaburra sitting in a Gum tree.

Well...I have lots more to post but this is all blogger is letting me up load on pictures...
Is anyone else having a problem? I just comes up as server error every time. Any help would be great. I have read online with people having similar issues that they went back to the old posting set up and it started working again. I have tried this with no luck. I will try a new post and see if that helps.

Happy 30th Birthday Megan

Happy Birthday Megan and welcome to the land of the 30s. Looks like we have to be adults now.

Mt. Buller

 I am not sure how many ski resorts are in Australia.. but Jordan had to visit one of them even if it might be the only one!  Ok maybe there might be 5.  So after we drove Mt. Sterling we drove Mt. Buller as they are right next to each other.  Only this one has a paved road all the way up.

 At the top of the mountain next to the ski lift.

 Jordan would have loved to come during the winter and actually skied. 

I think the best part about this drive were the warning signs.  They were hilarious.  Australia has heaps of warning signs and rarely are their two the same.  Here is a kangaroo on skis and we are guessing a peacock.

 We saw this one and were like what the heck..

 Then around the corner we saw this.  The gnome house.

 Here again a kangaroo and a wombat this time.

 On the way back down the mountain almost to the bottom we spotted these gnomes.  Actually it was quite funny since we saw the first gnome house we told the girls to be on the look out for another one.  So all of a sudden Dottie says.. look a gnome house (only she was just joking so she thought) and I was like, oh there are more gnomes and she was like.. oh really HA. 

On our way home with the mountains in the background.

Mt. Sterling (Craig's Hut)

 We decided to make the trek up to Mount Sterling to see Craig's Hut from the movie "The Man from Snowy River."  It's about a 3 hour drive from where we are in Melbourne.


Dottie always helping her brother.

 It was cool to see.  Although this is not the original one from the movie.  The first one was built for the movie in the early 80's.  That one was not taken care of and became very run down.  Then a 4WD tour group company took it over and fixed it up so they could take tours up there.  Then in 2006 it was taken out by a wild fire. It was then rebuilt by that same company in '07 and '08.  It isn't exactly the same but pretty close.

 Very beautiful views.

 It was a trek to get up there though.  This picture doesn't really show this road very well.  Once we got to the mountain it was all dirt road up.  Then the last little bit was 4WD only road.  It was actually very steep and not a very good road.  Jordan was in heaven though driven around.  We did not have a 4WD vehicle but it was an AWD.  Jordan said it would work just fine.  Scary!

 Enjoying the ride back down the mountain.

 With all the rain that Victoria has been having lately there has been lots of flooding and washed out roads.  Yes the road up the mountain was technically closed because of washed out roads.  But they were still letting people up it.

 Every so often we would come across the washed out parts.  Scary!

 Coming up to the washed out area.. this is on the way back down so we have already driven over it once.

 This was the worst one.  This is after we just went over it and looking back. 

Here again looking back.  I just closed my eyes and Jordan gunned it!