Friday was a fairly quiet day. While Sean was at work, Aiden and I hung out at the house and ventured out and tackled the Christmas crowds to go shopping for awhile.
On the northeast corner of Melbourne is a little mountain range called the Dandenong Ranges, more commonly known as 'the Dandenongs'. Saturday we found ourselves heading in that direction to Belgrave to catch the Puffing Billy. Puffing Billy is a nostalgic ride of the rails. It is an old rail line that was rescued by retired rail workers and transformed into a multi-million dollar enterprise, run almost solely by volunteers. And they seem to love what they do. Who wouldn't, the scenery was fantastic, everyone on board was interested in trains or parenting someone who was, and aside from a layer of soot, it is a charming adventure for someone to do. It felt like another place, and certainly another era. All along the route, people stop what they are doing to wave at the Puffing Billy. The highlight of the ride was when we threw our legs over the side of the car and dangled them freely as the train traveled along its route. We were quite surprised that this was allowed to happen, it certainly would never happen with 'lawsuits everywhere' North America.
The train travels 24 km to the town of Gembrook with a number of interesting stops along the way. It is a 4-5 hour round trip so we decided to only go part way to Emerald Lake and spend time there enjoying the afternoon. Emerald Lake Park was quite impressive. It has a large playground, a cafe, paddle boats, swimming pool, model train display and even an outdoor gym. While there, Sean and Aiden enjoyed the lake by going on a paddle boat, we enjoyed an ice cream, and played on the playground before catching Puffing Billy back to Belgrave.
Sunday morning we headed into the CBD of Melbourne in hopes of catching the Myers Christmas windows but by the time we arrived there was a line-up of at least a block or more and moving at a snails pace. So much to my disappointment we headed off to the Aquarium. When Aiden and I were there last year, they were in the middle of renovations. They are complete and the aquarium is now the home to a number of penguins. The multi-million dollar Antarctica display was interesting and of course, where else are you likely to see penguins other then at a place like the aquarium but nevertheless it was sad to see the animals in captivity. The sharks were a hit again and we were able to time it right to see them feed. We missed the octopus the first time and it was important to Aiden to rectify that, although somewhat anticlimactic as the octopus was wedged into a crack.
Sunday morning we headed into the CBD of Melbourne in hopes of catching the Myers Christmas windows but by the time we arrived there was a line-up of at least a block or more and moving at a snails pace. So much to my disappointment we headed off to the Aquarium. When Aiden and I were there last year, they were in the middle of renovations. They are complete and the aquarium is now the home to a number of penguins. The multi-million dollar Antarctica display was interesting and of course, where else are you likely to see penguins other then at a place like the aquarium but nevertheless it was sad to see the animals in captivity. The sharks were a hit again and we were able to time it right to see them feed. We missed the octopus the first time and it was important to Aiden to rectify that, although somewhat anticlimactic as the octopus was wedged into a crack.
No comments:
Post a Comment