Today we went to the Melbourne Steam Traction Engine Club which held their annual exhibition. We had always driven past and said we'd someday go there and today we did. It was way more than I expected and we started the day with a mini-train ride and then continued to look at the rest of the site. They had hundreds of working steam, diesel and petrol engines on display some dating back (and working) to the 1800's.
Toot Toot
Before you ask, NO; the Trout do not identify as LGBTQI, it's just the name given due to their colouring. We decided to drive to Marysville today but before that, it was time to have a fish at the Buxton Trout and Salmon Farm. Junior caught all the fish today and made us look pretty ordinary when it's like shooting fish in a barrel. After a couple of hours, we drove to Marysville for a bite at the Duck Inn and visited Bruno's Art and Sculpture Garden where we were greeted by the quirky fella and enjoyed the wonderful world he created. We are all looking forward to going back to see more.
The weather in Melbourne as not been very summery these past few weeks but today the sun peaked out and made for a pleasant day out. As usual the boys took the wheel to get the hours up for their P's and it was down to Stoney Point to watch the boats. We then visited the The Maritime Museum to take in some Australian history. Drivers changed hands and we headed to Tyabb, home of Antiques. We visited a few and ended up at Tyabb Packing House which is one of many awesome stores next to Tyabb railway station. The final leg ended at Tar Barrel Brewery where they had live music and great beer. The week prior we also went to party in the park near home which rocked. Looking forward to Australia Day.
Lovely Bayside
After the Christmas service at Christ Church Dingley presents were opened and we then decided to visit Daylesford a couple of days later to enjoy rural Victoria. It was a hectic day which started at Cliffys Emporium for breakfast (GO THERE) followed by some failed attempts at art galleries which were closed to eventually go back to the The Mill Market which we visited with my mother only a few months back. We checked into the motel and then proceeded to take a heritage train ride to relax. Once done we ventured into the town to browse the quaint shops, visited Hepburn gin distillery and crawled a few pubs. Once done we freshed up and headed out for an Indian opposing the motel before watching the Cricket and nodding off.
What a GREAT DAY.
Daylesford
We finally made it to Perth, well half of us did. As Karl Jnr finished school this year we decided to check out Western Australia. It was a four-day adventure packed with seeing as much as we could to understand how it ticked. Besides being a little parochial it was definitely more friendly than Melbourne and had a nice laidback feel with beautiful beaches, great weather and some great pubs. We also got to see my Aunt Maureen and Uncle Brian, our good friend Chris and one of my properties in Westminster (yes yes not so upmarket) so it was not all holiday.
I like to keep these blogs short so I will just mention a few highlights in succession. The gig watching Last Quokka at Badlands Bar was great, Karl eating his $70 tiger prawns, the Lobster in Freemantle harbour, the Prison, followed by the Little Creatures brewery, Scarborough Beach, Perth city with its quaint walkways, Perth's cultural centre with my favourite pub, Nobu at the Crown, the Zoo, Perth hop-on-hop-off and a very nice Hotel.
We'll be back.
Perth 2023
