Mornington Peninsula Weekend Part I

The Mornington Peninsula is Southeast of Melbourne, about an hour and a half away. We spent the weekend camping there with friends (Adam/Emily, Nigel/Kristy, Todd/Alena), and we had a great time. For $30 a night, you can reserve a campsite on the foreshore, which means that this was our awesome view when we set up camp on Friday night.

After setting up camp, we brought some drinks and music down to the beach (a one minute walk from our tent!) and watched the sun go down.

On Saturday morning, we headed to Portsea Surf Beach on the ocean side of the peninsula (we were camping on the bay side). We had a nice hot day, so we practiced our surfing and hung out on the sand.

We also had some beach games going, such as cricket. Todd is showing off his baseball skills here (six of the eight of us on this trip were Americans!).

The whole reason I originally organized this trip was because I had bought a Groupon for a boat ride that lets you swim with seals and dolphins. So on Saturday afternoon, Zack and I headed to Sorrento Pier to catch our boat. We first stopped at a snorkeling spot where you can sometimes see leafy sea dragons, but we couldn't find any. I did find this big carp at the bottom though.

There were some other fish, like these black and white ones (I don't know what type they are), but overall, the water was pretty cloudy and didn't have much.

Next, we headed out in search of the dolphins. I was excited about this part of the trip, because I don't think I've ever actually seen a dolphin (maybe one at a distance once-I forget).

They couldn't find the dolphins, so they took us to view these birds (called gannets) in the Pope's Eye area. They were pretty, but they weren't dolphins!

The fuzzy one in the middle is a baby.

Then we boated around some more, looking for the dolphins. They still couldn't find them, so we went to go check out the seals. Less than five minutes after I had gotten in the water, they decided the waves were too choppy and called everyone back to the boat. I got close to this structure, but only for a minute or two. We never did find the dolphins, so they gave us a voucher for 50% off our next visit. Major bummer. The whole boat trip was kind of a bust, and I wish we had just stayed at the beach with our friends!

On Saturday night, we all headed to the Dromana Drive-in Cinema to see Pitch Perfect. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset, some drinks, and a few ice cream treats while waiting for the show to start. Wrapped in a sleeping bag while sitting in a camp chair and drinking a cider was the perfect way to watch this cheesy (yet funny and cute) movie.

So that was the start of our weekend in the Mornington Peninsula. My next post will be about our Sunday activities.

Emily, Alena, Kristy, and me (the gals on the trip). I think our husbands were busy eating ice cream (at least mine was!)

Cricket with Kris and Kevin

Kris was my roommate in Farley Hall during my freshman year at Notre Dame, and in August, she married a guy named Kevin. I couldn't make it to their wedding, but they took a delayed honeymoon to Australia! After visiting the Great Barrier Reef and before heading to Sydney and then New Zealand, they stopped over in Melbourne for a few days. We didn't have the greatest of weather over the weekend, but we made the best of it.

One thing we did was go to a cricket match at the MCG on Friday night. Australia was playing Sri Lanka. The match started at 2:30pm, but we just went for a few hours in the evening. We must have looked like total dorks reading the rules of the game on Wikipedia on our phones while watching the game, but once we understood it a bit, cricket was much more fun to watch! The main thing I didn't know is that there are two batsmen at one time, and they score points by running back and forth between the wickets after hitting the ball. I won't go into all of the other rules; if you really care, check out this link.

Only certain sections of the stadium were full, but there are apparently tons of people from Sri Lanka living in Melbourne, because there were lots of spirited fans cheering for the Sri Lankan team! Australia ended up winning in the end, but only by 15 runs (which is not a lot). Check out the picture above with Gatorade guys on segways!

Kris and Kevin in front of Flinders Street Station on a cloudy Friday night.

On Saturday after a nice breakfast at a cafe, I took Kris and Kevin around the city on the free city circle tram, with a stop at the Queen Victoria Market. They enjoyed the ever-interesting meat hall (tongues, cheeks, livers, etc.), some souvenir shopping, and a few yummy macaroons. Unfortunately, it rained all day! In the evening, we played some euchre at our place before heading to the Fitzroy area and Brunswick Street for drinks and dinner. Good times! It was awesome to finally catch a cricket game and show an old college pal around my new home. Happy honeymoon Kris and Kevin!