City to Sea Sunday

We interrupt your regularly scheduled posts about our Northern Territory trip to bring you an update on today's City2Sea race. Zack ran this 14km race this morning, as did our friend Emily. It started near the Arts Centre and ended in St Kilda. Here's Zack stretching before the race.

Today is Remembrance Day in Australia, which is basically like their Veterans Day. Here's a guy playing a trumpet as part of the commemoration before the run started.

And he's off! This is Zack at the starting line. I found Emily before she started as well!

Adam and I rode our bikes and met up with our spouses at the finishing line. They both ran a sub-9 minute mile pace! Zack was pleased with his 1:17 finishing time, considering he barely trained at all and hasn't even run in a couple of weeks!

Zack's company sponsored a swanky post-race party complete with catered food (including a full BBQ), unlimited drinks, and a jazz band. We sat in the sunshine outside the tent for awhile enjoying the free food. What a beautiful spring day for a race-nice job Zack and Emily!

P.S. As of about an hour ago, Notre Dame is now 10-0 for the season. Go Irish!!!

Down Under in Darwin

We started our long weekend in the Northern Territory by flying into Darwin on Thursday night. I knew it would be a smaller city than Melbourne, but it's actually very small. You can't swim at the beaches there because of the threat of crocodiles and jellyfish, so they've created this lagoon down by the wharf. It seemed to be a pretty popular place to hang out, and there are several restaurants in the area.

We had dinner and watched the sunset at The Jetty Restaurant, which had a seafood buffet. It was nice to finally be in some warm weather and sitting by the water while we had dinner.

Darwin (and the whole Northern Territory) is so different from Melbourne in so many ways. News is dominated by crocodiles, most people seem to work in the mining or construction industries, the Aboriginal population is huge, and the weather is always warm and humid. It really felt like the Australia most Americans probably picture when they think of this country; it's certainly more similar to what we expected upon moving here.

I got a kick out of seeing road trains. These triple-trailer semi trucks go on forever...up to 50 meters long! It's especially scary when you have to pass one; they say to leave a full kilometer of passing room.

Yes, there is a third part to this truck that you can't see in the picture!

We spent the night at the Travelodge, where they had a really nice pool with a waterfall that we enjoyed in the evening. The next morning, we got some groceries and picked up our station wagon (camping and cooking equipment included) and started our drive to Kakadu National Park. More to come soon...

Melbourne Cup Recap

Well, we're back from the Northern Territory. It was awesome, and I will have lots of blog posts to come about seeing crocodiles, swimming under waterfalls, hiking and camping and canoeing, etc. In the meanwhile, I'm just trying to catch up on laundry, e-mails, bills, grocery shopping...not to mention narrowing down the 900 pictures we took over the long weekend!

While I work on getting up posts about our trip, I'll leave you with a short one about the Melbourne Cup, which was held on Tuesday. That meant that department stores like Myer and David Jones have been filled with displays like this for several weeks. It's a holiday that is just as much about the fashion as it is about the horse racing. Tuesday is a public holiday in Melbourne, and I'm guessing that a lot of people do what we did and make a long weekend out of it.

We were actually able to catch the race at a pub outside of Litchfield National Park. There were a couple of older ladies there dressed up with fascinators, but most people looked like locals on a late lunch break or tourists like us. I enjoyed a barramundi burger, chips (fries), and a mango-passionfruit flavored cider while barracking for my favorite horse (so Australian!).

My $3 bet was basically worthless. Americain (a horse we saw at the Tatts Cox Plate last year) was favored to win but didn't even place. Unexpectedly, Green Moon took first place. Zack had placed a $5 bet on Green Moon at this year's Tatts Cox Plate, but he didn't place at that race. I guess the horse was saving up his energy to win the Melbourne Cup. And I guess we're not good at this betting thing!






Anyway, lots more to come about our trip. And an interesting side note about the US election...Australia had full coverage of the results all afternoon on one of its main television channels. How many of you Americans could even name Australia's Prime Minister? It's interesting how much other countries know and care about US politics (and music, and movies, and basically everything).

Hot Halloween

Yesterday was Halloween in Australia. It didn't really feel like it at all though. I'm used to weather reports that threaten snow instead of sunburn. I'm used to decorations in every store and candy at every house. Instead, earlier this week, I received a note with a balloon in my mailbox. It explained that some neighborhood children wanted to celebrate Halloween, so if we had candy, we were to put the balloon outside our door so kids would know which houses to visit. Well, after my balloon blew away, I put this sign on our fence. It worked just fine, and I actually ran out of candy! So I started handing out some glow bracelets that I had, which kids thought were pretty cool. It was kind of freaky, but the first three girls who came to my door actually knew me. They said, "You were our teacher; you're Mrs. Keys!" Yup, I guess I had substitute taught their class at some point. I didn't recognize them, but they had costumes, so that made things difficult. Pretty random. 

Anyway, I bought distinctly Australian candy to hand out...Boost bars (kind of like Twix) and Freddos (Cadbury chocolate in the shape of a frog). I have to admit that I ate a couple of them myself!

When Zack got off work, I met him at an Indian restaurant we've been wanting to try in South Melbourne. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves (it was 9pm I guess!). No, I don't normally celebrate Halloween by eating Indian food, but whatever.

Now it's Thursday afternoon, and our taxi comes in ten minutes to take us to the airport. We're going for an extended weekend to the Northern Territory....Darwin, Kakadu National Park, Katherine Gorge, Litchfield National Park, etc. Time to go see some crocodiles!

Tatts Cox Plate Take Two

Last year, we went to the Tatts Cox Plate with some friends. You can read (or reread) that post here. We went again this year (yesterday) and had another good time. I wore the dress I had worn to my bridal shower way back in 2008, spruced up with some blue shoes and a blue fascinator. Zack looked dapper in his snazzy gray suit with his skinny tie.

We started the day with a champagne brunch at our friend Kelly and Nick's house. It was actually Kelly's birthday, so several of her friends from Perth had flown in for the weekend's festivities. Check out how they dressed their dog for the occasion!

The weather was pretty nice when we first got to Moonee Valley Racecourse. The sun only came out for a few minutes here and there, and it got chillier throughout the day, but we were just happy to not have any rain (as was predicted earlier in the week). Unfortunately, the cold wind meant that many pretty dresses were covered up with coats!

This guy was standing out front when we first arrived (I'm not sure what the point was-a mascot of sorts?). He let me hold the whip for this picture-ha.

Like last year, Zack and I put down $5 bets on each race just to make it more interesting. I always picked mine based on the horse's name I liked best...Super Cool, More Joyous, Crack A Roadie, I Get Around, Rangirangdoo, etc. Zack bet based on the odds and what some other guys around us were doing. We did decently well between us, and we probably ended up about even for the day. Our biggest win was around $50! Here I am posing with one of our winning bet slips.

The main race of the day (there were eight races total) is the second to last one, and it's the actual Tatts Cox Plate race. The plate is pictured to the left, along with a lady who had a ridiculous fascinator with a plate on it! A New Zealand horse named Ocean Park won the race, along with three million dollars.

Though it was kind of a pain, I was glad I brought my good camera along to get some pictures. With the crowds, it was hard to see the horses as they whizzed by, but I was able to get a few shots like the one below when I went up near the fence.

It was kind of sad to leave at the end of the day and realize we'll probably never go to this race again. We're talking about going to a country race in November, but if that doesn't happen, it may be our last Spring Carnival race ever. Boo! I kind of like dressing up and wearing a fascinator; I might just have to bring mine back to the States and find some reason to wear it!

Nigel and Kristy pose with us for a picture.

Signs of Spring

Last week, I went for a walk around Albert Park Lake with my friend Laurie and the doggies we were watching. I took my camera along, and though it was difficult to take pictures while holding onto Flossie and Ralph, I managed to get a couple shots that I like. So here are some signs of spring...

Flowers blooming...

Baby black swans...

And gorgeous sunsets (okay maybe this last one is not just for spring!)...

Hooray for finally getting some warmer weather so we can enjoy these springtime sights!

Sunday Brunch and BBQ

Zack and I sort of have a new tradition. We go to brunch on the weekend...sometimes just the two of us, sometimes with friends. We've been trying various places around South Melbourne. St Ali's is one of our favorites. However, this past Sunday, we had to go back to Cafe Sweethearts, because I had seen what looked like American-style bacon on someone's plate last weekend after I had already gotten my pancakes. I know I've mentioned it before, but bacon here is not how bacon should be. It's basically pieces of ham. So I asked the waitress to tell them to cook it extra extra crispy. She described it as, "Make it look like it's been dragged through hell and back?" "Exactly," I agreed. You can see the results below, along with my obligatory chai latte. It was pretty darn good, though still a little too thick. Oh, how I miss good bacon!

Later in the afternoon, we met up with Klem and Vesna near the beach in Elwood for a BBQ. Even though it's supposedly springtime, it was windy and freezing. Not the best weather for a BBQ, but Vesna's delicious chocolate cake made it worth the trip! I like how Australia provides these BBQ areas near beaches and in parks that you can use for free.

Anyway, that's how we spent some of our Sunday. Oh yeah, and Notre Dame is now 7-0. Go Irish!!!