Strange Sight

Here's a strange sight seen at South Melbourne Market the other day. I think the piggy wants a scooter!

Footy Fever

Sydney celebrates as Hawthorn is defeated.

On Saturday, we watched the AFL Grand Final over at Adam and Emily's place with some friends. This is Australia's version of the Super Bowl. You may remember last year's post about the game, when Meatloaf performed (and was terrible). If not, you can find it here. Anyway, this year an Australian band called The Temper Trap performed, so there was no Meatloaf drama. The Hawthorn Hawks played against the Sydney Swans this year. Our friends Kristy and Nigel are big Hawk fans, so we were kind of cheering for Hawthorn, but the Swans were originally based in South Melbourne, so we were okay with the fact that Sydney won by ten points in the end. It was a great game, and we ate the mandatory meat pies, drank some sangria, and had a yummy BBQ.

Oh yeah, and remember how I said each team has its own song? Well, check out the Sydney Swans song...

Did they steal Notre Dame's fight song or what?! (Skip to the 50 second mark of the video.)

Go Swans...Go Irish...whatever...Melbourne is done with its footy fever for another season!

The School for Wives

Though we still have at least seven months left of our time in Melbourne, we've started thinking about the things we want to do at least once before we leave. It's kind of our Melbourne "bucket list" of sorts, and one thing we've been wanting to do was go to a show at The Arts Centre. This big white spire is a visible landmark in the city, and we pass by it on our tram rides every day. It's full of theatres and concert halls, and we decided to go see a play called The School for Wives last Sunday night. Maybe Zack wanted me to learn something?!

It was a packed theatre (the picture to the right was taken early on), and the show was very funny. It was the story of a rich guy who paid for a girl to be raised in isolation so she would be completely ignorant, moldable, and wouldn't cheat on him when she became his wife. However, she falls in love with another guy, and trouble ensues. I liked how the lines rhymed, and a few of the secondary characters were hilarious. We had a nice date night out on the town!

Mexican Food and Bowling

Australia is not known for having good Mexican food. It's definitely one of the things I miss about the United States. We had heard a lot of good things about a restaurant called Mamasita, and the Lowells and we have wanted to try it for awhile. So a couple of Fridays ago, we finally crossed it off our Melbourne bucket list. Verdict: It was okay. This is the only picture I have from our time there (my drink). The food was good, but not amazing, and it definitely wasn't cheap. I'm glad we went once, but I probably wouldn't go again. They don't take reservations, and it's a very popular place, so if you get there after 5pm, there's a line out the door. Luckily, we knew this and got there early!

After our Mexican feast, we went bowling. The girls had a good night; Emily won, and I came in second. It's about the only time we've beat the boys at anything! We ended the night with some deliciously unhealthy crepe desserts (I had banana Nutella of course). It was a fun night out with American friends spent doing American things!

Tesselaar Tulip Time

I grew up in a city called Holland, Michigan. It's a cute little town (settled by the Dutch) right on Lake Michigan, and every May there is a festival called Tulip Time. About a million (literally) tourists come to see the streets lined with and fields full of tulips, watch the klompen dancers and multiple parades, and eat Dutch food and festival specials like 'elephant ears'. As corny as it is, I sometimes miss Tulip Time. I even had my very own Dutch costume and marched in the parades as a kid. So imagine my delight when I discovered that a little town called Tesselaar, about an hour outside of Melbourne, has their very own Tulip Festival during Australia's spring season. I just had to go!  

The "festival" was really just one large area with some food stands, Dutch souvenirs, and thousands upon thousands of tulips. I was actually quite impressed with the number of tulips; it reminded me of Veldheer's Tulip Farm in Holland. People who aren't from Holland probably won't get the song reference, but here I am "tiptoeing through the tulips"!

I got a chance to play with my camera lenses and tried to take a few decent pictures of the flowers...

Obviously several people had the same plan we did on this rare sunny and warm Saturday!

There were several interesting sculptures, like the one seen below left, among the flower fields. Also, I'm glad that Zack is willing to go along with taking ridiculous pictures such as the one below right!

Holland, Michigan has its own authentic Dutch windmill called De Zwaan that's over 250 years old. My brother Justin and sister-in-law Cindy (the ones who are watching our dog Molly) actually had their wedding reception on Windmill Island a couple of years ago, and I did some photography for them. That's where I took one of my all-time favorite pictures (seen below).

In contrast, here I am with one of the tiny, unimpressive windmills at the Tesselaar Tulip Festival on Saturday. Ha! Hey, at least they're trying to be authentic I guess!

The people who were working at the Tulip Festival were all dressed in Dutch costumes. When we saw this girl in the souvenir shop, we couldn't believe how much she looked like a younger version of me, and I just had to get my picture with her. Seriously, this picture kind of freaks me out, because I feel like I'm looking at myself about 15 years ago!

Even though we're on the other side of the world, I felt like I was back in my hometown for a bit on Saturday. The sun was shining, the tulips were in full bloom, and the Tesselaar Tulip Festival did not disappoint. Unfortunately though, they weren't selling any elephant ears!

Elephants in the City

Well, we haven't found all 50 yet, but when Zack or I happen to come across one of these elephants on our travels around town, we snap a phone picture of it. I'm sure I could find a map showing where they all are, but I much prefer coming across them randomly! Here are the ones we've found so far...

There's actually another one to the left of this one, but a lady was sitting on it (even though the signs say don't!).

So, which one's your favorite? I'm partial to #2 and #3 (the one with faces and the jeweled one). Anyway, it's fun to find these around town, and they remind me of our good time in Thailand!

Candy Tram

Earlier this year, I wrote about the Slurpee Tram. Incidentally, when I look at the stats, that is one of our blog's most popular entries. I'm guessing that people Google "Slurpee" and somehow end up on our blog. Anyway, lately, the tram pictured below is my favorite. It's an M&M tram, and it says, "Do not lick advertisement." It's very colorful and cute, and it makes me smile when I see it pass by. I haven't gotten to ride it yet though; I guess it's not on my usual route.

P.S. Did you know you're not allowed to put the "&" sign in post titles or labels? I wanted to call this post "M&M Tram," but it wouldn't let me. Annoying!