Melbourne Trip Part 3

David Stewart and Job hanging out after dinner.

We went into Melbourne another day. Julia Short and the daughter of a family friend went ice skating with Martha. While they were chilling, Julia, Job, and I went into downtown Melbourne and hit the streets.

After exploring a bit, we picked up the ladies at the rink and went to Chokolait, a chocolate cafe in a little "arcade" (mini mall) in Little Collins Street.

Even Job is amazed at the stunning quality of the treats.

Julia Short, the one to thank for directing us to this superbly indulgent place

Good thing Terry doesn't like strawberries... more for the rest of us. :D

Eating with children generally requires flexibility and determination.

Job: Should I give in to temptation? (No, we didn't really give him any.)

Yes, it tasted as good as it looked.

It was amazing!

One evening we got together with Rev. John Nelson, his wife Elizabeth, and their whole family.
Before we all got together for a marvelous meal and great Christian fellowship, John took us out to an older section of Melbourne for a little sightseeing.

One of the many things we saw on our quick trip was a great view of downtown Melbourne.

Another evening, we had tea with the Withers family. Martha met the Withers through the Ladies Bible study at the Presbyterian Church of Australia (P.C.A.) in Launceston. Stuart Withers was an elder at the P.C.A. and a sheep farmer until the Lord called him to study for the ministry. Stuart now attends the Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne. It was very good to get together and catch up on how they are, how he is handling seminary, and the overall state of Christianity in Victoria and Tasmania.

In the above picture is Stuart's wife Adele and one of their children. Adele is a true mother in Israel and has been an encouragement and help to many P.C.A. ladies in Launceston.

Chatting about theology, family, and seminary studies with Stuart

Job is always keen on guy time

Back at the Stewarts' home: the serious Klaver men :)

Julia finishing breakfast being supervised by the Stewarts' dog Sophie. Sophie had surgery while we were staying with the Stewarts and that is why she has the cone on her neck. Occasionally Julia would grab Sophie by the edges of the cone and say, "Hello Sophie," and have a little conversation with her. Until Sophie got the cone, Julia was a little intimidated by her; but once Julia had control by grabbing the cone, everything was fine.

We visited the largest shopping center in the Southern Hemisphere in Chadstone, Victoria. We only saw about a third of it but what we did see of it was amazing. The variety of things available in Melbourne as opposed to Launceston is huge.

Martha really liked the T2 Tea Shop.

There were three food courts on the bottom floor of the Chadstone shopping center alone. We had lunch at a kind of all natural curry place. I got spicy beef curry and fresh coconut juice. Mmmm...tasty...

Julia really likes coconut juice too!

Our last little excursion before we returned to Launceston was a pancake house. Martha saw an advertisement for a real deal pancake house. We had not found a place that serves real North American style pancakes in Oz until we came to Melbourne. They have crepes and pikelets (tiny pancakes) in Tasmania but we have not come across what we would consider proper pancakes.

I am having some of Martha's chocolate malt and Julia is enjoying her sparkling apple juice. They called it apple cider but it's not at all like what Americans call apple cider. Although Tasmania is called "The Apple Isle," real apple cider seems to be something unknown here as well.

Job chilling out waiting for pancakes.

Perfect for those really lazy weekends... (what are those like again?)

The decoration and theme of the restaurant was eccentric and included some Alice in Wonderland characters.

An explanatory sign that left me still wondering why

The menu

We had a blessed time in Melbourne and an uneventful trip back home to Tassie.

Here we are waiting for our ride back home.

Melbourne Trip Part 2

One day we took the train into Melbourne.

For $5 you can get an unlimited public transport ticket for in and around Melbourne, whether you ride the bus, tram, or train.

Julia always thinks train ride are pretty cool.

The Klaver men on the train.

One of the train stations in downtown Melbourne

Downtown Melbourne from the train station

We walked from the train station to the Melbourne Aquarium.

Julia and I are in the mouth of a small Megalodon shark.

In addition to the variety of fish big aquariums have, the Melbourne Aquarium had special exhibits of sharks and rays and penguins (not all together!). Julia enjoyed the whole museum, with just a little bit of crabbiness and tiredness here and there, but she loved the penguins.

We took the tram from the Aquarium back to the train station. Outside the station was a little cafe specializing in American food. Strangely enough, it was Martha's idea to indulge in the sugary and greasy goodness.

They also had nice big doughnuts.

It truly was a family size doughnut.

Rejoicing in the beefy goodness!

Another day we went to the Melbourne zoo. It is a very large zoo and we saw less then half of it. Zoo food is always expensive but the Melbourne Zoo food was certainly better than any we'd had before at a zoo.

Martha had curry.

Julia and I shared chips, a burger, and chicken schnitzel.

Grrrrr...

Elephant rider!

There was a nice exhibit of butterflies you could walk through.

Momma and baby elephant

Julia can out-climb any monkey or orangutan.

Julia seemed to enjoy the zoo's playground more than the animals!

One evening Julia Short, a member of the Australian Free Church, came over for tea (dinner) at David and Robin's home.

Julia took this cute family picture for us.

Catching up on electronic work.

One afternoon, we went to the Rhododendron Gardens outside Melbourne.

We walked through the garden and found a nice place, Serenity Point, to have our packed lunch.

Serenity Point had a little man-made pond with tadpoles.
Julia could have spent the whole afternoon watching them and playing in the water.

The garden was beautiful and relaxing.