Our Road Trip to Melbourne

Hello everyone...i just spent about an hour writing all about our excursions with many pictures and descriptions...and for some unknown reason, it shut off and deleted it...so this is going to be less thorough and you can blame the internet cafe for this unfortunate event.

On another note, Lauren and I just got back from a wonderful week-long trip to Melbourne. We spent the first 2 days driving down the coast from Sydney, past Melbourne, and on to a town at the end of the Great Ocean Road (one of the most beautiful stretches of coast in the world just west of Melbourne). On the third day, we drove down the Great Ocean Road back into Melbourne. All along the way, we stopped to eat, explore, watch the tennis matches, etc.


(Jervis Bay...our first stop after leaving Sydney. Some of the most turquoise waters known for dolphin spotting...although we didnt see any)


(we took many pictures of road signs along the way...we finally got this one showing the distance to Melbourne after about 5 other failed attempts)


(DAY 2: At Kings Lake, one of the many lakes in Lakes Enterance, the town we stopped in and stayed our first night)


(Laura and Lauren with their new lifeguard friends in Geelong, a city about an hour west of Melbourne. We stopped here to eat lunch and watch Roddick beat Fish on our second day)



(The Great Ocean Road...Bay of Islands and the famous 12 Apostles (just above)


(The view from the windy windy road, which Laura so wonderfully mastered, as though she were a real local...yes i will toot my own horn. no pun intended)


On day 4 of our trip, but our first day in Melbourne, we went to the Australian Open. We got to see men's doubles semifinals, and the womens singles semifinals...Serena Williams v. Nicole Vaidisova and Kim Clijsters v. Maria Sharapova. We tried desperatly to see the Roddick v. Federer semifinal, but they were sold out and so we instead watched on a huge screen in the beer garden of the Aussie Open grounds. Looking back, we are quite pleased that we did not spend $120 to see Roddick get his ass handed to him in straight sets.


(A really really awkward picture of us in front of Rod Laver Arena. and yes, parker IS holding that hat, which she proceded to purposely leave in the hostel. She wanted a floppy hat, but according to her, "it flopped in all the wrong places")


(Hanging out in the Heineken beer garden)


(Serena after her win against Vaidisova)


(Sharapova v. Clijsters)


(so hot! poor andy..)

The rest of our trip consisted of celebrating Australia Day on the 26th, and exploring the city and the St. Kilda area, where our hostel was, oh and finding Lauren another nose ring, due to the tragic loss of her old one on Australia Day.


(Australia Day!!)