Phillips Island...and the City!

This weekend was fabulous! Friday night was family movie night so we watched Scooby Doo the Movie. I have actually never seen it, but it was fun. Saturday the real adventures started. We headed out to Phillips Island, which is about a two hour drive. On the way there we stopped for lunch at a bay, and then walked around the beach. I cannot tell you how many Jellyfish I ran into on the shore...of course careful not to step on them. WE continuted to Phillip Island to check into our house for the weekend, and then went to the Nobbies, which is a nesting place for seagulls. I saw literally thousands of seagulls and their babies. So cute! That night we headed into town for some ice cream, and a few of us went to an Irish pub (funny my first pub in Australia and its an Irish one). We then stayed up and did puzzles. Simple, but fun times!

Sunday we headed out early for a ocean hike. It was about 6km, but it went by so quickly as I love the ocean. There were tons of surfers and even a Jamaican band (playing since the night before!) We had a bite to eat at the beach and then went to a Koala conservation centre. There were about 20 koalas, but sad for us they were way up in the trees. We left pretty quickly and just bummed around town until dinner time. That night we went to the Penguin Parade. It was absolutly amazing. Hundreds of penguins coming ashore, in rafts, at sunset to get back to their homes and find their babies. Unfortunatly no pictures are allowed, but it was amazing!

The next day we started to head home, and on the way stopped for a beach hike and lunch. This was a longer walk than expected, with flies and hills and heat. It wasn't very pleasant, but the end result, the beach, was much worth it. Then we headed home and ordered Thai food.

Tuesday was a stop work day across all of Australia in protest of new labor laws. All the teachers here took the day off, most of which went to the city to join the protests. I don't know what the new laws are, but the principal asked me to join them, just for the experience, so I did. There were over 100,000 people gathered in Melbourne, and this was in 200 cities across Australia! I stayed and listened to the speeches, but when the march started headed off on my own in the city. I bought my first opals! yey! Then of course headed to the aquarium :) and went up the Rialto Towers to observe the city. Gorgeous! They had a postcard there of all the tallest buildings around the world and I was shocked to find the John Hancock on it but not the Sears Tower. Hmmm... Anyway, after that I headed home on the train, alone, and did some grocery shopping on my walk home from the station.

All in all a great weekend! I will get some pictures here shortly! Talk to you all soon!