Melbourne.

Having grown up in a tiny town I can remember being a kid and thinking I would never want to live in a big city, or tall building. Also I’m a pretty decent claustrophobic so elevators have never been something I enjoy. But even with all that I’m a closet city girl. So “home” for us is another sky scraper. It’s a new building with modern apartments and floor to ceiling windows with views onto Melbourne. Staying in apartments helps give us more of a sense of home. We can cook and be together easier there. Our apartment also came with two pools, one of which was located on the 67th floor of the building with an infinity edge that looked over the city. It also had a pool table, sauna, even a virtual golf driving range which we never found. Melbourne to me looks like a warm Chicago.

There is a lazy river running through its central business district flanked by restaurants and shops.

Bridges cross it and teams of crew row up and down.

We happened by chance really to be here the final week of the Australian Open. It would prove to be super advantageous as I’ve never seen a pro tennis match and we would end up getting tickets to the women’s semi finals. The tickets were expensive and that along with the fact I know you have to be quiet during the match itself made me less willing to drag the kids along. We bought the cheapest seats we could. I didn’t realize it would literally be in the last row but it turned out at least it was a good section.

We could walk to the matches so once we got there I walked up to the information booth and basically told the girl there I had no idea what we were doing. She kindly showed us what we should go see. One thing she suggested was that John McEnroe was playing in a masters match. We then grabbed some food and shade. After finding our seats we noticed they showed who I recognized as Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban on the TelePrompTer. I was thinking they had to be in the front row so I skimmed the backs of heads before finding a perfectly shaped blonde head of hair right below us, ok like 30 rows down but still. We had the perfect position to see when they came and went and could head them off. Not that the highlight for me was seeing them, or Anna Wintour who was sitting next to them, but it definitely made it more interesting. Tennis is actually super fun to watch. I always thought it looked stupid but it was pretty interesting.

It was fun to participate it what clearly is a big event with Australia and Melbourne. We walked home. The next day was(again didn’t plan for this either) Australia Day. Basically their Independence Day. They had a huge parade and again that happened to be down the street so we wandered down to watch it. Afterwards we followed the masses of people and walked over to a park where they had further festivities and food. It felt very much like 4th of Julyish with families hanging out, we grabbed some grass and food and enjoyed the air show and festivities.

A city you can run in. Melbourne is a great running city. Put a river in almost any city and you’ll have a running path. Run we did. Up and down the river. It was nice just to be outside. Teams of crew practice and team members on bikes with megaphones shout commands at them as they row.

We watched the women’s final on TV, Todd and I now vested fans as we had seen the semi finalists play. The next day, Austin who was actually more of a tennis fan to start with wanted to go watch the men’s final. As there was no way we were getting tickets(we’re not that big of fans yet....maybe next year). So we went to one of the places in town they have set up for viewing the match. The plaza was packed. People sitting on the ground cheering along as the match progressed. It was a fun night to watch the sun set over Australia and the match.