On Saturday we got to have a personal tour of where my brother David works and he showed us everything that opens and shuts around the FPR workshop. We had no idea of what was involved in motor sports and the development of the cars. They are certainly more than ordinary.
Andrew and Declan had a great time quizzing David about everything that they could lay their eyes on, and now at least I some understanding as to why he's so busy all the time!!!
It's certainly a place for boys to dream and play with their toys!!
After FPR and a short lunch stop we followed David through the streets of Melbourne to get to David and Jacqui's apartment in Ascot Vale. They are lucky enough to be close to public transport and have trams run down the road out front that Declan absolutely loved. We then caught a train into the city, another favourite of Declan's and had a bit of a walk around Docklands and then headed back for a pub meal near David and Jacqui's.
Sunday - Mothers Day
After a nice slow start to our day - something that doesn't happen very often. We went out to Jacqui's sisters house for a mothers day lunch where we got to meet some of Jacqui's family. Declan got to play with Sarah and Luke, Jacqui's niece and nephew while Kira just clinged to us as usual.
Surprisingly there was still enough time in the day to do some shopping at the DFO in Essendon, but we found us walking around and around. Andrew and David went with the kids and Jacqui and I went from shop to shop.
Monday - Our Venture into the City
We were directed towards the tram stop from the caravan park and were told it was about a 15 minute walk so we set off on our outing. Getting the tram was easy and getting into the city on the one tram was easy but once we got their we didn't really know where to get off so we made a dash when it stopped on Collins street and then stood around trying to position ourselves on a map and figure out which way and what we wanted to do. Fortunately the kids both said they needed to go to the toilet so we headed towards the information centre on Bourke Street Mall and were told to use the toilets in the GPO building which was really close and clean.
Andrew said he wanted to have a coffee in the city so we went to Koko Black an upmarket coffee / chocolate shop in one of the arcades and ordered an over the top coco infused iced chocolate, a cappuccino with a mountain of chocolate poured on the top and baby cinos for the kids that came with teddy chocolates. Not too bad but way over priced fun for the novelty.
After walking around a bit here and there in the mall we decided that we should go to the Pancake Palace for lunch while we were in the city so to top off our already sugared up bodies we all had pancakes that came with whipped butter. YUM. Andrew had some sore of Pancake stack with mince on top, I can't remember what it was called but he seemed to like it.
We then headed to the train over to Spencer street station where there's a DFO and didn't find much to buy so we thought we would try and catch the tram back to the caravan park but found we couldn't fit on most of them that passed and ended up walking about 4 blocks to the tram that was suppose to take us right back to our suburb to link with a bus. Unfortunately the map that we were given by the caravan park didn't help much and the tram continued passed our stop instead of coming to an end where we were told. After walking back 2 blocks and finding a bus stop and being told it was the wrong one we decided on calling a cab to get home.
When the taxi showed up he thought we meant Elizabeth street back in the city and deliberately turned off his GPS to make some extra money out of us until I told him he was going the wrong way and to get us to where we needed to go in Coburg. Really not happy when we realised that the bus stop that we were told was the wrong one turned out to be only a block or so until the start of the Elizabeth street and we drove passed it in the taxi.
The kids were sick of all the walking that we had to do to get anywhere all day and we were very frustrated by the end of it. Once we got back we had to go out again to get a few groceries and we decided because the kids had been so good that they could have a little party with party blowers.
Tuesday - FPR Merchandise Shop and Puffing Billy
We went back to FPR to the Merchandise shop to stock up on a fair bit of gear and to see David again. We got our FPR shirts, hats, accessories, and toys and David held onto a few shirts to have the drivers sign. Apparently I'm not allowed near the shop with my credit card again even though with the discount I did save us $167.00.
After our disastrous day yesterday we decided to head out of the city and take the kids on Puffing Billy - the oldest steam train in Australia.
It's located in the Dandenongs, east of Melbourne so it was a fair drive and we arrived in just enough time to catch the 12:30 train. It was freezing cold and there is no heating on the train and mostly open carriages apart from two. Someone told us it was about 5 degrees but the supposed benefit for the whole thing was that the steam really did stand out and look magnificent against the train.
We stopped for lunch at Lakeside and went down to the cafe with no eftpos and very little selection of food but the kids were happy to have some chocolate cake and get warm enough before it was time to leave again.
The train has a policy that they don't run on complete fire ban days and during summer they run a fire wagon on the line also just in case there is a fire. A nice journey if you want to experience the real thing but save it for a bit warmer day than the one we had. You can get great discounts by looking in all the tourism booklets on Melbourne and we got 25% off our tickets. We are still lucky enough to get the kids for free on nearly everything.
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