Good Times in Melbourne

After arriving early in Melbourne and spending the day relaxing and putting ourselves together a bit, the Dales took us out to a nice dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Now, normally I would order some California rolls or something only a bit more adventurous off the menu, but Geoff ordered a plate of assorted sushi and sashimi to share (ick I thought!). When the plate full of raw fish arrived, Geoff didn't give us time to conjure up all the reasons we shouldn't eat the slimy globs on the plate... instead he told us to start small and take a roll that has only a bit of raw fish and is mostly rice. Can't argue with that... so we took a roll and tried a bit of raw fish with the taste and texture mostly obscured by rice (That wasn't so bad). Before we had time to put our chopsticks down and after we already admitted the first bit was not too bad, Geoff pointed to a sushi piece - just a slab of raw fish on top of rice - and said "now try that". Too slow to come up with a polite excuse not to at least try the sushi, we soon had big pieces of raw fish approaching our mouths (yikes!). Hmmm - it actually wasn't so bad... smooth, not fishy, and (ok - I admit it) a bit tasty. Next, we were told to go directly for the raw fish - no rice this time. Anyone who had ever suggested this before has been blown off by me... there was no way I could have put such a thing in my mouth without the gag reflex coming on, but now my mind was beginning to open up and without hesitation, I reached for a piece of raw fish. It was, indeed, quite tasty... as many have told me before... but now I am a believer. Raw fish is yummy! Thanks Geoff.

We finished dinner with a variety of other assorted treats and then rolled home to bed to prepare for our first Melbourne ride the next morning. At the wee hours in the morning (ok - around 8), Mally and I awoke to join Geoff on a cycling excursion. Geoff had warned us that he was new to cycling and a bit older than us and thus hinted that we may have to go slowly to ride with him, but before we could clip into our pedals, Geoff was wizzing down the road (wait up!). He took us on a wonderful (and not so slow) ride down the main bikepath and to a road of rolling hills (just to remind us of Tasmania) on the outskirts of Melbourne. The morning was perfect for riding... the sun was shining brightly, the air was a bit cool and somehow Geoff managed to keep all the cars off the street (or... perhaps the public holiday for Good Friday helped with that). All we saw on the road were other bikers! After being skeptical that a city ride could live up to the riding we had been doing, I ended the ride quite happy.

We also ended the ride with a whole day in front of us. The rest of the day, Megan and I managed to be as lazy as possible. We sat on the massage chair, read our books, played on the computer, cuddled with the dogs, and watched an evening movie. In the midst of our laziness, the Dales prepared a scrumptious holiday lunch (with fish of course!) and Rosemarie's mother joined us for a festive and yummy meal.

This morning, our laziness was brought to another early halt (7 this morning!)... but for a good cause - another bike ride in Melbourne! This time, Geoff drove us out to the coast to the real Melbourne cycling scene. I had never seen so many cyclists out at one time (and according to Geoff, the streets were "bare" because of the holiday weekend). We saw a pack of at least a hundred riders pass and many smaller packs zoomed along the other side of the road as well. The cars were used to this cycling scene and knew that the shoulder lane belonged to the riders. It was another splendid city ride that followed a smooth, fairly flat (yay!) path beside the coast and along the way we ended up forming a pack of up to 12 riders with other random cyclists of similar pace.

We certainly had a wonderful ride, and the end of the ride only got better! We pulled into "Cafe Racer" for a nice post ride breakfast with numerous other cyclists - anyone not wearing lycra here was clearly out of place. The cafe even had hooks for riders to hang their bikes up while eating (genius!). We filled our hungry bellies with fresh squeezed orange juice, scrumptious fruit, and warm croissant sandwiches before heading home as happy cyclists.

After cleaning up, Rosemary and Geoff took us on an excursion outside Melbourne, through an area full of beautiful wineries, to a sanctuary where we saw some Australian wildlife that we had not yet encountered in Tasmania (at least not alive). We saw kangaroos, a tasmanian devil, emus, snakes (I didn't need to see these... but best to be seen behind glass!), lizards, platapus, dingos, koala bears (my favorite!), and much much more. I loved seeing the assortment of unique wildlife and can now leave Australia happy since I have seen a live kangaroo.

I am now off to more laziness... wishing everyone back home a Happy Easter tommorrow - I will certainly be thinking of you all on the holiday... and will be in good hands here with the Dales.