Melbourne (but drop the 'r')

Before I get too much into our hot summer days in Melbourne, we need to clear something up. Aussies pretty much do no pronounce the 'r' sound. In any word. Unless there's no 'r' in a word, then it's available for use (example: Micah, pronounced Miker). Along those lines, the city Melbourne is not pronounced how we Americans think it would be: Mel-BURN. It is instead pronounced Mel-Bnn. You learn this very quickly when you're in country, and it helps you acclimate and gain "street cred" with Aussies.

Anyway, after Hamilton Island and Tassie, we flew to Melbourne for a few days. Between the previous 4 weeks of travel and the newly found Melbourne summer heat, exhaustion had set in. We were much slower to tackle things, but we still enjoyed our time there!

A LEGO Discovery Centre had opened in Melbourne a few months prior and the boys were quite keen to have a go (translation: they were very excited!). Great indoor activity to avoid the scorching heat outside.

Melbourne in LEGO

LEGO AFL

Melbourne Cup in LEGO

Goofballs!

At the suggestion of a friend (another mom of two similar aged boys, so a good person to get advice from!), we booked a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

MCG has hosted thousands of events in its history - the olympics (1956), World Cup final (1992), Commonwealth Games (2006) and thousands of cricket matches, AFL, rugby Union, rugby League, concerts, historic speeches and more.

MCG is awesome! It can hold more than 100,000 patrons at any given time. The largest estimated single-event crowd was for a Billy Graham appearance in 1959; low estimates put 130,000 people in attendance!

E and Aaron on the field

Aaron and the boys in the visiting team locker room

View of the field from the members only Long Room

We also got to see some "behind the walls" features - locker rooms, training facilities, media rooms and more.

It was so hot in Melbourne (did I already mention that?!?) - I'm pretty sure we collapsed in our hotel after the MCG tour.

On our final day in Melbourne we visited SCIENCEWORKS. We all enjoyed it!

City planning

After some great (and hot!) time in Melbourne, we flew home to Sydney to pack E for sleep away camp, pack our house to move down the street, and pack Nani and Papi to return home to the US. 

Just after we moved houses (the day Nani and Papi left) and while E was at sleep away camp, Aaron and I would "boomerang" back to Melbourne for the Women's Finals of the Australian Open!