After one final morning with Kate & Tom in Canberra, our little fam loaded up for the hour-long flight from Canberra to Melbourne.
As a side note, the Canberra airport was a dream!
We landed around 3 p.m. on Wednesday and checked into our Airbnb (which had THE MOST spectacular view!), checked out the neighborhood a bit (this is such a great spot!) and grabbed sushi dinner from Sushi Jiro (which was phenomenal). Not a bad way to start the third leg of the trip.
How amazing is this view?? One of the tall buildings in the corner even put on a light show every half hour in the evening. Spectacular!Sushi with a view!There’s street art down every Melbourne alley, and it’s so much fun to spot!I won’t post every photo I took because, as you can imagine, it was quite a few. BUT HOW FUN?!Some of my Mom’s fam met up with us at the Queen Victoria Market, which was a lot of fun. I love this family <3Just look at these cutie kiddos!It just goes to show that distance can’t keep family apart.We had the sweetest first full day in Melbourne!I sure do love my sweet travel buddies <3<3<3Riding the City Circle Loop (the free tourist tram) was a real hoot.Federation Square was a very cool spot for artwork, food, drinks and to check out the Yarra River.
Friend meet-up in Torquay!Torquay was about an hour from downtown Melbourne, and such a fantastic first stop on our trip!Poppa!We saw the most insane competition at Lorne between elite search & rescue teams. It was seriously impressive.And got our toes wet on the beach, of course <3Look at this gorgeous drive!Apollo Bay was cold but so, so beautiful.So. Beautiful.After about four hours of driving, we made it to the 12 Apostles!What a gorgeous view.Two cuties <3<3This was the idyllic view from the deck of our cabin in Port Campbell.The Bay of Martyrs was our first stop on Sunday morning.The London Bridge was also so. cool. Part of it fell several years ago — the part that connected the two rock formations — so it was pretty special to see what’s still up.The Grotto was my favorite, I think. What an insanely cool spot!Gorgeous.Then it was back to the 12 Apostles beach area for a bit more sandy toed fun.
After spending a few more hours on the Great Ocean Road, we headed back to Melbourne, and had dinner with my Mom’s amazing family. I hadn’t seen them in over 10 years, but it was as if I see them every day.
My cutie Italian Melbourne fam <3But how cute are all these kiddos, though?!My grandfather passed away years ago, but what an absolute treasure to spend time with his 94-year-old sister, Rosina.On our last full day the girls wore ALL THE SWAG they got from my wonderful family the day before <3We stopped at the Caldermeade Farm and Cafe on our way to see the fairy penguins at Phillip Island, and it was so much fun! Cute farm animals. A fun playground. Watching an assembly line of cows getting milked. What’s not to love?!Grace and Lotte’s abilities to sit through photos really started to wane about now. Fair enough. These kids have been AMAZING!We made it to the Phillip Island Fairy Penguin Parade! Phillip Island is about two hours from our Airbnb, and totally worth the drive! The penguins make the trek every evening around sunset from the ocean to their resting nests, and it is absolutely one of the best things I’ve seen in my life!You’re not supposed to take photos of the penguins or the march after sunset, but just trust me when I say that it’s incredible and well worth a visit.We <3 penguins!The penguin count for the day!
Grace’ face in that last photo says it all. Melbourne — we’ve done so much! It has been amazing in every possible way. And now we’re onto the tropical part of our trip. Airlie Beach, here we come! Until then … bis bald, my friends!
