Melbourne, VIC
September 20, 1997
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Getting ready to go

Not a lot of time to see things before making the trip Outback -- I'll have time the weekend before I come back to see more of the sites and take pictures. Crammed all of our belongings and camping equipment and all six of our bodies (Gavin, me, Dan, Stella, Julia, and her puppy) into the Land Cruiser and the solar trailer that we towed behind us all the way to the desert and back.

October 10-15, 1997

Downtown Melbourne

Despite all the options for public transportation (bus, train, tram), we drove and faced the daunting task of finding a place to park and took the one true version of public transportaton -- WALKING. Went into many a record store and found a few Bruce rarities (rare to me anyway) and a couple of Jethro Tull things as well :) When you buy a new CD, it costs about $29 Australian dollars (about $21 U.S.) and isn't shrink wrapped. Some of the more unusual CDs won't even be inside the jewel box -- you'll get it after the cashier rings up the sale.

The tram going by	The tram going by with me in it :)	Sidewalk art	Me outside a church
Couch outside on one side of the street	The matching couch on the other side of the street	In the middle of a mall	One of many places where we had cappuccino
Downtown	Downtown	Downtown	Downtown
One of many skyscrapers	RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)	Chinatown	Look at all the empty kegs outside this bar -- must've been one hell of a party!

Pepsi, the Wonder Dog

After hours of painstaking work, Pepsi has managed to train Gavin to give her treats. She made him repeat the sequence a couple of times, just to be sure he got it right :-P

The Melbourne Zoo

Cool -- got to see a platypus. Heidi and I walked around in circles trying to find the elusive echidna. Really nice zoo, with giraffes and zebras, but there were only two koalas, and they were zonked out in the eucalyptus trees and wouldn't wake up and come say hey. Lazy little buggers...there was nobody around and I could have easily scaled the little fence and gone a-climbin' and stuffed one under my arm and made a break for the car, but they looked so content in their tree forks I didn't have the heart to disturb them. Next time, though, for sure :) It's probably been done before, maybe that's why they're down to two.

Florals reminded me of Perth :)	Ancient relatives :)	Heidi imitates the snake	Gotta get that koala!	Meercats
The platypus!	Heidi outside the platypusary	Lions	Another ape watches the dumb animals (us)	Heidi in front of one of the animal displays

The Rialto Towers

A view of Melbourne from the sky. Looks unreal up there until you see the tiny little cars zipping around below. For two dollars, you could manipulate a thrill cam and zoom into various sites around the city. Check out Heidi's reflection in the monitor in the last picture :)

Jimi and the Human Condition

Gavin, pH, and I found the venue (the Panton) after driving way out of town. We stopped for directions at one bar and found out that we were really close to the turn off -- a "footy kick" away to be precise :) Saw Jimi Hocking and his band The Human Condition, perform two amazing sets, including a version of Runaway Guitar that went so fast it made my head spin. Played a lot of songs I knew from Gavin's tapes <g>. It was great to meet him afterwards, too.

Nights on the Town

So many roundabouts, I don't know how anyone keeps their internal compass on track. Gives you the impression of never slowing down at all, too, just bombing through neighborhoods to get from Point A to Point B. Every now and then you'd hit a speed hump (not a speed bump, mind you), sort of like driving over a sidewalk (you mean a footpath??). You've gotta burn, though, because hey, your pizza might be ready at Monty's :)

Fairy lights twinkling in the trees	Fairy lights on the other side of the street	One of a zillion roundabouts	Dinner at Tatts with Gavin's family, Heidi's boyfriend Simon, Simon's brother Luke, and his friend Clayton	Steve and Val, all snazzed up, on their way to a wedding
Outside, WiOC (Women in Other ColoUrs) about to see MiB (Men In Black)	Show us your choctops -- Heidi, me, Gavin	Yet another incredible Aussie sunset	Me and Gavin, with pictures from his trip Up Over last year watching over us	Gavin turns his back on the poster for Event Horizon -- neither of us liked the movie
Heidi does the Vanna thing	In search of nachos	Tried to snap the city lights -- the flash went off, exposing us for the chocoholics we are -- a honeycomb candy bar floating as if in deep space :)	The city at night, from the mountains

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