A surprisingly good Melbourne visit

Don't get me wrong, I think we are very lucky to have a state capital as beautiful as Melbourne, but I usually really don't like visiting the city and I don't like attending funerals either, so the prospect of a midweek trip to Melbourne for a funeral put me in bad spirits.  But it turned out to be a surprisingly good trip!

We left before school on Wednesday morning to a crisp foggy morning.  It was beautiful driving down through the country which looked all the prettier for its foamy misty coating.  We only stopped once on the way to get petrol and buy a few grapes to add to our homemade picnic, and then made it to Melbourne without a drama.

We were nearly put off of our plan by the damp weather, but the kids' excitement made us follow through, and we drove all the way around the Royal Botanic Gardens enjoying Melbourne in Autumn and finally parked in the perfect spot to visit the Ian Potter Foundation's Children's garden.  We'd read that the garden was good, but it was GREAT! 

We parked our picnic on the lawn in the centre and the kids went wild (no really, they were doing Gorilla impersinations and imagining booby traps everywhere!).  They loved the bamboo forest the best, but the rocks, tea-tree forest and black stump were also a hit.  Stu and I also loved playing in the garden and the boys and I paid an educational visit to the fabulous kitchen garden.  All in all, one of the best things we've ever done in Melbourne and it was FREE!  We'll be going back in summer so we can play in the stream and water features.

After the gardens, we paid a visit to the Shrine.  The kids really enjoyed it and with ANZAC day school activities fresh in their minds, they asked a lot of great questions and we all learnt something.

Our plan was then to visit Yarra Bend park to visit the flying fox colony (for my bat mad boy).  We got there and it was very muddy and we didn't see a single flying fox :(  A bit dissapointing....

From there, the kids snoozed in the car while we drove to Nanny Kath's house.  Kath is one of my collection of grandmothers (long story) and always makes us feel at home.  She played with the kids, cooked us a lovely meal and we just relaaaaaaxed (and I still got to have my Wednesday favourite - a glass of wine and Offspring on the tele!).

Thursday was the funeral for Stu's Nan.  It was a lovely service with her children (including my father in law) putting together a wonderfully warm and interesting summary of her 93 years and a great collection of photos.  She was an amazing woman, strong and independent, who worked very hard to support her family financially as well as being a great Mum and Nan.  I loved hearing about her garden and her inginuity and the stories of her draining her 100 or so chooks that she killed, plucked, gutted and sold for Christmas on her hills hoist!  We'll be planting a citrus tree in our chook yard in her memory.  R.I.P. Nan.