Day 2 - 1 May 15

We woke up at 730am in the morning. The weather was perfect. Almost the entire morning was spent at Alice's place in trying to get ready - from showering the kids, preparing their breakfast, feeding them and packing the necessary stuff for the day out. Emma did most, if not all of of the entire abovementioned stuff. I merely muck around the house with Le.

We set off at about 11am and drove to a nearby shop to purchase our data sim card. And then we drove to Melbourne Zoo which took us about half an hour. When we arrived, it was about noon. We had lunch at Lakeside Bistro. Not much of a lakeside view as what the name suggested. Emma and Le had pasta while I had fish and chips. My fish and chips was so-so only by Australia's fish and chips standard, much to my disappointment. But I also knew that this lunch meal was not really for enjoyment; it was just a quick eat-and-go kind of thing.

After lunch, we began our adventure at the zoo. Ambling through the paths with bell birds' singing and the rustling sound of the autumn leaves on the trees made the experience wonderful. Le might have a totally different experience than me. Perhaps animals from books that he read all of a sudden became relevant to him as he has now seen them. To "save" his experience, I did my best to snap away at most of the animals that we came across, with the exception of the tigers (and some others) which were in the mood for some peek-a-boo game.

Next was the Brighton beach. I was particularly excited at seeing the colourful bathing boxes. It was about 45 min drive from the Melbourne Zoo. We parked at the nearest carpark that we knew and carried our boys in each of their carrier. But walking on the fine sand with two kids was not the most romantic experience. We held hands but the weight of our boys caused each step to sink in a few inches. In the end, we managed to take picture of some of the bathing boxes up close that were sporadically situated along the beach. As for the notable ones that were neatly spread across the beach in a single stretch, we spared ourselves from the discomfort of walking towards them. A picture from afar that captured all of them would have sufficed. We managed to catch the glorious sunset too which complete the experience.

We headed back to Alice's place for dinner. She had generously prepared pasta for us and we were served huge portions of it. Two people's portion (I think) for each one of us. It was, needless to say, very satisfying.

We chatted while the kids played together and we got the kids to bed at about 930pm. Looking forward to a wonderful Day 3.