Day 2 - 9 March 2018
After having bread and coffee for breakfast, we set off at 9am. We bought two transport cards for AUD15 each and took a tram to Flinders Street. We walked for about 15 minutes and arrived at Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium.
The kids were just fascinated by all the sea creatures. We even saw a member of staff feeding the crocodile with a whole chicken. It just seemed to chew once and gobble down the entire chicken effortlessly.
The kids also enjoyed the Art Aquarium. Both of them were excited when their respective sea creatures which they coloured were featured on the huge screen after scanning them.
We had lunch at Nobu near Crown Complex. It was just a short walk from the Sea Life Aquarium. Great ambience, great food and the most wonderful company. I had tempura udon - almost like the standard order of my choice.
After lunch, the kids were just having great fun along the promenade of Yarra River. As Le just bought a ball at the Sea Life Aquarium, he was so excited and couldn’t wait to play it. We were having fun, kicking the ball to each other until the sweltering heat forced us to end the activity.
As we walked around Crown Complex, we chanced upon Cafe Baci and the instinctive desire for some ice cream kicked in. We took a break from the walking - not that we had already walked extremely long - and enjoyed the ice cream and the chocolate milkshake.
We then walked back to the Sea Life Aquarium to cover the remaining sections of the Aquarium which we had missed in the morning. Our last few activity was the 4D short movie and Yu was already freaked out less than 5 min into the show. He asked me if we could leave and sensing his desperate tone and knowing that he couldn’t be persuaded otherwise to stay, I brought both of them out of the theatre. Perhaps, he was just not ready for the sound and the seemingly real effect of a 4D animation. Don’t worry son; wait till you are older and then we will watch one of these 4D animations next time.
Coffee time. We walked to the Journal Cafe at City Library. I had my afternoon coffee fix. I had heard from friends before that Melbourne coffee is one of the best. I totally agree. Emma ordered a glass of Prosecco and man, it was almost filled to the brim. How generous!
We took a tram back to Best Western. We went to the park just opposite the motel. And boys can just do anything with a ball. We were taking turns, throwing the ball up into the air and catching them. And as if it was not challenging enough, we came up with this idea of throwing the ball up and while the ball was up in the air, the person had to do some creative actions like dancing or whatever, before catching the ball. I think I had one of the best idea but a poorly implemented one. I threw the ball up in the air, did a cartwheel, but failed to catch the ball. Haha.
Dinner time. We packed Chinese food and did a little picnic at the same park opposite our motel. Just something new that we thought was interesting although the idea of eating in an eatery is more convenient. Actually, because the kids were so tired, we wanted them to just quickly finish dinner and go back early so that they could rest. However, they were so insistent of the idea of a picnic. Well, we just went with the flow and everything turned out well. It helped that the sky was still very bright at 7pm and the sun seemed only ready to set when we finished our dinner at 8pm.
Back in the room, it was just showering the kids and preparing them to sleep. They knocked out almost immediately after the lights were switched off. We waited for Xiaowei to arrive to pass us the driving licence before we call it a night.