It was such a pleasant sound waking up this morning to rain on the rooftop. Nice, sleepy-sleep.

With rain falling outside, it was such a great day to leisurely catch-up on email, the "blob," and phone calls to our darling girls. Luckily, we caught both of them and it was fun and the very best getting to chat with them.

Not a day is to be wasted though. We left in the rain, driving toward Mornington Peninsula. OK, try to picture a large circular bay surrounded by land on all sides but one tiny little straight - that is the large body of water south of Melbourne called Port Phillip Bay. The only opening to sea is called The Rip. The road follows the bay shore is long and is beautiful. Again, it is a bay so there are no big waves, but the water is clear and smooth and the land beyond the forebeach is hilly. So for those lucky enough to own one of the zillion of houses built on the forebeach and on the hills, there is easy access to the beach and a view that is glorious.

We were headed toward Sorrento -a town we were told by an artist at the St. Kilda Market was an absolute must-do for those who want to avoid tourist traps. Along the way, the beach towns were cuuuuute! We could live in just about any of them. We stopped in Dromana, for tourist info. The folks manning this little stop took their time in learning what might interest us and in explaining how and why we might get there. We settled on our original plan and headed toward Sorrento, but first stopped for lunch at L'aqua. Here in the midst of virtually nowhere, we had one of the best meals we have had in all of Australia, stuffed chicken, breast wrapped in prosciutto and pumpkin polenta.

It turned out to be a beautiful day! And, yes, Sorrento was nice. I took a ton of pictures in this quaint little town which obviously was designed for well-heeled vacationers. We bought wine, an apple slice and chatted with a shopkeeper who travels America like we travel Australia. She's already booked her 2-month USA trip for September. One of her stops is Atlanta! It is a small world indeed.

Then it was time to make it back to St. Kilda, a whole 75km away. I promise! I will never leave town again without a good map! The tourist destination maps simply will not do!

We did make it back, of course, with only a couple of U-turns and one set of service station directions. But mostly we made it home because of my wonderful husband, Stan, who is a natural-born navigator! Thank you, God for him!