Lawn Bowling

Today, I took the train into Caulfield (just outside Melbourne) and Jill and Trevor picked me up from the Station and we went to the St. Kilda market and beach area. They have been great to me since I got here. It is so nice of them to take the time to show me around the city and make me feel so welcome. It is also nice because they tell me a lot of history and I can ask all sorts of questions about the country because they are so willing to share. They other good thing is that Jill is originally from the UK and they still have a ton of family there, so they have also shared a lot about the UK in comparrison to Australian and immigrating and everything.

After walking around St. Kilda and down the pier, we headed into the city to the Botanical Gardens. What a beautiful area! There are nice gardens, but there is also tons of open lawn space and people just come in and have parties and picnics and play. Alcohol is allowed, so a lot of people just sit around for the day and have food and drinks and the kids run around the open areas. There are also a few ponds with ducks and swans (YUCK!). I normally wouldn't want anything to do with the birds, but they have black swans here so I was totally interested. I even got within 2 feet to take a pictures - baby steps...

We walked around downtown and got some gelato and then headed to "The Shrine". This is the ANZAC (Australia- New Zealand alliance or something - I'm not exactly sure what it stands for) war memorial. There was a veteran's ceremony going on (I think someone recently died), so it made the visit even more meaningful. It was interesting to see how their history in WW1, WW2 and Vietnam were similar to what happened in America - especially with the Vietnam War. Speaking of wars, it seems the majority of people here do not like George W. Bush and are very much so against the war going on right now. The new government is already taking about troop withdrawls in the next few months.

After all the sightseeing downtown, we headed back to Wheelers Hill (where they live) and went to their Country Club so I could have my first lesson in Lawn Bowling. It was actually a lot of fun and there is a lot of skill that goes into bowling and turning and length and all that. I will post the pictures soon. I know I have seen the game once in the US, but it is not popular there, so it was fun to try one of the Australian sports while I am here. The sport is becoming more and more popular here and is actually played in some of the high schools. I could see how it would be fun as a social sport, but I don't think I could get too competitive with it - then again, you never know!

Now we are off to dinner with Janet and Phil and then they will take me back to Pakenham...