Day 8: Church, Produce Market, Beach, and NYE Celebrations

 Today we slept in a bit (we're starting to really feel the "go go go" pace of everything haha), and got ready for church.  We went to the church house across the parking lot from the temple, so we were able to see that again (or see it for the first time for those that weren't able to go with us the other day). It was a wonderful spirit there, and we had a couple people follow us out of the chapel. They had heard us conversing and wanted to know where we were from.  One of them served her mission in Otto, WY and knew some mutual friends of ours!  Small world! They offered to take photos of our group, and then talked about their own world travels.  It was so fun chatting with them! 

After that, we made our way over to the orchards and produce market.  It was like Mortal Kombat in there!!  HOLY COW!! There was a guy that wanted to get past me and my trolley and kept "hitting" me with his cart to let me know.  I turned around and gave him the stink eye while he tried to tell me off.  After he finally looked around me and noticed that I wasn't the one blocking things up (not the foreigner's fault LOL), he backed off.  It was completely insane in there! But, the produce selection was worth it! We got quite the spread to try out for our New Year's Eve festivities! (**sorry for the blurry pics they were screen grabs from a video that was taken of the place - it was seriously HUGE**)

We took our treasured finds home and then got ready for the beach.  This was the most anticipated event for the littles! Goodness, they kept hurrying us along and wanting us to hurry (we were apparently being too slow for their liking haha).

After the beach, we came back and prepared for our NYE feast - we were going to go out and watch fireworks, but everyone was so tired that we stayed in and celebrated here with food and sparklers. We tried Wallaby steaks and Kangaroo steaks.  These were different than the sausages we had the other day.  It was very dark meat, the wallaby was more grainy in texture (similar to liver, better flavor though), and the kangaroo meat tasted better overall and had a better texture to it.

Then we stayed up (or attempted to...or went to bed early...) and watched movies until the New Year, and then went to bed. Such a fun day!

Day 7: Sovereign Hills Mine Town

 Today's adventure was a lot of fun and very interactive! While there were many that were sad about the deep sea fishing, we all agreed that this was a great replacement! It was quite a rainy and cold day today, so jackets were needed.  Some of us *cough* me *cough* didn't bring any along, so we had to keep on the move to stay warm haha 

It was a bit of a drive from Melbourne (about 2 hours one way) so we loaded up and headed out.  The road signs are different here, but definitely self-explanatory. For instance, we have deer crossing signs, they have Kangaroo and Koala crossing signs.  They can be quite dangerous to hit (more than just a bump and dent). They also have "Power Nap stations" where you can pull off and catch a snooze so you're not driving tired (if the sign says we need a Power Nap, then we must comply LOL)!

Sovereign Hills: this little town was a replica of the "old west" here.  The employees/actors wore period appropriate clothing and walked among the crowds, chatting with everyone and staying in character the whole time.  My theater loving kids were in heaven LOL They had marches of the military through the streets as well, so you could see how that might look. 

They had old store fronts and shops where you could go in and look at trinkets from the time periods and even purchase replicas to take home.  They had old games and toys from the era - a peg with a cup on top with a string and ball attached where you have to try and catch the ball in the cup, Chinese checkers peg boards, marbles, jump ropes, etc. There were leather working shops, and candy shops, and so many fun things to look at! 

This scale was broken so you could choose what weight you wanted it to show - my kids had fun with that one LOL

They had presentations of what. life was like in the "old west" times, and what the immigrations were like back then.  The Asian culture dates back to this time frame, when many would come here to help mine for gold, but were unfairly taxed just for being Chinese (there are records of this, and its just sad to realize this is part of history...we live and learn). 

They had a stream in the middle of the town where you could pan for gold - they let you keep what you find.  Chris took some of the kids over there toward the end of the day and they struck it rich!  

The rest of us went back up by the shops to the theater and saw a hilarious magic show, and then a couple of our crew rode the carriage ride around the town. We also had lunch here and there was a HUGE interactive playground the kids could run around in.  There was a life size chess game (we didn't get a picture of that one, sorry), sculptures the kids could climb on and play around, and a pond to run around. 

This was such a fun and interactive trip that I'm glad we were able to go on, and made the disappointment of the cancelled deep sea fishing trip ease greatly!