Melbourne, Australia

Work and fun in Melbourne. We'll do a lot of coffee visits on this trip. I'm so excited to see Selva Negra in stores in Melbourne! We'll do a road trip on Great Ocean Drive, pictures that I have been admiring since we started planning this trip.

Day One:

It's COLD. It's about 40 degrees when we land. We took the red-eye from Singapore. Got lucky and we all slept HARD on the plane. We were, well exhausted, after swimming and walking the 30,000 (close enough people). Now ready for cooler weather and wine! We've enjoyed Asian beers and now get to look forward to some hardy Shirazes in Australia!

We had a rough start to Melbourne...red eye and Aiden had a big sore in his mouth...it appeared to be a big-ole canker soar. It was painful and awful looking and he wouldn't stop complaining...so with the help of the internet and a really amazing server at a coffee shop, I was able to nail down a doctor that would see us within the hour. I managed to get us an appointment and was SO PLEASED with the Australian health experience. I got Aiden diagnose and on antibiotics within 2-hours and it only cost me about US$61. He got himself a tooth infection. It made sense really, he's eating all these exotic foods, biting his finger nails (when of course rarely washing his hands) and with a lose tooth. Bam, tooth infection. After a day on the antibotics he was much better...

Enjoying some samples of Australian wines at the Queen Victoria Market!

We decided to cook tonight. Aiden picked out the pasta, Conner picked out the meat, I picked out the cheese and Steve picked out the wine. Everyone wins! We rented an apartment through Apartments of Melbourne, great experience. We have a full kitchen, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The kids have their own room with their own beds...and we want a home cooked meal.

Part of the excitement of Melbourne is experiencing the coffee. We get a start early on and check out Queensberry Pour House, who is serving our coffee. Yeah, so excited to drink Selva Negra in Australia.

Day Two:

Today we checked out the Melbourne Cricket Grounds...we were curious about Cricket and Australian Football.

I had no idea Cricket was played in an oval field, Australian Football too. Also learned that like in the US, Australia calls "world football"..."soccer", like we do.

Our guide was a bit of a snore, but we did get a full view of the stadium, including the locker rooms and media room.

Cool logo, reminds me of a combination of the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs.

We spend the rest of our days with our friends from First Crop touring coffee, seeing neighborhoods like Brunswick.

The latte art and espressos and drip coffee in Melbourne is just so impressive! I was intimidated, the folks in Melbourne love their coffee and it comes out in great ways. I have I can learn here. Pictured here is a Flat White...a combo of our latte and cappucino.

We ended the evening with a 1 METER long pizza at Criniti's. One meter, that's three feet long...

Day Three:

Today we checked out the Melbourne Cricket Grounds...we were curious about Cricket and Australian Football.

The Shrine of Remembrance does an excellent job of educating us on various wars and from a different perspective than what we grew up with in the States. We learned a lot about World War I and World War II, as well as the loneliness of Australians fighting in wars so far away from their home.

The Shrine of Remembrance museum.

So strange to experience fall like weather in JUNE. It's clearly winter in Australia and yup, COLD. The leaves falling on these trips is a reminder of a different season for us. To think how hot we were in Lao just a couple of weeks ago.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Melbourne. Along the Yara River it's especially pretty. Lots of good restaurants and great coffee shops, pubs. We enjoyed crossing back and forth across bridges and looking at the street art.

Steve and I enjoyed celebrity status... Here we're presenting about coffee farming and our experience with Selva Negra to First Crop. We had a great attendance and really enjoyed meeting coffee roasters and coffee shop owners in Melbourne. I was proud to be there.

Day Four:

Today we are heading out of Melbourne to the Great Ocean Drive on a few day road trip to see the coast line. We rented a car and are prepared to be on the left side of the road!

Here's our driver, be nice to the driver! Being on the left side of the road requires concentration.