Manta Ray Bed and Breakfast

We are so luck to have stayed at this awesome bed and breakfast.

Just happened upon it while looking on the internet.

Our Bali style bedroom was just the beginning of how nice this place was.

The place was beautiful and immaculately clean.

I was so worried about bugs - it is so humid and there are many, many

weird animals, bugs, birds, flowers etc.

These signs are EVERYWHERE! At every, single beach.
And I can't figure out why Tom will not go swimming with me in the ocean.
He likes to just stick to the pool where he can see what is in the water with him!

The weather here has not been great, especially for exploring the

Great Barrier Reef but we keep looking out over the ocean hoping it will change.

The entry to "The Mantra Ray Bed and Breakfast"

This is our little resident "White Lipped Green Tree Frog"
He appears every morning sitting on the top of a light by our door.

He is only about 4 inches long but sooo cute.

"It's not easy being green" however.

These little guys get eaten by lizards, snakes, birds, and crocodiles!

More pictures and stories to tell but I don't' have time right now.

But, I do want to say that our hosts, Anne and Fernando have been just awesome.

Anne is from Ireland and Fernando is from Portugal.

They feed us fabulous breakfasts every morning - always an amazing fresh fruit platter with mango, passion fruit, lychee, melons, grapes, bananas, papaya, and pineapple.

And that is just for starters! She then fixes something like the best Egg Benedict you have ever had or ham and cheese croissants or omelets.

Then of course, cereal, yogurt, tea, juice and toast is also served.

I hope to get a picture of them before we leave - just great people.

More to come when I get a moment.

Brighton Beach and Port Melbourne

I've got to stop eating those Cherry Ripple Gelato's!

Hmmm... maybe tomorrow will be a better day to start that program!

If I could put them in my suitcase for all my friends I would!

These are the cutest little "beach sheds" all along Brighton Beach,

which is about 15 minutes from our place.

People just paint them anyway they want and then store their beach supplies in there.

Just a fun little place on a hot summer day!

This one was one of my favorites!

As you can tell, it was not all that warm but some people were brave enough to put a swimsuit on that day. I brought mine and hoped it would be hot, but it wasn't.

There were lots of boats out that day because of it being one of the first sunny days

and plenty of wind to sail with.

Some of the beautiful homes right across the street from the beach.

I can't imagine having that view everyday when you get up in the morning.

Port Melbourne

Daily ships come into port from China - just like Seattle!

The Spirit of Tasmania leaves from here daily to make the trek to Tasmania.

It takes all night - I would much rather take the 1 hour flight!

The lonely beach - we are still hoping for nice weather. The wind was so fierce this day that it felt like our skin was being sand blasted as we stood on the beach.

Hence, no one else is at the beach with us!

Today, 10-15-2010 it is raining sideways, and snowing up in the mountains.

Well, at least I stayed in all day and got this blog updated!

Still praying for real summer weather before we leave.

10-10-10 and random pictures

We decided that because it was Oct 10, 2010 that we needed to do something fun!

The Melbourne Customs Building is right across the street from our place.

The address of that building just happens to be 1010 La Trobe Street.

So, on 10-10-10 at 10:10am we took our picture at the 1010 building!

You all know how I love numbers, so this was fun for me!

Our cute little friends Emma and Dottie were there too!

Our good friends, Steve and Desi, put up with my madness and agreed to come too!

We ran across this sign on our way back from The Great Ocean Road and just had to have a picture of it for obvious reasons!

Just had to take this picture for Terry!

"Witches in Britches" is a comedy/dinner show with a dungeon dance pit at the end of the evening. Not sure if that is our cup of tea, but Terry, I was thinking of you!

Tom on the streets of Melbourne sporting his "man bag."

They are so popular here, we had to get one!

One day I just looked out my window and saw this cool ship coming in.

I went down to the dock to check it out, but by the time I got there it was gone!

This picture was taken in Hobart, Tasmania at the Botanical Gardens.

The Magnolia blossoms were so fragrant and beautiful.

Port Fairy - One of our favorite places so far!

Hurray! We have finally seen the sun!!!!

We took the opportunity to take of on a little road trip.
On our way to Port Fairy, we stopped at Aireys Inlet.

Just beautiful and sunny!

I love the blue water and everything about the beach, the sun, the ocean.

This was the first day I even thought about wearing sun glasses.

Split Point Lighthouse

Close up picture of Split Point Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet

One of the many, many picturesque sights along the great ocean road.

I was so surprised at how many sheep there were grazing along the roadside.

Thousands of them!

We stopped for a short hike in the Otway National Forrest

The rain forest reminded me so much of Washington but I no Evergreen Trees!

Gigantic Ferns of hundreds of varieties covered the forest!

This is one of my favorite flowers here - I believe it is called an Echium plant.

They grow to be very tall - up to about 15-20 feet in the first couple of years!

Tom walking the trail in the rainforest.

He doesn't like to have his picture taken but every once in a while I convince him to hold still

for a shot or two!

This picture is in the yard of our Bed and Breakfast we stayed at in Port Fairy.

Our little cottage was so comfy.

Doug and Ruth were wonderful hosts and cooks!

These homemade scones were unbelievable. Made every day by Doug.

They have apricots, sultanas(raisins) and dates in them.

They were to die for! I would go back to Port Fairy just for them!

They had such a nice little spot for their 5 cottages.

We had some great fish and chips at a little joint on the water at Port Fairy.

The fish was Whiting. Not anything I have ever had but it was delicious!

Ok, this was definitely Tom's favorite part of the trip.

He brought his 14 best friends and got to play golf for the first time since he got to Australia

3 months ago. I think he deserved a round of golf, don't you?

I was the photographer and scorekeeper and he just golfed and posed!

The course was amazing! Right next to the ocean, with scenic views at almost every hole.

So, excuse all the pictures but everything was just so picture perfect.

So, my question to Tom is, "Who needs to play Pebble Beach when you have been here?"

This place really was awesome.

It was very breezy, so we will not mention anything about the score!

The other great thing was that although it was a weekend, there were hardly any other players on the course. Port Fairy is just out of the way enough to make it not a popular spot -

good news for us!

Life is good!

Looks like a pro, doesn't he?

We finished the game and not one argument - life is good!

We then went to sit on the beach and got to watch some surfers!

I wish I was younger - I would love to learn to surf.

They say the water here is "crazy cold" this time of the year..

But, isn't it beautiful?

It really made me wish we could bring Mike here.

(Our son in law loves surfing)

I could have sat there all day long. I just loved being there in the sun.

Even these flowers looked prettier to me, just because we were at the beach in the sun.

This last month has been so cloudy and cold, we were just celebrating the beauty of everything we could see because it was sunny!

This surfer stood there for quite a while.

Deciding whether to go in or not? I don't know.

Don't know what this bird is, but I just had to take a picture of it.

Don't ask me why Tom took this picture -we were just being goofy!

These are just a couple of pictures (out of about 100) that I took at this beach of the lighthouse and the waves. So beautiful. I just couldn't get enough of it.

Wish I could take home the sight, the smell and the feel of the beach in the sun!

We just loved our trip to Port Fairy!