Blairgowrie

This past weekend friends Mel and Andrew invited us to join them for a weekend at their holiday house in Blairgowrie on the Mornington Peninsula. We headed out Friday after work and stopped along the way to enjoy a dinner of fish & chips and watch the sun set.

Saturday and Sunday mornings were all business for Josh as he completed some of his longest training sessions yet...but he did get a very good feel for the area as he biked 5 1/2 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday followed by 2 hours of running. Meanwhile the rest of us enjoyed walks on the back beach, short jogs/bike rides, wandering through the Rosebud market, and cooking beautiful meals. Mel is an amazing cook and has a very gourmet flare. Her diet is a bit restricted at the moment as she and Andrew are expecting their first child in late January, but she does wonderful things with the foods she can eat! She also gave Kristi some great pointers for Australian foods that can be substituted for American foods that we can't get here - the perfect resource going into the holiday baking season!

Saturday afternoon we visited Point Nepean National Park at the very tip of the peninsula. We had great views of the heads of Port Phillip Bay and were able to tour parts of the military fort that was located there during WWI and WWII to protect the bay. As part of the ride out to the end of the point we even saw the memorial to Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia in 1962 who "went missing" while going for a swim from a beach on Point Nepean. You'll notice that Josh didn't do any swimming over the weekend - rips are not to be taken lightly, not even by Prime Ministers! We then enjoyed coffee and window shopping in Sorento (the Vail Village of Mornington Peninsula). On Sunday afternoon we drove up to Arthur's Seat for wonderful views of the bay before heading home.

It was an absolutely lovely weekend - we were so lucky to have such nice weather and be in such great company! However, since the Mornington Peninsula is well known for its wonderful wineries and it's world class golf courses, we'll have to twist our arms and plan yet another get-away weekend to do some more exploration ;)

PS - As I'm writing this blog the Meyer Christmas Parade (the first of the season) is underway. I guess this is what happens when you don't have a Thanksgiving!