Day 249: Blackburns' Last Night

Fed Square Christmas Decor

After partying last night, we slept in and woke up to a gorgeous warm day! Since today was the Blackburns' last day/night in Melbourne we spent the better part of the day walking around the city shoe shopping of course lol! Cindy was on the hunt for THE wedding shoes and she found them on our shoe hunt today!

As we walked around the city we saw this writing on a side walk. I have mixed feelings about this one:

We ate dinner at Rare Steakhouse and man o' man was it yummy! Actually my food came out cold, but once they reheated it, I was happy! We then headed over to The Toff to enjoy some drink and music.

Day 248: No Chips, just Salsa

Latin Night @ Silk Road

Shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots (breath..)Shots shots....

Teach me how to Dougie, teach me, teach me, how to Dougie....isn't it supposed to be Salsa night???

Teaching Shawn how to swag surf....lol that man is always game!!

Oh what a night. The Blackburns spent the day at Brighton Beach. In the evening, Adonis and I went to the Vanguard Christmas Party. I have to admit that it was much better than I thought it would be (No, not because booze were served lol). The crew and their partners were genuinely having fun drinking, eating, and dancing. Loved it. Side Note: Why were my co-workers saying hi to Adonis more than they were to me! I swear, he kept getting stopped and chatting away. He's such a social butterfly. I mean, who can resist his charm?!

After the Christmas Party, we met up with The Blackburns for a salsa evening at Silk Rd. We ended the night with tequila shots and doing the Dougie! lol.

Day 247: Melbourne Laneways

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

 I'm so jealous that Adonis took Cindy and Shawn on a laneway tour. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the laneways are my favorite spots around Melbourne. You never know who you'll see taggin' up. For example, how cute is this chick with her spray paint in a basket lol. "Urban" definitely has a new face nowadays.

So, I missed out on all the fun during the day because I was at work... wah! But, we made it up by heading to the Night Market again! This time we ate as much as we wanted and drank as much as we wanted!

Day 246: Little Penguin

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

The BlackBurn's vacay the Long way! Beach was on the Agenda our first day back in Melbourne. They had yet to see the city, so we figured what better way than to show em' around St. Kilda. You guys may remember we took the guys here to. This time around we actually brought our beach gear and got to lounge for a few hours. The beach was full, but not nearly packed. The water was on the warm side and the breeze was just enough to save us from the rays of the sun. We started the day with lunch at our favorite Mexican joint, Amigos. We did a lil knick/knack shopping, had some sweets from the bakery, and moved on. After showing them around the main strip we made our way to the boardwalk and the rest is history.....

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

Meet Dougie!! The illusive lil' penguin from St. Kilda pier. I can't tell you how many times we've been on the pier and griped at the fact that you see the signs showing where the penguins are, but you never actually see them. Finally our efforts were rewarded. I think partially because Shaun is so tall he blocked out the sun which cooled the rocks down lol...just kidding. Anyway we named the lil guy Doug. He had us all in tears as we laughed at his attempts to negotiate the rocks. Poor guy had to build up his confidence and wound himself up to make each jump. He barely made it onto some of the rocks and we nearly lost him to the crashing waves. 

Day 245: Manly Beach & Meat Pies

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

Photo Credit: Adonis Long

I love the beach, who doesn't right!? We were told about several beaches to visit while here. Since the weather was nice, we set out to find some more. We took the ferry over to Manly Beach, where we were greeted by a friendly little shopping strip which opened up to Manly at the end. We had a bit of a laugh as the ferry approached the dock, which has a small beach of its own. We didn't say anything at first but the look on all of our faces said it all. What the hell, we travelled all this was for this? There had to be more to it, right?? I had a funny thought. What if this was some sort of joke, an initiation if you will, to the unweary traveller. They hype you up and tell you to go to this great beautiful beach, you get there, and it sucks...hahaha I'm glad it was just a thought. Manly was amazing, damn near better than Bondi if you ask me. Butttt, we went to Bondi on a rainy day, so we'll go back and give it a second try. 

Forget if you think Meatpie's are an English or British thing. When you come to Australia, one of few distinctively Australian things to eat, is a meatpie. My advice, stay away from the microwave mystery "may contain meat" pies that you'd find at an Aussie sporting event. Just like your favorite pizza place, sandwich shop, or hotdog stand (Windmill in Jersey yummmm!!!) there's a must go for meatpie. We were told by many of our Aussie friends that we must must mustttt go to Harry's. When we got to Sydney, it was on the top of priority list and I'm glad we found it! They had Meatpie's with mashed potatoes with gravy, peas and gravy, tomato sauce, just gravy, whichever and however you like. They also have vege pies, hot dogs, and a load of other snackeroos!

Day 244: Bondi Beach!

The Blackburns

Bondi Beach

Photo Credit: Cindy Lopez

We slept-in on Day 3 in Sydney. We needed a few extra hours to let our bodies catch up to our spirits lol. We got dressed and headed to Bondi Beach. The weather was cold, cloudy, and rainy.... crappy! But it didn't stop us from having fun.

We stopped to eat at Mojos Tapas Bar.  OMG was this place amazing. Every tapas dish we ate was soooo gooood and their sangria is good too. If you ever find yourself at Bondi Beach, you must must must eat here!

Day 243: V8 Supercars

Aussie Racing Car

When we made plans to go to Sydney the last thing I expected was a racing event. The Australian V8 Supercar Series can be compared to Nascar in America. However, the cars are different and the majority of the tracks are road courses. Watching it on TV the past couple of months just didn't do the experience justice. If you're in Australia, and they're racing in a city near you, treat yourself! The weather was beautiful, sunny with clear skies. The metallic smell of brake dust and gasoline hovered in the air, if I could make it into a cologne I would. As the cars zoomed by you could hear the drivers shift through the gears. As the cars slowed you'd hear the gasoline explode in the exhaust causing what sounded like shotgun blasts in quick succession. It made the hair stand up on end and got the adrenalin flowing like I've never felt before. I kid you not, I started skipping as soon as we walked off the train, and I heard the cars flying around the course. I felt like a kid in a candy store, all day.


If you have never been to a racing event, make it a point to do it at least once in your life. There is usually off track entertainment, especially for kids. Here in Sydney, they had a pit crew challenge where you could challenge the pro's at jacking up the car, and changing the tires. There were racing simulators, concerts, car shows, and stunt/drifting exhibitions. Last time I was this overwhelmed and excited was the Food court at Paragon Mall in Bangkok. I was on an insane high every second that we were there.

 Photo credit: Cindy Lopez

 Photo credit: Cindy Lopez

One of the Porsche Series Cars, the paddock was buzzing as the teams worked on their cars between races. 

Photo credit: Cindy Lopez

Seriously!!! These are some of the coolest little cars I've ever seen. They're known as Aussie Racing cars. After talking to one of the team owners, they cost about $50k to build and another $50k to maintain and race over the course of a season! HOW AFFORDABLE!! I'm doing it!! They weigh just a fraction of a normal car and run on a 1300cc motorcycle engine. With over 150HP, and revving to over 10,000RPM, how could you not like em'!?

Did you guys know my dream job is to be a race car driver?? I'm going to make it happen, maybe not NASCAR, but Imma do it!

Day 242: We're Bike Buffs!

Our first full day in Sydney was spent on bikes riding around the city with Bike Buffs. What a great way to see the city! We are into biking so this was a good way to squeeze in some exercise while doing the tourist thing.

Our tour guide was a cool older man who started this business a year ago after his antiques business suffered due to the whole Global Financial Crisis. He made us take funny pictures, gave us a bit of Sydney history, and took us to a "Secret Garden" near Luna Park.

Day 241: Hello Sydney!

Yes people... we are on the road again! Or, should we say... in the air again!  Whatever. We are finally making our way to Sydney. The Blackburns enjoyed the Great Ocean Rd. yesterday and flew to Sydney this morning. We took a late night flight to Sydney after I got off of work and we'll be enjoying four full days in the largest city in Australia.: Sydney.

We arrived in Sydney tonight at about 9:45pm. We grabbed the train to the Sydney apartment that we are staying in. So far, we like what we see. The train stations are more grungy than we thought they would be. We saw a lady with a bottle of wine in hand (we likey) and the train windows display some random "scratchiti"(scratch graffiti) ... just like in NYC. You don't really see that in Melbourne, so that was a little reminder of home.

We are staying in Milson's Point which is right across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, right near Luna Park. It's a quiet area but pretty convenient. We are staying in a two bedroom apartment because ALL of the hotels were fully booked! It actually ends up working out pretty well for both couples because we each have our own bedroom/bathroom w/ TVs, a large living room, a fully stocked kitchen, and a large balcony. The apartment is less than a 5 minute walk to the train station and we get gorgeous night views of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Hello Sydney, nice to finally meet you ;-)