AUSTRALIA
Woohoo! What a day we had yesterday!
Tara (lovinjackson) and Lisa (angelustatt) picked us up at 10 am ish as planned and we headed out of Melbourne toward Ballarat to visit Sovereign Hill. The accent here is on Hill. The parking lot is on a slight hill. You go up a hill to the entrance to pay the fee and then the good stuff begins. There are several areas set up with life-like mannequins in clothes and positions to imitate life in the early to mid 1800's when the gold mine was begun. Sound effects were excellent. We watched a movie to go through a sort of casual orientation, then exited the building to the old mining town.
The town is really built on the side of a hill. Whew! Many, many people walking around in period costumes, functioning stores, candy making demos, goldsmiths working, all kinds of cool stuff. We had a beer in a bar, and afternoon tea in a hotel dining room. People can stay there and children in period costumes can actually go to school there for a few days.
It really was awesome. :D When we headed back, we were well and truly exhausted. The up and down of it all was amazing and I kept wondering why a town would be built in such a manner. The mine is still functioning to an extent and gold is still being taken from it. We watched the machinery working and a demonstration of melting and pouring gold. I got to hold a gold ingot of 100 oz. worth $100,000 Australian dollars, about $75,000 US! The guy held a gun on me the whole time. LMAO
Ray and I started kind of arguing over who was going to use the cane, so he bought another one. LOL
We picked up some items at the store and went to Tara's to have a favorite family meal. The true insanity began when we walked in the door. These are the most fun people on the planet! Dinner was finally served and it was delicious. Debbie (lovinandrew) is going to give me the recipe. :D
Caroline (Carikube) and her mother stopped by and I spilled a can of pop on the carpet and then about four conversations began at the same time...all at full volume along with a footy game on tv. It was great. The four of us in our RPG would spontaneously revert to our characters and it got pretty silly at times. LOL
I think the funniest thing was Ray's reaction to it all. He thought he was going to be with 5 or 6 women and there would be nothing but estrogen flowing, but the craziness was not like that. When we finally got back to our motel, he said he'd really had fun. Yippee!
Today, we're going to jail. :D The old Melbourne Jail where Ned Kelly was hanged. Maybe that's why his restaurant in Springfield closed. Hehehe
More tomorrow. :D
Ta!
Tara (lovinjackson) and Lisa (angelustatt) picked us up at 10 am ish as planned and we headed out of Melbourne toward Ballarat to visit Sovereign Hill. The accent here is on Hill. The parking lot is on a slight hill. You go up a hill to the entrance to pay the fee and then the good stuff begins. There are several areas set up with life-like mannequins in clothes and positions to imitate life in the early to mid 1800's when the gold mine was begun. Sound effects were excellent. We watched a movie to go through a sort of casual orientation, then exited the building to the old mining town.
The town is really built on the side of a hill. Whew! Many, many people walking around in period costumes, functioning stores, candy making demos, goldsmiths working, all kinds of cool stuff. We had a beer in a bar, and afternoon tea in a hotel dining room. People can stay there and children in period costumes can actually go to school there for a few days.
It really was awesome. :D When we headed back, we were well and truly exhausted. The up and down of it all was amazing and I kept wondering why a town would be built in such a manner. The mine is still functioning to an extent and gold is still being taken from it. We watched the machinery working and a demonstration of melting and pouring gold. I got to hold a gold ingot of 100 oz. worth $100,000 Australian dollars, about $75,000 US! The guy held a gun on me the whole time. LMAO
Ray and I started kind of arguing over who was going to use the cane, so he bought another one. LOL
We picked up some items at the store and went to Tara's to have a favorite family meal. The true insanity began when we walked in the door. These are the most fun people on the planet! Dinner was finally served and it was delicious. Debbie (lovinandrew) is going to give me the recipe. :D
Caroline (Carikube) and her mother stopped by and I spilled a can of pop on the carpet and then about four conversations began at the same time...all at full volume along with a footy game on tv. It was great. The four of us in our RPG would spontaneously revert to our characters and it got pretty silly at times. LOL
I think the funniest thing was Ray's reaction to it all. He thought he was going to be with 5 or 6 women and there would be nothing but estrogen flowing, but the craziness was not like that. When we finally got back to our motel, he said he'd really had fun. Yippee!
Today, we're going to jail. :D The old Melbourne Jail where Ned Kelly was hanged. Maybe that's why his restaurant in Springfield closed. Hehehe
More tomorrow. :D
Ta!