Uncle Sean's visit

So there I was.....forced to go golfing last Sunday morning (the 4th of the 3rd of 07 is how the Aussie's say March 4, 2007). I went kicking and screaming because golf is no fun :) As soon as I left for the course, three months of planning between my brother and wife went into action........

Sean was flying in from Asia. Stacey was going to pick him up at the airport while I was golfing. It was a surprise for the kids and myself. When she went to leave she discovered the tire was off the rim in the parking garage. Uncle Sean then had to take a bus from the airport to Southern Cross Station; a 10 minute walk from home. She coaxed the kids to riding in the pram (stroller) instead of the car to go pick up a surprise person to go to the beach with us. (Believe me changing plans from car to pram or any change for that matter is often a struggle with kids.)

At the station Uncle Sean had snuck up behind the kids. He held his suitcase over his head and Stacey told the kids to turn around. Haley screamed, "Daddy!" (Some say he looks like me. I hope that’s not true.) Sean lowered his suitcase to show his face then she asked, "What are you doing here? You're suppose to be in Michigan?"

Meanwhile, Adam and I are now fixing the flat tire in the parking garage. Stacey had rung (called) him on his mobile (cell phone) and told him of the change in plans. When we finished we went back to the lift to go back to the apartment. We hit the button, waited, when the door opened......there was my brother standing right in front of the door. I was too surprised to give much more than a, "Hey." You know guy lingo for, "WOW! It's great to see you. How'd you get here? This is great. What a surprise!" So Uncle Sean didn't get the surprised excitement from the kids or I he expected but we showed him a good time in appreciation during the entire week he was here.

We relaxed for about 30 minutes after Sean arrived then got our day going. We went to the place where we treat all new comers to Melbourne - to BBNT (Burgers, Burritos, Nachos, and Tacos) on King St. It is not far and it is a good location because we were coming back to Telstra Dome for Uncle Sean's first footie game. The game was just like last time but better as mentioned above (ya, that's right. All you skimmers didn't read that part did you? I said the footie game is better with Uncle Sean). The kids got to choose which team to barrack (root) for before going in and they got blow up hands with one finger extended (number one not the middle for you men). They loved the fingers. (They enjoyed them more at home where they got to beat Uncle Sean or poke him in the back when walking.) During the game Uncle Sean was going to take them to get ice cream. Unknown to us Haley told Uncle Sean she knew where to get it. After making Stacey very nervous because they were gone sooooooo long Sean explained that Haley took them to the other side of the stadium. Then in big brother fashion I politely pointed out the ice cream stand at the top of our stairs. I guess mom was right. I shouldn't have hit him so many times as kids. Uncle Sean and the kids really enjoyed the game. None of us understand the rules but it's fun to cheer and yell at the referees.

Sleepy Sean and the kids slept in to 9:30 on his first day. We then had to make heaps (lots) of phone calls back to the US in the morning to let everyone know everything was OK. We finally got out of the house around 1:30. The kids and I showed Uncle Sean what Daddy Daycare was all about. We showed off the piers and future plans for the area in the Docklands Model Area then wandered over to Waterfront City. That night we went down to Hardware Alley for dinner. We warned Sean about the slow, poor service in Australia. That night was not slow nor poor service. We met a Canadian who is staying in Melbourne and waiting tables. That was the reason for the good service. She was imported! Sean got to try a two authentic Australian dishes; kangaroo and chicken schnitzel.

On Tuesday I let Sean and the kids sleep in again. We leisurely got out the door and on the road to go to Phillip Island. (You all remember Phillip Island. It's the place where we saw lots 'o wildlife and fed the roos and saw the penguins come home, etc.) On the way to Phillip Island we stopped at the Mura Wildlife Park. We were suppose to be able to touch the koalas, feed kangaroos and wallabies, and see all sorts of animals. It was pretty much a bust. We only found one, count it, one kangaroo on their grounds. The emus were behind a fence. The plus side was that they had three dingos (Asian wolves that migrated to Australia nearly 4,000 years ago. Steve Irwin says that if the migration occurred 4,000 years ago that should make them an indigenous species but they are not considered such) that were active. We ate lunch there. Sean found out that in Australia a Hawaiian hamburger is a bun with a piece of pineapple on a slice of ham. He was disappointed there was no burger.

The Phillip Island Wildlife Park was awesome again. Sean got a great big kick out of feeding the wallabies and roos. The roos were very aggressive this time. The would come hopping across in a pack (that's neat to watch), circle us (oh, that's cute too), then reach with their sharp claws and open mouths trying to rip the bags of food from our hands (uh-oh, we're in trouble). You have never seen a two year old boy transform into a cat trying to stay out of water until you witness Robbie (who is a third of the height of an adult kangaroo) scale up and keep scaling up over my head, screaming to keep the roos away. I think Uncle Sean got the biggest kick out of feeding the roos but the next biggest is the barking owl. You can go up to his cage and bark twice like a dog. The owl will return with his own two barks. It is hilarious. This could go on for hours and almost does with a two and four year old. We have to drag them away. We got to get very close to the koalas. They had been fed recently and were actively eating. We saw flying foxes (bats), wallabies, wombats, quolls, roos, Australian outback (a large area out back with bush trees and dried up lakes), emus, dingos, Peregrine falcon, kite, barking owl, barn owls, Tawny Frogmouth owls, cassowaries, cockatoos, koalas, blue tongued lizards, turtles, echidnas, lorikeets, pelicans, Tasmanian Devil, and others.

We ended the evening watching the penguins come in from the ocean after dusk. You watch them come up and tentatively walk across the beach in groups. Then you can observe them from the boardwalks as they return to their burrows. We looked up to see billions (well it looked that way but we didn't count) of stars. There are more out there than anywhere I have seen before. We cruised home after the penguins around 10:00 and chatty-cathy kept me awake the whole way.

The next day was Wednesday. Our first mission was to go to the Queen Victoria Market. It is an open air market where Uncle Sean could get a lot of cheap souvenirs (nice to all those who got something from him and are reading this). I stopped at the near-by 'school bus' playground with the kids to feed them and Sean went to the market. He came back shortly because I forgot that the market was closed on Wednesdays. After lunch we played on the playground. Sean got to witness the Aussie kids and parents first hand when a boy tried to knock Haley off of the monkey bars. She then went into protection mode for Robbie and would block the kid off anytime he tried to push near Robbie. I'm so proud of her. Sean also witnessed the kid step on a 14 month old and when that didn't work for him he kicked the baby (said just like in South Park) to knock him over and out of the way. After the park we came back for naps. Sean and Robbie needed them. I worked with Haley on the alphabet. That evening Sean came out to cheer for me in my third running race. I had a friend, Keith, pace me. He did a great job and we almost met my goal of knocking another two minutes off my time. I could have if I had listened to him. I was just too mentally weak.

Thursday Uncle Sean got to experience Daddy Daycare at its finest. We woke up late, took a long time getting ready, and rushed out the door trying to get to the Toy Library to return our toys before they closed at 11:00. We barely made it with 30 seconds to spare. We left there and went to a playground with a teeter-tauter that had its fulcrum15 feet in the air with swing hanging down. Uncle Sean and Daddy had a blast playing on this one. Watch for the video link in a few days. We ended the day over at Science Works museum. Uncle Sean and the kids loved it.

Friday we went to the Moomba Festival. We watched pro wake boarders and wake skating. We also went over to the river and saw ski jumping. The kids got to play at the carnival and then we headed over to Little Italy for dinner. Most of the time in Little Italy you get approached by the host as you walk by each restaurant and pick one based on the free drink or dish they are wheeling and dealing. We went right for the first one to offer us two booster seats. Sean was disappointed.

Saturday we went swimming with wild seals, fish, and dolphins. Swimming with the seals was amazing. We got within three feet of them. We checked them out. They checked us out. They would dive around us, swim under us, or lay on the surface and scratch their bellies. We were snorkeling near a man made platform. If they weren’t in the water, the seals were on the platform. If they were on the platform, they seems to be arguing about personal space. It wasn’t too good to drift near the platform in case someone got thrown off. The boat then took us to an area to view the fish. I still am laughing after hearing Uncle Sean and Adam squeal through their snorkels because they were afraid of the jelly fish in the water. Even Stacey wasn’t afraid. Next we went in search of the dolphins. This was were Stacey got the delight of her Australia visit. She got to see four swimming around her. She also got to video some porposing at the front of the boat. She was delighted.

It was sad to take Uncle Sean to the airport on Sunday morning.

We were busy all week. We walked a lot. I got a great laugh when Sean complained one evening about how bad his feet, knees, back, and legs hurt. I remembered well how all the city walking hurt us before we got used to it. Uncle Sean brought some cooler weather with him. It did not get into the 30’s while he was here. It was warm and got into the mid to high 20’s (low to mid 70’s). The evenings were cooler though. Most of them were very breezy and upper teens (low to mid 60’s).

It was the fastest week we have blown through since we got here. Thanks for visiting Uncle Sean!

Pictures with Uncle Sean will be uploaded later along with a video of the chasing kangaroo.