January 18th

We had a late night last night getting back from the tennis.  Daniel seemed to survive the boys and they were actually in bed when we got home.  We didn’t get an early start but we did head off to go see the downtown.  After much debate we decided to  take the train downtown.  We took the free tourist bus around to the MCG, had a look around and then went to Fitzroy Park and Captain Cook’s cottage.  That was a lot to see in the small time we had but it was good because we got our bearings for what was there and what else we might want to do.

 Captain Cook’s cottage in Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne.

Captain Cook and friends?  Hope Tucker doesn’t mind being the girl of the family just for a day.

 Yeah, finally here comes our trolley!

John Deere tractor as art. 

We did have to leave though because we were going to meet some relatives that I still had not met yet.  Uncle Wes and Paula Nalder,(Ivan’s brother) and their daughter and granddaughter’s.  We went out to a restaurant that one of the girl’s was working at.  Good food and really nice people.  I enjoyed talking with Wes.  He still plays tennis in his 70’s and had lots of interesting stories about his road rally racing days.  He did one from London to Australia, they drove straight through from London to the southern tip of India and I liked his description of driving across Iran and all the cars blowing up in 120 degree heat.  Nice to finally put a face with the names. 

 Blue tongue Ice cream.

 Robyn Scranton and her Aunt Paula Nalder

 The family get together at Tulky’s.

January 17th

I got up really early and walked to McDonald’s for breakfast and a coffee and to use the internet.  It’s about the only way I’ve found to use the internet consistently and it is still highly unreliable.  After a lot of frustration I was able to upload about 2 pages in the amount of time I normally could do 10.  Not a complaint but a comment, but Australia is about 6-7 years behind the US in access, speed and reliability of it’s internet capability.  It is I think a huge roadblock to economic growth and increased productivity.  I met everyone else at about 10:30 for some bowling.  I think the boys had limited enjoyment out of this. I started with an 85 then went to 140 and 166.  Fast learner I guess in 45 minutes.  We made some lunch and then I really wanted to go to the Australian Open tennis tourney earlier than our night match tickets because local phenom Madison Keys originally of Rock Island was playing that afternoon in the first round.  

They dropped me at the train station to find my way downtown and the rest of them went to visit Granny Thodey.  I arrived at the tennis tournament and started asking questions to one of the workers about the different tickets and how to get in , where to go etc. and  a guy said look I can’t stay around to watch Roddick you can have my ticket to the Hisense arena.  It was a $50 ticket and since I had that I didn’t even have to pay to get in the gate.  I sat there and watched Andy Murray and then Roddick’s match I was in the 3rd row right behind Roddick’s coach Larry Stefanke and his wife Brooke Burke.  It was weird I kept thinking that Andy was looking right at me after every point but realized that he was looking at them.  I got to see Nadal practice and Roger as well.  Robyn, Ruth, and Elray had taken off after leaving the boys in the hands of Daniel Hart and made it down to the night session.  I met up with them and we went over to watch Madison Keys.  Poor Madison after being 2-2 I don’t think she won another game.  I was really hot that night  and stifling inside Rod Laver arena where we watched the Hewitt match.  Late night getting home but I hate to say it, really nice to have a evening out without the boys.

PBA tour here we come. Tucker and Cooper Scranton

Rob (self portrait ) watching his mate Andy Murray and Ryan Harrison 

Rafa Nadal goes through a practice session.

Roger Federer also likes to practice.

 Australian teen phenomenon Bernard Tomic after his 5 set first round match still practices.  He beat 3 top 20 players in the week before this tournament so we’ll see how he goes.

Robyn was asking why does Andy Roddick kept starring up at me after every point?! oh wait that’s his coach Larry in the bottom right corner of the frame and Andy's wife is sitting next to him. Maybe he's not staring at me. Whew!

 Madison Keys originally from Rock Island, IL loses in the first round

Robyn and Rob Scranton enjoying some tennis.  Isn’t  she beautiful! (Not attractive photo but proves we were there)

 Ana Ivanovic working on her form.

Lleyton Hewitt in first round action, Rod Laver arena.

WE WERE THERE!!! YAHOO!!!!

January 16th

We finally arrived in Melbourne last night finally.  We are staying at some longtime friends of the Nalder family through the Wesleyan church.  He is a pastor to the pastors and they are away for about 2 months and said we could stay there while we are in Melbourne.  Thank you Lord.  What a blessing to have all that space.  The MacLachlan’s are very nice people.  We all slept in after our long drive and leisurely went over to Monash Gardens to visit Granny Thodey and have lunch with her.  It was Tucker's first meeting with his Great-Granny. The girls did a little shopping and we then went over to Maurie Conry’s house (Robyn's Uncle) in the evening for a barbecue with the family.   We got to meet Mauries new wife, Jenny and the Hart’s joined us as well. Kids had fun playing with the older second cousins. Sorted out plans to attend the Australian Open Tennis and after a wonderful evening we took the tired children and ourselves back to bed.

January 15th

We continue our journey of chance and destiny down to Melbourne to see the tennis tournament.  We stopped at a town called Gundagai to get a drink, buy some gas, and snap some photos with our Tucker.  There is a famous Australian poem called Dog on the Tucker Box that was set in this town, so we had to stop.  We stopped in a town called Holbrooke named after a British WW I submarine hero.  Therefore they have a submarine buried in the middle of the town hours from any water.   We had lunch and took some pictures.  We also stopped in Glenrowan the town of the famous last stand of Ned Kelly and his gang, the infamous bushranger of Australia.  Kind of the Jesse James of Australia.  They a well known for doning suits of iron hammered out of ploughs in their famous last battle.  There was a very good movie made about it starring the late Heath Ledger if you want to check it out you Netflixers.

Here it is Gundagai!  I can’t wait.

Tucker as usual very dedicated to his yoga, Rob blogging, Robyn supervising both.

Which way do we go to the dog on the Tuckerbox.

 Ok you non-Aussies here ya go, I had to ask too.  Tucker is a word for food, so tuckerbox is like a lunchbox.

Tucker in his appropriate “Me so Hungry!” t-shirt contemplating having himself one of them Tuckerbox Burgers!

And now for something completely unexpected, a submarine buried in the ground in the middle of Australia. 

Ned Kelly casts a large shadow in Glenrowan over Cooper, Aaron, and Tucker.

January 14th

We got up with lots to do.  See an entire capital city in one day is a tall order in any developed country.  We went off to see the the Parliament House and took a tour of the Senate and the House of Representatives, modeled somewhat on the USA example but with a parliamentary system and Prime Minister like the U.K. instead of a directly  elected President like the US.  After being to Washington D.C. even pre 9/11 was a bit surprised at the seeming lack of security and that we were able to get into these areas with no background checks or even I.D. checks.  Metal detectors was about it.  After this we went over to the Australian War Memorial to have a look around.  We bumped into a tour guide who was very good and passionate.  He went around to various things and told story after story and was just fascinating.  This was not just a memorial but also a war museum so I just soaked it up.  It was really fascinating seeing world events that I was well read on being explained through a different lens from a different part of the world.  If definitely affects our viewpoint and opinion.  The first world war seemed to have a very deep impact on the national psyche here much more so than in the USA based on the amount of space devoted to it versus the rest of the museum and WW II.   They were in it from the very beginning I suppose, as contrasted to the USA only really being involved in the last year.  They also made very liberal use of dioramas in the museum, which I found fantastic in their scale and detail but very unusual.

As we were having lunch Robyn checked her email and put 2 and 2 together that the suburb our motel was in had the same name as her friend Sharon lived in so we rang her up.  We were able to go over and pay a short visit and catch up.  They remembered me for being so fascinated 8 years ago that they actually had Koala bears in the trees in their backyard in Brisbane!

Picture of the House of Representatives.  The green is the color of the Gum tree leaves of Australia.

 The Senate at the Houses of Parliament.  The pink being the color of the gum trees flowers.

Robyn, Tucker, Cooper & Rob Scranton in the Senate chamber at the Houses of Parliament pleading with the government to repeal the carbon tax.

 Elray, Ruth, Aaron Brewerton Robyn, Cooper, Tucker, Rob  Scranton on top of the Houses of Parliament.  Bottom of hill (white bldg.) old house of parliament, in the background shadowed by the mountain is the War Memorial. 

 Eternal flame pool at the War Memorial. Throwing coins into the water.

On these walls are the names of every Australian service member every killed in combat.  The poppies tucked into them are put up as a remembrance by family members.  Poppies were plentiful in the fields of Europe in WW I where so many died.  

Let’s see from left to right it looks like from their headgear we’ve got a frenchman, german, and an aussie.

There is Tucker dressed in his diggers (what OZ Infantrymen are known as) floppy hat with Emu feather for decoration.

Robyn with her friend Sharon Tree.

January 13th

We drove on to Canberra.  This is like the Washington, D.C. of Australia.  We had a pretty full day driving today so we got in late and didn’t have any real time to do any sightseeing but found our accommodation, checked in and went out to the Crust pizzeria.  Pretty good food, we were starved and needed a good fill up before had a full day of sightseeing tomorrow.

Roadsign pointing us to Canberra.

Our amazing one star accommodation complete with plentiful flies:)  Our accommodation book did have it listed generously at 3 ***! It ha beds and was the right price for a major city. 

Picture of the top of Parliament House on the way into Canberra.

January 12th

The great overland journey begins!  We are taking off for Melbourne and more importantly the Australian Open tennis tournament.  For Robyn and I this will complete the second leg of our personal Grand Slam after we went to Wimbledon 1 1/2 years ago.  For me personally anything else we see or experience will be a grand bonus.  On our first day driving we made several stops including going to Wellington Caves and we stayed overnight in Dubbo.

This was a fun little park we stopped at enroute.  The little rocket in the foreground is just like one I used to play on in Belleville, IL that my grandma used to take it too.  I loved that park.  This one still stands but looks like it has been deemed too unsafe and been welded closed and the slide removed.  They have obviously built a bigger, better one in the background.

 Rob takes a turn down the slide inside the rocket.

The boys and Robyn were fascinated by this futuristic toilet.  You put your hand over sensors to open it , flush it, and to make the toilet paper come out, as well as it being self cleaning with jet water sprayers that clean the whole of the inside of it.

It ask played music while you peed.

 The Ford Territory with a tow trailer carried all 7 of us and our gear.

This is really some kind of interesting motorhome.  Wonder how long it took him to assemble this in his garage.  Notice the a/c unit self installed at the top back.  He had a satelite for internet, tv and an aerial for tv.  Quite outfitted.

Inside the Wellington Caves.  Robyn and Tucker.

 The Caves Bottle House.  Made out of, you guessed it, Bottles!