We have one month left of our trip to Australia.  So far it has been a mixed bag of weather.  One day it is clear and sunny (or "fine" as the weather forecasters put it) and the next it is cool with showers.  I don’t mind the rain though and the resevoirs here definately need it.  We are on on water restrictions.  The goal is 155 liters a day per person.  4 minute showers, no washing your car, watering lawns, gardens, etc.  It is different but when we are at home we try and be water concious anyhow so it hasn’t been too bad.  You water the garden with rainwater same as at home, they just take longer to fill up because it isn’t raining as much.

Nathan, Lauren and I took a trip up to the Ballarat area and visited Soverign Hill the site of Victoria’s gold rush.  It was really cool and interesting.  It appears as a city from the 1850′s including workers in dress from that period.  Lots of information on the mining industry, etc.  It is really well done, interactive enough to entertain the kids and interesting enough for the adults.  We even had sausage rolls baked in a wood fired oven from the bakery there.  I didn’t think about it at the time, but they had the studio where they dress you up in clothes and take your photo.  We should have done it and gotten a print to hang in the inn, it would have fit right in!  Oh well.  We also went to Dayleford which we did last time we were here too.  Went through the wombat hill gardens and up the viewing tower.  It had amazing views of the surrounding valley, but we have ruined our legs.  It wasn’t that tall a tower with a sprial staircase, but my calves are just killing!

We are heading up the coast to Narooma to visit a friend and pick his brain about running an inn/hotel/lodging establishment in Australia.  It is a new area that I haven’t been too and should be fun.

Lauren is growing like a weed and changes every day.  She talks and laughs a lot more and is really into eating everything in site, or trying to anyhow, somehow she hasn’t figured out that she can’t eat her hands or clothes or other peoples arms.  Such a slobbery mess!  Having her around is such a lot of fun, and she really likes the Christmas lights and meeting people.  Every time she is told she is gorgeous she just bats her eyes and gives whomever the biggest smile.  Really I will post photos. I just have to get them off the camera first!

Tomorrow we are headed off for a drive, we were going to go to Craig’s Hut (as in the Man from Snowy River), but we are supposed to have the heaviest rain of 8 years and thundershowers so we decided it wasn’t a great day for a hike.  Victoria (the state Melbourne is in) has seen an increase in international tourism over the last year, trasnlating in over one billion dollars, which is good especially for lodging, so we are going to check out some potential B&B locations, but who knows, we may decide we don’t like it.  That was the reason we went back to the Daylesford area, big tourism trade and the "Spa capital of Australia" but it just didn’t feel like home to us, not like Olympia does.  Plus the prices for things were outrageous!  We ate at this little cafe and a vegetarian lasagna and fresh pesto pasta with one side salad and no drinks was $36!  For that back home we could have gone to see Franco and had the same thing with a bottle of wine!

Hope everyone back home is doing well!  I will write again soon.