Kenny Joined The Party

Yesterday Kenny got in from Hong Kong and joined our family vacation.  I went to pick him up from the airport while my mom went shopping and my dad lounged around at the hotel.  It was really exciting to see him and now our family is complete.  The first thing we did was swing by my place and drop off all his luggage and then we headed up to Errol Street in North Melbourne so I could show my parents my favorite library.  We also grabbed lunch while we were there and just enjoyed the fact that we were all together.  Afterwards we made our way down to Docklands where the outlets are.  My brother and mom were particularly excited about this and they took their time shopping around while my dad and I walked along the river and back towards town.  My brother came back with some gifts from Hanukkah Harry though my mom was empty-handed.

Later we met up for dinner and went to get Spanish food in the town of Fitzroy.  It's fun to show my family some of the little suburbs outside of the central business district.  The food was good and we stayed out for quite awhile.  Even though we were all exhausted, I don't think any of us went to bed at a decent hour.

This morning we woke up and met my parents at Victoria Market.  We wanted to show my brother around and we ended up getting some gifts for people.  Initially my parents were running late so Kenny and I grabbed breakfast at a café while we waited.  I had muesli with fresh fruit and it was really good.  We split up again after the market and Kenny and I walked around downtown.  It was hard to show him everything because he's not here for too long, but I think I was able to squeeze in the highlights.  We stopped at the section of town with most of the holiday decorations and enjoyed dipping our feet/sitting in the sun near the reflection pool.  There were a bunch of little kids splashing around even though it wasn't too warm outside.

My parents came to meet us at the bank where I was busy sorting out money transfer/currency conversion before we were off to the Shrine of Remembrance.  We were able to take in the view of the city while enjoying the end-of-the-day flag ceremony.  From there we took the tram down to St. Kilda to experience the beach and have dinner.  The sunset there was amazing and we had fun laughing together and walking down by the shore.  It was a great way to spend the last night in a fantastic city that has been my home for the past 10 months.  I can't believe I'm about to go to sleep here for the last time...ahhhh!!  Tomorrow we jet off to Sydney until after Christmas and then Kenny and I are headed to Europe!