The Great Ocean Road

When we went down to Melbourne for the Australian Open, we took a slight break from the tennis to go see a bit of Victoria (the state where Melbourne is located). There is this road we have always heard about called the Great Ocean Road that everyone says you have to go see. Leave it to the Aussies to name something to leave little to the imagination, but I digress . . . If we were to see the Great Ocean Road properly, we would have made a separate trip of it . . .fly down to Melbourne (or probably Geelong, but since none of you probably no where that is, we'll stick with Melbourne) and then take a few days to drive from there to Adelaide, which is at the other end of the Great Ocean Road. Since we only had a day, we decided to drive for 3 hours (which probably got us about a quarter way down the road), turn around, and come back. At first I was a little concerned that the Great Ocean Road would not live up to it's name because the road itself wasn't too great and you could only see the ocean through the trees. But after we took our obligatory stop at the lighthouse (because all places on the coast of Australia seem to have one, and based on the signage, they must think you need to go to them), the tree blockade faded and we got a beautiful view of the southern coast of Australia. (which has been compared to Hawaii, but since I have never been to Hawaii, you'll just have to believe some random Hawaiian I talked to that you have never met.) In any event, it made for a nice day, as long as you didn't worry too much about the fact that they felt the need to put a sign every 5 feet about how you drive on the left side of the road in Australia. (Because if you hadn't figured that out by the time you got to this road, it was a miracle you even made it down there!) In the end, this blog is just an excuse to show a picture of me in front of a nice landscape and a picture of Jason (in front of the obligatory lighthouse, of course!), since usually he is the one taking the pictures and you don't ever get to see him!

Australian Open

For Christmas, I got a fabulous weekend away to watch the Australian Open! I managed to ruin part of the surprise before Christmas because I am way too curious for my own good, but what can you do. So a couple of weekends ago, off we went to Melbourne for 4 days of some fabulous tennis. And I won't even go on and on about how we showed up at the airport at 5pm, only to find out that our 5pm flight was really a 5am flight! Oops. But we made it the next morning without missing too much. So there we were, at one of the major tennis tournaments in the world with my one goal in mind . . . I was going to see Andy Roddick! You have to root for the home team, right? Ok, and he is nice to look at . . . Days 1 and 2, we just had day passes, which meant that we could go to all of the outdoor courts, just not the 2 main arenas. This meant that we got to see some fabulous tennis with a bunch of people that we had never heard of and with names that we couldn't pronounce. Hopes for an Andy sighting were not good. We did see one person I had heard of, though . . . We watched one set of Fernando Gonzalez's way too long 5 set match that ended with the final set, 10 to 12, before we had to run off to dinner. And yes, they were still playing after our 2 hour dinner! But otherwise, it was a bunch of Russian and Eastern European women that the man in charge of our camera had way too much fun documenting on film . . . Day 2, we actually spent more time sight seeing than watching the tennis (all that for another blog one of these days), but we did go back to the stadium grounds for a little tennis that night. In the end, we actually were more entertained sitting on the lawn, with 100 of our closest Aussie friends, watching a screen playing the game going on in the main arena. The main person playing was Jelena Dokic, who can't seem to decide whether she is Serbian or Australian. And Australians can't seem to decide whether they love her or hate her. Right now, she claims to be an Aussie. She is winning some good games, so the Aussies are rooting for her. Ten bucks says that the minute she isn't doing so well or she is doing fantastically and decides to go back to Serbia, the Aussies will be all too quick to hate her again. In any event, it was a blast to watch all of the Aussies get into it. And who wouldn't want to join in to 10 million rounds of "Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oy, Oy, Oy!" But still no Andy sighting . . . So on to day 3. This day, we actually had tickets to one of the main arenas. Not the main one, but the second in command. Still my odds for an Andy sighting are getting better, eh? Unfortunately, it wasn't my day. We saw Andy Murray vs. Verdasco (who later put up a good fight with Nadal in the semis). It was a game with an Andy in it, but it was the wrong one! This Andy played terribly, but any man who can get his fans to a stadium in Australia wearing kilts has my vote! So on to day 4 . . . On our final day at the tournament, we had some fabulous seats at the main arena. And guess what! The big game on this day . . . Andy Roddick vs. Novak Djokovic (who won the Australian Open last year)!!! All was right with the world. And it was a fantastic game, up until Djokovic succumbed to the heat and had to retire, while Andy (albeit sweating profusely) didn't seem to be phased by the sun. In any event, I think good old Novak should go play a game in Oman during the summer and see what real heat is, right?!