pancakes>real cakes

I really do need to get better at updating. It always seems like there's nothing going on and them BAM!  8 things happen.

Shawn's birthday was at the beginning of March.  As per tradition, he got to pick where he wanted to eat, so naturally we ended up here:

You have to point, or I'm not taking the picture.

Anyone who knows my husband, or has had breakfast with my husband, knows what his breakfast of choice is.  And anyone who doesn't know my husband is now thinking "obviously it's pancakes, because they are at a pancake restaurant."  wrong.

Ice cream, FTW. 

That monstrosity you see before you is the Alice in Wonderland.  Chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup and shots.  (fun fact: they call them hundreds and thousands here.  To which Shawn said when reading the menu 'hundreds and thousands of...what?")  I ended up getting the IT, which was covered in bananas and hot buttered walnuts.  The pancakes look really small, but honestly, I couldn't even finish mine and I tried like hell.  The Pancake Parlour also offers filter coffee, or as we like to call it in the states, COFFEE.  It's hard to find that here, so Kend seemed pretty stoked.

I tried my best.

The beard is no longer, fyi.

That weekend, I decided to take him to feed sharks and rays, but unfortunately the train wasn't running that weekend, and then the next weekend was Labour day, so we thought it might be a bit of a mad house.  We ended up going this past Monday.  First of all, let me give a shout out to Metlink, which helps you figure out how to get places on public transportation.  Metlink:  thanks for getting us hopelessly lost for 2 hours by telling us the wrong bus.  Also thank you Metlink Customer Service for telling me you had no idea how to get where I wanted to go.  Anyway, after literally hours of wandering the suburbs of Dandenong, we found the place.

Look at all the different types that will probably take a chunk out of your leg

 Basically, you put on a wetsuit (that's thrilling, let me tell you) and you get a stick with a close pin on the end of it, to which you attach prawns and squid.  Then you get in the water and try not to get bitten feed the sharks and rays.  The VERY first tank we got in, had a 6 foot nurse shark peacefully lying on the bottom of the tank.  This is no big deal, I told myself.  Cut to: Devon running out of the tank in abject terror.  Seriously I don't care what you think or how 'tame' that shark is, it was big, it was scary, and i had no desire to get near it.

Shawn on the other hand wanted to pet it.

Why do birds suddenly appear...?

The shark is that beige thing you see below the water.  Stop acting like you wouldn't be as scared as me.

And I named him Mungo.

The giant ray was more my speed.  1) he was clearly interested in the prawns and squid way more than my fingers, 2) he was soft. 3) he was gentle. 4) I wanted to keep him but couldn't figure out how to sneakily get him out of the tank and into my backpack.

If you all come up with anything, let me know.

In the weekends leading up to that, we went to the Moomba festival in downtown Melbourne by the river.  This is mostly exciting because it should be abundantly clear at this juncture how much I love carnivals.  And I have decided Australia is wonderful, because instead of fried dough, they have fried doughnuts which are filled with jam.  These little wonderments can also be purchased in the city not during the festival.  And you can get your belly all full of hot jam.

I like to Moomba, Moomba.

On the way to the jump.

Hot Jam Donut, you will be my undoing

WINNER

<3 Carnival Games

In and amongst all these fun things, we've actually had to do work type stuff.  This mostly involves trying to find an apartment.  Well, we finally found and got one in Croydon.  It's in the suburbs, which is a bit of a pisser, but the apartment is really nice and it comes with a fridge and wardrobes.  You see, in the magical land of Australia, those things ARE NOT STANDARD.  But this place has them, and it's got two bedrooms, two bathrooms (one of which has a tub perfect for keeping manta rays in!), a washer and a dryer and one real and one 'fake' balcony.  The "that's not a real balcony" balcony (and honest quote from the real estate agent showing me the apartment) is a balcony that birds just seem to gravitate to and poop on.  Needless to say, our laundry will not be drying there.

I have been a bit bummed out lately, mostly going through the homesick part of this journey (y'know where you get mad that you might have to buy a fridge to live in an apartment.) so C&K decided we needed to take a trip to Ferntree Gully where mystical faeries live to CAPTAIN AMERICA'S HAMBURGER HEAVEN!

When I first arrived here in OZ, i asked Clint, 'What's the Australian equivalent to America having the Outback Steakhouse?" and this is the place.  and it is glorious.   USA!  USA!
 

Old Skool CT plate!

Every meal comes with tiny US flags

Which we then thought it would be fun to wave in Clint's face.

oh...and big news of the week?  I FOUND SPRITE ZERO!  6 cans for $5.  Ahhh, the comforts of home.