After a beautiful and sunny day yesterday we woke up to rain in Melbourne. Normally I’d be sad about this considering we flew half-way across the world for sunshine, but this region really needs the rain. Today was the first day since we’ve been here that we turned on the news and it wasn’t constant coverage of the fires. However, we learned that even though the rain helps and slows the fires down it does hinder other containment efforts. As much as the smoke has impacted our trip in some ways it is pretty incredible to be here during such a historic event. The rain has a second added benefit of helping the air quality remain good. Just walking around today the air smelled fresh.

I’m still getting over my cold so we had a slow morning. I just keep trying to remind myself that these last few days in Melbourne have been bonus days. We were supposed to be in Canberra and arrive in Melbourne today. So anything we’ve done the last few days is extra. Jacob has been very sweet, but I feel like I’m ruining our vacation with my illness!

Nevertheless, we headed out the door about 10:30 a.m. A little rain isn’t going to stop two native Pacific north-westerners from getting outside. We even had the foresight to pack our rain coats!

Today was the first day we used the tram system. Apparently Melbourne has the largest tram system in the world. That random fact of the day brought to you courtesy of Jacob.

We hopped off the tram and walked through Lincoln Square to the Melbourne Museum. Apparently every family in Melbourne had the same idea on a Sunday morning and the museum was packed with strollers (called prams here) and families.

The Melbourne Museum is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. In addition to the galleries, the museum has the world’s largest IMAX theater. We skipped the theater and stuck to the galleries. We visited the Science and Life Gallery which contained dinosaurs and bugs! I got to see live and fake spiders from my nightmares.

In the Melbourne Gallery we learned about Phar Lap, a beloved Australian race horse that will forever live on as taxidermy. We also learned a lot about the history of Melbourne and the big gold rush in the 1850s.

We walked through the Forest Gallery and saw some native plants and animals. Then we visited the Te Pasifika Gallery which features water-crafts created by Pacific Islanders (it was straight out of Moana.)

After the museum we walked over to Melbourne Central which is a shopping and transit center. Jacob got a burrito and I got some chicken Pho. We stopped by a grocery store and picked up items for breakfast in the morning then headed back to our room to relax.

Before I wrap up, I want to give a shout out to our amazing cat-sitter, Nancy! She’s been taking very good care of Oscar while we are away. Thank you Nancy! We so appreciate it!

Tomorrow we will likely be going to the zoo and I’m hoping it’s not too busy for a Monday. Jacob gets to watch the Seahawks game at 8:30 a.m. but our hotel is too cheap to have it in HD.

Until then!