Kids' Big Adventure in the City

Right at the beginning of the kids' summer break, Isaac was invited to a birthday party of a friend of his at a skate park in the city.  I don't drive in the city, so we took the tram to the north side of the city, then crossed the bridge by foot to Alexandra Gardens where the skate park is.

I had never been to Alexandra Gardens before.  This is a lovely park on the edge of the Yarra River, full of gorgeous trees and flowers, surrounded by the city on three sides, and many rowing club warehouses by the river on the north side.

The skate park was terrific.  It was huge, with lots of options for hills from beginner size to advanced.  They let people use BMX bikes, skateboards or scooters.  The birthday party gave the boys a lesson, then set them loose on the park.  Ruth came with me, and she rode a scooter for an hour and a half.  She had a blast.  At first she was very timid and scared of the big boys on the course.  She was the only girl on the course for most of the time.  But by the end, she was scooting like a champ.

Isaac gave the skateboard a good go, but really didn't feel successful, so he switched to the scooter for the free play time of the party.  I was only able to persuade them to leave the skatepark by promising them to come back on Sunday.

As you can see, a bit more successful on the scooter!



So Sunday we went back.  Kids scooted for two and a half hours, and we would have stayed but the big BMX men showed up saying f- this and f- that, so I decided it was time to leave.   We took the scenic route back to the tram, walking along Southbank, then crossing the Yarra on the pedestrian-only Sandridge  Bridge.

Below are photos of the Sandridge Bridge we walked across back to the north side of the Yarra.  People put locks on the bridge cables to commemorate being in love on the bridge.

The bridge was giftwrapped for Christmas

Lady on the left - not me.

Back on the north side of the river . . .

Taking photos of tourists taking photos.

Federation Square

American street magician. 

Both days we had such a lovely time.  The weather around Christmas was just perfect, 80 - 85 F, so it was nice to have an excuse to take the kids outside and enjoy the city.

Tired kids, sated with hot chips, waiting for their tram ride home.

 And just to inject a little reality into our super-fun, nice day . . . the realities of public transport.

Some ocker blokes drunk dialing some girls whilst on the tram, trying to get them to meet up at a pub.  That's a Wild Turkey cocktail in a can, in case you could not tell.  Klassy.