Andrew & I were up early to drive on Friday 9th to the airport for our 6.30am flight to Melbourne to meet up with Chris. Everything from parking the car & getting the shuttle bus to checking in, getting through security & boarding our flight went smoothly. I was a little concerned when I couldn't get Andrew to take his bottle for take off but as the plane started to taxi, he fell asleep & didn't wake up until we were getting off the plane in Melbourne!
We didn't have any checked in baggage to collect as Chris had taken our stuff with him when he flew down so it was only the buggy we had to collect. Once we had that I decided to change & feed Andrew before we got the Sky Bus into the city. It was starting to rain when we left Southern Cross station to walk up Bourke Street so I decided to make a stop in the massive MYER to use their baby room. I bought Andrew some warmer clothes, which I changed him in to & also got myself a gorgeous pair of sandals in the sale!
Our next stop was at the Cerner office in Collins Street as I was meeting up with my friend, Mirha, for a coffee. I also wanted to say hi to a few of my colleagues there & introduce them to Andrew. It was nice to catch up with Mirha for a while before we set off for a nice walk through the Kings Domain, then along St Kilda Road to the "Parkview Hotel". I had points through their loyalty program at work (we book people in to the sister hotel in North Sydney & for every night we have someone stay there I get a point) so it was costing us nothing for our 2 night stay there.
Andrew & I just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon in the hotel until Chris got back from work just before 6pm. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant (also included with points) but unfortunately Andrew played up & we had to take it in turns to walk around with him to try to calm him down. Thankfully the restaurant was really quiet & the staff were very understanding.
We were joined at the hotel by Carly, Luke, Mel & her boyfriend, Dave (who is also Luke's best friend) for brunch at 11am on Saturday 10th. My points had also got us a champagne breakfast for 6 people & we all really enjoyed it. It was good to catch up leisurely over a nice breakfast & Andrew slept for most of the time. When we finished we all headed across the road to the 'Belgium Beer Cafe' where we were joined by Teresa & Ian - a lovely Scottish couple we met years ago through Carly. We all had a great afternoon in the Beer Garden & the weather was great. We finally said 'goodbye' to them all at about 5pm & went back to the hotel briefly before heading out again for dinner. We went across to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner & Andrew slept so it was a lot more relaxing than the night before!
For convenience we decided to have breakfast at the hotel again - this time sitting outside on the bistro terrace. Unfortunately the food was really disappointing after such a lovely breakfast yesterday. Afterwards, we got ready to check out & decided to leave our bags at the hotel while we walked along St Kilda Road in to the city. The Moonbah Festival was on along the banks of the Yarrah River so we had a wander around there in the sunshine. We then started walking down towards Southern Cross Station as I was getting the Sky Bus back to the Airport with Andrew (we couldn't take him in a taxi without a car seat). Chris got a taxi back to the hotel & it waited for him while he collected our bags & then he headed to the Airport, arriving just after Andrew & I.
We had lunch in 'PJ O'Briens' at the Airport before going through security to our gate. Just as we were expecting to board they announced that our flight was cancelled & they were having to move everyone on to other flights. Thankfully, because of Andrew, we were put on the next flight so we were only delayed by an hour. For some reason, Andrew & I had seats in Business Class! I have no idea why because I had used our Virgin Velocity Points to book the flight for us! Anyway, it was really nice but as Andrew got a lottle upset on a couple occassions I didn't fully get to enjoy the complimentery wine & food!
Once we arrived back in Sydney we collected our baggage & the buggy, then got the shuttle bus back to the car park, ready for our drive back home. It had been a really lovely weekend in break in Melbourne & it was great to catch up with our friends down there.