Geelong: Victoria's Little Sister (Sunday, Feb. 15)

We slept a little longer this morning. We do not  have an organized tour and plan to explore Geelong ( pronounced JuhLONG) on our own. The harbour (the spelling over here) is not deep enough to dock at the pier, so we are tendered to shore in the life boats. Those on organized tours have priority, so we had a leisurely breakfast, before heading to the Marina Lounge to get a tender number.

We entered the tender, which probably carries about 60 to 70 passengers. The sky is clear and blue. After a 5-10 minute ride we were at the pier. We were greeted by volunteers with a map of the town on a lanyard and directed to a free bus that made a 30-minute loop around town to show us sites of interest. We were told we were the second cruise ship since November. City leaders were hoping to make Geelong a regular stop and had organized an army of volunteers to make our stay memorable.

Geelong is a city about the size of Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The bus took us past the waterfront with a long, wide boardwalk, a swimming area protected from sharks and marine stingers (jelly fish) and many boats of all kinds and sizes. We drove past the Botanical Gardens, two downtown shopping malls and quaint  houses with gingerbread detailing. As we stopped at the Wool Museum, we decided to get off and tour the museum.

The Wool Museum chronicled the entire process of producing wool from the sheep to finished products. Two sheep shearing demonstrations took place in the morning.

The various machines from the past involved in cleaning, carding, spinning into yarn, etc. were demonstrated in videos with the actual machines there for viewing. There were lots of hands-on activities from touching the wool in various stages, to operating a hand-cranked  knitting machine that knit a cylindrical tube advanced by a weight.

The most fascinating was a machine that created a patterned carpet runner using punch cards and hundreds of spools of many colors of yarn. We were able to see a demonstration of the machine at work and the finished carpet was displayed on the wall.

We browsed the museum gift shop and spent a pleasant 15-20 minutes talking to two volunteers about the city, their recommendations of what to do, and general visiting about our respective cultures and lives. It didn't hurt that there was free WiFi available there!

We walked around the shopping malls looking at Australian woolen products and generally "snooping" as Alan's mother would say. We bought some batteries (at a Target, no less!) for Joyce's camera as the battery charger is missing at the moment. We shared a savory roll and sweet roll for a lunch snack.

We then strolled toward the water front. It was beautiful sunny day in the upper 80's with an occasional cooling sea breeze. We had heard of the cold temperatures and predicted snow in Indiana, so we stopped at a little park with tall waving palm trees to take a 'selfie' to later text to Joyce's sister, Sandi.

We arrived back at the bus stop and decided to take the bus to the Botanical Gardens, even though the descriptions had said that it was a lot of trees and bushes without much color.

While waiting for the bus we amused ourselves with people watching - a very fun and fascinating past time - and using Alan's iPhone to take a panorama in which Joyce ran from spot to spot out of the camera's view in order to be in the picture at three different spots. I'm sure the people around us thought watching us was an interesting pastime as well!

At different places along the water front there were tall, straight, rounded post statues painted to look like various figures from Geelong's past, made from old pier posts from the harbour. Alan had fun taking pictures of them.

The bus took us to the Geelong Botanical Garden. We had been told there were many species of trees and not many flowers, so were pleasantly surprised to see many flowers as well as flowering bushes and trees. Many of the plants were things we had never seen before, so it was quite fun exploring and again marveling at the variety and beauty of God's creation.

Since it was Sunday, many families including children with balloons, couples sitting on blankets, larger family gatherings at tables, and couples walking dogs were also enjoying the garden.

Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to walk back to the pier to catch the tender back to the ship, especially since it was now down hill. We walked past the swimming area, watched boats and people on wave-runners enjoying the water.

Alan took more pictures of the statues along the boardwalk.

As we rested a few moments out of the sun, a woman sitting on the grass asked if we were from the ship. I told her we were and she asked where we were from. I told her and we chatted briefly. As we started to move on she asked me, "Do you feel it?" which I interpreted to mean the motion of the ship. I replied "Yes, a little." She gave a small smile and shudder. We had been asked if we were from the cruise ship by shop owners as well. It appears we were quite welcome visitors!

We returned to the ship and located a snack of cookies and hors d'oeuvres at a little coffee shop-like place Alan had discovered earlier. We were back to the ship earlier than most other guests so the hot tubs were empty . We took a short bubble, which was very relaxing, followed by a nap.

A church service had been advertised in the Currents, the daily activities brochure. We decided to go. It was very short, approximately 15 minutes. It included singing a hymn, a responsive reading, a scripture reading, a message/story/devotional and a final prayer. We were happy to see the couple from Kingman there and had a nice chat with them about their church at home and the recent engagement of their granddaughter after the service. We plan to go next Sunday as well.

Tonight we ate dinner at Toscana, one of four specialty restaurants on the ship. One reservation at each restaurant is included at our stateroom level. Toscana is an Italian restaurant, located at the back of the ship on deck 14. We were seated facing the windows, a great view. There were seven courses listed on the menu. Not having been to Italy, several things were confusing to Joyce. She asked the server and received informative help, especially the suggestion to order two appetizer/salad type dishes, entre' and dessert, because in her experience that is all a person was able to eat. We wisely followed her advice. The food was excellent. We  have found that all the food is very good, but this was a step above. The atmosphere was excellent as well. The ship was leaving Geelong, so we were able to watch that process. The harbour had a narrow path marked by a red buoy on one side and a green one on the other that the ship followed out and around the cape protecting the area.

As the sun set, we were treated to an indescribably beautiful sunset. Seeing God's handiwork in a place a half a world away from where we live caused us to be again reminded of what an awesome, powerful and creative God we worship.

We finished the day with a show in the Marina Lounge by the Jean Ann Ryan Company called "Backstage Pass", with so many Broadway Tunes that I'm sure our friend, Kirk, was humming along back in Indiana!  They did throw in a number that showcased the Moldovan gymnastic/acrobatic duo, which wowed the audience, even though the stage lights caused some issues with the tall handstands.