Day 61: Mrs. Marples and Phillip Island

I slept better last night than I have in a week thanks to Cathy and her good thinking!  She brought some mentholatum in to me before bed.  A little on the bottoms of my feet and chest and I didn’t cough once all night!

I woke up just 15 minutes before Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Lyle were supposed to be here to pick us up.   We had a wonderful brunch with them and Mary at a great place called Mrs. Marple’s Tea House.  If you’ve ever watched Mrs. Marple on PBS, you know what this place was like.  The inside was lined around the top with tea pots of every shape and size.  It was super cozy and it smelled wonderful! The food was great but the company was better.

What is it about getting to know family?  There is a joy in it unlike any other I’ve felt in my life.  At times I am almost giddy with the opportunity.  Today though, it was a bit bitter sweet knowing that we leave in just 3 days.  This was the last chance to see Mary as she has school and activities with her kids and stuff for the rest of the week. 

There was a Tea shop next door that we thought to step into just for a minute and—as we tend to do—we got a bit carried away.  It was a wonderland of all things tea and tea pots!  There were herbal blends that would take π and K a lifetime to explore.  We couldn’t resist buying a few little things,  I’m excited for my Aussie Post and Phone Box salt and pepper shakers!!

Then Uncle Lyle wanted to stop quickly at home.  What a mistake!  Did you know he was an eagle scout? He still has his uniform and sash with all his merit badges.  Aunt Bonnie showed me her scrap books and her wonderful kitchen block that is just the right height for her. 

Then the biggest treat of the trip.  Lyle played his trumpet for me.  I know that for the cousins, this is no big thing, and I really can’t explain why it meant so much for me to hear him play, but you know, it really really did.  Standing in his kitchen with him giving us just a sampling of the pieces he’s playing right now reduced me to tears.  Even now as I write this, they’re falling again. 

These relatives that I’ve known about my whole life, who were little more than just names on the backs of some old faded photos, are real people!!  Not only that, they’re amazing people!  They have hobbies and passions and personalities!  They have strengths and weaknesses and some of them are just like mine!  Isn’t that amazingly miraculous?!  Of course it’s not, but it sure feels like it is.  To see so many ‘family resemblances’, not just in looks but in character—it’s just wonderful. 

We spent too much time there—and at the same time not nearly enough!—and ended up being late for our next, and final, tourist type activity.  We still hadn’t seen penguins so we went to Phillip Island to the Penguin Parade. 

I was really worried that we would be too late to see it at all, but I didn’t need to be.  The organization at this particular spot seemed a bit off to me, I don’t know why.  Once we’d shown our tickets at the gate, that was the end of the involvement of the staff.  I was really confused, we didn’t know which way to go and when we asked, we got sent in the wrong direction.  It just seemed disorganized to me. 

We did, eventually, figure out where we needed to be and we found Cathy and the rest of the group waiting for us, unpopularly saving us seats.  I was astounded by how many people were there!  It’s winter here and most people are pretty opposed to heading out into the cold to do stuff.  There were heaps of Asians there and not many other white faces, maybe that explains the crowd.  Also, since it’s winter, there aren’t many penguins that come in every night.  They spend more time at sea in the cold months.  The stadiums there are pretty far away from where the penguins were coming in and towards the end I was pretty disappointed in “the show”. 

My attitude changed quickly though when I realized two things.  1—we’d outlasted the crowds of Asians and we were only part of a fairly small group now and 2—there were two little penguins not 10 meters from the stands serenading us.  We listened to them call for quite some time before heading up to walk along the boardwalk that’s been constructed to preserve their burrows.  There were penguins everywhere!  It was fascinating to watch!  Unfortunately there’s no photography allowed, but they were so cute!!  My favorite were the llittle penguins that were all soft and fuzzy.

As we headed back up to the discovery center we heard the word “baby” by a couple of observers so we walked over to the railing to see what the buzz was about.  I had said something to one of the kids about “See if you can see the baby” when a lady next to me said, “There’s a Mum and Dad penguin over here having a cuddle.”  I’m sure someone else said something similar like “making a baby” that got the buzz started.  Come to find out that O was with Cathy front and center to the cuddling. 

O exclaimed, “Look!  It’s X and X² fighting!” then she narrated what she was seeing,  “I want to go first!  No I want to go first!”  Completely oblivious as to why all the adults around here were laughing so to her narration.

There was more ‘cuddling’ happening behind a bush.  The kids wanted to stop and listen and π said, “They’re having Family Home Evening, let’s not interrupt.”

Ooh too much fun!!!

By the time we got back to Cathy and BJ’s house we were all exhausted.  We had one last taste of the fish and chips shop that Jordane works at and then we were off to bed.  Our last box will get ticked off in the morning as we head out to the Melbourne Temple—which I now know is about a ten minute drive from Unlce Lyle’s house.