A Beautiful Day In Melbourne

Tammy and I started the day off with a jog-and-walk around Albert Park, during which we had to contend with scenery like this:

We then spent part of the afternoon on Chapel Street, visiting a comic store, eating amazing burgers at Grill'd, and then hitting the Farmers Market on the way home:

After 6:00, hard-working Ryan finally got released from the salt mines (where he'd worked every night this week until 10:00 or later) and joined us in The City for dinner at an amazing outdoor Italian restaurant:

From there, we visited a downtown alley that's specifically set aside for graffiti artists to show their talents:

On our way to a souvenir shop, I spotted the rarest of the rare: a McDonald's that's actually been re-branded as "Macca's", which is what all Australians call the golden arches: 

I have no idea how that ever got approved by McD's Corporate HQ, but I guess somehow it did.  If you look beyond the two Macca's signs in that picture, you'll also see a Hungry Jack's placard.  That's really just a Burger King.  When they introduced BK to Australia, nobody ate there.  But changing the name apparently saved the franchise Down Under.  Weird, huh?

We're settled in for the evening now, and I just realized that we've reached the midway point of this trip of ours.  We've been on the road for 11 days so far, and have another 11 to go before we'll be back home with Emma, Jonesy and Lucy once again.  I think the second half is going to have to go some to match what we've seen and done so far, but who knows: maybe it'll even top it!