17 Jan: Melbourne (VIC).

I started out the day with a nice leisurely run around Albert Park with Chris, while Shelly went for a walk. It was a gorgeous morning, and Chris spent some time orienting me around to different landmarks around Melbourne. After Chris did some serious tempo training without me, we went back to get +Marc out of bed. We were all feeling a bit rough after the previous night's post-Movida activities. :-)
View from Jill's run: Albert Park and Melbourne
skyline in background - also home to Australian
F1 Grand Prix every March

Shelly took the day off and managed to convince Marc to swim in the ocean in St. Kilda. The temps were supposed to climb to 40+ Celsius (100+ Fahrenheit) today and we figured that would encourage Marc to get in. It was a bit cloudy in the morning, so it felt "cooler" and a bit humid. But after our walk down to the beach, Marc got in. He probably took longer to actually get in and swim than he actually swam. He swam almost from one pier to another, and then got rewarded by having a pastry at one of the Jewish bakeries in St. Kilda.
Marc takes a dip in the water in St. Kilda
We headed into the city for lunch and to get Marc some new insoles for his trail runners. It was starting to get really hot. By the time we got back, the temps reached 41F. Thank goodness Shelly and Chris have A/C. After cleaning up a bit, we all headed over to Vue du Monde for dinner. It's on the 55th floor of the Rialto Building and is renowned for its views and food/wine.
Dinner at Vue du Monde
The views were indeed stunning and the sunset was absolutely awesome. What luck! We had some great food and wine, and did the degustation menu where we didn't know what was coming out. They catered to Marc really well and I tried a "bug" (which looks like a small lobster and tastes fabulous) as well as some cured wallaby. Both tasty. We had a really great time with Shelly and Chris, and then we all remembered that we all committed to getting up at 5:30am to work out (Shelly and I to Crossfit, and Marc and Chris to swim). Gonna be interesting to see how that works out since we didn't get home until about 12:30am. The sacrifices we make.
View of sunset from dinner