I can't stay away from the sea

I love living near the ocean.  Love it! Love it! Love it!
From where I live, I can hop on the 112 tram and be to the city beach in St Kilda in 50 minutes.  If I want to go a little further out, I can grab the metro train and I have several choices of beaches outside of the city.  The city of Melbourne sits on Port Phillip Bay and the cool thing is that I can grab a train from the city going southwest, south or southeast to get to the beach, taking between 1 hour to 1 hour and a half. I think in the summer, I'll plan to transport my bike with me on the metro train and bike along the boardwalk.
This past weekend, we ended up hitting the beaches further south than the trains go.  We picked up our car share Yaris and headed out of town!

First Stop: Rosebud
Rosebud, like Melbourne, is on Port Phillip Bay.  We basically followed the coastline from Melbourne to get here.

Rosebud had this funny wooden sculptures of their famous citizens around town.

The fuzzy-looking cake to the left is called a Lamington.  It's a spongy white cake, covered in chocolate sauce and coconut sprinkles.

Beach bathing houses along the shore 

One of my favorite trees to encounter out in the bush

Soft sand by the ocean is the best.  I don't care how cold it is, whenever I am by the sea with such lovely sand, I have to take off my shoes.  After walking around for half an hour, it always feels like my feet just had a massage.

This Rhodesian Ridgeback was swimming all over the place, much to the delight of the child onlookers... and people like myself.

Second stop: Sorrento
Sorrento is located near the tip of the peninsula.  It's still on the Port Phillip Bay side.  You can take a ferry to Queenscliff on the other side of the bay if you want to.  Ten years ago, my roommate Veronica and I visited Sorrento once or twice.  I don't remember it having such a "commercialized" feel to it though.

Veronica and I had breakfast here a couple of times.  The name of the restaurant is called "Buckley's Chance."  This is an Australian expression.  If you've got Buckley's chance, it means you have little to no chance.

The Continental Hotel overlooks the bay.  An old, elegant hotel by the water of the same name, this place reminded me of the Continental Hotel in Tangiers (Morocco). 

This is fairly common sight: the drive-up bottle shop (liquor store).

Disturbingly, this sign appeared at every bar around town that had pokies (slot machines, not to confuse the word with the American term meaning "jails!").  Also, we went into one bar with a breathalyzer machine right by the exit. 

At the end of the first day, we ended up staying at a small motel in Rye.  We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town which was pretty decent.  They played Pearl Jam's Ten album during our dinner, which I really appreciated.  I think Justin probably did too.
On Sunday, we drove to Mornington Peninsula National Park, which is on the southern tip of the peninsula, facing the Bass Strait.  There is no admission fee for the park, which is pretty awesome.  We took a nearly five hour round-trip hike from the car park to Bushranger Bay.
We spent most of the time exploring along the shore, which is breathtakingly beautiful. MPNP is one of those places you visit and you feel so very lucky.  While we walked along, I couldn't stop thinking about how if this place was the last thing I ever saw in my life, I would be content.  I hope everyone reading this has seen (or will see) something in nature so amazing that it brings tears to their eyes.  It is such an incredible feeling that brings about so much joy and peace.

Jumping for joy at the thought of a long hike

Looking out towards Bushranger Bay

Looking out towards Cape Schanck
We'll do this hike next time.

The end of the hike!

At the end of the hike, we had dinner in Mornington, then headed back to Melbourne.  I can't wait until we head back to the peninsula again.  We are so blessed that it is close enough for a day trip.  The  great outdoors is amazing!