Great Ocean Road, Cape Otway Lighthouse and Treetop Walk - Our Adventure Continues!

Since Madre wasn't feeling so hot, we gave her a rest day on Wednesday and stayed home watching cricket and lawn bowls before venturing out to lunch. Then mom and dad napped while I did some work and Anna and Ron came to visit for dinner. It's crazy to think that it's been 4 years since Mom and Dad and Anna and Ron met/saw each other at the wedding back in Boston. They picked up like no time had passed at all and chatted the night away!

Thursday morning we were up early to head down south to the Great Ocean Road. This windy and very curvy "mountain" road travels along the coast and hosts beautiful views of the Great Southern Ocean. Lucky I've been down this road a few times because the drive is pretty tough and doesn't leave much option for the driver to look out the window. Also lucky I was driving because even being in the drivers seat my stomach was doing flips! Eeeep! Sorry Padre!  It's so beautiful though and I think well worth the long drive.

We stopped in Apollo Bay for lunch which is also where we stayed the night. We continued on through the Great Otway National Park before reaching Gibson's Steps which is my favourite part of the Great Ocean Road. I think it's so cool that my first time on the Great Ocean Rd I stopped there with Andrew, then when Moo came to visit we took her there and then recently Twinnie and Drew (it was one of their favourite spots too) and now Mom and Dad! Lots of photo ops! Yay!

Madre and Padre even sat still long enough for me to take a couple of super cute photos of them together. (They tire quickly of photos and me asking "do you want a photo here?" .... don't know how as their daughter is a photographer... but I thought these were super cute and worth sitting still for 20 seconds!) Eeeep! So cute. And I just love the picture of Mom looking out to the ocean... beautiful Mummo!

We even saw tons of bluebottles (stinging jellyfish) on the beach! Well at least I think that's what they were... but as no Aussie's were with us and Andrew's not seen one before I am just assuming. I'm almost officially an Aussie though so my executive decision is yes, that's what they were.

We went another kilometre down the road to the viewing platform for the 12 Apostles. It was pretty windy and cold!

Mom even wanted to get payback for all the "dangerous" photos we take and send her so she pretended to fall of the cliffs. Funny Mumma!

The next morning we went to the Cape Otway Lighthouse which is the oldest surviving lighthouse in Australia. It was raining on the drive there and then the sun came out as we walked up to the lighthouse keeper's house on the hill overlooking the ocean. Beautiful! The lighthouse itself was stunning and 78 steps later we  saw beautiful views from the top.

After the lighthouse we headed to the Treetop walk which Moo and Twinnie and Drew have also all been on before. We ran into a bunch of college kids from the US (one from Boston and one who had run the Boston Marathon) who grabbed a quick photo of the 3 of us on the top of the viewing platform. Cute! It was a bit scary walking up top with the trees and looking down through the grated platform. Mom held on with 2 hands pretty much the entire time. 

Don't worry though, we made it back safely and trekked up to the car before the long drive home where Laura and Tim cooked up a FEAST for dinner. Mom and Dad even tried Kangaroo! Thanks Laura and Tim for such an amazing dinner... I don't think I've ever been so full! Yummo!