Introduction
Seattle to Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Brisbane
Brisbane to Sydney to Canberra
Canberra
Canberra to Melbourne
Melbourne
Qantas First Lounge Melbourne
Melbourne to Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Seattle
Conclusion

                                                                                                                                                                   

After taking the Skybus from the Airport to the city and then using their free connecting shuttle to my hotel, I was looking forward to relaxing for a bit. I was staying at the Langham at Southbank and before even contemplating staying there had scammed an elite status with their loyalty program. Add into the fact that the travel agents I deal with at work rave about this hotel, I just had to check it out. Check in was painless and my bags were taken off me and I headed up to my room, where a few moments later my bags joined me.

I settled into an afternoon of relaxing to catch up on some stuff I had not been able to do up till this point and just before I was due to meet a friend for dinner I encountered a problem with the aircon in my room, but it was fixed with ease and didn’t require a room move. I left the Langham (not before being told by the staff that I must take an Umbrella with me and they wouldn’t let me leave without one) and walked over to Fed Square to meet up with my friend Ross, lay down a sticker somewhere that was visible that I had been wanting to do for a while.

I spent the evening catching up with Ross over dinner of Laksa on Racecourse Road in Flemington at an extremely busy Laksa King (Curry Combination Laksa recommended) and a failed attempt for some ice cream. I retired for the evening totally beat and looking forward to a comfy bed.

Monday 8th April 2013

A sound sleep on an absolutely comfy bed and I was as happy as larry. Up early for a morning run along the yarra river. As I got to the ground floor lobby I noticed a pile of water bottles right by the door to the lifts. That was odd I thought, I looked a bit closer and it turns out they have a “Jogging Station” including a suggested jogging map. Nice! I asked how long the run was and they said they thought it was about 3.5km, not long enough for me so I said thanks anyway and headed off on my own little route that I had kind of worked out the night before.

5km run complete and I got myself ready for my breakfast meeting with the hotel rep and a site inspection through the hotel, though I won’t go through what happened (as it would be boring to everyone really) what I will comment on is the breakfast buffet at the Langham. Just WOW! It had just about everything you could want including a chocolate fondue fountain and a pancake station… with ICE CREAM! Though I was going for a healthy morning I grabbed a bowl of good thick porridge, just the way I like it!

After the breakfast and site inspection I finished off some work I had intended on doing the night before and had skipped, writing up some trip reports, some articles, clearing out some of the trash in my email accounts (how much junk i accumulate is crazy). After a good relax and productivity I packed up my stuff right as the housekeeping staff turned up to clean my room. Good timing! Off I headed (after a quick turnaround cause I forgot my ipod) to walk my way to a catch up with some friends for lunch.

After lunch with friends and having to head off way too soon (hate leaving my friends) and I hit the streets to walk away the afternoon. I was on a mission. Walk back to the city (did I mention that I was walking for two reasons, one I hate Melbourne public transport and two I was happy to enjoy the sunshine and exercise) and do my supply shopping before repacking and having a quiet night in.

First up on the purchase list was a scout of all the tacky souvenir stores in Melbourne for some birthday gifts (well in advance kind of thing) for some people. Something unique to Australia… Kangaroo Scrotum! My friends couldn’t believe that as Aussies we tend to use the entirety of the Kangaroo. I scouted out all the stores before purchasing as they were all in a line and figured that I would get them on the way back to the hotel.

So with the scouting done I decided to walk over to Crumpler just to check it out since it had been forever since I had even seen a crumpler store and i was having withdrawls. I came out of the store only having spent $3 on a keyring of one of the old school crumpler zips. Something that they don’t use on their new bags.

From Crumpler it was over to Melbourne Central for a supermarket stop to get the supplies that I miss in the USA. Vegemite, Diet jelly and some candy for the people at work (well at least the first hit, I would get some more at the airport duty free). From there it was back to the tacky souveneir stores and back to the hotel. I packed up my suitcase and by this time it was getting fairly late in the afternoon.

My evening was quiet I was intending on spending that time relaxing. Watching some TV and then hitting the pillows really early. Because to be honest I was going to be up super early. I wanted to hit the gym before leaving the hotel, and since I had an morning flight and wanted to spend as much time in the lounge as possible, it was time to head to sleep, because tomorrow was going to be a truly epic adventure.