Day 31 was a travel day. A short hop from Hobart back to Melbourne. Because we had to check out at 10 AM, and the flight didn't leave until almost 5 PM, we had a bit of time to kill. To fill some of it, we chose to visit the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. It was very interesting. Not much in the way of classic art, but some interesting stuff about convicts (go figure) and quite a bit of modern art I really enjoyed. There was a natural history section, and despite them being a museum, did little to satisfy my curiosity about the Tasmanian Tiger, a Thylacine. Still it did consume a couple of hours, which was our goal.

The flight was delayed, which only served to confirm my opinion that I will always plan to travel one day before I want to get there, just in case. In the airport, we did manage to find a power source, and watched Raising Arizona. The flight was uneventful, thankfully.

When we got to the hotel, the Medina Grand was nice enough to give us a free upgrade to the penthouse suites (sorry Sacha!) That means we're on the 21st floor, requiring a special elevator, and we are staying in a 3 bedroom, two story room for the regular room rate. How cool is that. I set the camera and Colleen got some very good shots of the city line from this high up, and I took a few of as many angles as I could to show the size of this place. Colleen is currently reading in a room we aren't even planning to sleep in. The only down side is that the broadband connection (that we have so desperately craved) is upstairs, and the master bedroom is downstairs. Oh well, we'll struggle through it somehow. :-)

Dinner was room service. I didn't want to go out, and this was far more relaxing. We just wanted to unwind. No activity, and no booze. THANK GOD! We have to fly 16 hours tomorrow just to get to L.A. and I didn't want anything to stand in the way of us getting out of here early.

We did take the time to balance the checkbook and pay a couple of bills that should have been paid before we got back to the U.S. Good thing we have on-line bill pay from Bank of America. It makes that pretty handy. Boring I know, but I had to try to remind myself that life was really still going on. It is hard to believe this is the 31st day of posting on this odyssey, and it is just about to end. :-( To be frank, I am ready to be back at home. I am worn out!

Colleen was too tired to post, so she probably won't have a post tonight. I may try to get her to post when we get back to NC. If nothing else, be on the lookout for our picture album to be published soon. I hope it doesn't take too long. I definitely want to try out the new option for slide shows available through my FreeSites Manager. It looks pretty cool, honestly.

Cheers!