Tj's birthday was exactly one month ago. We took advantage of the special occasion to rent a car and go on a little road trip. It was definitely an adventure. 

I don't drive very often, let alone on the wrong side of the road so it was all up to Tj. Usually he loves driving around. Seriously. When we went to PEI a few years ago, he said his favourite part of the trip was just driving around the island. Last year we went to Tuscany because it was a bucket list item of his to drive around Italy. At one point he even got a little pouty because he just wanted to keep driving around Tuscany. I pointed out that we were still in Tuscany and he was actually driving as he said this, but he didn't want it to end. 

Driving on the other side of the road is a different story. Tj first tried it when my dad came to London last year. They had a count of who hit the most curbs and they felt like they couldn't tell where the side of the car was (who wants to bet this will be the first post my dad comments on? haha) In their defence, the roads in England were very narrow. Driving in Australia went a bit better. The roads definitely weren't as narrow and it was Tj's second time now, so he had some experience. At first there was a lot of accidentally turning on the windshield wipers when he was trying to signal and there was an incident with a post when he was parking. My job was to let him know if he was drifting across the line. I think we were on the road for about 8 hours total and by the end he wasn't having any issues. We are ready for lots more road trips!

We went to see the Twelve Apostles and then drove back to Melbourne along Great Ocean Road. In hindsight, we would take the scenic route there, and then the highway back. Now we know for next time. 

The first sight we saw was Gibson's Steps. We pulled over and walked down and were completely overwhelmed by the beauty of the coast! The cliffs were enormous and the sand was soft. It was just stunning! This was definitely the highlight of the day for me. It was the first time since we moved here that I felt like I was actually in Australia! 

The Twelve Apostles are limestone stacked formations off the shore. Due to erosion, there are only 8 left. You can't walk down to the beach here, but the view was still amazing. It was 42 degrees that day, but the wind was so strong - people's hats were blowing off and their dresses were blowing up. I could have leaned into the wind and it would have held me up. It was definitely worth it to see, but I think we both enjoyed Gibson's Steps more. 

Great Ocean Road is 243 km of road that was built by soldiers returning from the war and is a memorial to all those who died in WWI. It takes about 4.5 hours to drive back to Melbourne but it took us longer because a car crashed into a ditch and we were stuck in traffic waiting for the tow truck to pull it out. Warning to people who get carsick: the roads are very twisty. The drive was so pretty and every town we drove through we want to go back to. There were so many gorgeous beaches. We actually have plans to go back to one of the towns when some friends visit us in a few weeks. 

It was really nice to get out of the city. I'm looking forward to more day trips and seeing more of Australia (I'm ok with not seeing any snakes though)! Tj's birthday was a lot of fun and hopefully made up for the fact that he is getting so old lol.