When I'm 64. . . at St. Kilda Beach

You may remember a previous post, where I posted these bronze sculptures that I was so taken with. . . and I had fantasized about having my birthday dinner at this restaurant. Well. It happened. St. Kilda Beach was even more fun than it was the first time. For one thing, it was considerably cooler, in every sense of the word. The coolness wasn't just pleasant. It brought out a Whole Lot of Other folks, all of them having fun. We got a better view of the famous Luna Park (also featured in some of the Miss Fisher Mysteries), which has this lovely wooden roller coaster.





There were folks selling craft items (think a Boise Saturday market, scaled way down), folks learning to juggle, and what looked like it must have been a statewide set of beach volley ball games. . . there were at least a dozen nets, conveniently portable, with a lot of laughing folks playing ardent games of volleyball. Four on four.

We watched the sailboats for quite some time from the Penguin Pier, which has a very old building that currently houses an overpriced restaurant, as well as a colony of penguins which one only gets to actually SEE at sunset, when they come in from the water to sleep in their nests among the rocks on the end of the breakwater. We had to leave to go to dinner, but I do BELIEVE they live there. . . .







All in all, in spite of my sleep deprived state, it was a wonderful evening. Oh. And did I mention we had wonderful food? A great bottle of Yarra Valley Pinot Noir and of course, I started with a martini in memory of my Dad.

Then we came out into the evening, with the setting sun, and many many people who were clearly just happy to be there. I was one of them.