We had an exceptionally late start today for two reasons. First, Millie crawled into our tiny full-sized bed at 2AM, so I left and crawled into her bed, then she followed me. We finally finished the bed shuffle with me alone in her bed, but it made for restless sleep. Then, Nick and I had a last minute panic about oil prices and decided to plan further out than we have been (3+ weeks rather than 3+ days).

Before we left I did Millie’s hair and set her up with some crafts. I was very proud of the hair today, she requested “Anna from Frozen 2”.

At Noon we finally began our short walk towards Queen Victoria Market. This is a large market that sells everything you can imagine, but we were there for one thing: food. We walked through the clothing and craft areas straight towards the trucks, vegetables, and stalls.

We followed our stomachs and stopped wherever we wanted to try something. So gluttonous but also one of life’s joys. Our first stop was the “American Doughnuts” truck. They were warm, covered in sugar, and full of perfectly tart-sweet jam.

Onwards through the fresh produce. We didn’t stop for anything here but I fantasized about living a life where I’d be strolling this market and purchasing large amounts of seasonal goods on a weekday.

We found the inside marketplace stalls and stopped at the Borek shop for a spicy lamb and a spinach and cheese wrapped pastry. These too were served hot, and we ate them outside under an umbrella as it lightly drizzled on us. Millie put stamps on her postcards.

Then we did a loop and stopped a few times for whatever tickled our fancy. We keep seeing hot cross buns everywhere so we got a traditional one and a chocolate chip one. Nick and I got fancy pour-over coffees. Millie saw a pretzel that she had to have.

The grand finale was when we saw these beautiful Easter eggs at an Italian deli stand. They were real eggs filled with solid chocolate, and then airbrushed in vibrant colors. We simply had to get one.

We joyfully cracked it and each took big bites of the soft chocolate. Add to my very long list of retirement plans: make these for kids and become the most magical old lady ever.

Once we had had enough, we walked about 30 minutes towards the Museum of Immigration. Along the way I admired the details on the buildings around us. There was plenty to notice.

We arrived at the Museum of Immigration. We had heard about this in the Bill Bryson book and marked it as a place we wanted to visit in Melbourne. It is essentially a history of Australia from the moment Cook arrived until present day. It did a good job of balancing difficult messages, like acknowledging the horrors of colonization while celebrating the richness of the country because of immigration. At times it did feel a little like pro-Australia propaganda, but I guess how could it not?

Millie just read a book all about the Titanic so she was able to connect that to learning about how early settlers here arrived by boat. They also had a scavenger hunt for her which helped keep her entertained.

She has learned so much about aboriginal people but can’t quite get the word right so she just calls them “the original people” which I love.

From here we walked across the river to a playground I had read about. As soon as we got there we realized “wait, this must be by the same artist who had the installation at the Art Gallery of NSW”. And yep, same guy. Millie loved it just as much.

She made a friend right away. When that friend had to leave she made another. And when that friend was too little to hold a conversation, she spent 10 minutes chatting with a mom. We are so proud of her.

We were somewhat freezing sitting on the bench so we were happy when she told us she was ready to leave. On our way back to the Airbnb we stopped at some stores to get her new pants. We haven’t had cold(ish) weather for so long that we didn’t realize she had grown out of all her long pants and socks. All of them ride up above her ankles. It think she’s had a major growth spurt in the last 2 months.

We browsed H&M and I got a glimpse of what teenage Millie will be like. She has very strong opinions for what she likes and browses the racks very intently.

We found some pairs that all looked enormous to me but somehow fit her. We were still stuffed from the market adventure so skipped dinner.