Dec 8, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Melbourne, Australia

Well we were right... as of midnight last night the sea swells were pretty big and the boat was really swaying. We just went to bed. Woke up in the morning to Melbourne, Australia and a nasty, rainy day.... Our plans to day was to meet up with Vickie, a friend we met while we were traveling in the Gallapagos Islands. She picked us up around 9:30 am and took us for a tour of the whole city including the outer suburbs in her car. It wasn't bad. It's a smaller and more manageable city than Sydney, but still expensive. We parked in the middle of town at a large entertainment complex. It had shopping, restaurants, casino, movies, and a hotel. We walked around and looked at the christmas decorations, then took Vickie to a nice lunch. The temperature is running about the low 60's, so it's a bit cool. We headed back to the ship and took the afternoon to prepare for our private cocktail party for the guests we are hosting. Several of our couples showed up for the cocktail party, but many didn't.  I think some got confused because we had to change the location due to AC problems in the original meeting point.  Overall everthing went well. Early night.