Hobart

At the end of the wedding festivities, we boarded another plan and jetted away from the mainland...

 

...to the wilds of Tasmania!!
Our first stop was the capitol city of Hobart, with its lovely port, mountainous backdrop...

...and relatively new, world-famous, avant-garde (avant-gaude? maybe) museum-like-no-other, MONA. We took the ferry to the museum from the city center, so that even our approach was artful, you could say.

There were so many interesting and bizarre exhibits--a waterfall of sorts that spelled words:

--and a sculpture made entirely of ash from burned incense, which is slowly disintegrating in front of visitors' eyes:

--and my favorite, the trampoline (maybe I'd be more of a museum-goer if they all had trampolines!):

My father, who usually speed-walks through museums and then waits outside impatiently for the rest of the group, was actually the last one to leave. We had to practically drag him out of there as he was checking to make sure *he hadn't missed anything* (no joke).

This day also happened to be my parents' 40th wedding anniversary AND my dad's birthday. The museum apparently left him in such a great mood that later, walking along the wharf, when I asked to take a picture of him and my mom in honor of their anniversary, he surprised the socks off her and did this:

Held the pose for an impressively long time, too, to make sure I captured the moment on film. Happy anniversary, guys!