This past week was Spring Carnival. I thought that meant a lot of festivals, but instead, it was racing week. It could probably also be considered fashion week as so many advertisements were about buying your outfit for the races. The horse races are loved about as much as the footie teams {Australian speak for football} here!

There were four major race days at the Flemington Racecourse, just north of the city center. As I mentioned before, Tuesday was a public holiday for the Melbourne Cup, the main race. We did actually watch the race on TV since after all, it’s considered the “race that stops the nation”.

Thursday was Crown Oaks Day at the races, which is considered ladies’ day. I went to an Oaks Day charity luncheon with the school moms. In addition to getting dressed up, we also did get to bet on the race.

Brent and I received a last minute invite to attend the actual races on this past Saturday. It was Stakes Day which is family day. We decided it would be a little too much with the kids and decided to go without them. Brent and I enjoyed a whole day together- that’s a rare event!

We took the train to the racetrack and 90% of the people on the train were heading to the track, and you could tell by the attire. Everyone has to dress formally in most areas of the park. General admission does not have a dress code, but I didn’t see anyone that wasn’t dressed in a suit or a dress with a fascinator or hat.

We were in an area behind the grandstands in a marquee {Australian speak for fancy tent} with a chef and lots of good things to drink. The only downside was that we didn’t actually even see a live horse that day. We could have walked through the stables, but ended up running out of time somehow. We watched the races on the jumbotron instead.

Oh and the other downside, we lost more money than we won…. but overall, worth the experience.

This week was all about packing for our trip. We leave on Friday morning, travel over 24 hours and arrive on Friday evening. Still baffling. You probably won’t hear from me until we return to Australia because we don’t have internet (or TV) at our house {yikes!}, and we have a packed agenda the remainder of the time. So, fingers crossed for a sleepy flight!