Melbourne Cup Day dawned bright and sunny and reached a top of 23 degrees.  That was here in Shimoda.  (In Melbourne, we understand it was cold and rainy.)  To get into the spirit, we ran a sweep and managed to listen to the race courtesy of ABC Grandstand on my iPhone (at 1pm our time) — congratulations to Rick, the winner, Rhonda, for second, and, ahem… me third on Max Dynamite!

                                       Waiting for the race to start.

Apart from the race, the other big news was the announcement via a phone call from our daughter Kimi of the arrival of our fifth grandchild and third grandson Elijah Jade Dillner, in Melbourne: the real Melbourne Cup winner!

Here’s me receiving the news in a snap taken by fellow non-painter and Melbourne neighbour, Anne Kelso:

But back to the Art Tour.  We returned to Perry Road in Shimoda for painting and exploring among the temples and surrounds.  We had time for a group photo of the artists and two of the non-painters:

What a happy troop.  The scenery around the port is very picturesque, particularly on a bright sunny day:

The pathway around the bay had a big 危険 (Danger) sign at the start.  I wonder why:

Not a deterrent to our walkers!

Today was a lovely end to our time on the Izu Peninsula.  We handed back our two rental vans that had been driven by Chris and me for the last four days and said sayonara to Shimoda with a massive kaiseki dinner.

Takayama tomorrow — by train.