With the option of Falls Creek ruled out due to short notice decision making Mimi's final day was highlighted by a trip through Melbournes renowned Yarra Valley. We'll save a ski trip for next year I think.

I've become a bit of a wine drinker of the course of 2010 so this has been something that's on my list of things to do for quite some time. Having no clue where to start we just started heading west from Eltham and pulled into whichever winery had a sign on the road we were traveling on. It took us to Sticks, a very modern winery located in Yarra Glen. Here I found something my taste buds lapped up. Their 2008 Semillon was unbelievable and compelled me to purchase a bottle. Having no clue where to go next and the clock clicking to midday we asked the lady at Sticks to help us with some direction. She indicated lunch at Giant Steps was worthwhile so we tracked there next.

Now, this place was a genuine surprise. Places this good shouldn't be limited to Healseville and the residents of that area are incredibly lucky to have such an epic place in their neighborhood. I use the word epic in the truest sense of the word. They have a brewery, winery, coffee bean house and restaurant all in one. That's also not to mention their ice-cream and cheese room. We all enjoyed a very nice tasting wood fired pizza before heading off again.

Stopping at more random winery we ended with De Bortelli, probably the most famous of the Yarra Valley wines. Luckily they also had a cheese tasting room which we happily engaged in while tasting their wines. I found nothing that really stood out from their range but perhaps my palate isn't as refined as I thought.

With the day ending and the sun setting we all got back in the car and headed back to Melbourne for dinner.

It was  nice having Mimi back in town again and for some reason I always feel revitalised and fresh after her visits. I think it's because we always end up doing some random things that I don't ever do. It's kind of like a holiday without ever leaving. Hm... let's hope I can convince some of my other friends to enjoy these type of things.

With the culinary experience from the day before still on our lips, Mimi and I headed to try some of Melbournes best coffee houses to show her what Sydney craves to be. It was interesting for me too as I hadn't tried some of the places that everyone raves about.

We kicked it off with a light breakfast at Brother Bada Budan. Mimi knew of this place because it's renowned more for having chairs on the ceiling than it's coffee. It was the morning rush when we arrived so they were funneling out coffees at a frantic pace but from our seat at the bar we could see that every coffee was given the same attention as if there was only one customer waiting. I enjoyed a heavenly croissant to go with my latte which if I lived or worked in the city would be first on my list of stops.

We then drove to South Yarra to experience St. Ali. Being probably the most well known of the places we tried St. Ali really let us down. The coffee was warm at best and as I take a long time to usually finish my coffees it was disappointing that it was already cold before I finished it. Perhaps it was an off day as the place is obviously hugely popular. The venue is great though and despite a poor first experience there, I'll be sure to come back and give them a deserving second chance.

Having stopped at an art gallery which was selling Single Origin beans, and therefor, having to try a short black on the house by the gallery owner we were already getting a bit jittery so stopped at the Museum for the Titanic expo for a few hours.

The final stop was Seven Seeds in Carlton although we had planned on going to Three Bags Full in Abbotsford but it got too late by the time we finished up. Seven Seeds was my pick of the bunch and while I've heard that the staff there can be quite high-brow to non coffee aficionados we didn't find it at all. The waiter was really polite and talked us through his suggestions of what's worth trying really well. We took his suggestion of the Clover, probably because as I found out later as it's drip coffee it's cheaper to make, but it still got the job done. Not to mention it was delicious. It really was and I was surprised at how flavorsome the Clover was. It was more like a wine tasting, which we did the following day, than drinking coffee.

Ah, what a nice day. It's worth doing if you don't regurarly visit these places. Melbourne is known for it's coffee, but as a local I think we sometimes forget why.