After a stressful morning getting
on the plane we were happy to leave the dreary weather behind and finally land
on the west coast to enjoy some sunshine.
We were greeted at the airport by a fellow Wake Hockey star, Jemima
Cameron. She gave me a little taste of home as she was wearing Wake Hockey
apparel, which she wore just in case I didn’t remember what she looked
like. We stopped off to get a little
breakfast before dropping our bags at her house so she could give her sister
would have time to clean up. Luckily,
she told her sister not to work too hard because she knew what kind of
conditions I was living in when I lived in 1414. After breakfast we quickly dropped our bags
off in the American Suite, which came fully equipped with an American flag duner
(or, duvet, for those of you that don’t understand Australian) to make us feel
right at home.
Jemima was a great tour guide and
showed us all around the city of Perth.
We rode the bus up to a Kings Cross, a botanical garden that overlooked
the whole city. We toured around to see
plant life from all over Australia and eventually found the tower so we could
get an areal view of the city. After
exhausting ourselves sightseeing and soaking up too much sun, we boarded a
train to a little town called Fremantle. We nestled ourselves on the back porch
of the Little Creatures Brewery to enjoyed the harbor view and cool ourselves
down with an afternoon beer. Fremantle
has been our favorite town thus far and home of my new favorite beer. (Their
Bright Ale) We thought about taking the train back home, but decided it was
worth calling in a favor to Jemima’s sister, Bara-nova, to pick us up. This was a wonderful surprise and very much
appreciated. We spent the rest of the
night catching up over a bottle of wine on their front porch.
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| Little Creatures Brewery |
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| Enjoying My New Favorite Beer |
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Disgusting Jelly Fish In The River In Perth
The next morning Jessica and I
spent a lot of time planning out our next moves. Clearly we didn’t plan ahead and book things
in advance. Jemima was surprised at how
long it took us, but considering the fact that both of us can’t make decisions,
it was quite the process. We managed to
finish before lunch, which gave us enough time to explore the beach in Cottesloe. Sadly, Jemima didn’t join us. She claimed it was because she couldn’t be in
the sun anymore after yesterdays walk, but I have my doubts. I think maybe she needed a break from
us. We headed down to the beach to get a
little sun time in before lunch and we were surprised at how incredibly soft the
sand was. It was almost as if we were
walking on baby powder. Unfortunately,
they have this wind problem. We tried to
brave it out but after being pelted with sand for an hour and collecting sand
in every place imaginable, we were fed up.
We window shopped a little to find a good restaurant and finally
stumbled upon a cute outdoor lunch spot.
Jessica and I were a little out of place wearing our jean cut offs and
white tees among the real housewives of Cottesloe. Our thoughts about our waiter, who first
appeared to be charming and good looking, quickly turned creeping and unnerving
when we realized he hasn’t quite mastered his social cues about when to stop
staring. We finally managed to get away
and headed back beach. This time we were
smarter and found a grassy terrace overlooking the ocean. Jessica has an exhilarating experience of
swimming in the Indian Ocean for the first time. She went all of knee dip
in. Make sure to congratulate her next
time you see her. Jemima picked us up
and we couldn’t help but stop to experience the drive thru liquor store. People think Americans are lazy, but
Australians don’t even get out of the car to pick up a 6 pack. Naturally, there was no other choice but to
get more Little Creatures Bright Ale.
Once we got back to the house Jessica and I went on a run and since she
brought me, with my impeccable sense of direction, we didn’t get lost and were
back within 30 minutes. We came back to the smell of charcoal burning on the
grill as the girls prepared to cook us a gourmet meal (And no, not Bondi Beach
style) They made a fresh salad (with homemade dressing), sausage (that Jessica
actually ate), and premium steak.
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| Cottesloe Beach |
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| Baby Soft Sand At Cottesloe |
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| Drive Thru Liquor Store |
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| Amazing Chocolate!! |
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| Vineyard In Western Australia |
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| Hanging out with the Kangaroos |
The next morning we woke up and had
breakfast and coffee with Jemima and her other sister, Evenya, who walked over
with her adorable baby boy. After a bit we all went on our way, Eenya to finish
her walk and the three of us to begin our tour of Western Australia’s finest
wineries. We visited three different wineries, having four to five samples at
each, so by the end Kerry and I were feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, Jemima
was our “skipper”, which is the Australian lingo for DD, so she wasn’t able to
have quite as much fun as the both of us. After that we headed to lunch, but
after not really liking anything on the menu, we decided to all just split an
appetizer and grab lunch later. Our next stop was to a chocolate factory, but
trying to be “good” and not wanting to take advantage of the free sample
system, just had a little bit. After having this false ideology that I would
see kangaroo’s hopping around everywhere, Jemima decided to take us to the
“kangaroo hotspot”. She wasn’t lying within the first two minutes we saw at
least 20 kangaroos, all ranging from Kanga size to little Roo size
(Winnie-the-Pooh reference). Wanting to see them actually hop, I decided to
gradually creep closer and closer, which little did I know that it would take
getting within five feet for them to even budge, and I’m pretty sure I was more
spooked then they were. After our kangaroo adventure, Jemima took us to another
little beach harbor, which was known as the “local spot”. Here we just walked
around and sat down for another beer, because the winery just wasn’t quite
enough. We finally headed back, where we were told that both Jemima and
Barbara-Nova were going to treat us to a meal of lamb from their Dad’s farm.
Can I just say that is was AMAZING! Yes Jemima, I am easy to please, but I
swear some of the best lamb I have ever had. The rest of the evening was very
enjoyable, just sitting on the front porch and packing up to leave for our
red-eye flight to the Whitsundays, OR SO WE THOUGHT.
We get to the airport with
relatively no complaints, until Kerry instructed that she run in real quick and
I should wait with the luggage. Being the completely calm and easy-going person
I am, I think nothing of it. Until she comes back and says “I have some bad
news and some good news…We missed our flight.” Now to this day, I still am
struggling to find the “silver-lining” on this situation. I am not going to put
all the blame on Kerry, actually let’s be real, it was all her fault! After
dealing with may be the dumbest girl I have ever met in my life, who insisted
that no other flights were available until two days later, and still managing
to make that seem harder than my Calculus class. Kerry took matters into her own
hand and we ended up catching a flight with a different airline. Once things
were finally starting to look up, I get randomly selected for an explosive
test. It’s ok everything worked out, and maybe this is what I get for getting
cocky about my “wooing” capabilities from our last flight. As we enjoyed the free coffee I got out of
Kerry (her penance for my blood-pressure rising to an unhealthy level) she
looked at our next boarding pass and realized our bags weren’t checked
through. Airline people these days,
idiots. I, Kerry, had to go out to
collect our bags. We had waited so long
that they were the only two bags left on the carousel. Good thing they are small and light so it was
easy for me to drag them by myself (not).
After looking like a weakling dragging the bags through the airport I
finally managed to beat the system and check us both in. Before we knew it we were in the
Whitsunday’s.
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| Potential Terrorist Material Right Here |
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