Perth, Final Wrap Up

While the first half of our Perth stop saw back to back to back adventures, the second half was decidedly more mellow. Autumn had some catch up to do on Friday, so she hung back while Nicole and I took the boys for a little dock fishing with some make shift hand fishing gear that was left outside our apartment door. My worst fear materialized for a brief moment when Zane actually caught a decent sized fish. You see, while he gets the thrill of catching and reeling in, the unenviable and slimy task of extracting the hook still lands in my hands. Much to my relief, just as the fish broke the surface, it wiggle off the hook and granted me asylum.

Later that evening, Nicole and I snuck away for another date night - this time with Joanna and her husband Mark. They took us to the hip neighborhood of Fremantle for dinner at a trendy microbrewery. Yay, an IPA! Been some time since I've had one of those. For a night cap ice cream we headed in to downtown Perth to check out the nightlife and City lights. We continue to really enjoy our conversations with locals to get a flavor of life abroad. What we commonly find out is that our domestic concerns with politics, or economics, or social unrest, are certainly not unique, and in many cases, we're much better off. Trump always comes up in conversation and we're finding that, in the eyes of those abroad, he isn't necessarily the focal point of concern that we might think. Everyone is just trying to make a go of life and dealing with the domestic concerns of the day.

Saturday was spent exploring downtown Perth and Kings Park during the light of day. The city is quaint by most measures and has a lovely waterfront quay to explore. We came across one of our favorite play water fountains. You know, the flat ones with water shooting up in random but orderly patterns, and you sit there hoping for an unsuspecting passerby to get goosed in the crotch with a jet of water. Up the hill perched over the Swan River is Kings Park, reportedly the biggest city park in the world (bigger than Central Park, and Golden Gate Park). Time didn't allow for too much exploring, so we walked the elevated treetop trail, and strolled through the Central playground. Not unlike a nice summer weekend day in California, the Aussies flock to the parks and beaches to soak up the rays.

Our final afternoon was spent driving the coast and exploring Fremantle under sunny skies. Having only spent a couple hours there, in hindsight, I wish we carved out more time to explore. Fremantle is a walking town with a ton of restaurants, curios (souvenir shops), and old timey storefronts of banistered terraces and elevated walkways. It's what I imagine New Orleans looks like (never been there, so just guessing). Oh well, another world-trip-bread-crumb and reason to return someday.

While Cape Town was the essence of the Bay Area, Perth was as close to San Diego as you could imagine. It's too bad it is so dang hard to get to.

Right next to our apartment was a restaurant called 3 Sheets. It's pretty obscure, but we tote around this little monkey Pleepleus because of those two words. 

Goodbye Perth

Hello Melbourne

Looking towards the next phase, we are actively planning our Southeast Asia journey. We have locked in Bali for New Year's, and will be working our way up thru Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Please reach out to us if you have any recommendations, good, bad, or otherwise.