Dolphins and Penguins

But first, a conversation overheard the other day...  After arguing about something, Anna says:  Emma God knows everything, and he'll tell Santa Claus.  Emma:  Will he put me on the cross?  Haaahaa!!

On Saturday Tony was feeling good enough to go on an adventure.  We headed about 45 minutes south to a town called Rockingham that has a little island called penguin island.  Here's Tony and Anna on the train.

 It's a bird sanctuary complete with a 'swim with the dolphins' diving company and a couple of boat tour options. We took the little 5 minute ferry over to the island and checked out the penguins. I think they are endangered because they have some of them in captivity and actively breed them. I think they release the ones that can survive and they said there were others on the island, but I never saw any. They are the smallest penguin breed in the world.

 We at lunch at this place just outside the penguin hut.

 Turns out there's a section of the island that is a protected pelican breeding ground, so we enjoyed watching the pelicans fly around.

 Attempted self-portraits...

Next came the big attraction.  We got on a little glass bottom boat for a short little tour around the islands with a promise of seeing sea lions and a high probability of seeing dolphins.  The boat captain had the Gilligan's Island theme song playing as we boarded.  I thought that was hilarious.  Here's the glass bottom of the boat.  We mostly just saw seaweed out the bottom.

We did find some dolphins.  You can see a giant pod of them if you watch about halfway through the little video clip. 

We got to watch them for about 15 minutes.  To say it was really cool is an understatement!!  Here we are watching them.

This is the only decent picture we got of them...

 The sea lions like to hang out on another little island that humans aren't allowed on.  Sea lions, we learned, are basically the same as seals, just bigger I think.

 This is mostly what they do.  They are just sleeping.

 There were also lots of pelicans on this island too.

 Any time I am near the coast, I see lots of this kind of marine life too. :)  In a few years....

 There's our tour guide.  I believe he was born and raised in Australia.

 Tony had to take a few calls, but he was able to enjoy the day.

 Back at the island, we explored some caves.  We couldn't actually go in them though.  Back in the WWI and great depression era, a family actually lived here, then a single guy.

 The girls wanted to play in the water of course.  It was a little cold for swimming, so they were content to just splash around, and we didn't even have to put our suits on.

 We just watched them do this.

 and this.

 and a lot of this...

Tony was starting to feel a little weak, so I refilled his water bottle, found him a shady spot to watch the girls from, and I went for a little walk.  I've had the girls with me for almost every adventurous moment here... it was really great to just go at my own pace.  I went up to the pelican nesting section of the island.

 The other side of the island was a regular beach with the strong current.

 and some pretty rocks.

 We had to stay on these boardwalk paths. 

 View from the top. 

 And back on the other side looking at the mainland.  I saw the ferry coming and thought Tony would want to get on it, so I ran from here back to where they were.

 Tony was revived with the shade and water, so we played until the next ferry.

It was quite a memorable experience!!  As I was on my little walk, I was thinking about how Australia was never on "my list".  I always thought it would be interesting, but there are other places I would have picked to visit before here (somewhere in Africa, Russia, South America...).  God only knows why certain people get the opportunities for certain things... Anyway, I am very grateful that I get to come here and see this beautiful place that God made and experience the people and culture that are here.  The people, by the way, are mostly from the UK.  It is a very multi-cultural city.  There are also a lot of Chinese people and people from other Asian countries and Indonesia and the Philippines (would that be polynesian??).  There are Arabs and Indians.  Australians (of European descent) are suprisingly not very common.  Of course this is just my observation from the people I have actually talked to and asked where they are from.  Almost all of the white people I have talked to are from somewhere in the UK (almost all of them immigrants, not just visitors), and they tell me that around 50% of the people who live in Perth are from there.  I have also seen quite a few Aboringinee people.  Some look like what I've seen in travel/geography documentaries, but there are different native tribal groups like in the states.  I tried to learn more about the native people at the museum, but the girls weren't too excited abou that section.  I see a lot of people who I can't tell what their ethnic background is or maybe look like they are mixed race.  I have only come across one American since I have been here.  It's very interesting people watching!!!!

Adventures Down Under - Part 2

On Tuesday we went back to the great playground we found on Saturday at King's Park.  I found a better bus that dropped us off right at the parking lot.

 This is a kangaroo.  Anna asked me to take pictures here. :)

 There are 5 little creatures.  I think this is a worm.

 There was a tower made of rope for the big kids to climb on.  Emma didn't last very long.

 Anna got about this far up and loved it.

 On Wednesday we headed to the Aquarium.  I knew there was going to be a little walk through a pier area to get there... When we got off the bus, we saw this thing, so we checked it out.  It was a giant tube maze at a tiny little amusement park type place.  If you look close, you can see Anna inside the net part.

 They also had giant trampolines.

 On the other side was a little beach area with tents and a playground. 

 I had heard about this place from a lady I met at another playground, but I didn't realize it was right by the Aquarium, so I didn't bring bathing suits.  I hiked up the girls skirts and let them play in the water/sand for a bit.  Anna did a great job of keeping dry.... Emma not so much.

 We had our second snack lunch of the day.

 And played some more at the amusement park while Emma's skirt dried.

Back at the bus stop.  It was in a beautiful area with rolling hills and pretty houses along the coast.  We never made it to the aquarium, but I think it might have been the girls' favorite day so far.  I don't think I'll go back for the aquarium.  I found out there's not any dolphins there, so the girls weren't all that interested. 

The girls both napped a little on the long bus ride, then we had a short train ride back to the city. After we got off the train, we stopped by the grocery store.  Emma  was so tired she couldn't go on, even though the bus stop to get to the hotel was right at the end of the building in the background.  So we stopped to eat some bananas.  That's the post office where the city library flags are.  I don't think there's a library there...

 That night I gave Anna a quick shower and wrapped her up in a towel, then put Emma in the shower.  When I came out of the bathroom I found Anna asleep on the floor, still wrapped in the towel. :)

The next day we went to the beach in a little area called Cottlesloe.  We started out at another tented playground before heading down to the water.  I've been paranoid about the top of the girls heads getting burned, so I got them some hats like we so most of the little kids wearing around here.  (you might have noticed really greasy hair on the last blog because I put sunscreen on their parts).  The hats say "Ironchick Australia" on the front (as in Ironman sportswear for little chicks).  They match and are reversible.  I love them!  I love getting souvenir-type things that are practical!

 That's a restaurant in the background with public bathrooms and a little fish n chips bar underneath. 

 The water was so clear I could see my toenails in waist-deep water!

 We had a snack after a little swimming.  I love this picture!  It was a really fun day!

 There was a swim school by the area where we were swimming.  These are middle-school aged kids who get to miss school to take these lessons.  Australians are serious about their swimming!   The idea is to make sure they can swim safely in the strong currents.   This area by the little rock jetty is a little calmer for them to build confidence.  That's also why we swam here.  We started out down the beach but I could see there were no crashing waves down here.  We saw several adults swimming parallel to the beach like you would swim laps.   The waves went very tall, but they were strong and the bigger ones made really loud crashes like thunder.  It was fun to watch the girls running back and forth!!

 After more playground fun and more playing, we found these guys in front of the restaurant by the bus stop.   I want to come back to this restaurant for dinner sometime!!

 Today we didn't do much - we were all worn out from 2 days of hard play!  Anna gave Tony her cold, which has turned into a sinus infection, probably because he is working so hard.  It makes me think of an adventure camp friend who used to call his neices and nephews DCVs (disease carrying vermin) because they always got him sick when he visited them.  He has since married another adventure camp friend and has  2 little boys.   I wonder if he calls them that.... My mom thought the term was pretty appropriate after Anna gave her a stomach bug at Christmas and a bad cold when we visted Florida last month.  Anyway, we went to the drug store this morning and got him some medicine.  This is the lobby of his office.

 We had a picnic and stopped by the Target to use the bathroom and see if they had sunglasses for Emma.  I left hers at home.  She decided she didn't want any, but Anna wanted to take pictures by these guys.

We went to the museum for a little bit and played at their outside thing again and went to the grocery store again.  Hopefully Tony will get better and we can do something fun together this weekend.  It feels strange to be having a vacation while he's working long hard days, but he is happy to have us here.