SLOW DAYS IN PERTH

Our last week in Perth started with a couple of slow days.  We went to church... I am at the front with the girls (you can only see one of them) because we were getting sent to children's church.

and basically relaxed the rest of the day I think.  On Monday I rented a bike with a trailer and rode around the big river that goes through town.  Before I found the bike place, we found a playground.

Then I got the bike and rode over to the other side of the river where the little beach area is.  We found another playground...

Then the girls played at the beach for a bit.  That's downtown Perth in the background.  Tony's building is next to the tallest one at the far left and our hotel is around the corner from that.

Those lumpy things are jellyfish.  There were about 20 of them just on this little strip, so the girls didn't really get in the water.  When I returned the bike, the guy who rented it to me told me that the river jellyfish don't sting.  I still wouldn't want to swim with them.

Tuesday we just went to the big park playground again.

Anna wanted me to take pictures on the little creatures again.

and making silly faces.

Then we met Tony for lunch.  You can barely make him out in the sandwich shop behind the glass.  He's getting cookies for the girls.

The next day we went to a wildlife park.  It was amazing.  I took tons of pictures that I will put in a separate post.  On Thursday we went to the beach (a real beach on the ocean) at the same place as the week before.

They kept digging like some kind of animal.

See them run!

There's the pretty restaurant in the background again.

On the other side of the rock jetty there were lots of kite surfers and wind surfers because it was very windy in that spot.  Looks like fun!!

Tony met us for dinner at the pretty restaurant.

Isn't it beatiful??!!

Sunset from our window seat.

We got gelato afterwards at a little shop across the street, then walked to the train station to go back to the hotel.

We packed on Friday and headed to the airport right after dinner.  I packed my camera so no pictures of the ride home.  The ride home was a little longer than going there, and there were several 1 - 2 years olds surrounding us on both flights so somebody was crying almost at all times.  The girls did great again, but I hardly slept at all.  Thankfully Emirates Airlines has a Netflix type entertainment system at every seat with headphones so I watched lots of movies.  In case your are interested, this is what I watched...

Movies I watched on the way to Perth (15 hours Houston to Dubai, 10.75 hours Dubai to Perth):

Seabiscuit - great!
Footloose - the new one - I turned it off about 1/2 way through - boring
Crazy, Stupid, Love - fun but morally irresponsible
Thomas Crowne - very fun
Contagion - started it but couldn't watch it after about 5 minutes - too stressful
The Big Year - goofy movie about obsessive birdwatching with decect acting - Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson.
I think there was more but I don't remember...

Movies I watched on the way home (11 hours Perth to Dubai and 16.5 hours from Dubai to IAH):
Red Dog - AWESOME movie, especially if you love dogs
The Descendants - good movie, lots of bad language
The Ides of March - sort of intriguing but in a politically/morally creepy way, if I had to do it over, I probably would have skipped it.
We bought a Zoo - LOVED IT!!
The Way - interesting story with pretty scenery in Spain but way too long and slow. I gave up after 2 hours.
One Day - chick flick in which a decent girl falls for a scoundrel portrayed in a likable way. why is this so common??!! since I am a chick with lots of time on my hands, it was fine. ann hathaway is always endearing.
The Iron Lady - good movie about margaret thatcher.  meryl streep is great.
Jane Eyre - a little slow but worthwhile
Moneyball - fun, feel good movie!
The Three Musketeers - fun action flick

So we are home now.  I praise God for an amazing trip.  It was good for Tony work-wise too.  It has been almost a week back in Texas, and we have mostly recovered from jetlag except for Emma.  And me since I can't really sleep when she's wide awake in the middle of the night.  I think we have turned a corner though, so I am hopeful of a decent night sleep tonight.  Stay tuned for Kangaroos and Koalas...