Palm trees to Pine trees

Here's a serene photo from the 18th floor of the Marriott Waikiki. Always feels good to get off of the plane, and to stretch out on the deck. Getting take-out pizza was definitely on the agenda.

We're always a bit overwhelmed by the cultural differences that become apparent when landing in Honolulu. Australia imparts this easy-going, laid-back lifestyle, which we readily accustomize to during the time we spend there. This is particularly true in Perth, where Sunday trading is still practically non-existent, national holidays are widely observed, and the best time you can have is still hanging out with your mates around the barbie, cooking up prawns, and having a few crownies. Killing an entire week by watching a 5-day test match in cricket is the norm. By comparison, spending time in Waikiki is like throwing yourself into 10 lanes of traffic. Car culture abounds in this relatively small city, consumerism is rampant, the pedestrians are pushy and obnoxious, the prostitutes actively confront the citizens, and the television stations seem to have a higher flicker rate. That is, an image appears to stay on the screen for about half the time that it does in Australian media. I've heard a past professor of mine discuss at length about how this is related the ever-decreasing ability of North American's to pay attention. Oh yah, have you ever noticed how the volume also seems to increase by a few dB when the commercials come on? Guess who pays the bills. You'd think this would be regulated.

We've started to see Waikiki as a Disneyland for adults. It's not exactly relaxing, unless you decide to stay in your hotel room. Seems to me that most Americans view Hawaii as a must-see vacation destination, and many will save for years for that one exalted trip here. The problem is that the expectations get raised to an extreme level, and as a result, if the weather turns sour, the hotel room is not as planned, or that dreaded winter flu kicks in, it's like a world catastrophe. Throw into the mix that many of the sun-seeking American families likely haven't spent this much concentrated time together in the last 20 years, so suddenly sharing a compact hotel room, or something as simple as deciding on a place to eat, turns into a veritable meltdown. On every stopover we've had here, we've seen at least 4-5 major conflicts erupt on the sidewalks. These are not toddlers having a routine tantrum, but rather the parents having a full-on domestic in front of the kids and anyone else unfortunate enough to pass by. And there always seems to be at least 5-6 cell phones involved - why are these brought on vacations? Anyhow, that's my rant. When I think of vacations, my mind tends to drift toward the wilderness, and secluded cabins nestled next to calming lakes, but definitely does not involve these "trips from hell" with hundreds of thousands of people raising their blood pressure to volcanic levels. (BTW - Sophie felt the earthquake when we were there; she said it helped to be sitting on the toilet! I however, had no idea one even occured)

The first thing we noticed when arriving in Vancouver, other than the cold, was the strong smell of pine trees that greeted us. I just love that smell, it clears the head and drains the sinuses. Our return flight to Ottawa on Monday is a bit suspect at this stage, due to the amazing amount of white stuff on the left, which has been falling since we've arrived.



We've been hanging out with our gracious hosts Kathryn and Meghan for the last 2 nights, and have been spoiled by being walking distance to all the great shops on Granville street, Granville Island, and W4th Avenue. We also had to get in on the cheap, cheap, local sushi Saturday night. I think if I lived here though, I'd spend a shocking amount of money on restaurants. And, it appears that the locals do exactly that, which is surprising given the monumental cost of living in this city. There may be some relief on the horizon though for those first-time homebuyers like us, that is, if what is currently occuring in the US has any spillover into the North.

Last Wahoo Cone for a bit...

Well, it's time to wish everyone here in Perth farewell. No more wahoo cones (Greg had to have one last go of the chips, at least!), no more workouts at the gym or coffee afterward, no more long commutes to work watching galahs eating bugs on the verge... Not for a while, anyways! It's back to the winterwonderland of Canada for us - although we hear the weather's been mild, so might not be so bad, eh?!

We're doing the milk run on the way back; overnight in Sydney, 2 nights in Waikiki, and then a few nights in Vancouver over the weekend. Here's hoping the belly agrees with 27 hours on planes in the next week!

Penguins, seals & gulls, oh my!

This past weekend we took a short trip south to Rockingham to visit Penguin Island, where the little penguins live. It's a short ferry ride over to the island, which has an interpretive center and boardwalks that keep visitors from walking on the various birds nests, king skinks, etc. There's also the option of walking along the shore to explore, which we took advantage of...

We happened upon this sleeping seal while walking on the south shore of the island; he seemed very comfy in the shade with his head resting on the rock! Greg caught him moving around a bit on the video camera.



The rock formations on the coast can be pretty wild, and of course we have to be cautious of rockfalls, but we went sticking our heads into crevasses anyways!
There are about a million gulls living on the island, nesting in the underbrush, and they can be very aggressive with us visitors; not as deadly as the maggies, but still, they sure can scream! Greg got an earful when he went off the main trail. It was strange to see the seagulls in their natural habitat like this, as we've become so accustomed to seeing them in the parking lots.

We didn't actually see any of the little penguins in their natural habitat; they spend the day fishing in the ocean and come back at dusk. We did get to see the ones that have been rescued and live in the interpretive center though. They're well cared for, with public feedings every couple of hours.

Spelunking on the Seashore

Early on the last day of our road tour we headed South to Lake Cave for some spelunking.

A gentle slope leads to a spectacular cave entrance which contains it's own small forest of Karri you can see in the outside pic. Some of the trees are over 400 years old. Leading under the Eastern edge of the Doline floor, a series of steeply sloping fissures lead down into the dark cave.

The cavern floor is covered in water to a depth of about 1m, and the flow of water from East to West has been calculated at 23,040 litres per hour. Unfortunately the drought in this region is causing the 'lake' to dry up, and this is starting to severely disturb the fragile environment of the cave.

We 'broke the rules' (unknowingly) by bringing our mini tripod into the cave; you can see the great difference between having the flash blaring vs putting on the timer for a kinder exposure. The group was having one of these quiet - listening in the dark experiences - when I snapped this shot of Greg; he's sitting in front of some 'shawl' formations. Not impressed...

Starting to drive North towards Perth, we followed the coast into Dunsborough and Busselton. We'd been to Busselton last year already, on a hurried trip to catch the sunset from the town's historic jetty. This year we had a little more time to stroll the white sand beaches, and contemplate how in the world we ended up in Perth. We didn't think to hard though.

The heritage jetty extends almost two kilometres out over Geographe Bay, and is the longest timber jetty (pier) in the Southern Hemisphere. It's 140 years old, and has been ravaged by both fire and cyclones, yet still remains a popular spot to fish, swim, scuba dive and snorkel. We've never checked it out, but apparently there is a great underwater observatory at the end of the jetty, where you can take in all the colourful fish as well.

Denmark and the Ancient Empire

The first night of our road trip was spent in Denmark, a quaint little town about a half hour west of Albany. A colleague of Greg's in Perth owns The Gum Grove Chalets just outside of the town, so we opted to stay there for night. These chalets are in a prime location, and I can see this area really booming in the near future.
In the morning we went down to Ocean Beach (only on video camera), and then slowly meandered westwards along a scenic inland drive which took us past many wineries, and hobby farms in the valley.

We drove down South again and ended up at Greens Pool, which is essentially this huge placid bay known for it's emerald green waters and ideal swimming. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy, so the green was a bit subdued. We still got to see some interesting shells attached to the rocks, and a lizard living in the windswept cracks.




Along the highway we stopped at several artisan shops, one being Bartholomews Meadery, where we sampled honey and watched the bees. Despite it only being 10am, we had to sample the honey infused ice cream. YUM!







We picked up some fig shiraz and carmalized onion spread from these geese, who were happy to oblige...



Our main destination for the morning was the majestic Valley of the Giants and Tree Top Walk in the Walpole-Nornalup National Park, where suspension bridges have been built up among the ancient forest canopy and you can walk through the trunks of huge 400 year-old trees. Check out the size of the tingle tree to the left of Greg! This is the only place where the red tingle tree (Eucalyptus Jacksonii) is found. They have the largest base of all the eucalypts with a girth of up to 26 metres. Growing up to 75 metres tall this buttressed, rough barked tree can live to over 400 years old. Better not be afraid of heights; the walk goes up to 60meters and sort of sways and bounces when people are walking on it!
Me and the bubs at 4.5 months, in the tingle tree base...

We continued along our journey toward Margaret River, driving through Tuart, Karri and Jarrah forests. The highway was one lane for the most part, and sections of the national forest had these massive trees growing right out of the shoulder of the road. It was magical, but we had to constantly keep our eyes peeled for kangaroos jumping out at us. Thankfully they stayed in the bush...

Maybe I shouldn't keep eating so many monster veggie burgers; my belly just keeps getting bigger! haha

We stayed the night in Margaret River at the Margaret River Holiday Suites, a motel-style accomodation right downtown. The town in filled with novelty shops, and has a resort like feeling to it If you are able to find a Western Australian wine in North America, chances are it came from this massive wine producing region. I've had to forego the wine tasting on this trip (for obvious reasons), but there are all sorts of other artisans to visit. We left that for our last day on tour...

Road Tour to Albany

At the end of October we took a long-weekend road trip down to the south coast of WA. We left early Saturday morning and drove 4 hours south down the Albany Hwy, passing by the Telstra car rally on the way.
The seascape on the south coast was rockier and more mountainous than in Perth; it reminded us of the east coast in Canada. The wind was unrelenting! Greg has been filming our excursions, so I've got the camera. The first pic is of Greg at the top of Mount Clarence, where an ANZAC memorial overlooks King George Sound, marking the spot where the first ships left Australia, sending troops and horses for the First World War.

We then drove over to Torndirrup National Park, where the Southern Ocean has sculpted a Natural Bridge in the coastal granites and formed The Gap, where the waves rush in and out with tremendous ferocity. The cool thing about this area is that geologists have been able to match up these rock formations with those in Antarctica, and can see how Gondwana would have looked!


At least someone has gotten on to using the wild wind that seems to be constantly blowing off the ocean; we walked around this little wind farm just outside of Albany. There were about 12 wind generators. Greg says I need to come with him to the wind farm just north of the town of Shelburne in the Huron Peninsula in Ontario, where there are more than 50! (That will be for another trip, another time...)

Cricket at the WACA

This is the view from our apartment on the Indian Ocean. The sunsets are always prettiest when it's a bit cloudy. Looks like the clouds are made of gold.

Perth skyline at dusk, taken from the south shore of the Swan river. This is the same vantage point we'll have next weekend when we check out the Red Bull Air Race series over the Swan River.

Greg felt compelled to take in a cricket game at the WACA, to get a true aussie experience. This was a domestic one-day match featuring Tasmania against Perth. From the first bowl, to the last wicket, it lasts pretty much the full day ( 9hrs, with a pause for tea at 4:45pm). There are also 5-day test matches, and that is in fact how long the same game will go for... like a really really really long baseball game (I have heard it called 'Pommie Baseball'). It's very chilled out; we saw a grandma knitting for most of the game, and most of the crowd stumbles over after work gets out (4 hours into the game)!

The Ashes (International Cricket competition between England and Australia) are about to get underway... It's a pretty major deal here; England won the last one, so Aus has to win it back, of course! As if winning it the last 20 years in a row wasn't enough to give it up for ahwile. The Aussie's are sports fanatics.

Thankfully we brought our snacks and didn't have to resort to pies and chips until we got really desperate (we don't have an esky - cooller i.e. eskimo - to bring along with us to these events). We made a point of moving around alot to keep it interesting (and the seats were a bit lacking in comfort for me; should have brought a pillow!).

Strawberries, Wine & Roses

We took in the Spring in the Valley festival the first weekend in October, a wine festival in the Swan Valley wine producing area. The strawberries are also in abundance at this time of year, so we couldn't pass that up! Roadside sellers are always the best bet.

We stopped at Sittella vineyard to sample their wares; us and a million other folks! There were plenty of buses to ensure the safety of winetasters in the valley, and boards asking 'who's the skipper?' ie who's the designated driver. I was! Although I did taste...
The setting was really beautiful, there was a live band playing up the hill a bit, and watching young people who've perhaps had way too much wine is always entertaining!









The roses are in bloom right now too, so I've been spending as much time as I can smelling them! They're wonderful, and they're everywhere, which is so great!

Park Life

Drinking in the park isn't necessarily legal, but neither is it enforced, so a cold Victoria Bitter enjoyed in public space isn't such a bad thing. These photos are from the beginning of October, and the weather has been fining up nicely ever since.
There's my profile shot for 4 months, just to give an idea of the belly... it's coming along! Notice the sensible footwear...

We also felt compelled to visit the Fremantle cemetary while we were in the neighborhood, because this is where rock icon Bon Scott (of AC/DC fame) is buried. The grave was listed as a heritage site this past February, and there is a 'walk of fame' of sorts that will lead to the stone. Our picture of it was washed out, so check out the link if you want to see what it looks like.




We celebrated our anniversary on Oct. 8th, and decided it was our 6th, seeing as how that's how long we've been living together. Greg brought home these birds of paradise, and I made up some cinnamon buns. It's a simple life...

Tall Ships

I got back from work one evening in late September, and was awestruck by this mystical scene on the ocean in front of our apartment. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe this is the Leeuwin II, a huge 3-masted ship which runs programs for youth-oriented adventure. You can actually book this ship, and spend a night out at sea rocking beneath the creaking deck. To add to the effect, a large bush fire East of the city was blowing smoke over the setting sun, giving this blood-red effect on the water. At night, you could see a few lights come on, and actually hear the people partying on the deck. The ship has a saloon, a library, a full kitchen galley, and actively engages the youths in most aspects of sailing the ship. Imagine how great that would be!

In the foreground, you can see all of the kite surfing that goes on. During this windy season, they are outnumbering the surfers. Every so often, we get to witness one of the guys go huge, like 30-40 feet, and then freak out halfway through and bail.