Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Mission Monitor Board Crow! Tell us the good things going on in your life!

Full-time job, Kappa? Are you still in school?

Congrats on the milestones, Sarky, Myg, and Kappa! Whoo!

Housewarming party, Kappa

Thanks, rick and IB!



I graduated in December. I'm working in the same city I went to school in, so it's not too bad of a transition.

Sounds good, Kap! I guess I thought you were only a sophomore or junior!

Oh my gosh! I didn't realize you had graduated. That is awesome - welcome to adulthood!

Congrats, kap!!!

I've returned from my vacation of my childhood dreams. I saw live kangaroos and koalas in the wilds of Australia.

Excellent!

Some people have asked for more details on my vacation, so here goes.

My flight there went from Boston to DC to Abu Dhabi to Perth. My flights got off to a little bumpy start as the flight to DC was delayed by 3 hours due to the cold. Luckily I had a 7 hour stop over in DC so it didn't cause any problems. I flew with Etihad airlines which is based in the United Arab Emirates. Each flight (except the ones in the US which were through Jetblue) had announcements in English and Arabic. And the flights started off with a prayer for safe travels from the Koran. The flight from DC to Abu Dhabi was about 12 hours and the flight from Abu Dhabi to Pert was about 9 hours. I only dozed a bit. When I got to my hotel in Perth, I took a nap. then got up, got some supper and then back to bed. I think because of this I did not have any jet lag. Every day was hot and sunny. Although one afternoon became overcast and one evening had an intense 60 minute storm.

Near my hotel there were two street malls. Murray Street & Hay Street. They ran parallel and had connecting malls in between. Perth also has 4 free bus lines for the central downtown area of Perth. My first full day, I walked down to Elizabeth Quay. I booked a ferry out to Rottnest island for Friday. There was also a place that did a segway tour of the waterfront. It was my first time on a segway. Because you have to lean forward to make it go, you still use muscles just like if you were walking. The tour was along the waterfront and in David Carr park. It was nice and I was the only person on this particular tour so we went at my pace. I did see some black swans on this tour.

After the segway tour, I went into the Bell Tower. The bell Tower features the bells that were originally from St Martin-in-the-fields Church in London. They were given to Western Australia in 1988 in exchange for copper to make new bells.. They have a little lecture about the bells and then you are allowed to actually ring the bells, which I did. Well, each of us in the group got to ring a bell, not all of them. That was it for the first day.

The next day, I took the train down to Freemantle. Pert is actually somewhat inland on the Swan river. Freemantle is the actual port. Freemantle is an artist town with shops and galleries. I went to Freemantle prison. This is a World Heritage site. Actually part of a World Heritage site. 11 prisons in Australia make up this site. These are the prisons that housed the convict labor shipped to Australia in the 1800s. I took the basic tour. The guide claimed to have been an actual prison guard at the prison. It was still being used as a prison up until 1991. The guide was good, playing up as a prison guard, making us stand on a line and "yelling" at us if we didn't do it right or were not quick enough. It was very interesting. There were 2 other tours, but I was hot and tired from the walking I have already done. The 2nd tour was of escapes from the prison and the 3rd was of the tunnels under the prison.

Friday was my trip to Rottnest Island. I got on the ferry in Perth. It is a 60 minute trip to Freemantle, then another 30 minutes to the island. Now at the mouth of the Swan river there used to be a limestone barrier, but that was removed and the salt water of the ocean came up the river as did some dolphins. At the start of the trip, I did see a dolphin in the river. The trip to Freemantle was ok. A crew member was making comments about the stuff on the river. There was also a TV showing a cricket match. Once we got past Freemantle and out on to the ocean it was amazing. I've been out on the ocean in Boston and the water looks dark. Here it looked blue. Really blue. It was beautiful.

On Rottnest Island there are no cars. There is a bus service and a tour bus that the ferry runs. I was scheduled to take the tour bus in the afternoon. Rottnest is Dutch for rats nest. This is because of the quokkas there. There are small marcupials, but look like giant rats. There are about 10,000 of them on the island. They will come right up to you. The island was where the aboriginals thought the spirits of their dead would go. The Europeans first used Rottnest as a prison for Aboriginals. It later became a tourist spot. The ferry lands at Thompson bay which is one of 2 developed areas on the island. During WWII there was a military base on the island and a railroad track connected it to Thompson Bay. There is also a small airport for the island. After looking arounf Thompson Bay for a bit, I headed to a beach area known as the Basin. There I waded into the Indian Ocean. The beach was sandy, but at the water line, the sand was all gone and it was a rocky floor. The water was warm.

Heading back to Thompson Bay, I encountered my first quokka. Some of them have patchy fur, which I was told was the result of them eating human food. On the way back, I stopped at a small cottage that had been used by a prisoner after his release. In the cottage there was a volunteer guide. They were scattered throughout the island.. I talked to him for a while and told him I was from Boston. Then I had some lunch and went to the island museum. While I was looking around the volunteer there changed shifts. I talked to the new one and she said "oh are you the gentleman from Boston? The other guide was telling me about you."

As I mentioned, there was a bus tour of the island. Other than the buses, there are no vehicles on the island. You can rent a bicycle or walk. The bus tour was great. It was 90 minutes and took us to the undeveloped parts of the island. We did have a stop at the lighthouse, but did not have time to go up the lighthouse. On the western-most part of the island there is a boardwalk. It is also extremely windy on this part. In the sand dunes along the boardwalk, there were burrow holes made by the Southern Blind Snake. Now the sky was becoming overcast and the wind was picking up. We passed by 2 of the 4 salt water lakes on the island and saw more quokkas. The toour ended just in time for the return ferry. With the wind very strong, they said that the sea was going to be rough. We were told not to leave our seats and they passed oout barf bags just in case. It was rough. Swells kept slamming into the boat and were were going up and down on the swells. I started singing the Gilligan's Island theme to myself. Things calmed down once we got to Freemantle and into the Swan river. If I could do it again, I would have stayed over night on Rottnest and spent 2 days there.

The next day, was my last day in Perth. I checked out of my hotel, but checked my bags with them. I wandered around for a bit, collected my bags, and headed to the airport for my overnight flight to Sydney.


NEXT: Sydney

That's lovely, Quis! Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

Glad you had a good time Quis! I also love how detailed your summary is! You’ve either got an amazing memory or are a dedicated note-taker.

Sydney:

So on January 6th I took a night flight from Perth to Sydney with a layover in Melbourne (not enough time and not the right to to see any of Melbourne) I arrived in Sydney at about 8-9 in the morning. I was able to take the public trains from the airport to fairly close to my hotel - the Grand Hotel. However, check in wasn't until 2 pm. They did store my luggage for me and I went exploring a bit. My hotel was on Hunter street and according to the map the New South Wales State library was just up the street. And by up, I mean up. Up a very steep hill. On the way up, I passed an office building that had a column that was diagonal and was a message board. That was kind of cool. I did pop in the library and was able to use their internet to make a quick post on Facebook. I also explored the Royal Botanical Garden, which was right next to it. There I saw ibises which surprised me. I also got a bite to eat and then headed back to check in. As I was hot and tired, I was ready for my room.

The first thing about the Grand Hotel was that you checked in at the bar on the ground floor. When I checked in, I was told that you needed to open the elevator doors yourself and you needed to make sure the outer and inner doors were closed in order for the elevator to go. Going up to my room on the 5th floor, the first thing I noticed was that in the hallway there were two rooms marked "Toilet" and two rooms marked "Shower". Going into my room, I noticed that there was no air conditioning, but a fan over the door. I immediately turned it on and opened the window. There was a sink in the room, but it only had cold water. Checking out the toilets, they just had a toilet, not sink to wash your hands. Also my room was in the back and each night at around 10, I could hear someone dumping a bunch of glass bottles into the trash. Seeing as the room was already pre-paid, I decided to treat it as an adventure.

The next day, I went back to the library for another check in on Facebook. I then went to the Museum of Sydney. It was real nice and had an exhibit of mugshots from the 1920s. These mugshots were full length picture with the men and women wearing street clothes. The men had hats on and some of the women had pearl necklaces. I also visited the Hyde Park Barracks with is part of the World Heritage site of Australian convict prisons. It was also used as an immigration station and an asylum for women. It was right next to Hyde Park (hence the name) The park was nice and there was a festival going on in it. There was a two level carousel. I looked through it but did not feel like standing in line for anything. I also stopped back at the library. Like Boston's main library, there are 2 buildings - a new one and an old one. The new one pretty much has the stuff that you use on a daily basis, while the one building is more for exhibits. The reading room in the old building was so nice. Open and airy and full of light.

The next day was the day of my wildlife tour. The tour is for 10 people and I was picked up at 12:30 from a hotel around the corner from the Grand Hotel. We drove 90 minutes from Sydney to Berrima. There we did a river walk. This river is known to have platypuses (platypi?). The walk along the river was pretty steep in place and I am not in the best of shape. We didn't see any platypus, but they are a nocturnal animal and we would go back. From there we went to a local cafe for coffee/tes/soda and a piece of cake. Now whe I was growing up my mother would make a white sheet cake, cut it up into squares, cover the squares with chocolate syrup and roll them in coconut. These were the cakes that we were given in the cafe. I also found them offered as snack cakes in convenience stores. They are call Lamingtons. The cute young guy who served us was named Dylan and in talking to him, he said how he liked Pres. Trump. I later thought if he would like Pres. Trump as Prime Minister of Australia. Still he was quite cute.

From the cafe we went to Belanglo State Forest. On the way there we spotted 2 emus by the highway. In our little group there was a family (grown children though) and the daughter was very good at spotting wildlife. After the emus we drove into the forest. Our driver/guide did say that sometimes the tours were not able to find any koalas. We immediately came across some kangaroos. We got out and were standing there looking at them and they stood there looking at us until they got bored and moved away. One did have a joey in her pouch. Seeing kangaroos in the wild made my trip complete. We then drove on and the woman spotted a koala in a tree. It was just resting there. We were all out a nd snapping pictures. It moved up a little but otherwise was quite still. We continued on. there were just dirt roads in the forest and the ride was quite bumpy. The driver let some of the group out for a 30 minute walk and drove the rest of us further ahead for a 10 minute walk. He then walked ahead and came back when he spotted another koala. This one was further into the woods and harder to see. We also saw some wombat holes and 2 different types of ant mounds. Heading back out of the forest, we saw one more emu and some deer. We went back to Berrma for dinner at the local pub. (this and the snack were included in the price of the tour) The driver took everyone but me and another woman back to the river in hopes of seeing a platypus. She (Reese from Toronto) and I did not feel like walking that river trail again. And just as well as they came back without spotting a platypus.

After dinner, some of the group walked along another part of the river while the driver took the rest of us to another area. There I saw many more kangaroos and a couple of wallabees. We regrouped and drove a bit looking for wombats. We did find one, but it was getting dark and it was a bit in from the road, so all I saw was a black shape. We then drove back to Sydney and it was about 10 pm.


I will finish up my trip in another post.

*Two big thumbs up icons since I don't know how to do them.

I slept for most of the night last night. Normally, I wake up three or four times due to bad shoulders, bathroom trips, or odd noises. I'd say I got at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep. WOOOHOOOOOO!

[points to sig line]

Digital collage, Baby!

Pulled off an April Fools Day prank.

The prank was played on my two nieces and nephew. We told them all the eggs were hidden outside without hiding any. They were out there for 5 minutes looking for eggs before we told them.

It’s good to appreciate these things, they may seem little but can be quite significant. Congratulations all

When you're older and they pretend to hide your medication in the freezing cold yard for five minutes, you'll be able to appreciate the fun of it.

My son threatened me with that whole retirement village thing. I laughed and told him I'd be long dead before that ever happened.

Finished my last class today. Assuming I passed all my classes, then I'm done. I also passed my language certification exams in French (low intermediate) and Spanish (high basic).

I am still taking optional classes (5 weeks of!), which will earn me a certificate course in Digital Transformation.

Congrats, Ibby.

Rick, it's nice that your son is being so thoughtful.

Excellent, Ibby. Yeah, He Who, Sam thinks he can threaten me that way. Jokes on him. I'll be dead in ten years.

Thanks, HWW, rick!

Rick - lol, that made me laugh

Played a round of golf with the boy today and then came home and napped. I know energy levels drop at 50, but damn. Still, time with Sam is always a great thing, and it's not like he has to spend time with his old man, he does it because he likes to. That's a good thing.

I've been told I'm getting a second award at graduation