Perth/Freemantle/Margaret River

We arrived in Perth, which is on the westerern coast of Australia and met with Sonje who is one of Greg's former exchange students who he has kept in touch with for the past 20 years.  Sonje had visited us in the States 6 years ago and had just then married Kwasi, but he was not able to join her on her visit so this was our first opportunity to spend time with them.  They have a 4 month old son named KK and they live in a suburb of Perth called Freemantle.

Sonje & KK

Kwasi and KK

 

Sonje and KK took us to the beach for view of a sunset on our first night.  We got to watch all the kite surfers which was pretty fascinating.  The next day we took a river cruise from Freemantle to Perth, which was really nice.  Perth is a fairly large city with 2.5 million residents.  Just like all the other larger towns here, there is an esplanade and plenty of parks in the City.  Their train system is great and we enjoyed wandering around. 

Sonje has been a wonderful host and has spent lots of time showing us all the great sites in Perth and Freemantle.  She suggested we head to Margaret River, which is the wine country here so we went for 2 days and loved it.  We've been to Napa and Sonoma several times, but this area is more beautiful and the wines were fantastic.  We tasted many, maybe too many, but it was great.  We finally found one winery that actually ships to a distributor in California, who in turrn could ship to us, so we will have a nice case of Australian wine waiting for us upon return.  The wineries had  beautiful gardens as seen below.

Down in the Margaret River area there were more great beaches and we got to wade in the Indian Ocean.

 So here's what we have learned thus far:

1)  Aussie's don't know how to make martinis.
2)  They aren't friendly and don't want to give you directions when your're lost.
3)  The country is beautiful and they truly appreciate what they have.
4)  They love to party and also drink plenty of coffee.
5)  Their airlines are great
6)  No tipping is expected, but for that reason you get fairly poor service everywhere.


We're getting near the end of the trip and in some ways are sad to see it end, but I am getting homesick.  Texts are great, but they don't match phone calls and visits.  Our 4 month trip  next year will prove to be interesting.