To Perth and back, to Perth and back, to Perth and back

This past weekend consisted of several trips into Perth. Friday evening was local - Kyle had a friend over for the evening and Mike went out with a group of teachers for his birthday and to help keep the local pub in business. They did a worthy job, and Saturday morning consisted of lots of R&R for Michael :-). The boys and I headed to the forum to do some shopping - Kyle picked up a birthday present (game for his Nintendo - no surprise) for himself with the monies kindly sent from family.

Saturday evening Mike & I headed into Perth to help Ted celebrate his 65th birthday. Ted is one of the key organizers of exchange teacher activities (along with Lindsay - you'll have seen their names mentioned under earlier events). There was lots of fantastic food, as well as an assortment of wines and beers along with about 200 of his family and friends including several of us exchange folks. It was a fun time and we were pleased to help him mark the event. And it worked out well for me that Mike was happy to be the designated driver this evening, given that he was not quite up to drinking !

On Sunday the four of us headed into Perth to the Western Australia Museum. Lots of classic museum content of course. Outside the building there is lots of interesting stuff also. There were many meteorites and interesting geological rocks. At right is a granite rock with crystalline structures inside - they looked more like fossils. There was a grape vine which is possibly the oldest in WA (Western Australia) at least 150 years old. As you can see, it is holding up better than the wall it stands beside!

We arrived right at lunch time - or at least according to Kyles stomach. So we headed over to the shopping area to grab some lunch before going in to the museum. En route, we passed a few interesting diversions including these buildings and this fellow playing a piano in the middle of the street (pedestrian area). Our hunger satisfied, we headed back to the museum.

The actual museum building is an old library. I enjoyed the building as much as some of the contents. As you can see in the photo, it has multiple floors with the wrap around aisles with bookcases lining the outer walls. As a museum, the bookcases are now replaced with displays of birds, animals and other antiquities.

Similar to Canada, Australia's westernized history is fairly short, so the relics date back to the time of settlement, with aboriginal history only before that time frame. There were several exhibits to demonstrate the lifestyle of the early settlers and they also highlighted the dependency many of them had on the aboriginals to survive.

There were lots of exhibits, with drawer after drawer full of display items as well as the display cases. Several caught Mike's eye as photo ops, some of which are included here. Naturally, the cameras were worthy of a shot!

We stopped by the Gaol (that's a jail for you non Aussie folks) which is also part of the museum. It is not preserved as a gaol, but you can still see where the cells were and the building again is quite impressive.

On the way out, we discovered that the 'National Treasures' exhibit will be coming to the museum later this winter (that means July / August) - so we'll have to come back for that. As you can see on the billboard (which could certainly have been better placed to allow you to see the beautiful building behind!), it includes Ned Kelly's armour. We'll have to see if it's as authentic looking as Mike's Hallowe'en costume was.

So having been to Perth both Saturday and Sunday, I rounded out the experience by driving Patrick (aka George) into the university on Monday morning. We hooked up with the research van which takes the group out to Gingin for the week. That was lots of fun - driving into Perth at rush hour on Monday morning, with a crash up on the bridge. Luckily we left very early and still managed to get there on time despite the normal 70 minute drive taking almost 2 hours. We are doing our part to keep the petrol stations in business also. Ah well, back to just the 3 of us for the weekdays, but at least Patrick is not quite so far away and he is thrilled to have this opportunity.