Perth

My mom and I took a last minute trip to Perth. We left on Friday morning and came home on Monday. It was a long way to travel but we were glad that we went.
We arrived in Perth early in the morning and even after going to the hotel and taking an hour long bus ride to Fremantle it wasn't even lunch yet! Fremantle is a beautiful place, although it probably helped that it was sunny and warm and we didn't have to worry about naptimes!

This is the view from the top of a hill where an old jail is located. It looks over the ocean on one side and the town on another. Fremantle is full of shops and a nice little market area. We ate some great food and bought some nice stuff!
On the way back to the hotel we took the ferry which was a really nice way to finish the day. We saw downtown Perth from the water, some gorgeous homes and some of the famous sites like Swan Tower and the Botanic Gardens. Here are a couple pictures from the ferry ride.

On Saturday we were out of the hotel early and spent the day exploring downtown Perth. We went to see the Swan Bells and then the Botanic Gardens. As with all Botanic Gardens in Australia they are beautiful and many places are symbolic.

This is the War Memorial. It sits on a cliff overlooking the Swan River and would be an incredible place to attend an Anzac Day ceremony. Anzac Day is the equivolent to Remembrance Day and is celebrated at sunrise on April 26. This memorial looks right over where the sun would come up in the morning and it is spectacular.

This bridge goes over top of the trees in the gardens. I think you can see it in one of the pictures from the ferry ride. There was a couple getting their wedding pictures done while we were there and it seems like a good place for pictures to me!
After getting some fresh air we took another free bus to the museum. The first floor was full of a variety of animals, some Australian and some not. A taxidermist was kept very busy but it was neat seeing the skeleton of an elephant! The second floor had a section dedicated to telling the story of the Aboriginal people. About 50 years ago kids were taken away from their families and sent to school and faced lots of the same issues that aboriginals in Canada faced. A good place to visit if you are ever in town!
We, well actually I did some more shopping and then we stopped for a foot massage and acupuncture which I really enjoyed!
Sunday was spent on a bus tour to Margaret River. It was our least favorite day, way too much time spent on a bus but we did see a lot. There was a stop a vineyard where I spotted 2 kangaroos snacking on the leftover grapes on the vines.

We visited Mammoth Caves and the place where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. Apparently there has been a Southern Ocean for about 20 years but this was the first time I had heard of it!

It was a quick trip but we were glad we went. Now it seems the only place we won't get to this year is the Northern Territory.

Gold Coast

The Gold Coast is on the eastern coast of Australia, close to Brisbane. It is apparently where Australians go on holiday. There are lots of amusement parks and some incredible beaches. I have been to a few beaches in my life but this is as long and gorgeous and huge as I have ever seen! The waves are great to play in and the sand is perfect, soft, white and absolutely no seaweed or rocks to walk on.

This is the view from our apartment. You never really know what a place is like when you book online but this was incredible! There are rivers all around this area and we faced a river. In the morning rowers were out then later in the day the waterskiiers and jetskis came out.

This is what we saw when we looked out the kitchen window. You can see the ocean in between the buildings. It was a 2 block walk to get to the beach but like I said above, it was gorgeous! This was right around sunrise.

So here is the beach. You can see all the accomodation running along the beach. This was in Surfer's Paradise area so of course there were surfers and body boarders to watch!

The boys were plotting their wave jumps! The beach itself is huge but there are small areas for swimming that are patrolled by lifeguards so that is why it looks a bit busy with swimmers. I promise the beach has more than enough room for the amount of people that come to visit, especially during school holidays!

The Easter Bunny made a visit during our time here. Both kids got a chocolate bunny, some sunglasses and of course an Easter egg hunt! I think Isabella ate 6 eggs before breakfast!

As I mentioned earlier, there are lots of amusement parks here. This is Miles at Movie World. We went on Easter Sunday, which I wouldn't recommend because the crowds were insane. Thanks to this experience we no longer plan on stopping at Disneyland on the way home, Clint just doesn't have the patience for line-ups!

This is Sea World. It was overcast with rainy patches so the crowds were much quieter on the day we went. Not sure if you can see the penguins behind us.

This is as close as I plan on getting to a shark, thanks Sea World!

The last park that we visited was Wet and Wild. It is a water slide park and since school holidays were over for kids in Queenland the crowds were minimal. The rainy weather helped a bit too! The kids played in the kids waterpark for about 10 minutes before they were cold and done! Clint and I took advantage of my mom being there to check out some of the waterslides. Whatever happened to slidding down on your back and laughing? Now all the rides seem to try and scare you half to death! We had a great time, this was Clint's favorite park, the line-ups of 5 people probably helped a bunch too!

The sky was often overcast and we had a bit of rain but this rainbow was beautiful and since it didn't rain all day everyday we still got to experience a lot.

What a great vacation. We didn't make it to Australia Zoo but even if we had, Miles wouldn't have talked to Bindy if we saw her! This may have been our best vacation ever and we would highly recommend both places.