Perth Adventures

This past weekend we went to an awards night in Perth for Ben's company Lowes Churchill & Associates. We drove up Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel, Waterside Apartments. Nancy, Ben's boss, reimbursed us for the room! It was actually a 2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen that we split with Mark and Nat. We had a balcony that overlooked the water (and freeway...haha) and our rooms looked over the courtyard. It was a great place to stay. The area was exactly what I think of when I think of Perth (we were in South Perth, outside of the city). It was built up with really really tall, BEAUTIFUL apartment buildings and hotels. There was a running path along the waterfront, and you could see the city. There are a lot of pictures in this blog, and we found a way for you to zoom in on them. Hold down the "Ctrl" button while you click on the picture you want to view. It will open the picture in a new tab and you'll be able to see it a bit larger. Here's a panorama view of the city--I love that our camera does this:



So, Friday we went to the awards night around 6:30. We ended up walking to the restaurant, which was at the Perth Zoo, it was only about 1 km away (about .6 mile). The food was really fancy, we had like 4 forks and different knives and spoons. It was fun though, we got all dressed up and had a 3-course meal. Of course, I forgot to get a picture of the four of us all together dressed up. But there will be other times I'm sure! Nancy gave a really nice speech about how the company was very young, including the people in it, and how proud she was. Here's a picture of the company receiving their award for "Best Regional Project Under $100 million":


(From the left: some motivational speaker who was really long and boring and loved to toot her own horn, Mark, Zack, Zack's gf/fiance, Nancy, Nancy's niece, Nat, Ben, and Graham is in front)

After the awards night, we wanted to go out into the city to see it at night. We didn't get to see much, but one of the girlfriend's of the guys that works for LCAA (he works out of Perth) told us that the casino is open 24 hours. So we decided to check it out! Ben and I have never been to a casino before. We didn't do any gambling, but we did laugh at the stuff people gambled on. Like virtual horse and dog racing--do they really think THAT'S not rigged? When we got a cab back, there was a long line of people. They basically have a big lane of cabs and everyone just waits in a line for one. It's funny, because you really notice how people are a lot less pushy here. Everyone just waited their turn and were very civil (even the 18 year old drunkies).

Saturday we went to the Perth Zoo. It.was.AWESOME. We spent the whole day there. I couldn't believe we were able to spend like 6 hours at the zoo! But it was really fun, and they had cool animals. There was an Australian Bushwalk where you just walked through where animals were roaming freely--like kangaroos, wallabies, weird birds, etc. Get ready...there are like 30 pictures.

Zebras.

Wombat. They're like hairy pigs.

Sun Bear.

Tree Kangaroos. They looked so soft and cuddly. He doesn't look as demonic as the picture shows--silly camera flash.

Tasmanian Devil!!

Love this picture of the lady tiger. Look how happy she is in dreamland.

We watched the male tiger for a long time. We could get nose to nose with him through the glass. He kept pacing back and forth and coming SO close to our faces. It was AWESOMEEEE

Showing some teeth.

"How YOU doin'?" Best picture of a kangaroo ever. Oh so seductive.

White Rhinos sunbathing.

Radiated tortoises.

Pelican. Which is really big...up to my hip in height.

Painted Dog. NOT a hyena, although they look similar.

Cutest meerkat EVAAAA. Check out the little smirk on his face. (A meerkat is Timon's character in Lion King!)

Awesome lions having a rest.

Koala! Sadly not as cute and cuddly as I was expecting. He looks old and wise, doesn't he?

This 'Roo was in the bushwalk. We were SO close to him. We could have touched him, but thought we should probably leave him alone.

"The Dingo ate your baby!" (This is a dingo. Just looks like a dog. He was so cute though, and seemed kind of sad. And old. And tired.)


Giraffe. Hopefully you know that.

Baboon. Don't their butts look painful? This one in particular didn't leave this tree--he just kept licking it. They had just been given sugar cane, maybe there was some on the tree?

Galapagos Tortoise. He was MASSIVE. At least three small children could ride him. Here, he is enjoying a lovely salad.


Lazy Croc. Ben would like to point out that the zookeeper's have done a marvelous job at recreating the crocodile's natural habitat--a Florida pool.


Baby Orangutan. We watched the orangutans for like 30 minutes. The mother got mad because so many people were watching and gave everyone the middle finger. Then she scooped up her baby and climbed up these really tall towers they have for the orangutans. The baby started showing off and hanging around the bars and ropes. I think s/he has a piece of sugar cane in this picture.

Little Penguin. They were really cute, and their coats are a pretty royal blue--which you can see better in the video. We got there right at feeding time!

Here is a video of the little blue penguins being fed. Right between :06 and :09 seconds you can hear an Australian crow--doesn't it sound like a crow from the States but with an Australian accent??

Ben and Mark riding the lions outside of the fancy Perth Zoo restaurant.

Well, there you have it. We had a great time, and any of you that visit will have to come to the Zoo with us. It was an awesome experience and we'd love to do it again.