Wow, Australia really was as fabulous as the video made it look!
I feel extremely blessed to have been able to be with my dad for this epic adventure.
I've been to Australia twice before... once when I was three (my only vivid memory I feel like I have was being bit by a black swan at Monger Lake. ;) But maybe that's just from my parents telling me about it.) ???
The second time was back in 2001 (or maybe 2002?) when Shane and I went with both of my parents to pick Andy up from his mission in Melbourne. On that trip we traveled all over... Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns (Great Barrier Reef) and Perth. Such a great experience... although I was super homesick for my two baby girls back home.
I remember crying most of the way to Perth. We'd already been gone 10 days and had another week. I feel like my memories from Perth are hazy... but mainly I feel like I just wasn't as interested in learning about my dad's "history".
This time... with more age and appreciation that he's still around to "show" me "his world"... was a very different experience. I LOVED meeting his friends and family. LOVED seeing what an impact his life has had on so many.
I mean really... if I moved away I don't know if I'd have more than 5 friends that would want to see me... Let alone drive and fly from across Australia!
But, my daddy is just that awesome!
Speaking of flying...
the flight, well... that's not QUITE as incredible.
Except that I'm still amazed by how a plane actually gets in the air, then flies half-way around the world... over the massive ocean... that's still incredible to me!
We left for the airport Wednesday October 18th...
drove 1.5 hours to the SLC Airport,
flew 2 hours to LAX,
had a 5 hour layover,
(the empty middle seat was a bonus for sure!)
Then had a 5 hour layover.
During that long layover, we took the metro from the airport,
to the Circular Quay stop.
That's the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.
then got an UBER to drive us around for a while.
We found the church where my parents met.
Looked for his apartment but couldn't quite find it.
He knew the location but wasn't sure it was the same building.
The vegetation change alone after 60 years would throw your bearings off!
Then headed back to the airport,
we visited a small... not the most amazing lounge... but it had lots of Australian snacks he was happy to munch on.
We then flew 5 hours to Perth.
And just like that (32.5 hours later if you were counting:)) we were in Perth.
LeeAnn Robinson (Rosemary and Hugh's daughter) picked us up at the airport.
LeeAnn drove us to Hugh and Rosemary's to get settled.
(Rosemary and Dad are cousins on his father Allen Wegener's side.)
Rosemary had a nice meal ready for us and Andy brought Shelly over as she was also staying at the Ash's. Andy was not "to stay" though, she did not have dinner for him just us. haha
It was at this dinner that I learned that Hugh could not understand why someone took more than a 3-4 minute shower... Earlier I had been told by Rosemary that, "the bathroom I would be showering in did not have proper ventilation so I would need to leave the door open a few inches." Followed by... "don't worry we won't look."
So, I had many very quick and somewhat public showers. ;)
But really, Hugh and Rosemary were great hosts who provided a nice place for us to stay, good food and a car. It was obvious that Rosemary wished we were there at the house more, but we were always on the run and ready for sleep not long after returning home each night.
Our first morning we went over to Rod and Jenny's gorgeous condo in South Perth.
Andy, Missy, Elle and Clara were staying there with them.
It was a modern, fancy condo with gorgeous views of the Swan River.
We all joked that Andy and fam got the better accommodations... but we were all well cared for.
Took a ferry across the river...
Found a CUTE kangaroo.
(and I mean the one on the right.)
Walked to Perth Technical School - where my dad attended Architecture School.
We had a nice lunch @ Dome,
then headed to London Court... a quant British "open air" shopping street.
The "Ash Family Reunion" was held at Rod and Jenny's condo that afternoon.
They had a nice afternoon tea prepared for us and it was wonderful to meet and reconnect with so many family members on the Wegener side.
My dad felt like this was a great facilitating opportunity to get this family together.
There are multiple "estrangements" in many of these families.
Not sure if this is cultural and just a huge problem in Australia... or worldwide actually... or if it's an individual family thing... either way it's sad.
Another cultural observation is that 20, 30 somethings don't get married.
Everyone has a "partner" but very few of the younger generation actually get married.
It was common to hear, "we've been engaged for 10 or 17 or 7 years.
What does engaged mean to them???
Tony, Hugh Ash, Jenna, Caleb Ash
More visiting after everyone else left.
Church in the Como Ward the first Sunday.
Then an afternoon tea @ John Grinceri's home.
The Grinceri brothers have MANY connections to our family.
Here are a few...
1. Members of the Church when my dad joined in 1961.
2. John Grinceri's son Mark was Andy's Mission Companion
3. My friend Therese Anderson married Alvie and Jill's son Allen
4. Therese is Kimi's 1st cousin
5. Missy remembers John being the Bishop of her ward when she lived in Perth.
There is definitely a special connection to them, it was a wonderful afternoon spent with them.
2 building mission friends that I've forgotten the names of... oops
I mean honestly... it's been 60 years since he knew all these people!
Our 2nd "afternoon tea" of the day was at the home of John and Shirl Blake.
It was lovely to meet and visit with them and their family.
This post has taken me FOREVER already... mainly because I've gotten down a rabbit hole reading my dad's personal history. I started looking at in when I realized that I didn't have all of the information... or enough information about everyone we visited. And since my dad is so fabulous and preserving his history I decided to take some of that and add here. Actually, MOST of the writing from my dad are excerpts taken from numerous thank you emails that he sent after our return and forwarded to me
So, from here on out, anything in quotes is written from my dad!
"John and
Shirl Anne Blake are my two closest friends among my architect classmates.
Shirl
has emphysema and is not doing well.
They
invited us to a Blake family “afternoon tea” gathering."
"...and a separate reunion with a few of our architect classmates.
My architect mates were generally small blokes…one referred to themselves as “Gnomes”.
Architecture as a profession in WA was apparently “not easy”…my mates were generally single practitioners. My move to the USA was considered “fortunate”…but they love life in WA."
"Tom
Lang (88) was my Fag Master at Perth Modern School in 1953."
(I'll add here that we were all VERY confused by the term "Fag Master" hahaha But everyone had a "fag master" an older mentor type student also at Perth Mod.)
"Tom became one of the top accountants in Perth…a mover and shaker in the WA
business world.
From his
son’s description prior to our arrival in Perth, I thought Tom was on his way
out, but he looks really good in these photos.
However,
after an hour with him he was really hurting, so I had to leave.
Fortunately,
he is recovering, and we communicate regularly.
His son
says that he has not seen his dad that energized in a long time."
One of my FAVORITE things about our Perth vacation were the walks I took each morning.
I loved being out by myself.
It gave me time to call my girls back home as 6-7 am Perth time was 4-5 pm the day before at home.
+ Walking along the Canning River was beautiful.
+ I liked seeing the Rowing Clubs from the College across the road out practicing.
+ Another reason was that I had caught a nasty cold and it was great to try to clear my head... and nose.
Hugh and Rosemary Ash's home in Salter Point.
My dad loves Vegemite.
Most Australians do apparently... cuz there are LOTS of varieties of vegemite. haha
Rosemary baked us Vegemite brownies...
I really was not looking forward to those, but I couldn't actually taste it...
THANKFULLY!
This day we were deciding if we should do the Perth Zoo or drive to Caversham Wildlife Park.
We were planning on doing both, but my dad had plans with his architecture friends on the second "zoo" day, so we let him pick which he wanted to do.
He picked the Perth Zoo right off.
He remembers going there as a child...
and even remembers they could sometimes hear the lions roaring from his home.
Clara and Elle were so good at all of the events.
There were definitely times that wouldn't have been as much fun for little girls, but I never heard them complain about that... there was that ONE time that Clara really wanted to be alone on one of our drives, but she just couldn't be. ;) But that was it, and sweet Clara wasn't able to go out on those morning walks by herself... so I get it!
Dad does great walking pretty far.
But when he's done, he's done.
We opted to get the wheelchair from the start and Missy pushed him all the way through the zoo.
It was a very enjoyable day.
The "Cohen Connect" event was that night.
"In 1924, architect E G Cohen, established an
award for graduating architectural students in WA.
The medal
is awarded to students who have achieved excellence in academic results and
also demonstrated a spirit of service to their fellow students.
I
was awarded the E G Cohen Medal for 1962.
In 2018
architect Gresley Cohen, the grandson of E G Cohen, established Cohen
Connect, which brings together past recipients of the Cohen Medal and
identifies new recipients.
Gresley
Cohen has kept me informed of the activities of Cohen Connect. He has
invited me to attend their annual meeting every year since 2018.
I let
Gres know that I was coming to town and suggested that we meet, but he then
arranged for the Cohen Connect Annual Meeting to be held while I was in town.
The
invitation is an honor for me…I am almost the eldest of the Cohen Medal
recipients still living."
This lady was the daughter of one of Dad's classmates.
They didn't know each other but she recognized his name.
Our day on Rottnest Island was sure a good time.
We took a ferry from Fremantle...
Along the way he told us storied of his experiences on Rottnest.
Here's one from his history...
"One memorable experience with those boards occurred at Rottnest Island. One of our former High School buds was John Gartrell. His dad owned an ocean going sail-boat which had been a champion racer in her day. She was then an old lady, but an elegant lady to us. John invited Bim and myself to sail to Rottnest and live on the boat for a week. We took our brand-new boards. This was possibly one of the most exquisite surfing experiences which we ever had. There was a surf break outside Thompson Bay that we had noticed before but never tried. It ran over a shallow sand bar that was only about 5' deep. The wave ran for over a hundred yards, then died in mid bay. So, we paddled out on a beautiful morning.
The water was like glass, but a decent swell was coming around the point regularly. We caught a wave and the magic began. The wave was such that you could run left or right, cut out into green water and cut back again under the foam. Not only was it a long run, but this day the water was so clear that you could see the bottom. It was so clear that if you looked straight down at the bottom you could not see the surface of the water. It was as if we were floating on air. We enjoyed that experience for as long is our bodies lasted. I never experienced anything like that ever again...not there...not anywhere."
We took a little walking tour first.
Then rode the bus around the island...
and stopped @ Parakeet Bay.
First, some lunch...
Where we found the Quokka's we were all excited to see.
Rottnest hosts the largest Quokka population anywhere.
These Quokka's were extra friendly waiting for leftover food...
I was teased for the rest of the trip that I "lost a fight with a quokka" when I tried to grab this bag of M&M's away and then got scared and let him have it.
Elle or Andy grabbed it from him...
I'm not actually sure which one, but they BOTH claimed to have won the fight...
Then on to the beach...
The girls LOVED playing in the ocean and sand of course.
Shelly, Dad and I were very happy with just basking in the sun... fully clothed.
When Andy set his phone by dad, playing the BeeGee's.
He asked if he had died and gone to heaven.
Our time on Rottnest was way too short.
The next day we drove around to some of Dad's "historical spots".
Wembley Primary School... where he attended 1st and 2nd grade.
His house on Wembley Street (now covered with a fence) where he lived as a child.
76 Essex Street
The house where he lived with his mom and Bill Ambrosius from 1956 - 1963.
Perth Mod...
his Junior/High School.
Scarborough Beach
"In my Personal History you will find …my
Favorite Photos. There is one of Steve taken in 1972 at City Beach which
I loved…because of its simplicity…and its location.
I referred to it as “a boy on a beautiful white
sand beach”…page 262.
But there is one of Elle taken at Scarborough
in Oct 2023 which gives me equal pleasure…it’s ”girl on a beautiful beach”."
The best way to enjoy the beach...
We had a fabulous day at Caversham Wildlife Park, but wish dad was there with us!
He was off for a VERY long lunch with an architecture friend and colleagues.
Feeding the kangaroos... that weren't all that hungry... was such a good time.
The Australian flies that will NOT stop landing on your face and lips are not such a good time though!
SO ANNOYING!
I won't complain about our flies anymore... haha
That's a magazine picture right there!
A selfie with my new friend.
Kangaroo are like deer in Utah.
People DON'T like them eating up their yard, causing accidents etc.
Every time I've seen a deer this year I think about how people would respond when I'd say I wanted to see kangaroos in the wild.
We did see a whole bunch on our drive down to Busselton!
VERY quickly as we sped by.
Kangaroo pouches/joeys are weird and fascinating at the same time.
Seeing a fairly large kangaroo jumping around and then coming back and fitting into that pouch was super strange to watch. haha
The kookaburra call that my dad used to do for us when we were little, will be etched in my memory forever!
SOME, knowing my deep love for animals...made fun of me for only touching the tip of this possum's tale...
but, I was told to do that because you could only touch the tail and he had peed on his tail...
except for the end. ;)
Elle doesn't seem to be worried about the pee though. haha
Elle and I were facing our fears.
Looks like Shelly was too...
A skink
This massive thing is a wombat.
This picture makes me laugh. ;)
Mine, Mine, Mine...
what a funny bird with the turned in feet and their weird stretchy beak.
The black swan...
my nemesis.
And the bird that started my fear of animals.
This + our next door neighbors massive St. Bernard that used to chase my little 3-5 year old body around the neighborhood!
He's sooooo cute!!
But apparently mean and stinky in the wild.
Roy and Di Penberthy arranged a "Pre" Perth Modern Reunion @ the Royal Perth Yacht Club.
It was so great to hear stories from their high school days!
A beautiful evening.
The next day Hugh and Rosemary took us to their very successful Filter Supply Warehouse.
The one in the red is another son Jeff.
We were then off to the "real" Perth Mod 66th reunion.
There were chairs in the front for all of us.
Dad was the guest of honor and briefly described what his life had been like in the last 66 years since graduation.
"The girls in this photo
include Lyn and Pat (Millward), Judy Brearley, and Bev Hartz, each
attended West Leederville. What I learned at the reunion is that
each of them plus Bevan and I also attended Miss Sermon’s Kindergarten
together, across from the Church of England. I remember Miss Sermon,
but not my classmates."
"Old mates, three of whom came interstate for the reunion…Roy Penberthy, Civil Engineer (WA), Brian Savvas, Electrical Engineer (SA), Tony, Bevan Campain, Civil Engineer (Q), Tony Thomas, Journalist."
"Judy (Bearley), I’ve been sending thankyou notes to friends who made our Perth visit so
special. I’ve
left you to the last…only because I’m not sure what to say to you…other than
THANKS…which seems so inadequate.
That you
chose to make the trip to Perth was wonderful…amazing.
That you
chose to tell your version of our meeting on Jan 1, 1964 was most
impressive…especially with my family present. They loved it.
I liked
my version better, but then I’m known to “make up true stories”…or embellish
stories."
Here is the "story" from his history.
When I climbed the stairs up to the door of the DC6-B I was greeted by a
beautiful hostess who stunned me with… “Hello Tony” and a big kiss. And then she sat me in first class. That was what one might call real service,
but I was confused…the brain-box was struggling to recall who the lovely angel
was. After we took off, she came forward
and sat with me...and ended the tension.
“You don’t remember me do you Tony”.
I had to confess. Her name was
Judy Brearley and we had gone to Primary School together at West Leederville
and she had also attended Perth Modern School for a couple of years.
That was one of those weird experiences which are pretty much
reserved for men. The brain was yelling…
“No she’s not…she can’t be!”. The Judy I
remembered was a mousey little, flat chested girl whom nobody would have looked
at twice. The Judy I was looking at was
...drop-dead-gorgeous. I was reminded of
the great Maurice Chevalier song… “Thank heaven for little girls, they grow up
in a most delightful way”. It was a
great flight. We talked most of the
way. Judy asked lots of questions about
why I was going to Sydney. I explained
it all.
There is a sequel to that story. Unbeknown to me...Judy later joined the
Church. She told me her story at a
school reunion in about 2007. She said
that during her years as a flight attendant she met quite a few Latter-day
Saints. She said that it got to the
point that she recognized instinctively which of her passengers were LDS…there
was something different about them.
Apparently, I was just one of many.
Unfortunately, Judy also confided that she had left the Church after
eight years. We had a great reunion…but
it was diminished by that sad detail.
Even so, Judy was comfortable telling our classmates…”Tony is a Mormon…I
used to belong to his Church.”
While telling her story here, she spoke very highly of her time as a member of the Church.
From a thank you written to Wendy Watts (2nd from left) who organized this reunion when she heard that he was making a visit to Perth.
"We are all aging…so we may not get to see each other again…
But I think you agree that we had a wonderful class…
And that we WILL see each other on the other side of the veil.
That might be the greatest reunion of all."
"Bevan
and Sue.
Thank
you for being such good friends.
Thank
you for making the trip to Perth.
The
reunion was a delight.
And it
was a pleasure to introduce such long standing friends as you, to my family
members.
I just
wish we had more time together."
Interesting note... Dad dated Sue before his best friend Bevan snatched her up. He says that his "new religion" scared her off.
After the reunion, we made the three-hour drive down to Dunsborough.
Just in time for the sunset.
This is Yallingup, a surfing spot that Poppa has great memories of.
Missy's dad Scott Winslow and his wife Jenni live in Dunsborough.
Missy, Andy and girls stayed with them.
Shelly, Dad and I stayed next door in their neighbors "summer home".
Such a great picture of dad reminiscing about his Yallingup days.
\
Morning walks were wonderful.
The tide was out super far in the mornings, it was beautiful.
Btw,the water was FRIGID this time of year.
Hard to see through the trees, but this is Scott and Jenni's house.
And this was the house we stayed in.
We were told not to be alarmed of the nose on the roof in the night it was posoms. haha
The next day we drove about 20 minutes south to Busselton.
Actually I DROVE 20 minutes south to Busselton!
On the wrong side of the road!
It was weird and took some serious though at first.
But... I did it and we survived.
Although I did turn the windshield wipers on EVERY time I was blinking.
My dad told me I was a slow learner. ;)
Busselton is where Beryl and Norma my dad's stepsisters lives. (Bill's daughters)
"Following the reunion we spent two days in Busselton with Beryl and stayed with Missy’s father in Dunsborough.
Beryl (93) has not changed…she is still the same high energy woman as she was in 2017…she gave up golf two years ago…and she even joined us on a whale watching trip…
She walked across a sandy beach…climbed into a small boat…which took us to a larger boat…refusing any and all assistance.
So Beryl is amazing…Norma (89) less so…we are not sure that she recognized me when we took her out of the nursing home for a few hours…and she was in pain."
Bery Yuill
We went to lunch at "the Goose".
Then Dad and Beryl headed off to pick Norma up from the nursing home.
The rest of us rode the "Busselton Train" out to the end of the jetty.
The longester timber piled jetty (pier) in the Southern Hemisphere @ 6,040 feet.
At the end of the jetty is a "natural aquarium" or "underwater observatory".
It was pretty cool!
After this Shelly and I headed back to Beryl house.
Dad had arranged to meet Margaret Newbold (for the first time) who was a little girl back when he worked summers on her families' farm "the Conning Farm", from the age of 13-16.
"Thanks
for taking the time to visit with my daughters, plus me and my sister, in
Busselton.
You were
too young to remember me at Woodspoint, but I never forgot you.
Thanks
so much for filling in the blanks in the Conning Family History.
I would
have loved to drive out to the farm for a quick look around, but our schedule
would not allow it."
The next morning we went on a whale watching tour.
It was WONDERFUL and we saw LOTS of Humpback Whales.
These first pictures are from the guides' camera from our tour... posted on facebook.
It was so fun to have sweet, spunky Beryl with us.
This was her first whale watching experience.
Oh, and my pictures looked more like this. ;)
The BEST picture!
After the whale watching we headed back to Scott and Jenni's.
Walked down to the ocean for a minute, said goodbye to Beryl, packed up and headed back to Perth.
It was time for Shelly, Andy, Missy, Clara and Elle to fly home.
We had such a great time together, I'm so glad I got to experience this with them.
But then... I was lucky to get to have time with just the 2 of us.
The next morning was Sunday.
We headed to the church where Dad was baptized on June 3rd 1961.
He didn't know anyone in this ward anymore.
During the combined Sunday School lesson I started having a coughing fit and we left.
Sorry dad!
"Mother and I were baptized at the South Perth Chapel on Labouchere Road, in South Perth.
Elder Guy Charles Clark baptized mother.
Elder Roger Newbold baptized me."
"I had an interesting memory of the South Perth Chapel. In my first year of Architectural studies one of our instructors gave us the assignment to visit, diagram and write about “Courtyards”. Miss Margaret Pitt Morison was the only woman architect in Western Australia. She had strong opinions…probably had to. But one of the courtyards on her list for us to visit was the LDS Church on Labouchere Rd, in South Perth . I remember that visit…but it was just a Church to me…I had never heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints…I had never heard of Mormons…and I had no reason to have any particular thoughts about the building…other than it had a lovely, enclosed courtyard. I later discovered that the Perth Architectural community was most impressed with his building…the quality of its design and the refinement of construction detail…some of which was new to Western Australia."
This is the very courtyard.
A drive over to City Beach.
What a great memory this is.
Playing 3-13 with Hugh and Rosemary.
Hugh was hilarious, he's not a game player but he played for ALMOST the whole game.
Rosemary wished we could have played every night.
A delicious lunch on by the Swan River with Rod and Jenni.
Meeting with Maree Calvin, daughter of Reg and
Daphne Axford (Sylvia's brother).
And a visit with Wendy Griffiths (Dad's Mom's side)
Our families' "true"Geneologist.
She's figured out many family history holes in the Axford's through DNA matches on Ancestry.
Dad told her we could eat anywhere and she picked KFC. haha
Really it's cuz her daughter works there and then she could "see Tony as well".
Her girls are super shy, but they loved our "accent" and all the funny way American's say things. :)
This day was Halloween.
Very different than any other Halloween I've experienced.
Not that many people participate... but we did see a few trick or treaters out.
This night we had dinner with Caroline and Brian Savas at the retirement center.
It was a nice evening.
My favorite part was when Caroline said, "Tony, what does your Church believe that other Church's don't". Hearing my dad share of the love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for us and the nature of the Godhead being 3 distinct beings gave me goosebumps.
"People
ask…”What was your most favorite event in Perth Tony?
I
have to catch myself…it would hardly be appropriate to tell them that it was
meeting Cath Fitzhardinge…a woman I have never before met.
But
it’s true. Nothing quite got to me like meeting you. I was overwhelmed…it
was spiritual to me.
And
I’m so pleased that my daughter and cousin were present to witness it.
The
very special catholic connections in Perth cannot be overlooked."
"I knew her Dad, each of his brothers and
her grandparents well…they have now all passed on.
I was raised in Wembley without a father in
the home, and without siblings.
But the Fitzhardinges lived on the next
street and I was always warmly welcomed into that Catholic family.
And I loved them. Mike Fitzhardinge and I
were later joined at the hip. He graduated as an architect the year before
me and served as the President of the WA Architectural Students Association.
And I walked in his footsteps. We
worked together at the PWD before I left Perth in 1964. But he died too young
at age 60.
Cath apparently found a letter which I had
written to her grandparents way back in 1972 regarding the premature death of
another Fitzhardinge brother at age 18.
The letter moved her. She sent me an
email asking if we could meet the next time I came to Perth. So we did.
Since I need to be protected from women
(that’s the made-up part) I took my daughter and a female Perth cousin with me
to Fremantle, to have lunch with Cath.
Cath read the letter which I had written in
1972 out loud. We were all moved to tears.
That meeting was nothing short of amazing and
I was glad that my daughter could be present to witness it."
This truly was a highlight of the trip for me as well.
What an amazing opportunity to witness and be a part of!
LeeAnn took us over to the Fremantle Maritime Musuem that afternoon.
The next day Hugh and Rosemary took us to King's Park.
There had been 5 arson fires set in the park a few days before.
What is wrong with people?
I had decided that I wanted to do a Fremantle Prison "Tunnel tour".
The tunnel tour consisted of climbing a 60 rung ladder in and out + walking hunched over pretty much the whole time... so I didn't think my dad would like it.
And he would NOT have liked the hunched over squat walk, it was hurting my back!
Anyway... as I was making the reservation, I could not figure out what the guy was saying.
He just kept saying, something like "this avo". What??
So, I made the reservation hoping that they were planning on me. When I hung up my dad said, "I could tell you were confused, did he say this arvo". What??? How did he know that?
We all had a good chuckle about it.
This Arvo means this afternoon.
So yep, they were planning on me.
Funny thing... when I got there (driving the 20 minutes by myself cuz I was totally comfortable with being a "wrong side of the road driver" now) I was actually the ONLY ONE on my tour.
That was funny + I was glad my tour guide was a lady.
We had some pretty good chats along the way. The first came about because I LEGIT had to take a breathalyzer test before going on the tour.
That tells you about Australians and their alcohal.
But I said, "wow, I've never done this before, I've never even drank alcohol before."
She didn't believe me.
Then asked me why? etc.
She had stopped drinking 20 years ago and had seen so much family devastation because of alcohol.
But that was one of many chats.
The tunnels... were water tunnels. No one ever escaped through them or anything, but it was super interesting!
The Fremantle Prison was built for convicts in the 1850's.
The stories are horrible of their treatment and living conditions.
In the late 1800's it became a prison for criminals.
This is crazy to me it... it was used up until 1991...
and get this! It had no indoor plumbing... EVER.
So, in 1991 they were still using buckets for toilets...
What??!!
That night we had our last meal with Hugh and Rosemary and headed to the Perth Airport for the long trek back.
Scoring 3 seats each on the long-haul flight over the ocean was definitely a PLUS.
I didn't think it was nearly as bad that way!
Dad leaving his phone in the LAX airport was a bummer.
(Andy later tracked it to a house in Mississippi, some jerk stole it.)
But that was our only mishap of the trip!
So yep, it was pretty epic.
I'm going to add here that blogging takes FOREVER.
I LITERALLY worked for 8 hours on this post, but it's worth it when it's printed!
Thank you, thank you, thank you Dad for letting me experience it all with you.
I'll forever cherish the memories I shared with you!!!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment