The Bader Family Travels: Down Under – 3/8/14 – Perth Arrival, Western Australia

Up at the crack of dawn once again, today we are flying Virgin Australia from Melbourne to Perth on the western shore of Australia. We have a bit of trouble checking our bags in Melbourne as they deny us our 1 free checked bag claiming we didn't have the proper fare...I end up getting the fee waived but this will come back to bite us in the butt later! We are finding out that many people in AU do not like Virgin Australia for all of their extra fees.

As it turns out, the Australian TSA equivalent was quite abbreviated. You put your stuff thru the x-ray machine and then walk thru the old style metal scanner…you keep your shoes/belt on and that’s it. A few times I got selected for the bomb patch sniffer but that’s it, quite reasonable and fast.

The main reason we are making this trek is to visit Becky’s friend and co-worker Vince Atrache who grew up in Perth but was originally from Cairo, Egypt.

We get on our plane in Melbourne and wait…and wait…equipment problem…and finally they ask us to leave while they get another plane. As soon as we are all off miraculously the problem is fixed so they load us back on…a great confidence builder especially as one of the stewardesses tells me how much she dislikes this particular plane. We take off two hours late...when we arrive in Perth the airplane is met by gun-toting police and we each get sniffed by two different drug dogs.

In Perth we have decided to rent a minivan for ourselves and I have volunteered to be the driver…on the wrong side of the road with a right-handed drive and without a GPS. We decide to crowdsource our way to the hotel and off we go.

I have previously driven on the left before but it’s been quite a long time and requires a lot of focus on my part so I depend totally on the other 5 for the directions. Every so often the left wheels of the van scrape the curb as it’s difficult to judge the distance…this always wakes up all the others in the van!

We miss our turn and come thru Freemantle to Cottesloe and our hotel, the Ocean Beach Hotel. http://obh.com.au/ We check in and relax a bit in our rooms overlooking the Indian Ocean.

Vince arrives shortly and I drive us to Freemantle to have “the best fish and chips” right by where all the fishing boats come in. We walk around Freemantle, an historic maritime town and visit the local museum. This place looks a lot like New Orleans.

We are here for 4 nights of relaxation! Vince takes us to his condo for dessert and a tour of his wonderful art collection. Vince was the Chief Scientist for the division of Biomeriux where Becky worked. In addition to his microbiology knowledge he is a "foodie" and a wine lover!

We crash at the hotel and get to sleep in.