Wednesday, September 2nd, Jurien Bay

Greetings!

Our plans to see wildflowers here got off to a huge success today.  Mt. Lesueur National Park was spectacular.  Pat says she's never had an floral experience equal to this one.  I've uploaded my photos, but we have 150 more from Pat's camera we have to sort through and upload.

That will take reaching a more powerful wifi than is at the pub we're have beers in tonight.  Because the availability gets slimmer further north, it may have to wait until we get back to Perth in a little over a week.

We are having so much fun with the RV.  Setting up the bed each night is a bit tiresome, and the width of the middle of it (where the fridge and stove meet the toilet) is a bit narrow.  Passing each other is real cozy, however, so it's not all bad.

Fruit and vegetables are expensive here, but everyone's very friendly.  To my friend Chris, I have to say I've heard three guys say "Good-day, Mate" in four days.  My only disappointment is that the water's cold here on the west coast, and the waves are blocked by reefs and rocks at every bay so far.

We're headed north tomorrow after two nights here.  We recommend Jurien Bay Visitor Park as a base of operations for anyone wanting to see all of the area's natural environment.  While I've yet to see a platypus or a gecko, there are plenty of other great flora and fauna we have seen.

Here's a link to the photos I took today.  Pat is keeping track of which wildflowers we've scored, and we'll be constructing a full album when we get back.

Tuesday, September 1st, Jurien Bay

Greetings!

After our first night sleep in the RV, we drove a short way south to Yanchep National Park.  We had passed it last night, but felt we needed more time to explore it before it would close.  With kangaroos, koalas, several species of parrot, and an exciting walk around a large lake, we’re glad we waited.

Our next stop was Pinnacles National Park, an unbelievable landscape of rocks and sand that reminded us of ancient stone structures from Celtic times we’d seen in France and England. 

Tonight, we’ve settled into Jurien Bay, and are now having a pint in a local pub.  We’ll be here for another day before heading north.

Here’s a link to the photos from September 1st.

Sunday Morning, August 30th, Perth Botanical Garden

Greetings!

After breakfast at the hotel, we walked the 2.5 miles to the Perth Botanical Garden.  We had planned on catching the city bus at a stop a block from our hotel directly to the Park, and saving Pat's walking capabilities for the huge garden.  Perth's annual City to the Surf Run occurred at 8am, and bus services were suspended until noon.  So we headed in the direction of the Park, and asked the very many standing around city workers how to best get there.  We took advantage of lots of benches along the way, especially those on a staircase popularizing a famous battle on Papua New Guinea in which 1,100 Australian soldiers held off 5,000 Japanese troops in WWII.  Marking each segment of the battle, a nice bench with a description of the event has been placed at an appropriate distance up the stairs.

Fortunately, the busses began running again, and we returned back to our hotel at 3pm.  After some pain-killing drugs, we'll start to get serious about planning our next three weeks on Australia's Southwestern coast.  We bought some books on the area's birds and flowers at the Botanical Gardens, and certainly were inspired by the flowers we saw there.  Tomorrow afternoon, we'll take the city bus out to where we pick up the RV to head out of Perth.

Here's a link to the rest of the photos from Sunday, August 30th, Perth Botanical Gardens today.

Sunday, August 30th, Perth

Greetings!

Just waking up on Sunday morning in a downtown TravelLodge in Perth, Australia.  We've got a day until we pick up our RV, and head off north.  Pat's reading the Press Democrat online, and I'm beginning to remember our visit to New Zealand.

As readers know, our travels have always contained a healthy component of family history.  Pat and I come from adventurers who seem to have taken risks to explore new paths for their families. Following their travels makes the places we visit more real, and their experiences more imaginable.

My grandfather on my father's side, William Walker Fearon, left Cumbria in 1909 with his older sister (Marian McArthur Fearon), and her husband (Gordon Clark Stronach).  My grandfather departed the group in Arizona, where Gordon took a job in the copper mining industry.  After a four-year enlistment in the Army in the Southwest, my grandfather ended up in Ray, North Dakota, where he eventually rose to be the Police Chief.

But this is the story of the travels of the Fearon family to New Zealand.  Gordon and Marian were cremated in a cemetery I visited on Friday about ten miles southwest of Auckland, New Zealand.  The cemetery also contains the grave of Marian's younger sister, Rebecca.  Nearby are the graves of Charles and Roger Fearon, who died in 1921 and 1929, almost fifty years earlier.  With that information,  I have begun to explore online records.  I'll report back when I have more of their stories.

On Friday afternoon, we visited Fearon Park, the last home of my great aunt, and a local cemetery, and you can view them online (Looking for Dead Relatives).  The cemetery is huge (200 acres), and I appreciate the Auckland Council staff for their assistance in locating the information on my family.

On Saturday morning, before our flight to Australia, we drove to a nearby Maori and European settlement which has been occupied for over 800 years.  The architectural and botanical expertise exhibited by Maori landscape designs is overwhelming, and deserves a more detailed explanation in a later post.  You can see the photos I took in an album titled (Aotearoa - the original Maori name for New Zealand).

Summer's Over, New Australian Adventure

Greetings!

We're packing today for a ten-week trip to Australia.  After a barbecue with Zivolichs (newest PLHS grads to Sonoma), and season-ending rounds of golf tomorrow at Windsor and Tuesday at Indian Valley, we'll take the Sonoma's AirportExpress to SF International on Wednesday.

Thanks to Ken, Dianne, and Dusty for coming up from LA.  We hope the garden gets even more gorgeous with the fall colors.  We'll post what spring looks like north of Perth in the next couple of weeks.  Here's a Google Map with our route and points of interest.

Monday, July 20th, Festival Return

Greetings!

It's the people.  Tattoos, braids, tie dyes, hawaiian shirts, all things neon, hula hoops, wheel chairs, strollers, short lawn chairs, blankets, coolers, and lots of grey hair.

Dancers, wigglers, movers, jerkers, sitters.  And there was room for all, and courtesy abounding.

Four days and nights (with some sleep between 3am and 8am) of regional and international newbies, partly due to new local management (The Center for the Arts), and slow visa administration restricting many international regulars.  The crowd roared their approvals each day, as band after band thanked the new owners for the opportunity to appear.

Young and old, and lots of in-betweens, enjoyed the wide variety of music, food, crafts, information, and new relationships being circulated in the Sierra foothills.

To review the photos taken throughout the Festival, click on California WorldFest 2015.

Friday, July 17th, California WorldFest Music Festival

Greetings!

Thank you, Buffy.  You made all the hard work and frustration of the past two days worth it.  You made the running around town on Wednesday afternoon when I should have been helping Pat clean out the Airstream worth it.  The running was to replace four wingnuts and two short cables in the battery system of the Airstream, and I had to go to an Auto supply store, Home Depot, Orchard Supply, and Harbor Freight store to complete the purchase.  I also had to retrace the entire route only to discover that the lost wallet I was searching for had slipped down between the seats in my car.

And Thursday's three hour wait on the I-80 Freeway between Vacaville and Dixon, while two separate emergency car repair calls try to rescue us from a flat tire on our rented tow vehicle pulling our Airstream.

So when your voice capped the Thursday evening lineup of great musicians at the 19th Annual California WorldFest at the Auburn Fairgrounds last night, I was reminded of how many years and songs you've dedicated to the cause of keeping our planet safe and secure.  And how clear and powerful have your words been when others tried to confuse us, and to persuade us that one more lunacy in search of peace was justified.

Thank you, Buffy Sainte Marie, for not wavering in your support of peacemakers.  And for making another old guy's troubles seem small and insignificant, and tolerable.