I recognize and respect the Traditional custodians and owners of the lands that I travelled through and their connection to the lands, waters and skies. I honor and respect the community elders and their ancestors who survived and cared for their countries.

January 2 had us leaving Esperance. We took some time in the morning to get packed up. We drove to town to get breakfast at the Esplanade and took the time to stroll down Tanker Jetty which was apparently where my grandmother liked to sit and fish. We then went looking for someplace that sold cold sandwiches and then left to try and find a covered picnic spot since the day was expecting to reach about 100°. We headed off on the Great Ocean Drive. The first stop was the Salmon Wind Farm Heritage Trail where we made it to the first two stops to learn about the first commercial wind farm in Western Australia. After the short hike we kept going along the drive trying to find a picnic area. We couldn’t find one, but we did make a quick stop at the observation lookout for Pink Lake, which, unfortunately, is no longer pink. We finally found a sheltered picnic spot. Back in Esperance. Once we actually got on the road, we took a quick stop in Ravensthorpe to stretch our legs before our final leg for the day. We arrived in Lake Grace and checked into the hotel there before going to the Hotel Pub for dinner. We all had an early night.

January 3 had us starting off by going and having breakfast at Rosie’s Cafe. Then we packed up and headed off. Our first stop was Dumbleyung, which is famous for Donald Campbell breaking the world water speed record there in 1964 in his boat Bluebird K7. That record is still the fourth fastest in the world, and Donald Cambell holds seven of 10 of the world water speed records. Dumbleyung has a replica of the Bluebird. Then we headed off again, stopping at Williams for another leg stretch at their Lions Park. And then we headed off to Mandurah. Our stop in Mandurah was for the Giant that we missed last time. The Giants of Mandurah are wooden art installments by the Dutch artist Thomas Dambo. When we went last time, this giant had been burned down by vandals. The artist came and rebuilt the Giant. After Mandurah, we drove into Perth and checked into our units close to the airport. We finished the day by going and getting sandwiches to take to the beach and watch the stunning sunset over the Indian Ocean before going back to our apartments and watching the last of the Scorcher’s Game.

On January 4, we had a late start and headed to Fremantle. We had lunch at a Kebab place outside of the Fremantle Markets. After lunch, Dad went walkabout while Mum, Emily, Ainsley, and I went shopping in the Fremantle Markets. The Markets are an open market that was built in 1897 and holds over 150 shops for merchants of all kinds. It is open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. We bought some fruit and souvenir stuff. We escaped the hustle and bustle of the Markets and headed down to the Shipwreck Museum. We wandered through the museum, read the history about the shipwrecks and shipping along the West Coast including the remnants of the Batavia. We found Dad and after that we went and met a bunch of the relatives at the riverfront off of Coode Street. There were food trucks and live music. We ended up getting food from several of the different vendors and shared. It was nice to catch up with all the relatives. We left and had to stop by Menora to drop off some stuff with my aunt and uncle before returning to our apartments.

January 5 was our last day to do anything. So we headed down to the train station to take it into downtown Perth rather than trying to find parking. We went to the Art Gallery, which was free to attend (unless it was for the special exhibit, which we didn’t attend). We did some of the exhibits and then we left for a quick lunch at Bocelli’s Espresso. We returned to the Art Gallery to visit a last few exhibits before going shopping. First stop was to a bookshop, then the Telstra store to find some souvenir shopping including picking up an extra suitcase for the souvenirs. We headed back on the train in late afternoon. We walked to the nearby Redcliffe Tavern for dinner before returning to our apartment to start packing for our separate trips.

January 6 proved to be interesting. The morning started with heading back to the Telstra store to figure out an issue with some of our phones. My parents and younger sister had to leave our apartments at 11 a.m. to catch their flight to Brisbane where they would be housesitting for my cousin for a week. My older sister, Emily, and I were flying out to Brisbane, but we had a redeye later that night. So we got to pack up, including the souvenir suitcase. Then we headed to a pet store to pick up some Aussie treats for our fur babies. Then we went to our cousin’s house in Dalkeith to hang out for the day before our flight that night. We got fancy sandwiches for lunch. That afternoon, Emily and I went swimming in the ocean (we chose Cottesloe Beach since it has a shark net) one last time before returning to the house and showering. We hung out with our cousins and had dinner with them before one of them drove us to the airport just after eight. After check-in, security at Perth airport was so easy, just throw all of our stuff into a bin and walk through with shoes on. We boarded and as much as they gave us a meal, Emily and I didn’t stay awake for it.

That first flight we both slept on and off for most of the trip. We arrived in Brisbane at about 5:30 in the morning. We disembarked and made our way to the International Transfer Bus. We went through security and found our gate before going and getting breakfast and drinks at Hudson’s Coffee. We boarded and had our first meal and then tried to sleep on and off for the next 10 hours (we did get a snack). At some point we decided to not even bother trying anymore and just watched movies until our second meal arrived. We landed in Dallas and breezed through customs and immigration, picking up our luggage. Then we made our way to security. The line was super long, but that’s because they were passing everyone with a dog. Once you got past the dog, security was super simple. We settled at what we thought was our terminal and gate, but an hour later, it changed. We had about four hours to wait before we got to board. I was feeling a bit stressed so we had some simple sandwiches and some fruit for our lunch. We finally boarded and our flight was short, only like two hours. And I actually managed to nap on the flight.

Both Emily and I were feeling like our return home was going way too well. And that proved true. We landed in Madison and turned our phones off of airport mode, just to receive a notification that one of our bags hadn’t made it on the plane. We didn’t make it to baggage claim before receiving a second notification that two out of three of our bags were delayed. We picked up my bag which made it through. Emily submitted our claims online. Our cousin picked us up and we went to his house in Baraboo and had dinner with him, his wife, his son, and his parents. We had an early night to try and catch up on sleep.

Jet lag is terrible. I’ve said it before and I stand by it. I was up at 2 a.m., and then both Emily and I were up at 4 a.m. Emily checked her email and it said that our two bags were found and that they were at Madison Airport. So we got up and had breakfast before leaving. We headed to the airport and picked up our bags at the counter and then we left Madison and started the drive back to Owen. It felt good to be back. But I do kinda miss the sunshine and 90°. It was a great trip and I loved spending time with my Australian family and to have a Christmas with them. I could do without the airports and the airplanes, but it was good to be back. It was good to sleep in my own bed and cuddle with our pets. All of my family enjoyed our Australian Holiday.