Perth, Western Australia 11/2009

ahh, the west coast.... an uneventful flight dropped us into perth and added an extra 2 1/2 hours to our day (kinda makes for a long day there, at the end...).  nova, as always, is a champion traveller (though the 2 1/2 hr time difference meant she woke up at about 0530 every morning - which is actually pretty good because that means she was sleeping in until 8 am adelaide time).  jessica and brian picked us up from the airport - they'd flown in the previous day and rented a car and carseat (the lady at the counter was genuinely concerned about the whereabouts of their child until they explained the situation) - and we headed south, straight for margaret river, an area known for its wine and surfing (neither of which we really sampled) south of perth.  nova napped most the way down, so once we got to our holiday house, jessica, nova and i went to the beach and payton and brian ran to margaret river for groceries.  we ate great every night - red snapper (a whole fish tossed on the grill) and grilled veggies the first night and seafood pesto pasta with prawns grilled on the barby the second night, and local white wines and beer.  (the beer was from a fremantle brewery, little creatures, very good).  also got to do some whale watching from the porch - humpbacks and souther right whales, though we couldn't see them so well as to differentiate; mostly we cheered just to see a blow spray. nova's favorite part was jumping on our bed - i remember loving that so much as a kid... and now we all complain about the crappy mattresses in hotels/rentals... ah, well. 

on sunday, we all drove down to cape leeuwin and toured the tallest lighthouse on the aus mainland - very interesting!  it's still a functioning lighthouse, though not the kerosene lights from the old days.  from cape leeuwin we went to margaret river and had lunch then home again home again to watch horton hears a who on the tv (that was the largest viewing nova's ever seen of it - usu she sees horton on a 12 inch computer screen) while the boys napped and jessica and i read (in between glances at horton - jenny, i think that cd has gotten us through a lot of meltdowns here in aus.  i suppose i should be embarrassed saying that, but mostly i'm thankful!).

monday, we went to the beach for a bit and had a delightful swim.  nova was not in a beach mood however, and finally turns to me, hands balled into fists and in a gutteral voice with a desperate look on her face says, "i need to sleep!" well!  that shocked us in to action! however, she did not sleep.  but she was in perfectly good spirits once we got her in the car with wheatley and jellyroll and drove to olio bello (an olive orchard and olive oil producer) for lunch.  it turns out we are raising a young sophisticant (is that a word?) who demands her bubaccino (steamed, frothed milk with or without chocolate syrup in a small cup for kids) at breakfast (and i do mean she literally asks for it) and will hammer only the finest of olives - has learned to pit them herself - along with camembert cheese and bread dipped in boutique olive oil!  what a palette! actually, the olio bello orchard was amazing - so much so that the four of us bought a bunch of olive oil!  mmm, tasty! 

anyway, after olio bello, on to perth.  we had a nice hotel right in downtown perth (however, hotels and downtowns do not exactly cater to bubs - babies - so one has to get creative with food and sleeping arrangements between nova's bedtime and mama and daddy's bedtime).  jessica and brian once again proved their worth as good, laid back friends and moved down six floors and across the hotel to be near us so i could put nova down and we could hang out in their room!! so nice! tuesday was the first day of the conference, so payton was off to learn geological things.  after her nap, nova and i went to king's park, an incredible hilltop park that overlooks the city and the swan river with very manicured lawns and a lot of war memorials.  it's very beautiful and nova LOVED just running around.  i listened to lauren's advice and went into the gift shop where i found the very park-and-botanic-garden-related books: "a bush christmas" and "an aussie night before christmas".  so nova now has a couple more christmas books.  

on wednesday, i met up with liz - married to another csiro scientist, both from san francisco who moved here about a year ago - and payton ditched the morning lectures so we rode the train to fremantle.  a very cool little town with lots of shops and cafes, but probably more enjoyable without a 2 yo (or WITH grandparents!). we ate lunch at the little creatures brewery before payton had to leave - and nova dined on fresh tomatoes and cajun squid rings!  what a weird baby!  

payton ditched morning lectures again thur. morning so we three went back to king's park.  after payton left, nova and i went to cottlesloe beach - just a short train ride away - and played in the sand and surf.  on the ride there, nova sat next to an elderly woman (i'm already too uncool to sit next to... sometimes).  this gal LOVES kids, that was obvious, and despite nova's initial shyness, the woman eventually won her over.  they chatted the rest of the train ride about wheatley (nova's plush penguin), nova's shoes, ears, seats and bottoms. at one point nova patted herself on the chest and said, "nova. nova."  it was great!  i think it was the first time she introduced herself to someone.

the results of the conference (despite skipping out on a few things) were: payton was informally offered a job in perth (we decided we like adelaide better and payton likes his post-doc, but he hopes to collaborate with the perth group some), payton met a scientist  named matt ____ (?) that used to work at los alamos and knew adam (adam - that's two bizarre international connections you and payton have - rolef and matt), and payton won an award for the "best hydrogeology talk" - gift certificate to amazon.com (did my christmas shopping a little too early!) and a nice bottle of red wine from margaret river.  not bad! 

an uneventful flight home left us happy and tired... and facing a LOT of laundry.  hope nova makes a quick adjustment to her new time zone.  we spent saturday hunting and gathering (i.e. going grocery shopping) and just soaking up time with payton before he left on sunday for a week long sampling trip.  

again, brian and jessica put an arm around my shoulders and fed nova and me venison burgers on sunday night after payton had left.  and what else did they serve? olives, of course!