To the Pacific Explorer

 Monday (yesterday) we got up early enough to repack (5am). Our tour group was blessed with a late (1pm) checkout--thank you again, Tim and Elise! Then a fairly late breakfast, then Tim and Elise had to do something with us all until 4:30, so it was a bus tour of Perth; quite good, actually, but I'm very tired of bus rides.

They weren't able to score a restaurant for the 40 of us, so Elise had the bus stop at a grocery store (more like a 7-11, we all went in and picked up stuff for lunch, with Elise paying the one tab for all of us. Then we went to a big park (King's park?), hung around, bought ourselves some pistachio gelato.

Then to the ship. Usual long lines, huge waiting room, etc. They required (along with photo id and tickets) a photograph containing (1) a negative covid test, (2) a photo id, and (3) a timepiece showing the date and time. And yes, they did check that.

Then late dinner and bed. We were both fried--I hit a wall about 9 but somehow managed to function until 10. Then I was out.

Our room has a light near the toilet door, activated by a motion sensor. The plus: light to see by. The minus: who needs 100 watts in the middle of the night? So I taped the light over with white plastic electrical tape, and we'll see tonight if that's enough.

Welcome to Perth

Queen's Park, or something

Okay, I guess it's Kings Park

The Indian Ocean (No, I didn't dip my toes in it. Yet.)


Some information redacted out of an excess of caution

So far today it's just routine life aboard a cruise ship, but with more interesting talks.

Paula was too late to get an accessible room with a balcony, so we have just a balcony. The scooter doesn't fit through the doorway, so I have to disassemble it to get it in or out. A minor hassle, but we're adjusting to it.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back to the US

Image
 After a 14-hour flight from roughly 10:30am Monday to 7am Monday, we are back in the US. Customs and agricultural screening were minimal. The light rail that goes through the airport also goes to our hotel, so that was easy. We got to the hotel by 8 and actually had a room by 9. We met Chas, had another breakfast, visited a garden he knew, and had lunch in the hotel. Chas in hotel room
Read more

Last full day in Sydney

Image
 We are pretty much touristed out. We are agreed that there is nothing remaining that we would be sorry not to have done. Train into the Blue Mountains? We've seen mountains, and it would take all day. Ferry from the harbor? Nowhere in particular we want to go. We walked/scooted extensively, checking out maybe 15 places to have lunch, and ended back at Friday's Pontoon. I had an Aussi Burger, Paula had a pumpkin & feta pizza with pine nuts and rocket (= arugula). The building I had been referring to as the "cheese grater" turns out to be the Sydney Conference Center. Sydney Conference Center After lunch, we came back to the apartment and took naps. Next: Dinner on assorted leftovers, packing, bed.
Read more

Day Before Yesterday, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Image
 I think I mentioned earlier that a bushing on the scooter came loose--one holding the seat in place, so it was no longer possible to pick up the scooter by the front shaft and the seat without pulling the seat loose. Paula found a video on how to repair it (epoxy). So I went--day before yesterday?--looking for epoxy. I stopped at a likely-looking store and asked the lady at the counter if they had any. They didn't, but she clearly knows the city very well, and drew a map for me to the nearest hardware store (a Mitre IO). Then I made a mistake. I entered the store into Google maps--okay so far--and tried to follow its directions. It seems Google maps has a (mostly) reasonable idea of where I am, but it was hallucinating pedestrian directions. I followed it as best I could for about 20 minutes (to a store that was 2 minutes away), gave up, located myself, and followed the saleslady's directions. Well, I got to see a lot more of the city than I would otherwise have. The epoxy wor...
Read more