Our first full day was spent wandering Kings Park and Botanic Gardens in Perth's CBD. As I mentioned before, Emmett and I arrived in Western Australia (W.A.) in the middle of their wildflower season so both the park's manicured gardens and bushlands were filled to the brim with blooms. I couldn't have been happier.
We saw hundreds of new flowers (new to me, that is) on this trip, not just at Kings Park but throughout Australia. I didn't even try to learn their names. I just soaked up their gorgeousness. People have a tendency to want to label things. I'm guilty of that as much as the next guy. But on this trip, I sat back and took it all in without a care in the world about what something was called. So you're going to see photo captions like, "pretty red flower" and "awesome yellow flower" and "wicked white flower." That's as technical as I got.
We spent nearly the entire day at Kings Park. And why not...the weather was beautiful! Sunny and blue skies ruled (quite the opposite of our trip to Brisbane in February which was two solid weeks of rain). And the park had so much to offer, from manicured gardens and wild bushland to outdoor art and beautiful memorials.
After the park, we walked through the city in search of a happy hour spot. We found it at the Lucky Shag. With a name like that, we knew we couldn't go wrong. Numerous beers on tap, waterfront location, and a fun atmosphere, we were right at home.
After happy hour, we headed home on the ferry, which crosses the very stretch of water you see in the photo above. Once on the other side, this was our view back toward the Lucky Shag:
Rather than posting all the day's photos (there are 40 of them), I'm dropping in this slideshow. To see more wildflowers, city shots, and public art, check it out.
(To manually advance the slideshow, hover over the photo and a box will pop up. Click on the square button in the middle and the slideshow will stop automatically advancing. Then click on the arrow buttons to move forward or backward at your own pace.)
[slideshow]