Our latest adventure is Perth in Western Australia. We had been to southern & eastern Australia a few years ago so this time decided to check out the other coast. Perth is an 11 hour flight direct from Abu Dhabi, but with discount business class, it wasn't bad at all.
As usual, we had a little adventure on the way in. First, Brian left his passport in the car - luckily, I sarcastically asked him if he had his passport as we were pulling away in the taxi (a running joke) and this time he didn't! After reminding him SEVERAL times how lucky he is to have me around, we were off to the airport. Lucky break #1.
Lucky break #2 happened at the check-in counter, when the guest agent asked if I had applied online for our Australian visit visas. . . . our what? Oh x%$# visas?! I hadn't even considered that we might need visas to get in to Australia! What a stupid bit of arrogant American assumption!! Luckily, Australia has an online visa application that the guest agent pulled up for us on two iPads. We were able to register, pay the fee and our applications were approved in time for us to check in for our flight. A stressful 20 minutes and a HUGE lucky break. . . . I stopped reminding Brian how lucky he is to have me.
So at this point, we're on the alert for #3 (things come in threes we've always been told). Would we get held up at security for some obscure reason? Find out the flight had been overbooked? Get the time zones wrong and mess up our accommodations? Who knew?
Despite all our worry (okay, not worry as we're not the type - let's say watchfulness), the rest of check-in, security, etc. went just fine. Flight was awesome as usual and we arrived without any trouble. We got our luggage and Brian went to sort out a SIM card while I picked up the rental car.
Our rental car - now, first you need to understand something about the Stolls. We NEVER splurge on our rental cars. In fact, we are at our most frugal (aka cheap) when we rent cars. After all, it's just for getting from place to place so we really don't care much. (See illustrative photo below from our last trip to Australia where Brian needed chiropractic help after squeezing into the smallest car ever.)
But for some reason, I/we decided we wanted a convertible this trip. We have a 3-hour one way drive (plus all the stops) to Margaret River from Perth and it's autumn here so I/we thought a convertible would be a great idea. Yes a splurge, but hey, we've saved so much money on rental cars in the past, let's live a little!
And now the forecast is heavy rain for the next 3 days. We're still waiting for lucky break #3.
As usual, we had a little adventure on the way in. First, Brian left his passport in the car - luckily, I sarcastically asked him if he had his passport as we were pulling away in the taxi (a running joke) and this time he didn't! After reminding him SEVERAL times how lucky he is to have me around, we were off to the airport. Lucky break #1.
Lucky break #2 happened at the check-in counter, when the guest agent asked if I had applied online for our Australian visit visas. . . . our what? Oh x%$# visas?! I hadn't even considered that we might need visas to get in to Australia! What a stupid bit of arrogant American assumption!! Luckily, Australia has an online visa application that the guest agent pulled up for us on two iPads. We were able to register, pay the fee and our applications were approved in time for us to check in for our flight. A stressful 20 minutes and a HUGE lucky break. . . . I stopped reminding Brian how lucky he is to have me.
So at this point, we're on the alert for #3 (things come in threes we've always been told). Would we get held up at security for some obscure reason? Find out the flight had been overbooked? Get the time zones wrong and mess up our accommodations? Who knew?
Despite all our worry (okay, not worry as we're not the type - let's say watchfulness), the rest of check-in, security, etc. went just fine. Flight was awesome as usual and we arrived without any trouble. We got our luggage and Brian went to sort out a SIM card while I picked up the rental car.
Our rental car - now, first you need to understand something about the Stolls. We NEVER splurge on our rental cars. In fact, we are at our most frugal (aka cheap) when we rent cars. After all, it's just for getting from place to place so we really don't care much. (See illustrative photo below from our last trip to Australia where Brian needed chiropractic help after squeezing into the smallest car ever.)
And now the forecast is heavy rain for the next 3 days. We're still waiting for lucky break #3.
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