It has once again been far too long since my last post, but this time I have a little more of an excuse. Two weeks ago the internet in Port Lodge unexpectedly went out. It was discovered, two days later, that the problem occurred when our household pets chewed through the cables that were connecting our building. It took about a week to get the internet back up and running, and the rats so far have stayed away. Other than that, I really don’t have an excuse but a lost has happened since my last post.

Last weekend my dad and brother decided to make the trip halfway around the world for a visit. Their trip meant that all seven Murphy’s have now been down under. It was good to see family after having been away for a long time, not to mention the free meals and drinks for a few days. They arrived in Perth on Friday afternoon and spent the weekend here before heading off to explore the rest of the country.

The two highlights of their trip here was our day on Rottnest Island and Sunday’s footy game between the Freo Dockers and the Western Bulldogs.

After a few drinks at a local pub Friday night, both my dad and brother were falling asleep in their Guinness so they decided to call it an early night to get over the jetlag from a 52-hour journey here. It was probably a smart idea because the next morning we took of at 7:30 on the first ferry to Rottnest Island. It was cold (relatively speaking) when we got there so we decided to skip the snorkeling and rent bikes to explore the rest of the island. It took us about six hours to make it all the way around, stopping frequently to check out the awesome sites. The island is full of harbors, bays, different rock formations, and an old army bunker. It is also inhabited by quokkas. Quokkas, which only live on this small island off the coast of W.A. are marsupials, but look more more like a rat. When the Dutch first arrived at the island a couple hundred years ago, they thought they were rats and somehow through their translation rat’s nest became Rottnest.

This is Cathedral Rock, located at the far west side of the island. A spot that is arguably as far West from the U.S. as you can be without saying you are going to the east.

And this my Tim and I hanging out on a cannon built in case Australia was attacked during WWII. The cannon fired 300 pound bullets that could go up to 26 kilometers in the air.

The next day we took a quick tour of the Fremantle prison, checking out the gallows and all, before getting on the train to Subiaco. We had tickets (good seats thanks to Chubbs footing the bill) for one of the final Dockers’ home games of the season. Freo has had a rough year (1-6 record thus far) but has looked promising in close losses to some of the top teams in the AFL. Western, a team from Victoria, came in with a 6-0 record. Freo as usual got out to an early lead but gave up 19 unanswered points to lose by 5 or 6 points at the end. It was still a good experience, both my dad and brother enjoyed the game and I was able to teach them a little bit about what was going on. It was also the first real game I saw in person and it was a lot more exciting than watching on television. The endless pushing and shoving that goes on away from the play makes the game a lot more physical than you might realize from just seeing a few clips of a game. Now it makes a lot more sense why they only play once a week.

Monday morning the boys took off around noon, but we managed to check out the Maritime museum before they left. The building was very cool and right on the water. But with a country that really wasn’t established until about 100 years ago there is only so much they can put in the museum. I was jealous to see them head out because they were on their way to Ayer’s Rock and Sydney. Two places that I unfortunately will not get to see while I am here, but maybe I’ll make the trip back eventually.