mom! perth!

picking up mom from the airport was somewhat of an adventure.. i didnt bother to get her flight information or anything. all i knew was she was coming in from north america "around 6am". thinking to myself on the way to the airport "how many flights could possibly be coming from north america at this time of day"?

well.. quite a lot...

14 to be exact. after 35 minutes of running back and forth between 2 gates i finally called Brett and got her flight number, and eventually we found each other. We stayed in Sydney for the night and the next day we jumped on the Indian Pacific railway to perth! Its a 3 1/2 day journey from coast to coast (hence the name), and we were lucky enough to have a sleeper car. Its pretty expensive, but sitting in a seat with no bed or shower for 3 days did not appeal to either of us. Our room was somewhat different than we expected. It was quite small, and the bathroom was *just big enough for me to have a shower in. The toilet and sink both folded down from the wall, thats a whole different story there.. The scenery was amazing, but after a while we realized that mostly old people take senic railways, and there wasnt much to do besides eat and read. Now normally im fine with this but by the 2nd day i was starting to get a bit antsy. It was really amazing though, and we're both glad we went... but we'll probably never go again

We had a car rental set up, and mom was (understandably) nervous about driving on the opposite side. Since im too young and "misplaced" my licence several months ago, i was the navigator. After a couple minor incidences (mom turning into the wrong lane, hitting the curb, me getting us lost a couple times) she was totally rocking the bizzaro driving and my sense of direction has improved. We're at my cousins house right now, he's in the National Police, and is away 4 months at a time so we dont get to see him, but his wife Deb and their daughter Taylor have made us completly at home, and perth is a really beautiful place. I wish i could stay on the west coast longer but its really expensive to get over here, so not many backpackers venture this way.

Tomorrow we're off to Margaret River, which is the wine region. Theres all sort of nature walks and caves to be explored.. and of course the wineries!