Visit to the Aquarium at Hillarys Harbour

Monday, April 9

Easter Monday is a holiday - this has been a 4 day weekend for Australians. We didn't know what would or would not be open so we decided to visit the Aquarium at Hillarys Harbour, just a short drive from here. When we got close we realized that there were hordes of people flocking into Hillarys Harbour. In addition to the Aquarium, there are beaches, a Boardwalk full of shops and restaurants, etc. We wound our way to the Aquarium and luckily found a parking spot as someone was pulling out. Then we had to stand in line (we know how to do that well, being from Mexico) to pay admission.

The AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia) was well done. The exhibits were organized in such a way that you wound through the building from one section of WA to another or from one type of sea-life to another. The entire exhibit was amazingly colorful and interesting and represented 12,000 km of Australian coast. They had many beautiful and strange as well as dangerous types of marine life, including an enormous tank that you sort of walk through - with sharks, turtles, rays and many types of fish. Outside there was a seal tank and show which we only caught the very end of. Most impressive to me were the beautiful living corals in the tanks and some of the most beautiful, colorful and exotic sea creatures we have every seen. I have posted some of the pictures I took but it was difficult to capture as much as I would have liked because of glass tanks and light levels.

After our visit to AQWA we strolled through the boardwalk along with the masses of other visitors. It was time to think about having something to eat but the restaurants and cafes were way too crowded for us. We headed back to Joondalup and found Paddy Malone's open - we had been there to eat on our first day here. John ordered seafood spaghetti and I tried their fish and chips. What we forgot to do was ask what was in the seafood spaghetti because John has a bad reaction to mussels. It arrived with 1/2 dozen small mussels on top but lots of other things so guess who got to eat the mussels? They were delicious.

Tuesday the stores were open again and I managed to persuade John to take me to a large mall and then downtown where we did a little shopping. Today we will be organizing for our departure tomorrow to Sydney. I may or may not be able to post from there but if not, I'll report on our Sydney adventures when we get home.

Goodbye to Joondalup and Perth - we truly enjoyed our time here.