Afternoon in Freo
Lego Lover had a dentist appointment this afternoon after which we drove down to Fremantle to see the Queen Mary 2. The ship’s docking was delayed by several hours today due to poor weather conditions. We had quite a bit of rain last night and I think there must have been some storms. The QM2 was built to handle difficult seas so it’s pretty surprising they had such difficulty moving into the harbor and docking. Apparently the winds were a big problem so I can only assume that was where the difficulty was. I think the ship was due in at 6:30am and didn’t finish docking until 2:15pm which was just after the time we arrived in the city. Even though we’ve seen the ship several times before, I still find it an amazing spectacle and it really is a beautiful ship. We had a nice view of the ship from where we parked on the hill so I took a photo of it early on.
Our next priority was lunch since Lego Lover missed breakfast, then had to wait half an hour after his dentist visit. He held up pretty well, considering his hunger at this point. We ate at Kailis Brothers Seafood cafe in the Boat Harbour. Lego Lover always gets the chicken strips with chips when we go there since he won’t eat fish any more. There are heaps of choices of food there but he won’t eat any most of them…except Subway…and that wasn’t what I considered a great option…although surely better than certain other fast food outlets. The cafe was fairly crowded considering it was mid-afternoon by this point. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait too terribly long and soon he was feeling much better…as was I. :)
Lego Lover wanted to go to Target to check out their Transformer toys so we walked back across town to see what they had. He was reasonably happy with what he saw there and then we moved along to the Maritime Museum. We were only there just under a month ago but we still like visiting just about any time we are in town. It was nice and quiet there this afternoon so we didn’t feel very rushed even though there was only an hour left until closing. Since we have an annual pass, I don’t feel the need to spend too long there. We’d have liked to see the Shipwreck galleries again but there just wasn’t time today. After leaving, we walked around the building to the viewing deck of the harbour opening and were blasted by very strong winds as we went just beyond the main building. I’d been walking around without my jacket all day but this was enough for me to pull it out and wear it. We didn’t stay there too long because it was incredibly difficult to do anything in that wind. We moved up the quay towards the ship and sat down on a bench nearby. Lego Lover commented it was our most comfortable seat for any of our viewings of the ships at this point and I agreed. We both took some photos and then I checked on Facebook to see if there was a change of departure time for the ship. We have a local weather group called Perth Weather Live that has become quite popular for weather updates. The guy who runs it also seems to post updates on other events like the concerts we attended over a week ago. Today the updates were on the ship. Who knew this group could be so helpful in daily life? And not just for the weather either. This is when I found out the ship won’t depart until morning. The post showed 8am but it looks like it’s really 7am. Doesn’t matter since there’s no chance of any of us making it back in the morning. Even if we were up, the fight in early morning traffic will be tremendous.
We decided there was nothing else to do but go home and started the long walk back to the car. Lego Lover was really disappointed and had become a bit cranky now. I was trying to take a few more photos but he just wanted to get back to the car. His track pants weren’t doing a great job of keeping his legs warm. He had no issues with his jacket (actually the liner) which is one he’s worn for a few years now and was one that Game Fanatic wore in Canada over ten years ago. It’s held up pretty well all this time. I imagine Lego Lover will keep wearing it until he outgrows it…which I assume will eventually happen.
The ride home was a long one and the adventure out seemed terribly incomplete. We can take comfort in the knowledge the ship will be back next year for two visits again.
