1st day in Perth

We were awake @ 5am and tossed and turned until 6am.  Got up showered and were out the door with Genie @ 7am.  We had breakfast across the street from where she works [downtown Perth], then found an optometrist that carries Tag Heuer glasses so Tony could order a replacement for part that broke on his glasses.  Things are EXPENSIVE here... the frames he purchased 2 yrs ago for $400 including lenses were quoted @ $720 WITHOUT lenses..... !  Needless to say... he settled for just the replacement part !

We strolled down to their shopping center.... Stores open @ 8:30am but only stay open until 5pm except for Thursdays when they stay open until 8pm and are closed Sundays.  They even have a Target here which we didn't see in NZ.  Got a new Vodafone sim card for the cell phone and a Vodafone prepaid broadband gadget for the laptop.  This should keep us current on our site hopefully.  It appears it will work our much cheaper than purchasing WiFi time at each hotel we hit.

It's raining cats and dogs on and off so once we picked up the rental car we caught a brief break in the weather and strolled through Kings Park which has a beautiful of the city of Perth.  We then headed down to the Swan Bell Tower.  With all the one-way streets, frustrations were high in the car but we finally made it - The bells were chiming when we arrived and serenaded us while we waited for our lunch at a little restaurant along the river.

More local sightseeing tomorrow (Friday, Nov 20) then the weekend is filled with V8 Supercar races both Saturday and Sunday with Charlie and Genie.  Zoom-Zoom !