Posted 2:54 AM by MelanieandSteve
Great day today:
-Went to the Perth Mint: saw gold melted and poured into a big $100K brick. We weighed ourselves, shoes off and everything and found out Mel is worth $1,084,020 and Steve is worth $1,248,450 in their weight in gold (Australian dollars, about .70 on the dollar). Coins in Australia are very aesthetically pleasing: more cute animals, less stuffy politicians: there were Roos, Koalas, Kookaburas, Emus, feather tail gliders, frill necked lizards etc... the list goes on. In Australia, the best things do come in small packages: the two dollar coin is smallest, then the one, and the cents coins get progressively larger as they get cheaper (except for the 5 cents). We got to try to lift a $200,000 value gold bar. So heavy, Mel couldn't lift it at all, and Steve only could after a mint worker coached him on how to hold it. It didn't look that big, but it was real live gold, and dense, (and not at an easy angle for picking up thanks to security reasons).
-Australia is one of Mel's favorite countries so far for food: mostly because there's lots of variety.
-We've had bad luck on money value: soon as we came home from Europe the dollar went up, and as soon as we started travelling again it went back down. bummer for us at the exchange booths.
-This Afternoon we went to Kings Park: If there is any city in the world so far that feels like San Diego home, it's Perth. The sky line is similar with unique shaped buildings and the ground line is similar with ocean and harbor, and the weather is similarly clear. Kings Park underscored the similarities by feeling just like Balboa Park in San Diego. We had a relaxing time overlooking the panoramic harbors, watching a wedding, and having lunch.

In the next day or so, we hope to visit Rottnest Island just off the coast and we also want to spend a beach day since the weather seems to be getting warmer. We'll let you know how everything goes. We also want to look into upgrading this blog so that we can include pictures. You'll know if that happens also.