Fremantle as a port has welcomed passengers to our gateway to Western Australia for over a century.  Millions of pioneers to Australia caught there first glimpse of Fremantle and their future home after travelling on ships for weeks on end.  In those days they hadn’t the modern comforts of luxury liners of today.

 It has definitely changed from those times although it still retains some of that old fashioned charm. Fremantle is and has been the major port where our import and exports of sheep, cattle and wheat first left from.  It can even cater for the largest of passenger liners the Queen Mary 11 which came in a few days ago and still had enough room to turn around.

Fremantle is also known for its fishing fleet, where hundreds of fishing boats bring their catch back to sell. Then there is the humongous assortment of luxury boats moored inside the fishing boat harbor. Hundreds of people enjoy the walk around this area.  People often stop for a feed of fresh fish, crayfish and many other types of seafood from a large selection of restaurants.

 Rottnest Island

This is the main island just off Fremantle where many visitors spend quality holiday time on the beautiful Island. A favorite with visitors is the small marsupials which live here otherwise known as quokkas. Many spend hours there fishing, swimming and diving off the reefs and bicycle riding right around the island.

 Fremantle Goal

This is another place to visit, and from all aspects I hear that it is scarier to visit this in the evenings.

Other places of interest are the Maritime museum, the Arts centers and many other historical places well worth a look.

There are many hotels, restaurants, caravan parks and motels where everyone can spend quality time to relax with beautiful ocean views close by.

Rockingham is a City in its own right and is situated approximately 45 Kilometers South from Perth.  It has increased in size over the last few years to support a continual growing population of 87,000.  Rockingham has been very popular for many years as a wonderful place to come for the whole family to swim, fish, dive and picnic on its wonderful foreshores and white sandy beaches.

It has many offshore islands adding to its attractions.  In fact you can walk across to Penguin Island early in the morning and visit the penguins and walk back by lunchtime before the tide comes in.  Or if you would prefer you can take the ferry over and walk around the island and return by ferry.

We also have quite a large shopping centre full of the normal shops, cinemas and sporting facilities. You could enjoy a leisurely ride on horseback or play either ten pin bowls or lawn bowls.

The council has done a wonderful job on the foreshore with playgrounds and loads of picnic areas with barbecues for the public to use.

Plus we now have joined the many towns with high rise buildings with great restaurants to cater to your culinary delights.

Rockingham also has a history, as being used for a port to ship the Sandalwood overseas. In fact during the WW11 troops were stationed along our beautiful coastline. Nearby Garden Island was used by our armed forces.   We now have a bridge going over to the island and are used as the HMAS Sterling fleet base.

Rockingham is probably known by most of the locals as an Aquatic Playground.  This is mainly because of the relaxed atmosphere and opportunities to enjoy its coastline for both boating and fishing enthusiasts.

We also have several Caravan Parks, Motels, and great accommodation facilities.

Coming home from school in Alaska

We’d been in Alaska for a couple of years and the girls were both in school. We lived along a creek, Ketchikan Creek, that literally ran from our house to their school.

The pull of adventure was just too much, they came home every day an hour late and soaking wet. It didn’t matter if it was cold outside, they would be happy, soaking and quivering, and I began doing laundry an extra day per week. I worked full time and already had too much to do without adding an extra chore.

I should tell you that Ketchikan is a resort town where cruise ships from all over the world come to visit in short spurts every day except winter time. The population jumps by 4 – 8 thousand depending on how many ships come in on any given day. The town crawls with tourists, big crowds of them. Ketchikan Creek was on the path of a couple of tours.

I Gave Them an Ultimatum

One Spring I decided I’d had enough of the laundry. I had scolded them too long without results, so I laid down the law: Don’t Come Home With Wet Clothes ANY More! You Will Be GROUNDED! Grounding them was the worst punishment… on me….

They still came home an hour late, but they were dry. I compromised and didn’t harp on the tardiness, at least they were dry. Laundry went back to twice a week, like normal.

One day I got a knock on the door and opened it to find my neighbor. “Have you seen your girls since school got out?” I hadn’t, and she motioned me to come with her. I grabbed a sweater and out the door we went.

Ketchikan Creek has a small bridge that hooked one street to another across the creek. As we approached the little bridge I noticed a crowd of tourists, gathered at one corner and they were ‘awwwwing’ and clapping. I walked a lit faster to the bridge and looked over.

There were my girls, naked as the day they were born, laying in the sun beside the creek. Their clothing was folded neatly beside them. People were taking pictures, which freaked me out and I called down to them.

“Get dressed! What are you doing? Why do you have your clothes off?” The oldest one looked up at me with a puzzled look.

“You told us not to come home with wet clothes, Mommy!” Everyone laughed and ‘awwwed’ again. It was so cute and she was right, I had said not to come home with wet clothes on, and in a seven year-old’s mind, she was doing exactly as I wanted. I had to be more clear in my explanation of why she shouldn’t take her clothes off in town.

     A Great Place to Raise Kids

One of the reasons we chose to raise our kids in Alaska is that kids there are less inhibited and there are fewer people, so more freedom, discovery and such. Some kids got in a lot of trouble because of it, but generally kids learned a lot. The tourism was something we hadn’t known about upon going to Ketchikan and there was a lot to learn from that, too.

As I said, tourists crawled along the creek in groups mostly, and one day the kids came to me and asked if they could stand at the bridge and sing songs for the tourists. They showed me right where they’d be and I said okay. I watched them from the window and the tourists seemed mused and nobody tried to touch them, thankfully. I noticed they seemed to be getting some tips, too.

Twenty minutes later they came back toward the house. They came running happily in the door, asking, “Mommy can we have a big bowl to keep all our money in?”

They had made over twenty-two dollars in those twenty minutes! I asked them to sing the song for me, and it was one they’d made up. It was cute, but Ketchikan has laws about panhandling in a resort town, so I had to make them stop.

I Love Alaska

Alaska is the best place to raise kids, in my humble opinion. We introduced them to the big city as teenagers and now they can’t get enough of the fast-paced, plasticized crowded cities. Not that that’s wrong, but an unexpected reaction, to me. I love the slower pace and kick-back Alaska lifestyle, but I don’t know why I thought they would feel the same. They do grow up and have minds of their own.

While they happily discovered more and more about city life, I was in culture shock and unhappy as all get out, until I learned to find things I did like about living here and focus on those, rather than the crime, overpopulation, rudeness and litter that shocked me in the first place.

They grew into wonderful, fun people who still like the busyness and hub-bub and they’re both starting new career adventures. And, they’ve both said they hope to go back to Alaska one day. Later. You know, some day.