Paul (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} fremantlebiz) wrote,@ 2008-05-04 07:06:00 |
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The Yanks are in town
After we dropped our Scout son off at the Master Mariners' competition yesterday we went for a walk to check out the nature study prospects at Pelican Point. Unfortunately for humans the area is almost totally fenced off. A case of look but don't touch. The area outside the fence is a bit of a mess. The Nedlands Council have used parts of it as a dumping ground for street tree prunings and lawn clippings. It may be a good thing because it could be an added deterrent to inquisitive people - but not us. We had a good look. It's amazing what can sometimes be found in long grass, as can be seen from the following image:
Thus enriched we departed for Fremantle. There was an American aircraft carrier in the harbour and I wanted to take a few photos. Flushed with some new found cash, my wife and daughters had their minds set on a hair dressing salon, so we parted company on arrival at the port.
The aircraft carrier was the USS Tarawa. Apparently its purpose is to transport US Marines back and forth between zones of activity. It's just finished a four month deployment in the Persian Gulf and called in to Fremantle to allow those on board some R&R. Next stop is Hawaii.
I spoke to a group of three cheerful clean-cut young men with jarhead haircuts. They were drinking cokes at Captain Munchies burger bar. All three had come from one of the central states which never make the international news headlines. They'd signed up for five years as Marines and gotten lucky. They been trained to service aircraft on board USS Tarawa. They said they were glad to be somewhere they felt safe. I advised them to keep out of Freo's dark allys at night.
Like all the American carriers which have visited Fremantle over the years, this one had a flight deck packed with grey-painted aircraft. Its specialty seemed to be twin rotor Chinook helicopters and Harrier vertical-takeoff fighters.
A portion of the wharf was fenced off to keep terrorists at a distance, but there were still some pretty good photo opportunities to keep an average happy snapper like me happy. One of the best views was from a pedestrian bridge which crosses the Fremantle to Perth railway line to the wharf area. The somewhat ramshackle Captain Munchies facility at the southern end of the bridge has provided countess cokes and burgers to homesick American sailors over decades.
I did some panoramic sequences from the bridge and I've put one online. I waited about twenty minutes for the train to be in the right place: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/9870958
I've notice that not as many people are looking at my panoramas compared to the still photos. I presume this is because of their size. The largest image I can put up is five megabytes, but the 180 degree ones like this tend to be about 3.5 meg. With broadband they only take a few seconds to download, but if you are only on dial-up then it becomes a pain. Been there, done that.
So if you are so restricted, I've put a couple of 'ordinary' pictures from yesterday into my "Fremantle views" folder on the Picasa site. Click the image below.
© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
After we dropped our Scout son off at the Master Mariners' competition yesterday we went for a walk to check out the nature study prospects at Pelican Point. Unfortunately for humans the area is almost totally fenced off. A case of look but don't touch. The area outside the fence is a bit of a mess. The Nedlands Council have used parts of it as a dumping ground for street tree prunings and lawn clippings. It may be a good thing because it could be an added deterrent to inquisitive people - but not us. We had a good look. It's amazing what can sometimes be found in long grass, as can be seen from the following image:
Thus enriched we departed for Fremantle. There was an American aircraft carrier in the harbour and I wanted to take a few photos. Flushed with some new found cash, my wife and daughters had their minds set on a hair dressing salon, so we parted company on arrival at the port.
The aircraft carrier was the USS Tarawa. Apparently its purpose is to transport US Marines back and forth between zones of activity. It's just finished a four month deployment in the Persian Gulf and called in to Fremantle to allow those on board some R&R. Next stop is Hawaii.
I spoke to a group of three cheerful clean-cut young men with jarhead haircuts. They were drinking cokes at Captain Munchies burger bar. All three had come from one of the central states which never make the international news headlines. They'd signed up for five years as Marines and gotten lucky. They been trained to service aircraft on board USS Tarawa. They said they were glad to be somewhere they felt safe. I advised them to keep out of Freo's dark allys at night.
Like all the American carriers which have visited Fremantle over the years, this one had a flight deck packed with grey-painted aircraft. Its specialty seemed to be twin rotor Chinook helicopters and Harrier vertical-takeoff fighters.
A portion of the wharf was fenced off to keep terrorists at a distance, but there were still some pretty good photo opportunities to keep an average happy snapper like me happy. One of the best views was from a pedestrian bridge which crosses the Fremantle to Perth railway line to the wharf area. The somewhat ramshackle Captain Munchies facility at the southern end of the bridge has provided countess cokes and burgers to homesick American sailors over decades.
I did some panoramic sequences from the bridge and I've put one online. I waited about twenty minutes for the train to be in the right place: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/9870958
I've notice that not as many people are looking at my panoramas compared to the still photos. I presume this is because of their size. The largest image I can put up is five megabytes, but the 180 degree ones like this tend to be about 3.5 meg. With broadband they only take a few seconds to download, but if you are only on dial-up then it becomes a pain. Been there, done that.
So if you are so restricted, I've put a couple of 'ordinary' pictures from yesterday into my "Fremantle views" folder on the Picasa site. Click the image below.
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| Fremantle views |
© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
