We have two days in Fremantle. Today we took the train to Perth. Our first visit was to the mint. When we paid our admission, they told us the mint does not accept cash. One must use a credit card. The tour was quite a show. When first waling in, we saw a million dollar coin. It’s the real deal. The coin is on a platform that goes down into a vault at the end of the day. The gold in the coin is worth 10 million dollars. If I remember correctly, the coin weighs 11 tons.

They did a demonstration of pouring gold. The gold was already in an oven not enough to make gold flow like a liquid.

After pouring the gold into a mold and letting it cool, they got a half-million dollar gold heart. They recycle the same gold over and over, re-making the heart for each tour. Here’s a picture of two women who have a heart of gold.

After that, we went to the Western Australian Museum. We saw a 5,000 year old Egyptian pot. (Take this with a grain of salt. Our guide was quite knowledgeable, but he said some things I know to be incorrect.) How did such an ancient artifact find its way to Australia? Some British captain was stealing collecting items, had a shipping mishap, and it ended up eventually in the museum.

Here’s my piece de resistance. This pre-Columbian Zuni pot was made in New Mexico. Danita and I flew to San Diego, got on a boat that went through the South Pacific, sailed half way around Australia, and saw a bowl made in Mew Mexico.

We took two tours at the museum. The other was an aboriginal tour. It couldn’t have been more different than the highlights tour where we saw the above objects. The aboriginal tour visited several of the same rooms as the highlights tour, but it was totally focused on the history of the aboriginal people, the stories they tell, and their relationship with whites over the colonial and post-colonial period.

As nice as the day was, the evening show easily topped it. The Western Australian Police Pipe Band performed for us. I don’t think you will ever see a finer pipe band, or better dancers.

I hope this finds everybody doing welll.