On Sunday we divided up a bit. Gram, Andy and the kids went to the Ballarat Wildlife Park
while I met up with Nick, an ex-coworker of my ex-coworker Ben. Confused? No worries. Up until about three years ago, Ben and Nick toiled away in the basement of a hospital, handling the building automation. Ben left that job to come work for Opto 22. When it came time for me to announce that I was leaving Opto after 15 years, my standard joke (to hide the tears) was that Australia called and wanted Ben back. Opto wouldn't let him go, so they sent me. Essentially the move was sort of a prisoner exchange program. Needless to say, Ben's been a great resource, not only about information on Australia but also on the difficulties of moving a family halfway around the world. Now we're nine months into our adventure here, and it's amazing how similar our experiences are/were. But I digress.... Point is, I wanted to see where Ben worked. He's used his experience to present real-world information, design ideas, and troubleshooting tips in my training classes for a couple of years, so I've heard about his work many times. I couldn't pass up the chance to see it first hand. Luckily, his buddy Nick agreed to come into work on his day off, and show me around. If you're able to access this photo album on Google+, you can view more pictures, as well as comments by both Ben and me. But I'll put a few of the highlights in the blog.
Sitting at Ben's old desk, PAC Display running on the PCs
Nick, panels of Opto to the left
Got to go into an operating theater. OptoTerminal to the left.
Up on the roof
It was a great tour. Still had more to see, but wanted to let Nick get back to his family, and I wanted to get back to mine. They'd been having a great time while I was gone. They started off right away feeding the many kangaroos that roamed the park.
Gram feeding a roo
Aliya feeding a roo
Alanna and Aliya feeding a roo
Tired of kangaroo pics yet? How about a video of Aliya feeding a nice boy, or girl, roo.
Then they took a free guided tour with a very nice and informative guide. They saw the Tasmanian devils, pet a koala, and met Patrick the wombat.
Close up of baby koala
Feeding time for Patrick the wombat
Closeup of Patrick the wombat
Once again, because it was the school holidays, there were tours and special shows every hour. The last one we did was the crocodile feeding.
Another time things didn't go quite as planned, gave him a bit of a surprise: For US tourists who want to see the classic Aussie animals, this is definitely the place to go. A great ending to a great weekend. I'll just leave you with a few more cute kangaroo pics.
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