The Elizas

The city of Perth is slightly inland from the Indian Ocean. It is the largest city in Western Australia, and is relatively lonely in regards to location as Perth is actually closer to Singapore than Sydney!

The city's prominent features are: the Swan River, which winds beautifully through the city, filled with sail boats, ski boats, and other forms of water adventure; and the beautifully lush Kings Park/Botanical Garden.

The Garden Park is situated on Mt. Eliza, overlooking the central business district and the Swan River.

It's not often that our second daughter sees her name featured prominiately anywhere. We have only ever met two other Eliza's, and up until now she has been content finding her name hidden in the pages of author Mark Brown's Arthur books (made famous by the PBS series by the same name). Author Mark Brown hides the names of his three children (His daughter is named Eliza), in the illustrations of his books.

We of course, by choice, gave our children obscure names (ones that fall in the Baby Naming Books into categories like: "Vintage" or even "Grandma" names). After time after time being asked "Which Jennifer Johnson are you?" at the bank or library, it felt like a gift to give our girls unique nomenclature... especially when their first and second names were to be paired with the second most common surname in the United States! (Johnson only falls behind Smith in the US.)

In Perth we saw the name Eliza pop up on street signs, posh apartment towers, and on some of the most important real estate in the city. There was also a feature on Eliza Brown, a hard working pioneer woman in the early days of the Perth settlement, @ the Museum of Western Australia we visited upon arrival.