Well, we are back!  There is so much to do and see before we leave this coming Friday!!  Last Friday, the 21st, we along with Andrew and Bella went to North Stradbrook Island or Straddie as they call it here. We planned to catch the 5 PM ferry and made it despite the traffic. Tells you how Andrew drives on these crazy roads.  We had booked a suite at the Whale Watcher Resort.  Very nice! When we arrived, Bella asked where her green bag of clothes for the weekend was, and it was then we realized it was never loaded!! The whales don't come by till June so the island was very quiet this time between summer and the whale watching season. We checked in and then walked to a nearby restaurant for supper. On the way we saw four  kangaroos across the street, just sitting there and eating grass. It was neat to see them hopping away across the road.  We had a lovely dinner and then did some star gazing on the way back to our resort.

For Saturday breaky, we had back bacon, eggs, toast and hashbrowns (not like McCains but more like Macdonalds). Yummy! A good team effort putting it together. The bacon here is very different than in Canada. Saturday morning was spent adventure shopping to see if we could find some things for Bella to wear. She did find one dress for the beach. The afternoon was a wonderful day at the beach. The water temperature was 23 C or so it said on the lifeguard's sign. Andrew and I had great fun playing in the waves. Anne walked the beach and Bella stayed on the sand and watched the lifeguard change (take off his clothes) down to his Speedo (canary holder/budgie smuggler/banana holder or ... as they call them here) and then go out in the surf and practice riding his rescue board. Saturday evening we had pizza which we ate on a bench in front of a store next to the pizza store. Why didn't we eat in? Its a long story so I will spare you the details at this time. Places here have pools and “spas” which are NOT heated and there is no such thing as a hottub – much to Anne's chagrin.

Sunday we toured some more of the island and then caught the 2 PM ferry home. Did some laundry and planned some of Bella's birthday party which was on Monday.

For Bella's birthday supper we had several meats cooked on the barbie.  Snag (sausage), rissoles (burger patties), lamb chops, chicken nibblies (wings) and kababs!!! Well done Andrew!! Andrew and Bella invited three of their couple friends to join in the celebration. There were three little ones present – 4 yrs, 18 months, and 2 months. We were the grandparents present.  It was really nice to meet A and B's 'family' over here in OZ.  The bird in the picture is a larikeet.

Tuesday we spent some time Skyping with Kristin and family and got a late start to the day. I went golfing at a 9 hole course not even 10 minutes walk from Andrew and Bella's place. The weather was threatening rain so I only saw 4 other golfers while I beat the little white ball (only used 2 different ones) around the 9 holes twice. Only scored one par, lots of bogies and only 1 double bogey. They have an easier (par 33 – no par 5's) set of tees for “guests”. It was fun and I would like to try again on Thursday. While I was golfing Anne walked to a nearby DFO (Direct Factory Outlet). Many of the same stores and goods we saw in Cairns. She found some hoodies (jumpers here) which she wants to go back and purchase. In the evening we went to watch Andrew play touch rugby – don't ask about the score. They didn't play as well as the last time we watched.  The cake is called a Lamington - a traditional Aussie sponge cake, dipped in chocolate and then coated in coconut.  Some have a raspberry jam in the middle.  I know of at least two people in the Friesen family that would really enjoy this cake.  May have to make it for a birthday soon!!!

It is Wednesday here. We got up earlier and Skyped with Marliese this time. She had been on a 4 day canoe trip over the May long weekend in Nopoming Park with about 20 friends. Today Anne and I went downtown. Took the bus there all by ourselves!! We shopped the Queen Street Mall and had a picnic lunch on the riverside. We rode the River Cat up and down the river and then we walked a special pedestrian-cyclist bridge and rode the Wheel of Brisbane (shown in picture) to see the sights from high up. Got home around 5:30 (almost dark!!) and then Anne and Andrew went shopping for a bit of an Ozzie supper while we watch the State of Origins rugby match between Queensland (Brisbane area) and New South Wales (Sydney area). The game is like an all-star game between pro players that started their careers in these two states.  And tomorrow, we pack!

Cairns was great!  A smallish, tropical, touristy town.  Very green and lots of flowers. Lots of young folk, and not so young folk who think they are young.  It was quite hot while we were there - well at least for us.  The highs were 29C, but it 'feels like 33C', and very muggy!  The lows were low 20's, and this was at night.  The locals said this was cold!  And they would wear jackets like we might wear in late fall or early spring!!!!! We just made sure we kept drinking water.
The highlight for both of us was snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef!  I had never snorkeled before, Jer had, once, long time ago.  It was amazing.  We took a tour boat out to Green Island - a very touristy island on the Reef - about a 45 minute boat ride.  It was worth it, for the snorkel.  We just waded out waist deep, and we saw all kinds and sizes and colours of fish.   Part of this same tour was a semi submerged boat, where we got to see the reef from under the water, but in the dryness of a boat.  Amazing, to see the variety of fish, sea turtles, and even a huge sting ray swimming under the boat.  The fishy picture is taken from in the boat.

The second day, we took the train to Kuranda, a touristy town up in the Rainforest - apparently the oldest continually surviving rainforest on earth.  The trees are massive, the leaves are massive, it smells wonderful, and looks even more wonderful.  For lunch we enjoyed an Aussie icon - the meat pie!!  Very tasty, and available in bakerys everywhere.  Not good for the arteries though.  Both of us are feeling the need to start our exercising again when we get home.  To get back to Cairns, we took the Skyrail - about a 40 minute ride down to the coast.  Spectacular.


Yesterday, we decided to spend the day in town, getting to know Cairns a little bit.  It was HOT!!!  We haven't felt that kind of warmth in a long time.  We walked along the promenade for awhile, along the mud flats.  There isn't really a beach, just the tidal flats.  The tide was out, but there was lots to see in the mud.  Did I mention it was HOT??!  Jerry is VERY tempted to join the kids in the water park, as you can see from the photo!

We arrived back in Brisbane at 10PM last night, where our son and (almost) daughter-in-law picked us up.  Today is laundry, shopping, etc.  Now we are off to Straddie  (as the Aussies call it), or Stradbrooke Island with Andrew & Bella for the wkd.

The highlights of today were the golf game, quilt show and kangaroo for supper!!  Bella was working today, so the guys decided it would be a great day for a golf game.  Weather was perfect; overcast, and 22 C!  The boys said it was a great game - close.  97 - 97!!!  And, amazingly enough, there was a quilt show at the art gallery in the same town!!!  So that's where I  spent some of my time.  The quilts were from a private collection, dating back to the early 1800's to the 1960's, showing the history of quilting in Australia.  Very interesting, but unfortunately, no photographing allowed.  Still having lots of time left before pick up time, I walked to a botanical garden and enjoyed the gardens.  I would have loved to have had Owen with me, as the playground was the best I have ever seen anywhere.  And I know he would have enjoyed it!!! The Japanese Garden was extremely relaxing to walk through, and fortunately I had brought my book, so I sat for a while on a bench beside the pond and read.

Back at home, chef Andrew treated us to a supper of BBQ kangaroo! (And he wants to be a fireman).  What you see on the barbie here are the kangaroo fillets, and some Haloumi cheese. Both a new treat for us.  And both were very good!!  The kangaroo was very melt in your mouth tender, but not as gamey as venison.  Maybe a little like beef - but not really.  We'd have it again! Now, we need to go and pack again, as tomorrow morning early, we leave for Cairns for a couple of days.

We are back from Sydney!!!  A fantastic four days.  We stayed right downtown, across the street from Hyde Park!!! Sydney downtown is very alive and full of people.  It felt strange though, walking around downtown with thousands of other people, quite warm outside, very dark (except for street lights), stores totally open right to the street.............. and it was only 6 PM!!!
Our first full day there, we took a day tour to the 'Blueys' or the Blue Mountains.  David, our guide, was very knowledgeable about the plants, animals, abo culture and the history of Australia.  The first stop was at an Aboriginal Center, where we learned to throw boomerangs!!!  Jerry threw much better than I did.  We also tasted 'damper' with quandom jam - an abo snack.  Tasty!  Saw the three sisters in the Grand Canyon, and discovered why the Blueys are blue.  It's a blue haze that hovers above the mountains produced by the oil from the plentiful Eucalyptus trees. And there are about a thousand species of the Eucalyptus tree in Australia!  Lunch was the tastiest pie - Jerry had steak pie, I had cheese and onion pie; eaten    at small tea house in the Megalong Valley.  Very quaint!  We drove close to 400 km to see the Blueys, but it was gorgeous scenery, and fun getting to know three other couples.

Having spent so much time driving on Tues, we decided to do some walking on Wed.  We took the bus to Spit Bridge, and from there bushwalked to Manly. It's a 10 km hike, some of it on beaches, some on sidewalks beside huge and beautiful houses, apts  and gardens, up rocks, through banksia forests, etc.   By the end of the walk, Jerry and I were wearing only a T shirt, but some of the people were wearing light winter jackets!!!  We're tough Canadians, used to 'cold'!  We got to Manly around 5 PM, and went and sat on the beach and watched the surfers while watching the sunset on the clouds.  On the recommendation of a fellow bushwalker (native Australian), we went to the Styne Hotel pub and had fish and chips for supper.  The best fish and chips we've ever had!!!!  Then it was time to take the ferry back to Sydney - across the Sydney harbour.

On the ferry ride across the Sydney Harbour we met a 70 yr old gentleman, who convinced us that we should really climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge while in Sydney.  He and his wife had climbed it the day before, and he thought we should really do it.  As Jerry had already wanted to do this in Wpg, I decided to brave it and go for it.  So Thursday morning we walked through the botanical gardens to the Opera House, where we had a most interesting tour of the Opera House, hearing all about the controversy and the history of building it.  And, of course, seeing all the theatres!  Even the bathrooms were interesting.  THEN, to the bridge climb.  The  climb preparation and walking along catwalks and ladders to the summit took 3 1/2 hours!!! It was worth every minute!!!!  The summit is 134 meters above the Sydney Harbour, where we had amazing views of the Harbour and Sydney!!  And, of course, that is where this picture was taken!

So, today we flew back to Brisbane (takes 1 1/2 hours);  the laundry has been done, and and is drying on the line outside.  Most people hang their laundry here.  We are off to Andrew and Bella's favorite Thai restaurant for supper!

We are back from a fantastic overnight in Yamba with Andrew and Bella.  Population of just over 5000 and  right on the ocean.   About 3 1/2 hours drive south of Brisbane, it is not in Queensland, but in New South Wales.  This is a province to the south of Queensland. We stayed at a Rainforest Resort, in a 2 bedroom cabin.  It really was too bad we were only there for one night, I don't think we did it justice.  When we arrived, there were THOUSANDS of huge fruit bats flying around.  They flew this circuit, always the same path over and over again.  Sometimes they would land in a tree, or they'd be bumping into each other.  And noisy!!! It truly was awesome to see!  If you look closely, you can see them in this picture.

After unpacking, we were able to enjoy the steam shower and the spa. We had both to ourselves!!!  Best steam shower I've ever been in!!!  The night, the spa, supper, a bottle of delicious red wine, and a continental breaky cost Jerry and I $180. Oz!!!!  Off season here!  After breaky, we went for a walk in the ocean.  We were quite happy just to walk in the water, and as we weren't wearing our togs, our pants/shorts got quite wet from the waves.  The sun was HOT, the water was warm (for us), but there was hardly anyone on the beach or in the water.   Only the surfers, but they were in a different area!  Some of them are awesome to watch.  They make it look soooooo easy, but Andrew and Bella assured us, it is actually very hard work!!  We stopped at a farmer's market on the way down yesterday morning, and I bought myself a hat.  The sun is very intense here.  We also bought some VERY tasty Australian oranges.

Between Brisbane and Yamba we saw fields and fields of sugar cane (I'm standing in front of some), some banana plantations, macadamia tree orchards and quite a bit of cattle.  Traffic home was bumper to bumper, 3 lanes, and all going between 100 - 120 kmh.  A little stressful for the old parents, but Andrew seemed pretty relaxed about it all.

Now, we're back home, have had supper, and Jerry and I are packing up again.  Tomorrow morning we fly off to Sydney for four nights.  We're about to have a trumpet - that's what we'd call a drumstick in ice cream lingo.

Yesterday was a rainy day, sometimes misting and sometimes pouring, but we headed downtown on the city cat anyway.  A boat that acts as the bus on the Brisbane river.  We took it right to the end of the line (almost to the harbour), then took it back and got off downtown.  Beautiful huge houses along the river that would be amazing to live in or even tour!!!!  It was pouring when we got downtown, so a nice lady told us where we could go buy an umbrella. I've never seen so many umbrellas walking down the streets!!!!!  We walked a bit more along the river, tried some poffertjies (small dutch pancakes) and a coffee in a small cafe, and by then the sun was shining again.  Walked the south bank and saw lots of buganvilia vines.  They are gorgeous!  Took the city cat back to Andrew and Bella's.  They were playing touch rugby in the evening, so we went to watch.  Andrew told me I was NOT allowed to cheer!!!!!!  That would be a fun game to play - it's not rough like the real game.  It's an entry level league, you need at least 3 women playing on the field, 6 people in total.  And you need to be able to run backwards.  The entire game was played under the lights, as it is totally dark here by 6 PM.  Dark, but still hot and muggy.

This morning we were solo!  Both Andrew and Bella were back to work, so after a leisurely breaky we went on an approximate 8 km hike down to and along the river.  We saw a grasshopper (locust???) as long as my pointer finger, lots of different butterflys, and a huge colony of black flying-fox bats hanging from the trees.  They are the largest bats in the world, with a wing span of more than one meter!!!!!!!  Just a wee bit stinky under those trees!  Not a lot of Aussies out walking during this time.  It's too hot for them - 25 C, but feels like 31 C.  Andrew's home from work now (3 PM), and has just left for a run, Jerry is having a 'mada schloap', Bella is at work until 8 tonight, so it's very quiet here now.  Time to enjoy a book on the patio!!!  And later we'll be making sushi for supper.  Probably not as good as Duane's, but we'll try!!!

Woke up around 8 AM today!!! Whohoooooo! The kookaburras only woke me once last night. They sound like monkeys when they are 'singing'!! We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the patio -no bugs!! Then we headed off to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where we petted kangaroos! Saw wombats, lots of koala bears, Tasmanian Devils and..... a platypus! They are the weirdest animals. They are mammals, but lay eggs. They nurse their young, have feet like an otter, a bill like a duck, and are semi-aquatic!!! Very cute to watch swimming around in the water. We watched a sheep dog demonstration and a sheep shearing. Sheep dogs are extremely smart.

Andrew decided to go for a bike ride after we got back home, so Jerry and I decided to go for a hike on Mt Coot-tha, a mountain inside the city. We did a fairly strenuous hike up (and of course down again) to the top, where there is a lookout, and we could see the city. We got a ride to the mountain in Andrew's truck!!!! The day ended with chef Andrew serving us BBQ lamb for supper - with a glass of wine!! We found a 3 inch spider in Andrew's garage. Apparently not as big as some he's seen here!

We are here!!! Day two in Brisbane. A very green, sub tropical city. Now, at 10:30 AM it is 25 C and feels like 31 C. Jerry made biscuits for breakfast, which we enjoyed outside on the patio with Andrew and Bella. I managed to sleep until 3AM, then was wide awake. At about 4:30 the birds started 'singing' and finally around 6 AM I got up, and went and sat outside. It was already warm, the aroma of the early morning was just great!! Saw and heard some kookaburra birds, butcher birds, and a bunch of other birds I don't know the name of....yet! The bugs, birds and butterflys all seem to be very colorful here. It's Labour Day wkd here, and soon we'll be on our way to see the Gold coast with Andrew and Bella. It's called the Gold Coast, because the beaches look gold!