Brisbane

Hi,

We are now settled in Brisbane. It's a gorgeous big city, similar to Portland. There is a large river that snakes its way thru the city. It's called the Brisbane River. It meanders thru the city more than the Willamette does in Portland. One thing that is great is that there is a ferry system to get people from one side to the other and on down the river. They use speedy catamarans and they call them the city cats. They also have bridges, but not enough for the 2 million people who live here, according to one person we talked to. The city cats are part of the transportation system along with busses and trains. Last night, Erik, the boys and I rode down the river on one and saw the city lit up. It was gorgeous and such a nice evening.

Let me back up and fill you in on what we've been doing since Tiona. The miracle of packing to fit into our smaller rental replacement was that we got rid of some things. We went to Forster and dropped a pile of things off to Salvos-Salvation Army and we mailed a box of things back home. That helped. Erik got more oysters and said they WERE the BEST he's ever eaten. Thanks for the heads up Dad. We ate at a nice cafe, the waiter was an older man who was super nice. I had a sandwich with toast, fried egg, bacon and banana. Believe it or not, it was yummy!

We headed to Tamworth which was about a 5 hour drive. Along the way we stopped at a McDonald's, our first time eating there, but as in the states, they are the main option along the highways. The Aussies call it Maccuhs. Two things we like about Mackers, as we would pronounce it, is that they have free wifi and McCafes. A McCafe is inside a McDonalds and has rollup sandwiches, coffee, teas, and yummy desserts, like cakes and lamingtons. One McCafe I was in in Sydney only had the cafe sandwiches and chicken, you couldn't even get a burger!

As we drove along, Erik spotted our first wild kangaroo. They were out in a farmer's field. We turned around and went back to get a better view. So exciting. As we drove along we saw a gorgeous sunset. The sun was behind some big clouds and I got several pictures that all look unique. That was a fun thing to do as we drove along.

It was so awesome to be with Mem and Norm, they are wonderful people. Their home was very nice. We stayed there in Tamworth for 2 days. We went to a great wildlife park in Gunnedah, about an hour from Tamworth. Mem warned us that it "was run on the smell of an oily rag." But it had lots of Australian animals and birds. We got to go right in near 9 koalas. Some were asleep and others were awake. We got to pet them. There were two who were squabbling at each other, that was interesting to watch. There was also a baby one, which was so cute. It was about a foot long. We also saw kangaroo, a wombat, wallaby, ring tailed possum, dingo, fallow deer, and the ground where an echidna lives. Mem said he'd be burrowed under the ground away from the heat. We also saw lots of birds: several kinds of cockatoos, a wedge tailed eagle, a tawny frogmouth-my favorite, it looked just like a branch of a tree, parrots, lorakeets, emu, ostrich and more. If it wasn't such a hot day, I'll bet we would have stayed even longer. Mom and Dad, I think this is the place you told us about, we loved it.

Wednesday, we headed out with Mem and Norm, for Brisbane. We stopped along the way several times to see gorgeous canyons and waterfalls and rivers, some with water in them and some without. We spotted several kangaroo along the way and also an eagle. We stopped for the night at Ballina in a nice caravan park. The 6 of us stayed in a cabin together, ate a makeshift meal-which was great, swam in the ocean and the pool and played games. It was a fun evening. Thursday we went north to Pimpama where Bryn and Ryan took 3 rides on the ZORB. It's a huge ball, and they add water to it and roll down a large hill. They had a blast and we had fun watching. Mem and Norm went on to visit his sister and we went on in to the city. We stayed in a nice hotel in Brisbane, near GED-Global Education Design, where we were to meet up with the college students the next day.

Friday afternoon all 15 students arrived, during a downpour-another reason Brisbane feels like Portland. They had all had good experiences in different parts of Australia, conducting their research for the Contemporary Australian Studies course. After a bus tour of the city, their homestay families came and collected them and we came to our apartment. It's in a nice section of the city called New Farm. It's a gorgeous apartment, we feel spoiled. It has air conditioning, which is rare for Australians and it has wifi, a washing machine, stocked kitchen, and we love it. It's near a big park and only about 15 minutes walk from 2 city cats.

On Sunday, our friend from back at Graceland and Ann Arbor days, Todd Houston, picked us up and took us to church. Fun to see Todd again. He looks the same as he did 20 years ago, not fair! We met several others who knew of us, at church. Two women have been pen pals with Shirley F and Veryl and several knew Erik's parents. The service and class were very good. One funny thing happened. During the service, a gecko walked across the rostrum. I've never seen that before. After church, Shirley and Dave Judd, Val Shaw and Jim Ireland took us out to lunch and ice cream. We had fish and chips and Baskin Robbins. They showed us around too and we saw some beautiful sites. So nice of them to spend their afternoon with us.

This week Erik and sometimes Bryn have been attending the morning lectures. Today, Erik and the LC students are visiting the parliment building. Parliment isn't in session, but it will be later in our visit and they can visit it again then if they want. Ryan and Bryn have both been working on their math homework, trying to get caught up. It's tricky trying to do it. The boys are taking a break right now and playing cricket in the big park near here. They are also trying out a new boomerang they got. They did well with one that Uncle Mikey had made at the Aboriginal camp, but not sure how this one will work.

This coming weekend we all will be taking a boat over to N Stradbroke Island, or Straddy as the Australians call it. It is completely sand and has mangrove forests that we'll be studying. I hear we need to have lots of mozzy spray (for the mosquitoes).

We're so grateful for this Awesome Australian Adventure.