Last few days in Brisbane

Hi,

It's been raining off and on for the last few days, partly because of cyclone Hamish a few hours north of here. We will be on the Sunshine Coast on March 20th, but by then it should be long gone. We're hoping it doesn't rain on Friday night as we're taking all of the LC students to a Rugby game. Should be fun.

Erik had a great visit in Adelaide with Palmer's, Pappa and Patricia and the boys and I had fun at the Gold Coast. It's a very built up part of Australia with lots of great beaches, skyscrapers, hotels, theme parks and tourists. But we enjoyed it all. We stayed in a nice Marriott within 1/2 a block from the ocean. We were on the 15th of 35 floors. It cost about $65 US. The boys loved playing tennis -on the 5th floor court. They played 3 different times during the day we were there for free. We had sunshine on Sunday when we arrived and we enjoyed the beach at Surfers Paradise. The boys said the waves were huge, so they had fun boogie and body boarding. That night we ate at Hard Rock Cafe and the boys played for 2 hours at a huge video arcade, complete with bowling, bumper cars and mini golf. I'm reading an adventure series called "The Ranger's Apprentice" by an Australian so I was happy to read while they played!

Monday we headed to White Water World. It's perhaps a little smaller than Wet n Wild, but had lots of great rides. I liked it best, but the boys voted for Wet n Wild. Ryan was launching himself on the Blue Ringed Octopus ride and pushed too far, too fast and hit his chin on the water slide. He split it enough that they paid for a taxi to take us to the clinic. The dr sutured it with human glue and steri strips and we were back playing within an hour. Impressive. A fun day-and even though it was cloudy all day, it didn't start to rain until we were almost home. Yeah.

This week we're busy with math, grading, packing, sorting, shopping, more math, and attending the student's presentations. Sunday morning we head out for Lamington Plateau and safari style tents. We'll be with Rob again and learning about rain forests, collecting bugs and mammals and getting up really early to look for birds. It'll be very interesting and fun to be all back together again.

After that week it is Spring Break, which we'll spend on the Sunshine Coast with Pappa and Patricia. Ryan will have his 12 birthday then and we're really looking forward to our visit. The boys will be thrilled to be right on the ocean. No hour long bus rides to get to the surf. Not sure when we'll have internet again, probably in a week. All for now,

Carla