June 2nd Brisbane, OZ

Ahhh Chocolate!

Brisbane Botanical Gardens...AKA a park

Beautiful tree

I can't believe it is June 2nd already! Tomorrow we are headed off to Syndey. I am going to miss Brisbane. In the last few days we have logged lots of miles walking (at least my sore feet tell me it is lots of miles) and have gotton to see the city in a different perspective. It is a clean city...street sweepers abound and there isn't much for garbage along the side of roads or sidewalks. I also love the Brisbane River. It is wide and a beautiful setting for the tall buildings and a wonderful transportation for the City Cat Ferries and the City Ferry (an older version of the City Cats).  The winter days see to always be sunny in the morning and around 3pm cloud up....sometimes a few sprinkles here and there. The weather has been great...in the high 60s and low 70s.  Right now it is 5:18PM, I am writing earlier than usual because by 9 I am sure I'll be too tired to do much since I got up at 6. Upstairs the boys are noisy noisy playing video games. Trevor's friend and dad arrived from Oklahoma so now there are 15 people staying here! Good thing we are headed out tomorrow and on Saturday Amy's brother's family of 5 is headed north for 6 days. The house is noisy and crowded. I am so happy to have a room to myself to escape the craziness. The teenagers love it I am sure! This morning before we left the house they were exercising to some sort of xbox exercise thing with a boot camp/military sounding voice coaxing them on working up a sweat...2 teenagers and their dad. Wow...loud and sweaty! Good for them. At least the morning was very relaxing like a true vacation should be. At noon the lot of us took the train to the Milton Station (that's where Tom and I got off  yesterday so we actually knew where we were going) and we went to a delicious Thai restaurant for lunch. Gene works nearby so he met us there. Yummy! Afterwards we took the City Cat ferry to South Bank, where the Ferris wheel is. Jason and Larissa and family got off there and Tom and I took it to one more spot and then walked and walked in the Riverwest area. Tom and I were headed for the Botanical Gardens....once we were there we realized a botanical garden is a city park! It  had a beautiful wide path and lots of trees, perfect for what Aussie's call a WalkAbout.  (A little hike for us Americans). It was like being out in the country a bit and so nice to get away from the hustle bustle of the city. We didn't walk as far as yesterday -my feet still hurt. We did end up back at South Bank and had a cup of hot chocolate and a cinnamon roll (which you dip in the most delectable chocolate). It was to die for! Somebody needs to start a business like  that in Cedarburg!  After we were all sugared up we walked back to the ferry dock and took the City Cat for a nice long ride back to where we started and then walked to the train station. This time we beat the really bad rush hour traffic in the train but still had to stand for the ride. Turns out Jason and Larissa and their kids were on the same train because we met on the walk back. Now everyone is relaxing and I think we are all ordering Indian food for a farewell dinner. By the way, ordering out is called Take Away :)