October 7th

Labor Day holiday here and we are headed to the beach. James and Di picked us up in their convertible Mini Cooper...top down of course and off we went. First stop on the way was to wine taste, but we forgot that things close for holidays around here. We did find The Pit Stop cafe open so we could grab a drink and a sorry looking/tasting scone. On to Mooloolaba and the beach! After some fish and chips for lunch we laid our towels out and settled in. James and Dave took a swim and us girls did a little sun bathing. Later, under some trees out of the sun, but still on the beach we started playing the card game UNO. They had never played before and James was quite bored until we started ganging up on him and he was losing! Then it was all serious business!! We played for a couple of hours...sneaky Dave won twice!

On to the board walk for a late look around and dinner. It's a great beach town and we really enjoyed ourselves. Top up in the car for the ride home. It was a very satisfying day.


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October 5th

Today we drove to the Glass House Mountains to have a hike. We started at the Lookout with the view of the hills. Of course the driving had me hungry and naturally there is a cafe everywhere, so we stopped for lunch. The Lookout Cafe had a nice view of some hills, kangaroos and some type of orchard.

Onward to the hiking trail. Easy going down to the waterfall, although I did jump when a water dragon came out of the bushes...no scream but a squeak this time! The waterfall was great and there were people swimming, jumping off the rocks even though there was a sign warning of certain death if you did, and picnics set up.

We hiked on to the next waterfall which was even further downhill and not quite so big. Then it was the hike back up this mountain.....not so bad when the path was a gradual climb, but when we hit the stairs it got harder!

There is a cute town called Montville close to where we were and we decided to check it out. Lots of people browsing the stores and sitting in cafes. We watched a couple of guys pulling taffy in the sweets shop, looked at some nice jewelry and saw a small wool shop. No wool came home with me on this trip!

A long day of walking up and down hills.....

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October 1st

One year anniversary being here in Brisbane. We've had some great times and are looking forward to having many more! We miss everyone and hope to have some of you visit us in the next year....

Xo. Lovey and Dave


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September 29th

Sunday.....and we are still going strong.  Lol. Today in Bulimba there is a Shakespeare Festival.  Marina and Bob are going to go with us.  We have brought enough food and drink to last days, but we don't know how long the play will be.  They are acting out  "the Taming of the Shrew" at 3pm, with extra activities beforehand.  They start the festival with a fencing group showing us all their fancy moves, then we get into the play.  Amateur actors, but still very good with just a couple of hiccups with a prop.  They have microphones on, so you could hear the whole thing, which was nice since we were towards the back spread out on a huge blanket with our veggies and dip, dumplings and desserts.  The event was about 3 hours and when the sun went down it was a little chilly, which is why we ended up walking back to our apartment and having huge mugs of coffee to warm us up.  It was a really nice day.

September 28th

This is the big final night to the Brisbane Festival and we are looking to be entertained!!  We started out at a party in Dave's office.  On the twelfth floor you could look down on the promenade and the surrounding street overlooking the river and Story Bridge and see hundreds of people set up to watch the show.  Also there were quite a few boats and yachts that had showed up and were moored right there on the river.

The first part was the F16 fighter jets that swooped down and followed the river.  They did several passes and then it was time for the military helicopters to follow the river.  There were two of them down so low that they were causing the river water to spray up and hit all those boats moored right there!  After they did their maneuvers, it was time for us to leave with another Cerner couple.  We had bought tickets at a restaurant called Fridays, for an all you can eat sliders/ mojitoes event.  It was packed!!  It also had the most amazing view of the fireworks that just went on forever.  Seriously I didn't think they would ever stop!  They were off the Story Bridge, but if you turned around you could also see a slice of fireworks from South Bank through the skyscrapers.  Incredible....

September 22nd

Today we popped into the car and drove south near Caloundra.  Dave had set up a tee time at the Pelican Waters golf course.  I was going along as his golf cart driver.  This golf course is really nice!  While he was getting some putting practice in, I went to the clubhouse and bought us lunch, then off we went!  There were warnings about snakes on the course that day, but luckily we didn't see any.  Instead we saw a lot of kangaroos!  They were just sitting or hopping along and through the course.  I'm sure somewhat distracting for the golfers, but I was enjoying them.

After golf we drove to Bulcock beach and walked the promenade to Kings Beach, Moffat Beach and Dickey Beach.  A long stretch, but at the top of the peak at one point, we were looking out and although a long way away, we saw whales.  What a cool sight to see!  Kings beach has a small amusement park and was quite crowded with families.

After our walk back to Bulcock Beach, we stopped into La Dolce Vita and had dinner.  Dave had a nice conversation with the manager who was from Rome.  We left the restaurant with a full stomach and a new friend....

September 19th

The Brisbane festival is held over 3 weeks in September.  There are a lot of artsy things you can go to and one of them is a fireworks, water spray, light show in South Bank.  On Thursday night we decided to meet our friends, Jeff and Julie down there and see the show.

We had a perfect view across the river and the fireworks went off.  Not a lot, but some.  Then a really amazing laser  show started and with the buildings and bridges lit up with lights, it was truly great!  Then while all that was happening, the sprays of water were happening and behind them these girls (I think 3-4) were up on these single poles doing amazing bends and artistic moves.

This show lasted about 15 minutes.  So you didn't want to blink or you would miss it!  Afterwards, like good Aussie people that we are becoming, it was all about dinner and a glass of wine.  :)

These pictures do not do justice to how great the show was!