Brisbane and home

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Hi folks: You're right, this isn't Italy....yet. Here are some photos from our business trip to Brisbane, Australia, which is in the state of Queensland. The weather was very nice, similar to SoCal. A couple of evenings it was rather windy, but still warm. The overall surroundings were quite pleasant and safe. The folks here are very polite and easy to talk to. I think everyone that traveled had a good trip. The flight, although rather long...14 hours from LAX to Brisbane...wasn't too uncomfortable I thought. I slept for at least half of the trip.

The last photo is from my bedroom window here at home (Tustin, CA). This was shortly before we were asked to evacuate late Sunday evening. The fire was about a quarter mile from my sub-division....a little too close for comfort. Today I saw that the fire charred the brush that was on the other side of the street that follows along the side my housing tract. Yikes! Fortunately no houses were burned in this Santiago/Irvine fire. Unfortunately, in some of the other fires in SoCal, the houses weren't so lucky.

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Photos

Apartment buildings
On our walk back from a nearby restaurant, we took the boardwalk along the Brisbane River. Here are some apartment buildings along the shore.

Storie Bridge
This bridge crosses the Brisbane River near our hotel. They offer tours where people can walk along the top of the bridge...after signing a liability waiver of course!

Boeing House
Here is a snap shot of downtown Brisbane from our hotel. In the center of the photo was the Boeing building where we held our week long meetings. They called it "Boeing House", not sure why, though.

Memorial Park
This is the entrance to a park that was along the boardwalk. We took early morning walks along the river and this was one of the parks we encountered.

Kathy holding Koala
These next few pix are from our brief excursion to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in near Brisbane. We all got to hold a Koala. They are so gentle and their fur is so soft.

Group photo
Here's Gloria, Kathy, and Vicki, with me holding a Koala.

Me feeding a kangaroo
I felt like I was getting slimed. This wasn't an easy thing for me to do. Conveniently, they provided wash basins with soap at the exits of these feeding grounds.

Santiago Fire
Here's a snapshot of the fire of what I could see from my bedroom window at home. This was before the fire got much worse.