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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Brisbane
February 20th 2009
Published: February 19th 2009
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What a joy to visit Brisbane! The city must 90% new in the past 25 years. All gleaming, new, fascinating architecture, sparkling clean streets and cars, and even a Target. But a Target without a drug store department...how weird is that? Apparently some deal they made with the pharmacies here in order to open in Australia.

Mom and I went to "The World's Largest Koala Sanctuary" yesterday. We saw about 50 of them, but didn't opt for the rip-off cost of having our pictures taken with them. I felt sorry for the poor things being hugged by all those strangers when all they really wanted to do was sleep. Also saw kangaroos and kookaburros. Again, a very hot and sweaty day.

The people I've spoken with in the shops here are the friendliest we've run into. Just like Nisswa they have been very helpful whether you bought anything or not. They are much easier to understand than the Brits on board, too. Also, no one we saw on the streets was fat, just very healthy looking. We were in rush hour and lunch hour traffic, so we saw a lot of people on the streets. White, Asian, and Indian, but no Blacks...which seemed odd being in a city.

I finally found a WiFi cafe, but wouldn't you know it...this site was down for serving. So no pictures. I was able to send a few to Jackie, Sally, and Bill, however. Maybe, hopefully, in Sydney I'll be able to post some here. We sail into Sydney Harbour at 6:00 AM tomorrow. I can hardly wait to see the Bridge and Opera House as we approach them from the sea. We will pass under the bridge to get to our berth. And, no, I am NOT taking the bridge climb, my fear of heights being what it is. We have three full days in Sydney, so I hope to see as much as I can.

I forgot to mention earlier that we buried a bit of Daddy's ashes at sea when we were near New Caledonia. He was stationed at Kwajelein in the Marshall Islands during the war, which is about the same longitude as New Caledonia. It seemed an appropriate place.



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