|
9th January 2004 - Home |
|
After two and a half weeks in the Australian summer, it was time for us to go home to feezing
Illinois. We had a family christmas dinner the night before we left, with Mum making her
fantastic potato salad and chocolate sauce pudding. When we got home, our driveway and
footpath were a solid block of ice - but even the ice storm the week before couldn't cool
the warm welcome we got from Kristi, Shelli and the girls when we got to Bloomington Airport!
|
|
8th January 2004 - Bribie Island |
|
Our last day in Australia! We started out the day by heading into town for some shopping.
On the way, we had a little incident that involved a couple of cockroaches that had found
their way into Dads car with the beach cricket set. Lets just say there was lots of screaming,
and we had to pull over .. twice! After shopping, we headed up to Bribie Island and had our
last swim. As we got there, a storm rolled through, and it was fantastic.
|
|
7th January 2004 - Noosa! |
|
The old and the new! We took my old '66 Ford XP Falcon and Mum's new Toyota Conquest and
drove a couple of hours north up to Noosa. We spent the morning on the beach, then had
lunch at a nice outdoor restaurant at Noosa Heads. Back in the car, we travelled down the
coast road to Maroochydore and stopped in at the beach again, then all the way back home.
|
|
5th January 2004 - The Goldie! |
|
Yesterday we went to the Gold Coast (south of Brisbane) for some swimming and shopping.
The weather was consistently rainy and not really conducive to swimming so we spent most
of our time (and money) indoors buying souvenirs. Nathan was very excited to get to go on
the Aqua Bus and amphibious vehicle for a tour around the Gold Coast and up to the multi
million dollar mansions of Paradise Point. Because of the rain and rough waters we didn't
get to swim but we did have a nice bite to eat at a fish and ships shop along the beach.
|
|
4th January 2004 - Crikey! We went to Australia Zoo! |
|
Today we went and saw the Crocodile Hunter up at Australia Zoo! And by chance, he happened
to be there. He had just made the news in fact, as the day before he took his 1 month old
into the crocodile pen and the media slammed him and compared him to Michael Jackson. He
was pretty upset about it, and gave a pretty fantasic speech and ended up leaving the
deomonstration early. But that aside, we got some great video and photos of the zoo, which
has to be the best zoo I have ever been to - I was expecting it to just be crocodiles, but
the zoo was really fantastic.
|
|
1st January 2004 - New Years Day on Bribie Island |
|
To celebrate the beginning of 2004 we went up to Bribie Island for a picnic, then spent the
rest of the day on the beach. I got a little sunburnt on the arms and face, but a fun time
was had by all!
|
|
1st January 2004 - Bringing in the New Year |
|
We decided to go watch some fireworks in downtown Brisbane, but because of the traffic we ended up missing
them. So we came home and brought in the New Years in very traditional Aussie style - with a BBQ, Casecade Beer,
Bundaberg Rum, Party Poppers, and homemade Party Hats!
|
|
31st December 2003 - Brisbane City |
|
After spending the first day recovering from all our travelling, today we went into Brisbane City and had some fish
and chips for lunch, followed by a walk along the foreshore, and the new floating boardwalk. Brisbane is a very
pretty city, and we're both enjoying our stay a lot. The area's down around the Brisbane River are great for BBQs, picnics
and walks. Erin keeps saying how much she likes Brisbane, and how easy it would be for her to move here!
|
|
29th December 2003 - Christmas Photos from South Australia |
|
We have just got back to Brisbane from spending Christmas in the Barossa Valley, just North of
Adelaide in South Australia. We were staying in a cabin without a phone line, so I wasn't able to upload
photos until we got to Mum and Dad's house. It was the first time in 13 years that we have
all been together for a family reunion. Here are the photos from the first 4 days of our trip.
31st Dec Update: Added pages so thumbmails only load 20 at a time instead of all 160 at a time! Also changed
image quality so images will load 5 times faster!
|
©2000.